Page 2 of Shadow and Son

“Fair enough,” Nox said. “Speaking of royalty, have we received word from the Arcanian king yet?”

Tenny shook her head. “Nothing substantive. The latest missive from Kit’s mother implies that King Lachlandris had diverted some resources to finding information about what the Cult of Malakar is doing, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. They appear to have gone into hiding right along with their new—er, old—master.”

She bit her lip. Nox pursed their own. There was much the young human was burying under her gentle demeanor. It had only been a few days since her own life was upheaved. First, to deal with the revelation of her father’s identity, the terror he wrought? Then, to have barely had the chance to acknowledge his death and defeat before Malakar rose in his body?

The nocterrian wondered just how much pain a single human heart could take.

How much grief one could carry.

And then they wondered why they were wondering such things at all.

“That is unfortunate.” Nox blew out a slow breath. They never thought they would find themselves getting so . . . attached. Never thought that being told to watch after the Revenant would lead them here. To forming connections, to feeling things.

It had been a very long time since Tenebris Nox had felt much at all.

Their eyes flitted from Kit to Tenny to the window. “More waiting,” they said.

Tenny gave a sad nod, and the two of them lapsed into silence until a flutter of movement had both their heads turning.

Wisps of black smoke poured from a shadowed corner of the room. Dark fur sleek and emerald eyes gleaming, Sid padded softly across the chamber, brushing against Kit’s legs before taking a seat at her side. The shadowcat was still tall enough that her chin rested comfortably on the armrest, and she nudged her nose against Kit’s hand.

A living shadow. A living comfort.

“She’s still out there,” Kit murmured sleepily, her green eye cracking open before she ran her fingers over Sid’s head. “This one wouldn’t still be here if Ellie were . . . if she weren’t—” She cut herself off, swallowing hard, and Sid nuzzled her palm. “She’s still out there.”

Nox nodded once. “She is.” They decided not to mention how Sid seemed to have shrunk in size since the battle in the throne room. How her paws and ears seemed as though they were just slightly too big for her once more, as though she was aging in reverse. How there was no sign of those terrible and beautiful shadowy volacarnii wings.

Tenebris Nox banished the strange feeling tightening in their chest with a subtle shake of their head. Kit was right. That Sid still remained at all was a good sign. Even if her power was diminishing slightly, whether due to the distance or the surroundings in which Malakar was holding her, the Revenant was, at the very least, still alive.

It wasn’t just the shadowcat that would know. Wasn’t just the soul-bonded knight who had been running drills four floors down, either.

Nox would have sensed it. Elyria’s relationship with her shadows was about more than just magic—there was kinship there. And nocterrians always knew when their kin strayed too far from the dark.

Tenny bit her lip, toying with a loose curl that had fallen over her shoulder. “And Ric wouldn’t be either, right?” she asked, her voice wobbling. “Still here, I mean. Alive?” She swallowed. “He and Elle are soul-bonded, so if she . . . Then he would too, wouldn’t he?”

Nox placed their palm on her shoulder and gave what they hoped was a reassuring squeeze. “For better or for worse, it does not quite work like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’ve claimed each other, yes,” Kit offered, stifling a yawn, “but tying their lives together is a little bit more involved. Ric and Ellie are soul-bonded, but not life-bonded. There’s this whole ritual and”—she cleared her throat—“even if they had had the time for all that, it isn’t as though the instant one of them died, the other would snuff out of existence.”

“Precisely,” Nox agreed. “They would go mad first. Take what happened to Queen Daephinia when her bond was severed. The woman cleaved the entire continent in three.”

Kit cleared her throat. “That sounds a bit too close to judgment for my comfort, Tenebris. Do you think it was simply the severing of the bond that drove her to madness? Or was it perhaps the brutal murder of the man she loved? Don’t forget, she also thought she’d lost her child.”

There was a beat of heavy silence. “So, what is it like, then?” Tenny asked after a few moments. “The life-bonding ritual?” But when Kit and Nox exchanged an amused look, Tenny was quick to add, “Or rather, the effect of it? Is it like getting married?”

“I guess that might be the closest way to describe it in human terms. But in reality, it’s deeper than that. It’s becoming one. One blood, one path, one fate. At least, that’s how it is between Arcanians and why doing so is still a relative rarity.” Kit stretched her arms overhead, leaving Sid to grumble at the sudden lack of ear scratches. “If you had a fae lifespan, you, too, might be a bit reluctant to tie yourself so permanently to one singular person for the rest of your life.”

“I see,” said Tenny, head tilting to one side. “Then, for Ric and Elle . . .”

Nox drew a hand to the side of their head, tapping the pad of one long finger thoughtfully against their horn. “The ritual would extend the knightling’s life, to be sure,” they said. “Though, frankly, it is fascinating to consider how long he might naturally live. He is mixedborn. He could already have a lifespan well beyond that of typical humans.”

Tenny balked, placing a hand on the ledge of the window for support. “He ‘could’? It’s ‘fascinating to consider’? But nobody actually knows, is that right? Ric himself certainly doesn’t.”

Nox’s eyebrows drew together as they shook their head.

“And if the truth of Cedric’s parentage had not come out in Elderglade, he just, what, would never have known?” Tenny continued, her voice rising. “He would have simply watched Tristan and me and all the rest of his friends continue to grow older, not understanding why he wasn’t? Why we were getting wrinkles and gray hairs while he remained as he always was? Would have watched Jack and Leia and the children of the Walk grow up, age past him, die?”