Storm of Shadows (Lumineers 1)

CHAPTER 18: COMPROMISED

Tabby spent the remainder of her Friday afternoon mending the mechanical bee bodies from Steiner. After replacing them with poison-dipped stingers, she sent them on their way. The blood they carried would take them back to their charges, even if it meant flying across a city.

She received a hurried note and small box from Steiner just before dinner. Another bee with Clement Casey's name scrawled across the parchment. The Spectrum was acting quickly—already three attempted assassinations and three dead Spects. She crumpled the note, threw it into the forge, and fixed the bee the way she had the others, then headed upstairs for dinner.

"Something's troubling you," Elias said through a mouthful as they ate.

She snorted. "Something's always troubling me, old hob."

"Yes, well, you're pushing your food around, chewing on your cheek, and Nit keeps chirping at you."

She sighed. Maybe it was time to tell him—not everything, but a little. She stared at him for several beats. "Fine. You want to know what's on my mind? Just remember, you asked." She explained a little of what had happened between her and Steiner, focusing mostly on the prism he'd given her and what had happened when she attacked a yellow-wielding Spect.

"A genuine black prism!" Elias cried when she pulled it from beneath her corset. He gaped at it, wide-eyed. "I never thought I'd live to see one. And you're sure it absorbed yellow?"

"Positive—gobbled it up. I wasn't able to defend myself. There wasn't time—it was careless of me, really." She frowned. Things could have gone horribly wrong; she'd been lucky. Without the black prism, she'd have been knocked backwards, leaving her briefly exposed. That kind of mistake would have cost her life.

"Fascinating!" Elias's hungry hob eyes roved over it, completely ignoring the fact that she could have died. He licked his lips, black tongue darting out. "What else can it do? Pull light, I'd assume?"

"Here—" She offered him a flawless demonstration, shrouding herself in darkness. He drank in the sight, displaying his pointed teeth in a chilling smile. Releasing the light, she pulled the chain from her neck and handed it over.

He held it in his hands, rubbing his thumb over the faceted surface before handing it back. "It certainly makes me wonder..."

"About?"

He shoveled a few pieces of sliced beef in his mouth, clearing his plate before continuing. "True users, those who were Light Touched, didn't need prisms to control light—"

"We both know that's myth. You said so once yourself."

"Yes, stories are stories, but every story is woven from a thread of truth. Before the Queen of Candela regulated the practice, there were true users. Some may have gone into hiding. Perhaps their children survived, or their children's children." He fell quiet.

The Queen of Candela, also known as the Mad Queen, was King Alistar's great grandmother. The only queen Candela had ever known. She outlawed the practice, hoping to give the crown greater power. From the ashes of her purge, she formed the Spectrum. The beautiful Temple of Light, once a place of peace and acceptance, was handed over in secret to be used for a new purpose. Light had always been the religion of the people, brought over from Ipsum more than a thousand years past. Harnessing that light was a practice that went hand-in-hand with worship. But it was taken from Candela as easily as lives were taken, should those who called themselves Lighters be caught wielding prisms. Knowledge of the magic was stripped from the country, purged, and given to the newly formed Spectrum—rights of exclusivity—to protect and nurture. The Temple of Light remained a place for people to come and worship, but in name only.