Shadow Hunter (Court of Life and Death Book 2)

by Melody Rose

  Where my reflection had been, there was a door once more, and this time I was positive it hadn’t been there before. I glanced around once more before turning the knob and stepping through it, finding myself back in the hallway again. I walked over to the moonstone walls, but there was no reflection at all.

  21

  Daath

  We watched the door close behind Myrcedes as she entered the hall. I turned and sat on the top step of the staircase, and Syrion joined me. “How long was she in there last time?”

  “An hour, I believe?” Syrion mused.

  I nodded. “And how long do you take when you visit the Floor of Dreams?”

  He paused, and I felt the white light surrounding him grow tense. “I lose track of time.”

  We were both silent. He hadn’t told me he’d been going to the Floor of Dreams. It wasn’t hard to figure out, and he wasn’t going to any lengths to hide it. Still, the fact that he hadn’t come to me about it made it awkward to bring up.

  “I don’t like not knowing what’s going on with my brother,” I confessed. I looked at him, but he didn’t return my gaze.

  “I don’t like not telling you,” he said. “Honestly… I don’t.”

  “Please, tell me what’s going on.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “Syrion…”

  He reached up and placed his hand on mine, but he kept his eyes down. “I’m not ready to talk about… this.”

  I hesitated before nodding, pulling my hand back from under his and running it through my hair.

  As we sat in silence, I began to think about how easy it would be to comb through his thoughts, to find exactly what was going on. Once I knew, I could help him through it, and we could face whatever it was together, as we so often did. My brother had never kept anything from me for this long, and I’d certainly never done so to him. That he wouldn’t share something with me, something that was obviously important, I felt betrayed. He had pulled away from me. Was I losing him?

  Almost immediately, I was disgusted with myself. Syrion and I had a bond that was too strong for either of us to truly run from. I would be able to penetrate his mind without any real effort, and he could do the same to me, but it was because of that bond that we respected each other’s privacy. I’d sworn to never invade his mind when he wanted privacy, and he had pledged the same thing to me. I felt a pit in my stomach from having even considered taking advantage of our connection against his will.

  I sighed and wrapped my arms around him. He seemed surprised that it came out of nowhere, but he didn’t hesitate to return the hug. I patted his back and held him tight. I needed to trust him. I did trust him. He would never hide something from me without a good reason. I needed to remember that.

  “Take your time.” I finally broke the silence. “Just know I’m here when you need me.”

  Syrion nodded. His expression didn’t change, but I felt his energy lighten and grow less heavy, and I felt myself relax in kind. Truly, all I wanted was to know that he was alright and that I wasn’t about to lose him.

  We turned and bolted upright when we finally heard the door open behind us. Myrcedes walked out slowly, and we both rushed to her side in case she felt faint.

  “What did you learn?” Syrion asked.

  She hesitated, looking between the two of us. She seemed stable but clearly deep in thought. “I’m not sure.”

  “What happened?” I frowned.

  She told us of the dark, depressing images the Floor had shown her but explained that somehow she was meant to stop all of it from happening.

  “I don’t understand,” my brother shook his head. “What does all of that have to do with you? The realm of the fae and the ogres? Was Minerva going to destroy all of that?”

  “I don’t think it had much to do with Minerva.” She rubbed the back of her neck in thought. “It had more to do with imbalance, I think, but I’m honestly not sure…”

  I stroked her purple hair. “We’ll keep looking for a way to get you the answers you want.”

  Her silver eyes locked with mine. “Daath…” I furrowed my brow as she hesitated. “Is there a way to speak to Minerva?”

  22

  Myrcedes

  “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  I flinched as Daath shouted. That was about the reaction I had expected. I turned to Syrion, who was completely frozen in shock with no words.

  “What do you mean? Why would you want to- no, that’s not even possible, she’s… she’s dead!”

  “Daath,” I said softly, taking his hands to calm him down. “Listen to me, please.”

  “I don’t understand-”

  “Then let me explain!” I shouted over his rising voice. He was amazing in so many ways, but damn if he didn’t fly off the handle. “Daath, listen to me. I know there’s more I need to know-”

  “Then go back into the damn Floor of Dreams and ask it again!” he scoffed.

  “Daath,” Syrion broke in. “You know it doesn’t work like that. If the Floor wanted it to be that easy, it would have told her; there’s obviously a reason it didn’t.”

  “It’s not possible.” Daath shook his dark hair.

  “So, you’ve tried?” I had to insist on this. I trusted Daath, but he wasn’t thinking about this the way I needed him to.

  That gave him pause, and he hesitated. When he finally responded, it was with a frustrated growl in his voice. “No. I don’t need to try to know it’s impossible.”

  “But-”

  “I can’t cross into the Bay of Souls, Myrcedes!”

  I stopped. Daath stared at me, a confident expression on his face as though he knew he’d won.

  “Why not?” I shook my head as I broke the silence. That didn’t make sense. “I go every time I help a soul pass, so how do you…” I trailed off as he shook his head. I looked to Syrion, and he had a similar expression of reluctant acceptance.

  “We haven’t been able to cross into the Bay of Souls for… I can’t even remember how long it’s been,” the light-haired King sighed. “It’s why we needed reapers. We used to be able to do it all ourselves.”

  “Then it got harder,” Daath raked his hand through his hair, looking in the direction of the Bay. “Over time, we just stopped being able to reach it entirely. We trained reapers to do it. Most of them are able to travel to the Bay for the rest of their lives, but if a reaper lives long enough, sometimes their connection will start to fade.”

  I paused. “What?” The Kings averted their eyes and remained silent. “What?” I repeated myself, growing frustrated. “How is that something you never fucking told me?

  “We never tell the reapers,” Syrion admitted. “We used to, but when they learned this was a possibility, they became paranoid. Everyone that we told feared their soul would be rejected from the Bay, even once it was no longer connected to a body.”

  “Well, does it?” I pressed.

  “No!” Daath answered sharply. He was getting defensive. I wanted to be patient with him, but I didn’t quite have the time.

  “Well, do you know why that happens?” I could see there was a level of this that frustrated them, and I would have loved to just drop it and let the subject change, but there was too much at stake.

  “We spent a lot of time on the Floor of Dreams,” Syrion shrugged, “just trying to figure that out. The Bay exists for souls, for spirits. Therefore, it rejects bodies. If a body lives long enough, the Bay pushes it away.”

  “So, we wouldn’t be able to enter the Bay to even find Minerva,” Daath barked. “And even if we could, I don’t think it would be a good idea!”

  I found myself glaring at Daath. “You don’t seem to understand. There’s something about what I am that she went through a fuck ton of trouble to hide from me. She took everything from me. My family, my life, my memories… and she tried to take you two. And there’s a chance that this thing she tried to hide can help me stop the destruction of every realm in the universe. I have to know what else she didn’t want m
e to know. I killed the bitch once. I’m not afraid of her. Besides, I’m not trying to resurrect her! I just need to speak to her. I need to know if that’s possible.”

  The brothers were silent in response. I was so angry at them both for trying to tell me what to do and for not trying to understand what this meant to me.

  Daath finally cleared his throat. “It’s not possible. The Bay holds every soul that’s ever crossed over, and there’s a lot of them. It creates intricate realities for each one of them. For all I know, it might not even let you go past the shore through the trees. I’m telling you, it’s not possible.”

  “Serriah…” Syrion said thoughtfully. “Serriah mentioned something about a cabal of witches in the fae realm.”

  “Syrion-” Daath tried to interrupt him, but Syrion pushed on. My attention was glued to him.

  “They were supporters of Minerva. She offered them power and riches in exchange for their assistance. Ever since word spread of her death, they’ve been trying to bring her back. They haven’t succeeded, of course.”

  “And they won’t,” his brother added. “Death is not temporary. It is final. The soul may exist, but it can’t occupy a vessel again.”

  “Of course,” the white-haired man nodded. “You’re right, Daath. But perhaps some of their magic might help us come up with an avenue we haven’t thought of.”

  Daath scoffed. “This is insulting-”

  “Stop it!” I hissed. He looked at me in pure shock. “You have no idea how important this is to me, do you? You’ve had millions of years to come to terms with who you are. I’ve had a couple of months, and there’s information about me that’s been hidden. I need to find it. It could save lives! I’m going to find it, with or without your help.”

  I waited for his response. His onyx eyes seemed to soften just a bit. Silence hung in the air until he came over and wrapped his arms around me, and I immediately returned the gesture.

  “I’ll… help you with this,” he sighed. I could hear the resistance and frustration in his voice, but I appreciated the gesture, anyway.

  “Thank you,” I nodded. “Syrion, how would we get in touch with these witches?”

  “Well,” he rubbed his neck, “if they’re such strong supporters of Minerva that they want to bring her back, the odds are none of them would take kindly to us, seeing as how we’re responsible for her death. However… perhaps they would speak to Kalian?”

  23

  Myrcedes

  “Kalian?” I knocked on the open door to the library where he was reading. He sat at a chair turned sideways in front of a desk with his back against the lip of the furniture and one arm slung over the back of the chair. The library in the House of Stars was grand, but this one made it look like a child’s collection. In the library of the Moonstone Castle, there were records from every realm spanning millions of years, texts written in almost every language, and catalogs of literature from every creature that knew how to write. The Seelie looked up from his book, a soft smile pulling at his face when he saw me.

  “Hello.” He rose from his armchair and came over to wrap his arms around me, kissing me as he did so. I was more than happy to kiss him back. In a setting without so much frustration and tension built between us, I could take in how wonderful he really was. Though he had the sharp, aggressive features that suited an army General, everything about him was soft when we kissed. His skin, his lips, and the feeling of his arms around me all brought me a wave of comfort, preparing me for what I needed to ask. “What brings you here, my dear?”

  “Kalian,” I loved saying his name. “I have a… a favor to ask of you.”

  His eyebrow ticked up in curiosity. “Very well.” He gestured to a nearby chair with a nod and returned to his seat.

  I took a deep breath as I sat across from him. I explained what I had seen on the Floor of Dreams, and why I felt like Minerva had hidden something from me. I came clean about the fact that the Kings and I had been kidnapping council members. I described the lengths the Unseelie Queen had gone to to make sure the prophecy went unrecorded and unrepeated so that no one would ever know what was said. Lastly, I informed him of the coven seeking to resurrect Minerva.

  “Daath and Syrion say that it’s impossible to bring her back, and I believe them, but maybe there’s some avenue of magic these witches have researched or found to just communicate, and maybe we could expand upon it. Maybe there’s something we just haven’t thought of… and we were hoping you would, well, speak to them for us.”

  He listened in silence, and I nearly winced at the expression of shock on his face when I finished speaking. He was quiet for what felt like far too long.

  “I know the witches you’re speaking of.” The golden-haired Seelie finally broke the silence. I struggled to read an answer in his response, but luckily he continued. “They wouldn’t dare to help the monarchs responsible for her death. That’s your concern, isn’t it?” I simply nodded. I waited for him to continue, but he was silent.

  “Kalian,” I took his hand. “I can’t apologize enough for even asking this of you. The last thing I want is for you to be in any danger. I’ll do everything in my power, and so will Daath and Syrion, to make sure you’re safe.”

  I waited for a response, but he was still silent. I bit my lip. His eyes had drifted off away from me, and I could tell he was deep in thought. I didn’t want to do this, but I was so nervous.

  I pushed my way into Kalian’s thoughts, subtly so he couldn’t sense me. He was just as nervous as I was; I could sense that. However, there was not any hesitation amongst his thoughts. He was planning.

  “I can’t tell her I’ll help her until I know exactly how to do that.” I heard his voice echo throughout his mind as he tried to think of what to do. “The witches will be wary of me since I betrayed Minerva to save the Kings. But they know I can’t lie, so I can use that to my advantage. And if Raya and Vurial are still involved – I’m sure they are - they should understand. I can remind them of our pasts.” I was a bit shocked to hear that. I’d need to ask him about it later. “Maybe… maybe this can work.”

  Finally, he spoke out loud. “Of course, I’ll help you, Myrcedes. Anything you need.” I felt a sense of relief in him. There was a realization that since abandoning Minerva, he’d been lost. There hadn’t been a purpose to his life like there had been for the past few thousand years. That sense of purpose was renewed when he agreed to help me. When he’d been helping me on Earth, there was resentment, and there was hesitation. He never wanted to be there, and I knew that. Since he’d opened up to me, he had spent more time confused about what his future would hold. But now I was there, and I needed him. Once again, he had someone to serve.

  I silently promised that I wouldn’t ever take advantage of that. I stood from my chair and pulled him up from his to hug him. “Kalian… thank you so much. I know this isn’t a small favor I’m asking. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

  “Myrcedes.” He repeated my name, and the smallest shiver ran down my spine as he pulled back and lifted my face to look at him, his golden eyes glinting in the light. “I am honored you’ve asked for my help. I will not let you down.”

  He stepped back and bowed, his stance identical to the way an army General would present himself. I felt my mouth pull into a bright smile. For the first time in weeks of wondering, I felt like my questions would be answered.

  24

  Kalian

  “From the middle of town, you head west,” Serriah explained. She was telling me how to get to the witches’ lair. The entire time, I bit the inside of my lip to keep from smirking. I didn’t need her instructions. I knew very well how to get to that place, but before I could tell Myrcedes that I knew exactly where they wanted me to go, the Kings had called in Serriah and asked her to advise me on how to find the witches. “All the surrounding trees will have green and brown leaves with dark bark. When you see the tree on the left with pale bark and yellow leaves, you’ll want to turn right. As soon
as you enter the forest, you’ll want to be wary. They have traps amongst the trees.”

  I nodded as though I was absorbing her information. Actually, most of it was wrong. Well, not wrong, but convoluted. What she must not have known was that the witches had a road that led to their home; it just didn’t lead to the town. It led to the river. All you needed to do was follow the river south until you found the entrance to the road. Also, the witches didn’t use traps. Those were definitely from hunters.

  I could have easily explained to her that I knew exactly where I was going, and I knew what to expect once I got there, but I wasn’t interested in explaining how I knew the witches so well. Minerva had sent me to give and take messages for them multiple times. I’d also been there on a few personal visits. That was really the part I didn’t want to mention.

  Serriah gave me a rundown of all the witches in the coven, and at that, I did laugh. She got two of their names wrong and just left one of them out entirely. I had grown to appreciate the elf, and I was sure she was doing her best in many areas. This just happened to be one in which her research had failed her.

  I didn’t exactly blame her. The witches went to a lot of effort to make sure information about them was confusing and hard to find. There was a reason their road led to the river instead of the town. I knew on some level, it was hard for them to exist in the fae realm because of how exclusionary fae could be, but for some reason, they loved it there. All of them had agreed that living in the fae world in near isolation supporting Minerva was what they wanted to do with their lives. I wondered if any of that had changed after the Unseelie’s death.

  I arrived in the fae realm, clad in commoner court attire. I wore a cloak with the hood pulled over my head, but more than anything, that was to avoid having to speak to anyone as I made my way to the coven. I almost wanted to take Serriah’s convoluted directions just for the fun of it, but I was nearly certain I’d get lost somewhere around the third turn or the second tree stump or whatever she’d said.