I unwrapped palms, revealing smooth, soft skin. My feet—once I had kicked off my boots and removed the bandages—were the same. I flexed my left leg, feeling a small twinge in my knee. I winced, pushing the feeling away.
“My body remembers,” I explained to Frey, who had already opened her mouth to question my wince. “My skin forgets.”
She nodded, but her eyes travelled to my shirt, narrowing on the spot where the scar hid. “You could be bleeding internally.”
“I could be,” I agreed. “But there’s no point worrying about that. We can’t fix it.”
Calder stalked back into the room, and the kitchen suddenly shrank in size, warping around him. His power was tightly reined, but I could still feel it vibrating around the edges of his body. Frey scattered away from me and he took two wide strides to reach my side, his hand held out, his eyes narrowed and stern.
“The ring,” he demanded.
I curled my hand into a fist. “We can’t fight both battles,” I told him, regret edging my tone. “We can’t fight them and the Darkness at the same time.”
“You’re not going back there.” He spoke the words quietly, almost snarling them, but there was something sad there too.
I shook my head, guilt eating away at me. Calder was destined to live in torture, because I was destined for the darkness, to seek out danger, to greet death at every turn until it finally greeted me back.
“Ah, who is them?” Sig asked, leaning his hip against the counter that Herra was sitting on.
“The five shadows,” Jostein murmured, drawing all our eyes.
There was a thin vein of power connecting us. I hadn’t noticed it until then, until his voice echoed along the line. I frowned, my fingers passing through the air in front of my chest. I couldn’t touch the line, or see it, but it was there. Jostein blinked, his tiger eyes darkening. The line between us shivered and snapped.
“What did you say?” I asked him, rubbing my hands along my arms to flatten the goosebumps. “Five shadows?”
“The Weaver.” He stepped forward, his finger pointing at my face. Calder turned suddenly, putting his back to me.
Jostein stopped, his eyes flicking to Calder. I touched his shoulder, and he moved to the side. Jostein began to approach again, but his steps were careful, and he stopped in line with Calder, not a step further.
“The Weaver shadows you,” he said. “But there are four other shadows too. I see them all around you. There are many strings tying you together.”
Calder growled, the sound more animal than human. Jostein froze, his eyes snapping to the side. We all waited, breath held, but the air didn’t explode.
“The Inquisitor,” Herra said carefully. “He must be one of them. His energy is tangled with hers.”
“He marked me,” I snapped, angry at the insinuation that Fjor’s energy had managed to get inside me somehow.
“He’s never marked anyone before,” Herra replied, her eyes crawling over me.
I folded my arms, tucking my hands self-consciously against my body.
“Stop gawking,” Calder ordered, his words a snap of heavy tension.
Herra quickly looked away, but Jostein didn’t. He stared into me, that vibrating line appearing between us again. I tried to touch it again, my fingers swiping through the air. It wrapped around me like a web, and as soon as I realised that, I noticed it wasn’t the only line. They were surrounding me, tightening around my arms and chest and throat. I was almost cocooned in them.
I threw myself forward, my hands wrapping around Jostein’s throat, both of us crashing to the floor.
“Ven!” Bjern yelled, rushing to pull me off, but I saw Calder step forward out of the corner of my eye and shove him back.
I pulled back my fist and slammed it into Jostein’s face.
“What in Ledenaether!” Herra screamed.
I hadn’t even realised that my Vold energy was leaking into my limbs until I felt the give of bone beneath my punch. He tried to throw me off, but I scrambled up his body, anchoring my knees into his arms, freeing both of my fists as I hit him again and again. He stopped struggling and started laughing. A horrible, insane cackle. I persisted, and so did the laugh, until there was a rattle in the back of his throat that had me pulling back.
“How are you doing it?” I demanded, running my eyes all over him—ignoring the mess I had made of his face.
I didn’t want to think about the rage that had suddenly, uncontrollably taken control of my body and mind, drowning out sense.
“Tempest, get off him!” Herra was screaming. Someone was holding her back.
“Stay back,” I heard Sig reply. “This isn’t like her. There must be a reason.”
I was breathing heavily, tears of rage stinging at the corners of my eyes. I began clawing my nails over his skin, searching for any magical artefacts that might be able to change his appearance. There was a thin black chain around his wrist, and I yanked it away, breaking the clasp and tearing into his skin.
Or … her skin.
As I tossed the artefact aside, she appeared before me. Those strange yellow-brown eyes narrowed to slits. Her tight brown skin began to wrinkle. Silver-blonde hair spilled from her head.
“Spider,” I growled.
Still, she laughed.
I grabbed her shoulders and slammed her head back against the ground as all hell broke loose in the kitchen. The air darkened, filling with the smell of mould and ash.
“So nice to see you again,” the Spider gurgled through another laugh. “We’re both so happy to see you again.”
I froze as the ground began to rumble. Sweat broke out over my skin, and I saw a flicker of colour in the corner of the room. The wood in the hearth had begun to smoke, flame flickering back to life. The heat had returned, but it didn’t feel like Calder’s fury—it felt like the world was burning up.
I tore the new ring off my finger, tossing it to the corner of the room. It might have worked to hide me … if the Darkness hadn’t helped to create it. I slammed the Spider’s head down again, thinking of how she had tricked me. How she had forced that poor man to beat himself to death in front of us all …
And then I suddenly stopped, jumping away from her, my bloodied hands raised before me, my head shaking.
“No,” I muttered. “I won’t kill you.”
She stopped laughing immediately, her yellow eyes flicking to the mark winding around my forearm. The little trail of spiders that represented our last deal.
You will release me and forget that you saw me.
I had released her. I hadn’t tried to hunt her down, but if the great masters had taught me anything, it was not to trust a deal with one of the Fated. Angered by my restraint, the Spider pulled her head up, struggling to rise to her elbows. I shot out an arm, stopping Calder before he had even made a move.
“The deal,” I reminded him. “It’s trying to trick me.”
“It?” His eyes burned into the Spider, trying to see something that only I could see.
“The Darkness,” I answered. “It’s known everything all along.”
I crouched before the Spider, putting our faces level.
She reached into the linen cloak that wrapped her frail-looking body, but I moved faster, grabbing her wrist. I dragged it out of the cloak as I captured the other. Predictably, she clutched a knife in one hand. I squeezed her wrist until she dropped it, another snarl on her lips.