All the times I thought
I lost myself
It was you who found me
Elodie found Nicholas’ hand. “Is he dead?”
“I think so. And Sarah too.”
Elodie looked at him. His black eyes were so full of fear, so lost. He was like a frightened little boy, destined to live in shadows forever. Her heart broke. “What’s going to happen now?” she asked helplessly.
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Nicholas whispered. “All I know is that now it’s me. I am the King of Shadows.”
He looked at his hands, his arms, his legs. He didn’t feel any different. He thought that maybe his body would start to transform into something like his father, a chimera. But nothing was happening. All around them there was only silence and the rustling of grass. Sarah and the King of Shadows lay immobile, the chasm that had opened in front of them still spewing smoke and heat.
Suddenly, an immense burst of blue lightning fell from the sky, and struck the monstrous body that had been the King of Shadows’. Under Nicholas’ and Elodie’s horrified gaze, the body began to twitch.
It’s not so easy, my son.
The voice resounded in Nicholas’ mind and echoed into Elodie’s just as the brain fury hit them both, burning them like acid.
I can’t kill you, Nicholas. You know that now, because I need you to take my place one day. But I can torture you. I can do this for as long as I like, and still keep you alive . . .
In the throes of terrible pain they watched as the chimera rose from the ground, bull and wolf and deer and buffalo and creatures they couldn’t name, racing, fluid and deadly and infinitely powerful. Another wave of the brain fury hit them both with its full force and they fell to their knees, blood seeping from their eyes and nostrils and ears, and only one wish left for them to make: for death to come. In his agony, Nicholas realised the full meaning of what his father had said, and what it meant for Elodie.
He won’t kill me. But he’ll kill her.
He screamed and screamed, watching Elodie thrash in agony on the ground as her blonde hair turned scarlet.