The Frozen Prince (The Beast Charmer #2) - Maxym M. Martineau Page 0,90

led us toward the edge of Luma Lake. Oz and Kost were barely a breath behind us, the heat of their bodies rolling off them in waves and crashing against my back. Touching my chin to my shoulder, I raised a brow at Oz.

Face set in a hard grimace, his gaze flickered from me to Noc and back again.

“Here.” Noc stopped at the edge of the water. A set of smooth river stones flecked with opals were nestled between the blades of grass. With our boots inches from the sheetlike surface of the water, we stood between the rocks. “It’s best if we use the shadows.”

Kost’s voice was edged. “Considering you just wrapped your pair bond in an unbreakable barrier, are you sure that’s the best choice right now? Your control is nearly gone, Noc. Leena would be an easy target in the realm. At least out here she can run away.”

Shock kept me from rebutting. There was a hint of protectiveness in his normally controlled tone. Glancing over my shoulder, I studied the quiet tremor racing through Kost’s fisted hands. I hadn’t spoken about my inability to summon a beast while we were running from Darrien’s men, but maybe he’d noticed as much. They were my greatest strength against a threat like Noc, and without them… Oz shifted his weight beside him. Jaw set, his hard gaze targeted Noc’s back.

Noc stiffened, but his voice was soft. “We move faster in the dark. Without the shadows, it would take us several hours to cross the lake, if not longer. And then there are the guard towers.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “We’ll be exposed to three of them until we hit the fog.”

I spied the glittering strongholds standing tall along the inside of the walls. Bodies moved in front of roaring fires, their frames bleeding into shadows and distorting their numbers. Just how many pairs of eyes would be on us? If a Sentinel discovered our whereabouts, they’d beam down to our location in an instant. Turning back to Noc, I leaned my head against his shoulder. I didn’t fear his shadows.

He trailed my cheek with his knuckles. “You’ll be safe.”

“I know.”

Taking a step forward, his foot connected with solid nothingness. Glinting water sparkled beneath his feet with the first stars of night, and he tugged at my hand to follow. My boots met something solid, but the water’s surface remained untouched. An invisible bridge only a native Wilheimian would know to look for.

Gentle shadows lurched from his frame and blanketed my world in a beautiful mess of onyx. Unlike before, the familiar gentle kiss of smoke raced along my skin. A loving touch. I followed a fleeing tendril to Noc’s hardened face, the ghost of desperation still etched into the somber depths of his eyes. Squeezing his hand, I placed a soft kiss on his knuckles.

His smile was tight. “Shall we?”

Kost and Oz emerged in the dark and added their own sets of shadows to our swirling expanse. Together, we walked away from Wilheim and across Luma Lake. The bridge was a shimmering fog of slate gray beneath our feet, somehow visible in the depths of the curling shadows. I’d never seen so many competing variations of obsidian. Sable tendrils snuck between blotches of ebony and charcoal streaks. Wisps of slate added texture and dimension to the inky world. Starless, and yet not without warmth. It was beautiful. And yet… As the minutes stretched by and the endless abyss pushed forward, a somber ache simmered in my soul. Beautiful and lonely.

When I glanced down at my hand, my fingers trembled. Once again my emblem had lost all semblance of color. No rosewood bark. No hint of light. Only sooty, graphite markings that appeared fragile enough to be brushed away. So enamored with the strange beauty of a world I’d never seen, I’d never thought to study my own marking before today. But now… It was all I could see.

I delved deep into my well of power and searched for the beast realm as panic escalated inside me. I could see the door in my mind’s eye, but it still wouldn’t open. It was as if the handle had been burned to ash and the cracks around the frame had been sealed shut. Barred from entry, just like before.

Twice now I’d tested out my ability to summon a beast in the shadows.

Twice now I’d been denied.

Everything I feared, everything I tried to get Noc to understand, unraveled before