Page 12 of Shackled By Shadows

“Then leave.” He gestures toward the door, knowing damn well I can’t.

“Oh, wait, you can’t.”

I take a sharp step forward, fury burning through me. “You arrogant, insufferable bastard.”

His smirk deepens. “You’ve said that before. I think you can do better.”

I step closer, pulse hammering in my throat. “You think you know me? That you have me all figured out?” My frame trembles with frustration. “You don’t. You never will. Asshole.”

Oberon exhales another soft chuckle, shaking his head as if he is actually amused by this. “You act like I’m the enemy here.”

I let out a bitter laugh. “You are the enemy.”

Something flickers in his gaze, something I can’t place, but it is gone before I can make sense of it. He pushes off the table and closes the space between us in one slow, deliberate step. “I never claimed to be your savior, Lyra.” His voice drops lower, smoother. “But I’m not your jailer, either. I’m not the worst thing that’s happened to you.” He lets out a quiet chuckle, shaking his head. “Even if you wish I were.”

I hate how calm he is. How he always manages to turn everything back on me.

I step closer, close enough to see the flicker of satisfaction in his eyes when I refuse to back down. “One day,” I swear, my voice shaking with the force of my rage, “I will get out of here. And when I do, I’ll make you regret every second you kept me here.”

Oberon tilts his head, considering me. “Now that,” he muses, “is something I’d actually love to see.”

My fury presses against the space around us.

The glass on the table trembles.

Neither of us notices at first, not until the sharp crack splits the air and the cup crashes to the ground, shattering into jagged shards.

I flinch at the sound. Oberon’s eyes flick down, then back up to me, brows raised.

Silence stretches between us.

He exhales slowly as he runs a hand down his face. “Well, that’s one way to make a point.”

I turn away sharply, kneeling down to pick up the shards, ignoring the tremor in my fingers. I don’t dare acknowledge what just happened.

Oberon crouches beside me, plucking up a piece of glass with infuriating patience. “You know,” he muses, “for someone who insists they have no power, you’re awfully good at breaking things.”

I shoot him a glare before snatching the remaining shards and throwing them into the bin. “Or maybe you just bring out the worst in people.”

He grins, slow and knowing. “Now that I’ll take credit for.”

I clench my jaw, swallowing down every curse I want to hurl at him. Neither of us acknowledges how the glass fell in the first place. But I feel it, low in my bones, the hum of something beneath my skin, something waiting, and I know, deep down, that it won’t stay hidden forever.

Chapter eight

Sunshine

As the days pass, my thoughts begin to wander more.

Could I truly break the wards around this cabin?

If I summon all of my magic at once, will it be enough? Maybe. But even if I do break free, where will I go?

The outside world is a wasteland, scorched and destroyed beyond recognition. The remnants of my kingdom are gone, and I have no idea where I am.

I push those thoughts to the back of my mind, burying them beneath the weight of the task at hand, today’s lesson: basic magic, small illusions. I have to focus even if it is a simple exercise, mimicking the appearance of the fruit on the table, nothing more than a distraction from the relentlessly gnawing feeling of being trapped. But still, it is something to practice. I remind myself that it is for my own benefit that these lessons, however irritating they may be, are slowly chiseling away at the walls I have built around myself.

I sit at the table, mindlessly pushing the remains of my breakfast around on the plate. My clothes, freshly changed after a hasty bath, still clung to my skin. I am about to stand and push the thoughts aside when a soft knock echoes from the door.