Vex pulled the heavy cloth away, and Nathan stopped breathing.
Sitting on a bed of dark velvet was a single arrow. The shaft was bone-white, completely smooth, and covered from end to end in tiny, glowing runes that actually seemed to shift when Nathan didn't look directly at them. But it was the arrowhead that made the hair on his arms stand up. It was a jagged shard of pure, compressed darkness that gave off a freezing, ugly energy.
"I took the pieces of the Emissary you killed in the Shattered Throne," Vex said. Her voice was raspy, and she looked exhausted. Dark circles hung under her red eyes. "I spent the last few weeks breaking the material down and folding it into this."
She pointed a calloused finger at the dark arrowhead. "It is designed to punch straight through the Shepherd's personal magic. It disrupts his frequency. But you only get one shot. If you miss, I can't make another one."
