Page 90 of The Stolen Throne
He’s right to be furious, but not just at Reven.
“I heard them, too, Vos,” I say quietly.
He rounds on me with a growl of frustration. “You two are meant for each other,” he snaps. “With all your secrets.”
I’d feel bad, except I’m still trying to process what Reven said. The souls of the soldiers and the barbarians who attacked us are trapped. Reven disappeared them all that night. In a blink, they were gone, but we didn’t know where. We assumed just…dead. But they’re here? Attached to this place?
Horus positions himself closer to me, still between me and Reven. “What do you mean, you woke them up?”
Reven looks off toward the trees, which are silent and still, other than the wind blowing against them. “Best guess, my power put them there, so it woke them up, too. The woods were quiet at first but got louder the longer we stayed. It felt a lot like the—”
“Temple,” Pella murmurs beside me.
Pella, who is empathic.
“Did you feel it, too?”
She slides me a resentful glance, pausing in binding Cain’s wounds. “It felt…heavier the longer we were there. I didn’t connect it to the temple until now.”
“But if Meren can hear them, what does that mean?” Vos demands.
Reven’s gaze skitters across me, like he wants to look at me but won’t let himself. “I’m not sure.”
But I have a guess. I carry his shadows inside me.
“Whatever the reason, when Cain showed up, the darkness attacked him, too.”
Vos faces the woods in a stance that looks like he’s waiting for shadows to crawl out and come for us. “What made them stop?”
“I don’t know.”
“Meren?” Cain croaks.
On a gasp, I look down to find Cain’s eyes fluttering like he can’t make them open.
“My hero,” I whisper with a smile. I used to call him that when we were little.
“Meren?” he calls out again, more urgent this time, eyes still not open.
I frown. “I’m here.”
His head thrashes to one side. “Meren, don’t.”
I look at Pella. “What’s happening?”
She shakes her head. “I think he’s caught in a nightmare.”
“He’ll kill you!” he shouts. “The darkness is coming for us all—”
I put my hands on both sides of his face. “Cain. I’m here. Listen to my voice. It’s—”
“Watch it.” Vos snarls the words and assumes a fighting stance. So do Horus and Hakan.
I look up to see Reven gone so rigid I think he might snap at the first gust of wind.
My blood goes as cold as the Tyndran wind billowing around us. “Reven?”
“Stay away from him!” Cain shouts, an arm flinging out in his unconscious fear and accidentally smacking me across the face, hard enough that my head whips to one side and I have to catch myself with a hand on the ground.
