Sky Stitcher, page 6
The heart of stars glowed between my ribs, so luminous the Riders shielded their eyes from its light. But the power expanded within me, amplifying until it spiraled out of my grasp. My eyes widened as streams of energy lanced outward from my chest, great javelins of power streaking toward the heavens instead of at my targets. The murky rift above crackled with the sound of dying stars as it ripped wider, admitting the threads of light into the oily darkness of its depths. What is happening? Sparks of panic pulsed through my blood.
The line pulled taut, tugging at my heart. The other side of it snaked through the In Between, wrapping and winding until it met its target, completely beyond my control. Stop, I begged, realizing too late that the magic had escaped my control. Help me.
But the heart of stars did not relent. It blazed like fire, ensnaring a dark shadow in gilded threads before wrenching it down from Prisha’s rift. The black mass tumbled from the sky, hurtling toward the sand. What creature have I unleashed now? What have I done?
Giant wings flashed open, spreading wide to catch its descent from the heavens. The light wove through its chest, wrapping around the flickering darkness between its ribs to form a lattice of veins around its heart, binding us together.
A cloud of dust rose around the shadow when it landed with a convincingly solid thump against the sand. Huge wings spread from the dark mass, the leathery sails grazing the surface of the dunes with a whisper. He lifted his head from its bowed position, and amethyst eyes met mine.
Help me. I didn’t know what lunacy possessed me to ask Prisha’s creature for help or what kept me from running as fast as my legs could carry me in the opposite direction—whether it was fear, desperation, or sheer stupidity. But a silent beat of unspoken truth passed between us, as if he could understand me. As if he were capable of feeling something more than Prisha’s rage.
Please.
He did not hesitate. There was no stopping to question my motives, no pause to consider my worthiness or plight. His countenance darkened, and he snapped his wings to the side, sucking away any trace of light that lingered in the night. The churning shadows of his body rippled and flowed, swirling like ribbons of ink on a starless sky. He wasn’t darkness…he was the total obstruction of light—the very absence of it. Raw and powerful and undiluted.
A shiver ran up my spine.
A ribbon of energy connected us, and though it crackled and faded in the dark, its presence remained. The subtle pull and vibration of his movements crawled along the invisible bond to reach me, keeping my body hyper-aware of his presence and his actions. I tugged tentatively against the cord, and the creature responded to my call.
Absolute darkness smothered the dunes and screams shattered the quiet of night as the monster set to work. One by one, the Riders fell, victims of the force I’d unintentionally unleashed. I could not see the method of his destruction, but I could feel it—the way he killed without mercy. Without question. He worked in darkness—or perhaps with it. Or perhaps he was it.
What have you summoned, Zara? I’d asked the stars to give the Riders a monster, but I hadn’t meant this.
Panic hammered through my veins as I struggled to maintain my control over him, but the more I fought, the more he sapped away my energy. I was fading, my grip on him slipping. My knees wobbled, and the blood rushing through my veins stuttered and then slowed. The world…softened. Sand brushed against my face while my body sank, cradled by the dunes until the only sensation left to me was absence.
Chapter 7
Halfmoon Bread
A winged creature loomed over me, his left arm folded across his torso, clutching my dagger in his hand. In his right, he lifted a corner of halfmoon bread to his mouth. My halfmoon bread.
I frowned. Had he gone rifling through my pockets? My satchel? How long had I been unconscious? And why had I been unconscious? Fainting seemed to have become a regular occurrence after using my power, which was mildly irksome at best, majorly problematic at worst. Stop using that power, Zara, I scolded. It’s too dangerous.
He took a contemplative bite and watched me, lazily chewing with an expression of mild intrigue on his face. His amethyst eyes traced over my body with an almost…lackadaisical approach. Finally, he met my gaze. I shifted backward, stunned by the nebula of his eyes, the galaxy of stars in their depths. Venom and hell.
“You’re awake. Finally.” His throat bobbed with a swallow, and he brushed the crumbs against his black trousers. “Pity it should mean I have to kill you now.”
He talks. Prisha’s creature talks. Sense flooded back to my mind, and I skittered away, remembering the shadowy beast I’d pulled from the sky and the ease with which he’d decimated a full squadron of Dune Riders. I raised myself to a crouching stance, shoving aside the pounding pressure building in my ears. What is he? He was not a simple bulgroich or a crawler, but rather stood in front of me with the characteristics of a full-grown man. An attractive one with weathered wings. One that had emerged from a ravenous shadow of destruction. Whatever he was, he intended to destroy me and seemed fully capable of the job.
“You waited until I woke up to kill me?” I gasped. Why hadn’t he just murdered me in my sleep? Did he want me to be awake and fully present for my last moments of suffering? What kind of a monster are you?
My heart raced as my eyes darted across the dunes, noticing the lumps that now dotted the otherwise picturesque land. Not lumps. Bodies.
Shit. I did not intend to join them.
He pondered my expression for half a second, then moved his shoulders in a casual shrug. “It didn’t seem fair to kill you when you couldn’t fight back.”
“Stay away,” I ordered, and my voice cracked with dryness as I eyed the dagger in his hand.
He lifted his brow with interest. “Pleased to meet you too, Stitcher.” He flipped the blade effortlessly between his fingers and took another bite of Mother’s halfmoon bread, never taking his eyes off me.
I tensed at his use of my new title. He knows. My pulse thrummed at a startling pace. And if he knows, he will kill me. Or worse…he will deliver me to Prisha and doom this realm to a Stitcherless fate. Without a second thought, before he had a chance to harm me, I lunged. Throwing my whole weight into the force of my strike, I gripped his wrist and wrenched the blade free from his grasp. Surprise registered on his face, and he fell backward, his gaze flickering to the dagger in my hand. It now hovered inches over his heart.
Hovered…but did not descend.
Venom and hell. What is going on? Resisted by some invisible force, the blade refused to move any closer to his chest. I gasped at the unexpected opposition and strained against it, letting my eyes find his while my nerves sparked with sharp, electrical surges of panic. He cocked his brow and tilted his head to the side, seemingly unperturbed by my effort to skewer his heart. In fact, his eyes, now creased with the hint of a smile at their edges, glinted. The essence of stardust and laughter glimmered within.
My muscles quivered with strain, and my face flushed, but the dagger would not budge. It would not cross the small yet infinite barrier between us, rejecting my efforts to plunge the blade through his heart. Finally, I rolled away and rose to my feet, exhausted but not spent enough to let him kill me. The ember of resistance still flickered deep in my soul.
“Who are you? What are you?” I managed between ragged breaths, holding the blade in front of myself in warning. My knees bent slightly in a crouch, shaking from nerves or fatigue, or perhaps a combination of the two.
The creature from the In Between sat up and neatly folded his black wings behind his back. His deep-set eyes held mine, their intensity never wavering. Astral power rolled within them, giving the impression that I was staring into a stream of stars glittering against the aurora. His angular cheekbones and dark brow gave him the chiseled appearance of a god. But his gaze—his entire demeanor, really—depicted the impression of a man plagued by perpetual boredom. Yet he regarded me with interest, eyes glinting as though some unanticipated diversion had suddenly sparked life back into them. Me. I am the diversion.
And he is nothing but a predator stalking his prey.
I shifted my feet, increasing the distance between us. By the time he recovered himself to a standing position, I’d moved well beyond his immediate reach. His leathery wings lifted high behind him, casting me into his shadow.
“Don’t come any closer,” I warned, waving my dagger, though we’d already established its inefficacy. My hand trembled. “Who are you?”
“A Guardian,” he responded simply, his voice calm and even, wholly impervious to my threats.
“Guardian of…Prisha?” One of her soldiers? Does she have soldiers? My heart plummeted into my stomach. Venom and hell, we are so fucked. The creature before me was not a lowly monster. He was sentient. Coldly calculating. Dangerous.
He gazed blankly for a moment, not offering confirmation or denial of my accusation, but the way his expression darkened with a shadowy smirk spoke volumes.
“So you’re her monster,” I whispered. “And you’ve come to kill me.”
His lids closed heavily, and he inhaled slowly. “Funny. Prisha says you’re a monster too, Starlight.”
The pace of my heart quickened. Did he know her well then? And what did he know of me? He’d called me Stitcher…but was he aware I’d stolen the heart of stars and accidentally ripped centuries of stitches from the skies? Possibly, considering the irritating choice of nickname.
My mind raced with the prospect of the information he might possess. Prisha’s plans, her goals, her…weaknesses? He could change everything for us…if I could get him to cooperate. If I could get him under my control. That would be imperative. “What does she want with me?” I asked, testing how willingly he would answer my questions.
A short laugh escaped through his nose. “Aside from a slow, painful death for the Stitcher so she can finally break free from her prison and exact her revenge by destroying mankind?”
It was the response I should have expected, yet I flinched all the same. He made no move toward me, but still, I stepped another pace backward and brandished my useless dagger. “I won’t let you kill me.”
He rolled his eyes and folded his muscular arms over his torso. “We’ll see. Prisha is accustomed to getting her way.”
“And I am accustomed to defying expectations.”
He made a little hum of surprise and seemed to reconsider me.
“Hm. Now that is a skill I envy. Maybe I don’t want to kill you after all, little Stitcher. At least, not yet. I’m still deciding.”
“That’s reassuring,” I huffed. “But forgive me if I can’t say the same about you.” I lurched toward him, and his fingers snapped around my wrist, pulling me close so I could feel his breath ghost over my face as he inspected me. My entire spine shivered, wobbling with such conviction I was certain it would shatter.
He battled a smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Just so we’re clear, Prisha didn’t send me.”
Something about the glint in his eyes, paired with the effortless posture he maintained, unnerved me. He was thoroughly unthreatened—perhaps even amused. In fairness, what did I expect a shadow from the In Between to fear? He could smother me with darkness. I could only eviscerate the air three inches away from his body with my dagger. The playing field was uneven.
I’d need to correct that.
I wrenched my arm free from his grasp and backed away. “You’re a creature of the In Between. A-A monster. A sky…ruffian,” I sputtered, stumbling over my words as I stated the obvious in an effort to stall. Good Halah, think before you speak. I needed to catch my breath. “You’re a curse from Prisha.”
“A curse from Prisha?” He laughed with an indignant air. “I believe it was you who summoned me, was it not?” He cocked his brow and tugged playfully on the invisible line between us. The tendrils of magic glimmered in the air, gilded threads that came to life at his touch. So, the connection between us remains. The subtle warmth of the energy glowed somewhere near my heart, its twining grip both reassuring and strangely threatening. As though the gentle threads could wind tighter at any moment, gripping my insides until I either suffocated or found myself ripped to shreds. It felt…ominous.
My pulse quickened and I eyed him suspiciously. What have you done, Zara? What does this mean? Get rid of him.
“Everything from the In Between is a curse. I think I would recognize her work when I see it…I’ve killed many of her monsters.” And you’re next, I promised, steeling my resolve.
He had an almost haughty look about him, as though offended by my well-founded mistrust. “Have you? Then…why did you struggle to kill me? Perhaps I am not a monster? Or perhaps you are not as good as you say,” he mused, pondering his own puzzle with a tilt of his head.
My brows furrowed and my gaze sharpened, but the weight of the blade in my hand steadied me. I leveled my breathing. I knew how this ended—what I needed to do. I just needed to figure out how to do it. And more importantly…why I couldn’t.
The insufferable smirk of superiority he wore on his face told me he had something to do with it. I trusted nothing about the beautiful creature. I did not care that he had helped me escape the Dune Riders. It did not matter how he stopped my breath when I first met his eyes. One wrong move, and he would smother me with shadows. Readily. Easily. Curse of Prisha or not, he was a monster.
“Only monsters come from the In Between,” I retorted, making up my mind. “If that’s where you’ve come from, that’s what you are.”
He shrugged his shoulders, and the iridescent sheen of his wings reflected the sunlight as he moved closer to me, the shimmer of a smirk at the corner of his mouth. “Well, if that’s what you’d like to believe…I can be your monster. For a price.” He winked, but everything about his expression darkened.
I gaped, then snapped my mouth shut in a conscious effort to pull myself together. The shock of his response had nearly sent my heart off-kilter. I narrowed my gaze. “I’m not interested.”
Aiming straight for the heart, I lurched forward once more, but he did not balk as he had before. This time, he lazily swiped his hand to counter each of my strikes, predicting and reacting to every move with an effortless block. His brows lifted, a clear testament to his dwindling enthusiasm for the exercise. He grabbed my wrist and smiled.
Kill her. Destroy the Daughters. I jumped, startled by the goddess’s voice echoing in my mind, parading as my own. Horrified, I ripped my hand away from Prisha’s monster and glared at him. “What was that? What did you say?”
Of course, he hadn’t said it. Prisha had. Or…my mind had.
His brow lifted in question.
“Never mind,” I said. Then, unleashing a gravelly roar of frustration, I grabbed the tether between us and pulled him close. Even then, even with my reckless attempt to outsmart him, the dagger refused to find its mark. It clashed uselessly against the unseen boundary, sending a shattering jolt of pain through my arm as though I’d just struck it against a glass wall. Clenching my teeth together, I shoved. And shoved again. I strained with all of my might until he calmly wrapped his hand around mine and removed the blade from my grasp. He spun it nimbly through his fingers, getting a feel for the blade, then slipped the dagger into the sheath at my ribs, patting it gently, like I was a small child in the midst of a tantrum. An adorable one who simply needed consoling.
I frowned and stepped away, wrinkling my nose. He smelled like the earthy dune rushes—the pale green ones that only bloomed at night. He was the fresh herbal scent of leaves bathed in moonlight. Venom and hell, Zara. Do your job.
“Go. Back. To. Where. You. Belong.” I shoved angrily against the barrier between us, and when it did not shatter or bend in the slightest, I roared and threw my arms at my side, my hands balled up into fists. The tendrils of energy that crackled around me lashed out, exploding with a shower of sparks and arching up to the stars. They landed in a deep fissure rent open by Prisha, and the sky made a horrible, anguished sound before it shredded clear down the middle.
Shred the skies! Come to me, Star Thief! Prisha howled through my mind.
A gaping black hole opened in the gashes of the crisscrossed sky, only stopping when it reached the dunes before me. It hummed with the energy of the In Between, leaking its black curse through the gap.
Yes. Open the skies. Destroy the Daughters, her voice echoed inside my mind. I recoiled at the intrusive commands, watching the skies with a sense of horror.
What have you done now, Zara? How have you possibly made this worse? What is happening to you? I clutched a hand over the glow in my chest, horrified by the shadows passing through its surface.
I whirled on the shadow demon from the sky, as if he were somehow to blame. As though this had been his plan all along. Was he driving me mad? The rift overhead now split the sky in two, creating a doorway between worlds—a channel for Prisha to usher her creatures through.
Or better yet, one for me to send them back. Perhaps a happy mistake, then. He’s got to go.
My lungs expanded with a sharp inhale and I braced myself. Pummeling the creature, I wedged my shoulder against his chest and pushed him toward the gaping rift between realms. “I. Said. Go. Back.” I panted in between each word, struggling to gain any ground in the sands. For a beast of shadow and darkness, his muscles demonstrated a surprising solidity beneath my hands. Like…warm stone. Rigid and strong and…unyielding. And chiseled to perfection like the statues of the old kings in Rashii.
Something told me that if he chose to resist me, he could have ended me with a blink of those amethyst eyes. He hardly fought back, letting me push him toward the tear, watching me with growing amusement. The edges of the rift glowed with golden threads behind him, but the middle—the middle oozed with the same darkness that he had called on last night. The monstrous shroud of shadow that obliterated a squadron of men. It reached for him like it knew him—like it wanted him back.
