Black Moon Draw(87)

The torches lead me through several more hallways and up a set of stairs, followed by another confusing maze of halls. The torches start to flicker off and I freeze, watching. The fires go out ahead of me as well as behind me, until the light of one room is all that there is. With some reticence, I approach the doorway and pause, afraid of what I’ll find.

The opulent bedchamber is the grandest I’ve seen yet, with murals made of dusty gems on the ceiling and along one gilded wall. Windows look out at the darkened sky. Two huge hearths are burning and the room is large enough to have its own sitting area, dining area, and huge bed, in addition to four squatting wardrobes.

The Shadow Knight is on the side of the chamber opposite the bed, standing before a hearth and gazing into it.

“Atreyu!” I exclaim, relieved to see him. I enter. The door closes behind me and I wait for him to speak or move.

He doesn’t.

My god – that body. My eyes go over his muscular, thick frame slowly, from the dark hair to his broad shoulders, slender hips, and the thighs that make my panties melt. Already my blood is heating. The only part of him I don’t find attractive: the boar head.

“I’m here to help,” I say awkwardly.

“No one can help.”

“Isn’t this what we’re meant to do?”

The boar head swivels towards me, revealing the light gray eyes of the warrior side of him that’s never fully under his control. He’s ready to kill me or make love to me.

I stop where I am, heat blooming in my lower belly, along with fear.

“’Tis too late,” he growls.

“You have to try, right? You can’t let the world go without fighting until the last minute.”

He says nothing, watching me.

I really don’t like that look. “Can we talk without the head?”

He doesn’t move.

“It’s me, your battle-witch, not your enemy,” I remind him. “Just for a minute. No boar head. You can put it back on before you . . . whatever.”

He raises his hands and pulls it off. His face is stony, almost unrecognizable with its coldness. I had hoped to see a glimmer of something in his eyes indicating he had a plan.

A little less freaked out, I nervously inch closer. “You have to try, Atreyu.”

“Two kingdoms stand defiant and I have surrendered my hold.”

A flair of heat ignites inside me. “So you’re giving up?” I ask, baffled. “Just like that?”

“I tried to enter the chamber where the fog originates. ‘Tis not accessible by any means. I cannot defeat Brown Sun Lake when my armies are too far. I cannot win,” he responds. “I am the final Shadow Knight, the last of my line to have failed.”

“No! I refuse to accept that answer! You spent twenty-five years away from home to prevent this. Your forefathers spent a thousand years doing the same! You can’t give up when you’re so close!” Nearing him, I stare up into his face, seeking some part of him that’s willing to reconsider. “Atreyu, you must fight!”

“You should not have come.” His voice is softer. He cups my cheek with a hand.

“You led me to you. You wanted me to find you.”

“’Tis not possible. I control none of this.” He waves to the fog on the ceiling. “You used magic to find me.”

“Since when has my magic worked remotely well enough for me to do that?” I snap. A flicker of amusement crosses his features and I seize on it. “Please. There are so many people depending on you.”

His eyes turn dark and then back to the gray of fog once more. He takes my shoulders. I stand frozen for a moment, heart heavy with the knowledge that the medallion is gone, before I realize if ever there was a time to grow a backbone and fight for what I really want, it’s now.

“There’s a part of you that kind of likes me,” I continue. “The side that said you’d take me as a queen if you weren’t betrothed. I’d like to think it wasn’t for my witchly qualities, which means, you don’t want me dying tomorrow.”

“You are correct, Naia. You need to leave.” His tone is softer. “Go back to your home. Mine will not be here much longer.”

Crushed, I can’t help the tears forming. “For the first time in my life, I know what I want, and it’s not to sit in my depressing apartment going to a job I can’t stand! I want to help you save your world.”

He wipes away a tear with his thumb. “’Tis too late for my realm.” His gaze goes to my lips.

“Even if I didn’t want to be here, I don’t know how to go home. It means we have to stop this, no matter what.”

“’Tis not possible.” His calmness normally steadies me. This time, it makes me frantic. I can hear his resolve, his acceptance of the situation. He’s truly given up.

“You have to stop this.” I take his hand and squeeze. “No one else can!”

“’Tis not so easy. I have tested the evil of this place. It cannot be defeated, not after a thousand years.”

I don’t know what to say and my throat is almost too tight to speak.

His eyes return to mine, flickering between gray and black, fog and man, death and life.

“Please try,” I whisper.

“I do not have that power.”