His Shadow's Secrets

If there was one thing Azriel was sure of-one thing he could trust more than any blade, any breath-it was his shadows. They had served him in war, comforted him in grief, kept him alive.
He never considered that they were keeping something from him, choosing loyalty to someone else.

A night the shadows have kept hidden, even from their master.
A woman had slipped out of bed in the dark. Just a single look back at the Illyrian male who still slept beneath tangled sheets, his shadows blanketing his skin like a second layer. She fled.
The shadows had watched her go.
They had known what had begun to grow inside her. But instead of alerting their master, they had shrouded the truth. They silenced the new scent that bloomed. Smothered the change in magic. Wrapped the growing thing in darkness and tucked it far away, across the sea.
But shadows cannot hold truth forever. And fate has no patience for silence.

For the first time in his life, Azriel feels something foreign curl beneath his ribs: betrayal.
The shadows-his shadows-have hidden something from him.

Azriel thought he was the last.
The world must decide what to do with two shadowsingers.