KAEL'S POV
The corpse-puppet's threat hung in the air like poison.
I stood frozen at the broken window, staring down at Marcus's reanimated body. Ten more dead assassins surrounded him, all speaking with Master Corvus's voice in perfect, horrible unison.
"You have until sunrise, my perfect weapon. Return to me, or everyone dies."
Aldric grabbed my arm. "Kael, we can fight—"
"No." My voice came out dead. "You can't fight him. Nobody can."
I'd seen Corvus raise the dead before. Three years ago, an entire village refused to give up a target we were hunting. Corvus killed them all, then made their corpses attack their own families in the neighboring town. The screams lasted for days.
And that was just a warning to others who might defy the Veil.
"There has to be a way," Seraphina said, but even her voice shook slightly. She'd moved to stand between Aldric and the window, ice already forming around her hands.
"The only way is if I go back." I pulled away from Aldric, my decision crystallizing like ice in my chest. "He wants me. If I return, he'll leave you alone."
"Absolutely not!" Aldric moved in front of me, and it was weird—nobody had ever blocked my path to protect me before. "You just found freedom. I won't let you throw yourself back into that nightmare."
"It's not your choice." I tried to step around him, but he matched my movement.
"You're right. It's yours." His storm-gray eyes—my eyes—burned with intensity. "And I'm asking you to choose to stay. Choose us. Choose yourself for once in your life."
Something in my chest twisted painfully. "You don't understand. Corvus doesn't make empty threats. If I don't return by sunrise—" I checked the window. The sky was already turning gray at the edges. "—that's maybe an hour from now. He'll kill everyone in this castle. Your guards, your servants, your people. And he'll make sure I know it's my fault."
"Let him try." Captain Marcus stepped forward, hand on his sword. "We'll defend our prince with our lives."
"Your lives won't be enough." I turned to him, desperate to make them understand. "You'll die. Then Corvus will raise you as his puppets. You'll kill the people you swore to protect, and you'll be conscious the whole time, trapped in your own dead body, screaming but unable to stop."
The captain's face went pale. Several guards shifted nervously.
"See?" I gestured at them. "They know I'm right. The smart choice is for me to go back. One person's suffering versus hundreds of deaths."
"That's not a choice, that's a sacrifice." Aldric's voice cracked. "I just found you. I'm not losing you again."
"You never really had me." The words came out harsher than I meant. "I'm what Corvus made. Maybe it's better if I just accept that."
Seraphina made a disgusted sound. "Oh, please. You're not that stupid."
I glared at her. "Excuse me?"
"You heard me." She crossed her arms, ice crystals still dancing around her fingers. "This whole 'I'm just a weapon' routine is pathetic. You're smarter than this, Kael."
Anger flared in my chest. "You don't know anything about—"
"I know you're scared." Her emerald eyes pinned me in place. "I know that going back to Corvus feels safer than staying here and having to figure out who you actually are. I know you're looking for an excuse to run away from the hard work of being free."
"How dare you—" I started toward her, shadows gathering around my fists.
"Prove me wrong." She didn't back down an inch. "Stay and fight. Or go crawling back to your master and prove you really are just his obedient little weapon."
My shadow magic exploded outward, but Aldric jumped between us.
"Stop!" He held up both hands, one toward me, one toward Seraphina. "Fighting each other is exactly what Corvus wants. Can't you see? He's trying to divide us."
I forced my breathing to slow, pulling the shadows back. Seraphina was watching me with an expression I couldn't quite read—not fear, not disgust. Something else.
"She's trying to manipulate me," I said.
"I'm trying to wake you up." Seraphina's voice softened just slightly. "Yes, Corvus is dangerous. Yes, people might die if you stay. But people will definitely die if you go back—including you. He'll punish you for failing, then send you on another mission. And another. Until you're dead or so broken you might as well be."
"At least then it would just be me suffering."
"No." Aldric moved closer, his voice gentle. "Then we'd all suffer. Every person in this castle would spend the rest of their lives knowing we fed you to a monster to save ourselves. That guilt would eat us alive. Is that what you want?"
I opened my mouth, then closed it. I hadn't thought about it that way.
"Besides," Finn called out from near the door—when had he arrived?—"we're not exactly helpless. Aldric's light magic is pretty epic. Seraphina could freeze an army. And you've got shadow powers that make grown men cry. Maybe, just maybe, we could actually win."
"Against Corvus?" I shook my head. "You really don't understand what he's capable of—"
A new voice interrupted from the doorway, cold and sharp as winter wind.
"Oh, I think they're about to understand perfectly."
Everyone spun toward the voice. A woman stood there, and my blood turned to ice.
It was Raven.
My handler. My trainer. The closest thing I'd ever had to a mother, if mothers taught you fifty ways to kill a man with your bare hands.
She shouldn't be here. Corvus only sent Raven for the most important missions.
"Hello, little shadow." Her smile was soft, almost sad. "Did you really think we'd let you choose?"
Before anyone could react, she pulled a crystal from her belt and crushed it.
The world lurched. Magic—dark, ancient, wrong—flooded the room. Aldric cried out and collapsed, clutching his chest. Seraphina's ice shattered as she fell to her knees, gasping.
Only I remained standing, shadows instinctively protecting me from whatever Raven had unleashed.
"What did you do?" I screamed, rushing to Aldric's side. He was convulsing, eyes rolling back.
"Just a little poison." Raven's voice stayed gentle. "It's in the air now, spreading through the castle. Everyone who breathes it will die within the hour. Slow. Painful. Conscious until the very end."
"No!" I tried to help Aldric, but I didn't know how. My hands hovered uselessly over him.
"There is an antidote, of course." Raven held up a small vial filled with golden liquid. "Enough to save everyone in the castle."
I looked up at her, and suddenly I understood. "You want me to come back."
"Master Corvus wants his weapon returned." She tilted her head. "Come home right now, and I'll give you the antidote. Refuse, and you get to watch your new family die. One by one. Starting with your precious brother."
Aldric tried to speak, but only managed a weak gasp. His eyes found mine, and in them I saw something that broke me completely.
Trust.
Even poisoned and dying, he trusted me to make the right choice.
But what was the right choice? Save them and lose myself? Or choose freedom and watch them all die?
Raven extended the vial toward me, her expression patient.
"Tick tock, little shadow. What will it be?"