The Crow King's Wife(176)

It was a simple matter to store his true memories in the back of his mind and arrange for them to slowly trickle back to him over time. She wouldn’t steal his identity from him indefinitely. That would make Finn’s request to save Shade a moot point. Perhaps though in the time it took for all of his memories to return Shade would learn how to keep a secret from his friends. If he was going to survive he would have to. With Myth hunting him letting even a hint of his true identity slip could be fatal.

“I sincerely hope you are sure about this, because I most certainly am not.” Nix sighed as he returned to dressing the dead man with only occasional glances toward the beautiful naked woman that lay inches away.

Exodus smiled widely at him and nodded. “It will work perfectly just you wait and see.” She murmured.





*





Pain throbbed through her skull as she slowly sat up and spat sand from her mouth. Blearily she gazed around at the rock strewn beach trying to remember why she wasn’t in the city. Her hand rose to press gently against the throbbing pain in her skull as her eyes landed on jagged piece of metal before her then followed the deep gouge in the sand to rest on the remains of a battered Spell Hawk crumpled against a jut of black rocks.

Scattered memories flittered through her mind and her eyes widened as she remembered watching the Spell Hawk plummeting from the sky. “Shade.” She gasped the name and felt her pulse race. Memories of the man filled her as she scrambled toward the ship stumbling over the skirt of her sodden dress in her haste. Frantically pushed her way inside through a gash in the hull and scanned the remains of the ship. Shade was a friend from the Academy. Shade was important. She had seen his ship fall and had tried to reach him but fallen on the rocks. The thoughts circled through her skull refusing to be pushed aside as she moved clumsily toward the front of the ship. The dress caught at her legs once more and she had to resist the urge to rip it free. It was cumbersome and pointless, and she couldn’t remember why she hadn’t simply worn trousers today.

She stumbled to a halt and all annoyance faded as she stared down at the broken corpse in the pilot’s seat. Her heart lurched painfully. “Shade.” She whispered the name as her knees gave beneath her dropping her roughly to the blood slick floor.

Despair filled her more deeply than she could ever remember feeling before as the stinging burn of tears filled her eyes and the first sob tore from her lips. She couldn’t explain the complete devastation she felt. Shade had been a friend, but the agony tearing through her was worse than the loss of a lover. It struck deeper even than the death of a beloved parent. Her mind couldn’t settle on any rational reason why seeing Shade’s blankly staring blue eyes made her want to die beside him, but it did.

Leaning forward she rested her head against Shade’s cold leg ignoring the blood that smeared along her face as she shook with violent sobs. It was as if just seeing Shade’s life end had somehow ended her own and she wasn’t sure how she could summon the strength to continue.

“Shade! Damn it no!” A man’s voice rasped behind her and she barely managed to slip out of his way as he dove for Shade’s body and frantically searched at the neck for a pulse.

With tears streaking down her face and sobs tightening her throat she slid further back from the man and watched as he frantically sought for any sign of life. She knew it was a useless endeavor. She had felt the cold clamminess of Shade’s skin. He was dead, and there was no bringing him back. Another wave of despair coursed through her at the thought and it was all she could do to keep from curling into a ball of the floor.

The dark haired man fell back away from the seat with a look of devastation on his face that mirrored her own. She studied him through her blurry eyes silently noting his pale grey eyes and the white tips on his hair. Caleb Faulklin. The name rose from her memories with the barest details of the man. He was from Arovan and had been Micah Arovan’s guard, but she had no idea why he was here with Shade. His eyes shifted to her and she looked away quickly and huddled against the wall ashamed of the way she had been staring. Her mind was grasping for anything to cling to aside from Shade’s death, but even in her grief stricken state she knew she had been unbearably rude to watch Caleb so closely as he struggled to control his own pain.

“Who are you?” Caleb demanded in a hoarse voice.

She stared back at him but knew her throat was too tight to even attempt speaking. Silently she shook her head before leaning back against the wall of the ship as the sobs rose in her chest once more.