“Why aren’t you healing?”
He grins. “I was hoping maybe it would make you feel sorry for me.” I pull my hand back, but he catches it and places it against his cheek, his eyes closing. I let myself enjoy the contact for a second before pulling my hand back.
“Why are you here, Tallon?”
He grins. Just the tiniest bit of power, and already his face is knitting back together. In a few seconds he’ll be flawless once again. Either way, he still looks wonderful to me. “I’m here to take you home, Peep.”
I shake my head and put a few inches between us. “I am home.”
He snorts. “You aren’t dead. You don’t belong in the Underworld. You belong with me. In the Mortal Realm.”
I look away from him toward the battle going on in the field below. I don’t want his words to make me feel as happy as they do. I want to be numb inside. I want to feel like I deserve to be exiled to this place of endless boredom.
I should be dead, even though I’m not. The erebos saved me. And like everyone else, it sent me home. To the Underworld.
Whisper’s team has started to mop up the remainder of Hera’s forces, who are now running back to their base with whoops and laughter. I smile as Mom raises her sword in the air and screams out her victory, the sound echoing like that of a falcon. Whisper is right next to her, and they put their arms around each other and laugh. It’s been a good series for them. Their team is three for four.
Not too far away, Hermes waits for my sister. He sees me looking at him and waves. I do the same. Whisper sees him and runs over, a wide grin on her face. I’m starting to think he really did care for her. Especially since Hermes travels down here to see her all the time.
I think I’ve been wrong about Æthereals. I think they can feel. It’s just easier for them to deny their emotions than to live with the messy consequences of feelings.
Maybe one day I’ll ask Hades about him and my mom again. I wonder if he’ll tell me the truth this time.
“Zephyr.”
I turn to Tallon, to the raw emotion in his voice. “What?”
“Please say you’ll come back with me. You’ve had enough time to recover. Blue misses you, Nanda keeps making food that no one eats, and the entire neighborhood is looking for you. We need you. All of Ulysses’s Glen needs you.” There’s an edge of desperation in his voice.
“Tallon, I can’t go back; you know that.” The darkness is a part of me, but there’s more of it now. After that last battle with Hera I took in so much power that I can no longer keep it contained. It flares around my head like a dark aura. Even Hades doesn’t know what will happen if I go back to the Mortal Realm. It could be dangerous.
Tallon shakes his head and grabs for my hand. Our fingers tangle together, but I don’t pull away this time. He takes a deep breath. “Say you’ll at least think about coming back.”
I am thinking about it, damn him. And now that I am, I desperately want to see my friends again. Maybe even give school and all that a chance. I don’t know that a normal life will ever be mine, but I’d like to at least try.
I glance down at my arms, and the darkness holding the bright æther at bay. The deadly power still moves through my body, the shadows holding it in check. Here in the Underworld the effects are barely noticeable. But what happens if I go back? “I don’t even know if I can go to the Mortal Realm, Tallon.”
Something in my voice must give him hope. “We can try. Besides, it’s not just me that needs you. Hera’s gone, but her Acolytes are beginning to gather again. It’s just a matter of time before they try something new. And there are other problems. The entire vættir community is in chaos. You’re the Nyx. The vættir will need you to lead them, and you need to be ready.” He kisses my knuckles, and I can’t help but remember those lips in the hollow of my neck. The memory makes me feel flushed. Tallon raises his head and smiles at me. Such a simple thing, that smile. And yet it undoes all of my resolve. “Come back with me. The world’s better with you.”
I think of the possibilities, of all the things that wait for me if I go back. Danger, definitely. But also friends. And maybe . . .
Maybe love?
I take a deep breath and let it out. “What did you mean, back in the hotel room? When you said you didn’t want to ruin me?”
Tallon swallows and sighs. “I’m a monster, Zephyr. My father is a monster and one of the dark lords. One day I’ll be a dark lord as well. I’m of the dark, and I didn’t want to hurt you by pulling you into my world.” He looks away, his gaze far-off. “I may live in Ulysses’s Glen, but it’s not the vættir that I belong to. I’m an Æthereal, and one day I’ll have to answer that call. I know what happens to those who make the mistake of falling for one of my kind.”
I shake my head and look out at the few vættir left on the battlefield, some of them chatting, others wrestling or joking around. “What does that have to do with anything, Tallon?”
“I remember what you were like as a kid, Peep. I didn’t know if you were strong enough to handle the complications of being with me. I didn’t want to put you through that if I could help it, even if it killed me to push you away.”
I turn to study him, my heart in my throat. “And now?”
He laughs. “If anyone is strong enough to stand with me, it’s you. You stopped Hera and saved the shadow vættir. You can handle my darkness.”
I don’t tell him that’s because I am the dark. The shadows course through my veins, whispering to me as they move through my body. The dark is a living thing within me, and I think I like it. It’s something I’m still getting used to.
Besides, a girl has to have some secrets.
I grin at him. “Maybe I’ve changed my mind. Maybe I don’t like you anymore.”
He pushes me so I fall over, just like he used to when we were kids. “Well, maybe I don’t like you, either. Do you think Whisper would make out with me if I asked her?”
I sit up with a snort. “I think you’d have to fight Hermes first.”
“I could take him.”
I shove him. “Jerk.” Before I know it we’re wrestling, and then he’s tickling me, and I’m laughing so hard that my middle hurts.
“Stop, stop!”
“Admit you still like me,” Tallon says, finding the ticklish spot in my side.
“Okay, I admit it. I still like you.” He stops tickling me, but his hand is still splayed across my middle.
He grins down at me. He knows the battle’s almost won. “So, are you going to come back to Ulysses’s Glen with me?”
I push him over so we’re lying side by side in the tall grass, the too-blue sky above us. I rest my head against his shoulder, and his arms wrap around me. Right now I refuse to think about anything but how good it feels to be in the circle of his arms. I won’t think about the future, or about all the things people will want from me if I go back to the Mortal Realm. I refuse to think of anything but the boy who crossed the Rift to save me, the boy who was there for me when I was small. The one I hope will be there for me in the future.
So I don’t answer Tallon’s question. Instead I just enjoy the moment.
And for now, it’s enough.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
So, I’m not very good at thanking people. Mostly because it always comes out sounding a little insincere. But there are tons of awesome people who made this book (and Vengeance Bound ) possible, and it would be terrible of me not to say thank you.
First, thanks to my editor, Navah Wolfe, and everyone at S&S BFYR, who made sure that my books were the best they could be. You all rock, and I totally appreciate your help. Especially the copyeditors, the unsung heroes of publishing. THANK YOU!
Thank you to my amazing agent, Elana Roth, who always answered my rambling, semi-incoherent e-mails with tact and aplomb, and never told me once to put on my big-girl panties and get over it. Thank you. Your steadfastness makes me feel less crazy, and that is saying something.
Thank you to anyone who has e
ver read my book, thought about reading one of my books, or just likes books in general. I think you’re swell.
A big squishy non-hug for The Lucky 13s and all of the amazing authors I’ve met. You make me feel less alone. And that’s nice. But I still don’t want to hug you.
Thanks to my family and friends, who bought copies even though they had no idea what a YA was. Thanks to my weekly writing partner Jon Weidler, who never (okay, maybe once in a while) pointed out we did more talking about movies than writing.
Mostly, thanks to my husband, Eric, who endured my many moods and was always there to pretend to care about the latest publishing kerfuffle and listen to me talk out plot problems to myself. You’re a jerk, but you’re also my happily ever after. I love you.
© ERIC IRELAND
JUSTINA IRELAND is the author of Vengeance Bound. She enjoys dark chocolate, dark humor, and is not too proud to admit that she’s still afraid of the dark. She lives with her husband, kid, and dog in Pennsylvania. You can visit her at justinaireland.com.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Justina Ireland
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Jacket design by Lucy Ruth Cummins
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ireland, Justina.
Promise of shadows / Justina Ireland.—First edition.
pages cm
Summary: As a human/god offspring, Zephyr Mourning is destined for a life of servitude but when she uses a forbidden dark power to kill the minor god who murdered her sister she is sent to Tartarus, where she discovers that she may be the Nyx, a dark goddess prophesied to change the balance of power.
ISBN 978-1-4424-4464-5 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4424-5357-9 (eBook)
[1. Gods—Fiction. 2. Goddesses—Fiction. 3. Murder—Fiction. 4. Prison—Fiction. 5. Prophecies—Fiction. 6. Mythology, Greek—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.I6274Pro 2014
[Fic]—dc23
2013002959
CONTENTS
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Acknowledgments
About Justina Ireland
Promise of Shadows Page 29