Chapter 43

CHAPTER 43

WREN

No. This couldn't be happening. He couldn't die. Not Finn. The panic and the rage swept through her, stealing her breath. Her chest felt like bands of that horrible shadow-wrought metal were clamped around her and her head swam.

Wren threw herself across the open space within the stone circle, half falling, her hands digging into the soil until she reached Finn's body.

He lay so still, just sprawled there on his face, and beyond the stones she saw Leander, watching intently, leaning on the sword like it hadn't just killed his brother.

No. Not killed. Finn couldn't be dead. She would not allow that.

As she dropped to her knees, he took a single, shuddering breath and she saw the gaping wound, torn armour front and back, the blood seeping into the dark and hungry earth… and she knew.

Wren gathered him in her arms, lifted him against her body.

He blinked, but he didn't seem to see her.

‘Wren?' he whispered all the same. He knew she was there. That was something. It had to be.

‘I'm here. I'm here, don't move. Don't… great light, don't leave me. Please Finn don't… don't leave me.'

He tried to smile. The darkness flooded his eyes like clouds in a stormy sky. ‘I may not have a choice.'

‘I won't let you!' It came out in a snarl of sound, something savage and alien to her.

‘If anyone could stop this,' he whispered, his voice growing faint. ‘It would be you.'

And his eyes closed.

His blood was on her hands, on her clothes. It burned on her skin.

He was wrong. She wasn't strong enough. But she knew someone who was.

‘Elodie,' Wren yelled, desperate now. ‘Elodie, please. I need you. Please!'

But Elodie couldn't help her. She was in chains, her power smothered by their shadows. Wren didn't even know if Elodie was still conscious. Or alive. Even if she was, there was only the two of them against all Leander's men, and the shadow kin he had summoned.

And all around her she could hear the song again. Leander circled the outside of the stones, still singing out in othertongue, and the Nox joined him in so many harmonious voices in this world and beyond. She hated him, loathed him. How could he do this, and to his own brother? Oh there was no love lost between them, but to do this…

Wren couldn't let Finn die, not like this. She had to try. Gathering what light she could in her mind, she poured it into Finn's poor broken body, trying to heal and knit it back together, seeking out anything that might help her. She didn't know what she was doing. She worked entirely on instinct, trusting her heart to lead her.

But the light was gone too quickly. All around her was darkness. Who knew what hour it was? Where had the moon gone? It was if shadows had closed in around them, cutting them off from any source of illumination she might use. The night seemed to have lasted forever.

And part of her feared it would now, that it would never end.

‘Wren,' Elodie called out weakly, her voice shaking. ‘Wren, just hold on. Don't do anything stupid. I'll find a way. I'll find?—'

Leander was on Elodie in an instant. He struck her hard, sending her down onto the ground with a terrible crack, his fist still clenched. He didn't use the sword, and for that Wren thanked the light. But he wouldn't, she realised. Not for Elodie. He wanted her to hurt. He wanted her to know she had failed.

Strange, how transparent the prince was to her now. For all his charm, all his machinations, all his treachery… she could see him for what he was.

Leander turned towards her, meeting her horrified gaze with his own unswerving one.

‘You know what you have to do, Wren, my love. If you can save him he's yours. But only if you can save him. I'll let you all go. If he lives. So go on. Make him live, princess.'

The mockery in his voice made her recoil. But she'd show him. She had to show him. Even if he didn't keep his word, she couldn't let Finn die.

With no light to help her, she had no choice. If she was going to save him there was only one way to turn. She reached out to the shadows instead.

Elodie cried out her name, just her name. A warning. A denial.

And then Wren was somewhere else.

The darkness pressed in on Wren from all around, crushing her, like a candle flame deprived of air. It was vast, endless, and all of its attention was fixed upon her.

The voice, when it sounded, was like a rumble of thunder. It rolled through the air with the storm and shook its way into her body.

What are you doing, little vestige? Why do you defy me?

Wren felt herself drop to her knees, helpless. Why did she defy it? Because she had to. She knew what it was. Deep inside her, she knew that this was the Nox and, if she let it, it would consume her entirely.

‘You belong here.' She forced the words out and it was like tearing strips of skin from the insides of her throat. ‘You don't belong in me.'

The Nox laughed, the laugh of a young woman, her own laugh perhaps. It shook her to the core. In you? No, you have it all wrong. You belong in me. Come home, little one.

It pressed down on her again, trying to force her open like an oyster, something like a knife sliding into her mind to twist it apart.

You're mine, little one. Part of me. You came from me. Surely you always suspected that. I'm your mother .

‘No. Elodie… Elodie's my mother…'

That thief? The tone turned vindictive and vengeful. She stole you from me when I was weak, took you away and hid you. For years she hid you. I sent all the remaining fragments of my power looking for you but to no avail. She made a bargain with the old magic in the forest to hide you. But here you are now. And so is she. When I'm free, we are going to do such things to her. We're going to tear her apart a piece at a time. Now, stop fighting me. You belong to me.

It was lying. It had to be lying. And yet everything suddenly made sense. Why Elodie hid her away, why the darkness responded to her the way it did, why the fragments of the Nox and the shadow kin flocked around their home… looking for her.

It couldn't be true. But the moment it was said, Wren knew somehow that it was. That some vital part of her had come from this thing and that it meant to take her back.

Wren screamed but there was nothing she could do, nothing that would stop it. She was trapped and the Nox was inside her, around her, everywhere. She felt it fill her and for one last moment she struggled, clinging to her own consciousness by her fingernails.

She had to hold on.

I can save him for you , the Nox whispered.