Black Ice ✓ | Deathsworn #1

Chapter 14 ∞ Veils

Hellenia came to my room later that night to tuck me into bed as she had never failed to do for the past twelve years of my life. I might fall asleep ahead of her arrival on certain occasions, but she never missed her nightly visits—that, I knew for sure.

My only concern was my inability to sleep. The sweet milk she brought to me before bed didn't do the usual trick. I had a habit of falling asleep after downing the glass, but there was something different about this night.

I would think I was in a circus with all the restless tossing and turning I was doing in bed. My heart was pounding in my chest and anxiety was coiling in my stomach.

I looked at the shadows in the room, feeling movements at the foot of my bed. There were slithering whispers and ill promises that chilled my flesh straight to the bone. I endured the torment for moments never-ending before finally moving. I hastily tapped on the stem of my nightlamp. Warm, golden light flooded, and relief washed upon me when I realized nothing was there.

I shivered, pulling the blankets to my chest and pressing my back against the wall.

"Have you been waiting long?"

I looked up in shock and found amber eyes boring into my own. He appeared before me from the elongated shadows, appearing out of nowhere as though he had just taken off a ring he had stolen from a googly-eyed goblin.

My jaws dropped. Words spurted up my throat but never rolled past my tongue.

"You!" I exclaimed, sitting up. "What are you—how did you get in here?"

"Come on, Evyionne. As if you aren't already aware of my capabilities." An arrogant smile floated up to his lips. "Twelve years...or thirteen. I told you I will return soon."

"Twelve years isn't exactly soon."

"You'd rather it be fifty?" he shot back.

"What are those shadow things?" I asked instead.

"Good lords, you're so clueless. They aren't shadows of anything. In the in-between, we call them veils. They're marks of death. They gather when a person reaches the end of their lifespan. You just warded them off."

"Are you crazy?" I intoned softly.

"What? Me? You got it wrong." He rolled his eyes and sat back, propping a pillow against his chest and looking around.

I wasn't talking about anything he did recently, but all the stuff he did at my birth; stealing me away, leaving me in somebody else's care, and then disappearing for a long time.

"You know, this place is not that bad. You were quite lucky I gave you to that woman from back then."

"Just tell me what you came here for."

He looked at me sullenly. "Why don't you check on that boy?"

"What about him?"

"You'll see what I'm talking about."

I stood, realizing he wasn't kidding at all. The jerkhead must know something was going on.

I sped through the hallway in the Veneryan version of pajamas, barefooted as I raced across the cold, wooden floors. No wonder I had been so restless a while ago. Something didn't feel right.

As I rounded the corner heading to the lobby where we were housing our patient, I caught a fleet of those weird shadow sprites hanging about. Again.

They were bigger.

And nastier.

"You know, these things usually come like one or two at a time..." Amber shrugged as he walked behind me. "But the balance has been broken and they are starting to get out of hand. Twelve years is a long time. It's enough to proliferate well."