shadows don't lie

Chapter Seventeen

Inei appeared in front of the inn, and she threw her shadows out in a blanket around the village, looking for Azriel.

She wasn’t getting any more responses from him, and she couldn't stop the panic that she felt in the silence.

It was only brief moments until she felt a faint pull from one of her shadows, multiple leagues away.

She turned around intending to leave, and abruptly ran into the male, Cecil.

She silently cursed uner her breath.

She didn't have time for bullshit.

“Hello, Lady Inei.”  He seemed startled to see her and she barely glanced at him before pushing past.

“Not right now, I need to go.” She half-growled in a low tone and he promptly backed off.

She didn’t even blink before she winnowed, and as her shadows receded she found herself in the middle of the woods.

The heavy smell of pollen and something else filled her nose, and her head swam as she tried to orient herself.

Inei looked around desperately, trying to figure out why her shadows wanted her here, until she finally realized that it was blood that she could scent among the flowers.

She looked at the ground with terrifying slowness, and found large splatters of the red liquid gleaming in the now too-bright sunlight.

Inei knelt down, and she started to feel numb as she scented that the blood was Azriel’s.

“Azriel!” She cried out hoarsely, falling backwards away from the blood, but the forest only gave her silence in return.

She stood up, his name dying on her lips, and she looked around for any sort of trail as she wiped her sticky hands on her leathers.

Dispite the numbness, she had only one startlingly violent thought blossoming in her mind.

He was injured, she would kill whoever had caused it.

She pulled the few shadows that remained near her and brought them to her lips.

“Find him, and tell him I'm coming.” They dissolved into the air, and Inei began sprinting forwards, following the nauseating scent of blood left behind on the low bushes and nearby trees.

She ran even when her lungs began to burn, but she welcomed the pain, using it to focus her mind.

It was only when the trail stopped suddenly that it dawned on her just how much blood he had lost.

She stood in a small clearing, breathing heavily and her hands shaking, and she whispered, “Azriel!” But then she noticed just how truly quiet the forest had become.

It seemed as if even the trees dared not move for fear of being heard.

She felt her shadows pause their search for a moment, and before she could see who it was, somebody exploded out of the forest, leaping directly for her.

Inei pulled her few nearby shadows back to her, pivoting to her right so that she could push the stranger from behind, but as she reached out, her hands came into contact with a pair of wings, torn and bloody.

She yelped and reached out with her other arm, catching Azriel around the shoulders as he gritted his teeth, suppressing a groan.

His chest heaved and he remained still in her hold, but his shadows expanded around them, making them invisible to their surroundings.

Inei’s hands trembled as she lowered him down on the ground face first so she could examine his wings, which seemed to be bleeding only minimally due to some soft blue light patching the holes.