One of the shadow beasts had gotten past Kael or his shadow and reached me. Its jaws were open, its breath cold and rotten against my skin. This close, I could see that it wasn't quite solid. Parts of it seemed to fade in and out of existence. But its teeth looked very, very real.
I tried to scream. Nothing came out.
The beast's jaw came down toward my throat and stopped.
A hand had grabbed it. The beast thrashed, trying to break free, but the hand held firm. I looked up and saw Kael standing over me, one hand wrapped around the creature's neck. His clothes were shredded. Blood ran down his face from a cut above his eye.And his expression was absolutely terrifying.
He said something in that strange language again. The beast whimpered and tried to pull away.
Kael hand tightened. The beast began to dissolve, crumbling into smoke. But unlike before, the smoke didn't disappear. It flowed up Kael's arm, into his skin, like he was absorbing it.
When the beast was completely gone, Kael swayed on his feet. He looked exhausted. Drained.
"Are you hurt?" he asked me, his voice hoarse.
I couldn't answer. I was too busy staring at his arm, at the place where the smoke had entered. There were marks there now, like black veins just under the skin, spreading from his hand up toward his shoulder.
"Princess. Elara. Are you hurt?"
"I... I don't..." I tried to check myself. My hands were scraped. My feet were bleeding. My shoulder felt wrong, maybe dislocated. But I was alive. "I don't think so. Nothing serious."
"Can you stand?"
I tried. My legs shook, but they held. "Yes."
"Then we keep moving." He took my arm, the one that wasn't injured, and pulled me forward. "The ravine. We're almost there."
We stumbled through the forest together. I could barely walk, and Kael wasn't much better. Behind us, I heard one last roar, then silence.
"Your shadow," I gasped. "The thing that was fighting"
"Not now."
"But—"
"Not. Now." His grip on my arm tightened. "We need to reach safety. Then we'll talk."
The ravine appeared ahead, a deep cut in the earth, with a stream running through it. Kael led me to the edge, then started climbing down. The rocks were slippery, treacherous. One wrong step and we'd fall.
But we made it. Down to the bottom, into the cold water of the stream. Kael pulled me under an overhang in the ravine wall, a small hollow space, barely big enough for both of us.
"Here," he said. "We'll be hidden here."
"For how long?"
"Until dawn. The shadow beasts can't survive in daylight." He slid down the rock wall, sitting heavily in the shallow water. His eyes closed. "We'll be safe until morning."
I sat beside him, my whole body shaking from cold and shock and fear. We were both soaked, bleeding, and exhausted.
"Kael," I said softly. "What were those things?"
"Shadow beasts. They're drawn to... to people like me."
"People with curses."
"Yes."
"And the shadow I saw. The one that was fighting. That was part of your curse?"
He opened his eyes, looking at me. In the darkness of the ravine, they almost glowed. "Yes. It's called a shade. It's connected to me. Part of me. When I'm in danger, or when I'm angry, or when I..." He trailed off. "It protects me. But it also marks me. Makes me a target for things like those beasts."
"Can you control it?"
"Sometimes. Not always. That's the problem with curses, Princess. They control you as much as you control them."
I absorbed this. I tried to process it. Failed. "And now I'm married to you. So those things will come after me too."
"Yes."
"And there's nothing we can do about it."
"I didn't say that." He shifted, wincing. "There are ways to manage curses. Protections. Wards. My kingdom has resources, knowledge. We'll keep you safe."
"Will we?" I heard the bitterness in my own voice. "Or will I just be bait to draw these creatures out?"
He stared at me for a long moment. Then, to my surprise, he smiled. That same real smile from before.
"You're not what I expected, Princess."
"What did you expect?"
"Someone meek. Obedient. Terrified into silence." He laughed, a short, tired sound. "Instead you argue with me, question me, and call me out when I'm lying."
"Was I wrong? About the bait?"
His smile faded. "No. You weren't wrong. My father, the King, has plans for this marriage. For you. And none of them are particularly pleasant."
My blood went cold. "What kind of plans?"
"The kind that involves using you to control me," Kael said quietly. "The kind that treats you like a tool instead of a person." He looked away. "I'm sorry. If I'd had any choice, I would have refused this marriage. Saved you from this. But I didn't have a choice any more than you did."
I wanted to be angry. I wanted to rage at him, at my father, at this entire horrible situation. But sitting there in the cold water, watching him bleed from a dozen wounds he'd gotten protecting me, I couldn't quite manage it.
"Tell me about Shadowmere," I said instead. "If I'm going to survive there, I need to know what I'm walking into."
Kael leaned his head back against the rock.
"Shadowmere is beautiful and terrible. We have magic in our blood, old magic, from before the kingdoms even existed. It gives us power, but it comes with a price. Curses. Madness. Death." He paused. "My mother had magic too. Strong magic. She could see the future, sometimes. See what was coming."
"What happened to her?"
"She saw something she couldn't bear," he said softly. "Something about me. About what I would become. And she threw herself from the highest tower in the castle."
My breath caught. "Kael..."
"I was ten years old. I watched her fall." His voice was emotionless, but I could hear the pain underneath. "That's when the rumors started. That I'd driven her mad. That I was cursed. That anyone close to me would suffer."
"Are they true? The rumors?"
"Some of them." He looked at me again. "People close to me do suffer, Elara. That's why I have no friends. No close advisors. No one I trust completely." His expression was unreadable. "And now I have a wife."
The implication hung between us. I'm close to you now. I'll suffer too.
"Then we'll suffer together," I said. I don't know why I said that. Maybe because I was too tired to be afraid anymore. Maybe because, despite everything, I didn't think Kael was a monster. Cursed, yes. Dangerous, absolutely. But not a monster.
He studied me for a long moment. "You're either very brave or very foolish."
"Can't I be both?"
That surprised a real laugh out of him, short and rusty, like he didn't laugh often. "Fair enough."
We sat in silence for a while. The water was freezing, but the overhang protected us from the wind. My feet had gone numb. My shoulder throbbed. But I was alive.
"Kael?" I said finally. "Earlier, you said your father has plans for me. For us. What kind of plans?"
He hesitated. "My father... the King... he fears me. Has feared me since I was a child. He thinks I'll try to take his throne. He thinks the curse makes me too dangerous to control."
"Will you? Try to take his throne?"
"Eventually," he said bluntly. "Not because I want power. Because if I don't, my brothers will kill me. It's how succession works in Shadowmere. The strong survive. The weak die."
"That's horrible."
"That's reality." He shifted, and I heard him wince in pain. "My brothers, Darian and Theron, they're older than me. Stronger, at least physically. But they don't have magic like I do. And that terrifies them."
"So where do I fit into all this?"
"You're my weakness now," Kael said quietly.