Six of Crows: Cloaked in Shadow

Chapter 19

The shadows are cold.

My breath fogs into crystals as I watch you, tiny clouds billowing outwards only to be swallowed by the beckoning dark. You seem so peaceful when you sleep. Your face clears of worry and the burgeoning lines of grief etched into the corners of your eyes smooth over. Truly, I wish it could last.

But the shadows call.

I step forwards, ice crinkling as my cloak shifts. Tendrils of darkness coil around your face and entwine with the chestnut strands of your hair. You murmur something below your breath and shift in your sleep. Perhaps you sense me. Perhaps you merely feel the brush of the cold. Your brows draw together and your mumbling increases in volume.

I reach out and touch your face. You're warm, warm enough that you burn the tips of my fingers. A spark of heat makes me hiss in pain and I yank my hand away. Too hot. I have spent too long in the cold. I have lingered too long in the shadows and now my eyes cannot see in the light.

But I have a job to do.

Once more, I touch your face.

Again comes the pain, the shadows recoiling from the spark of light as if it has firepox. I force through it, closing my eyes, inky lashes quill strokes drawn onto my pale skin. I reach into your power and I tug – I pull on the link that connects us and draw on it like a normal man would pull water from a well.

Your eyes flutter and open, but they are sightless and empty; the blank gaze of a somnambulist.

Our conversation lasts less than a second. You will remember none of it by sunrise.

Green eyes flicker closed and I turn to go. My work here is done.

My cloak trails on the ground, gathering ice crystals. My hands are numb with cold. I reach the door to your room and pause after opening it. I could leave now, if I wanted to, but I might as well familiarise myself with your house.

And if I turn, if my gaze lingers on your sleeping body and trails over your face, who can blame me? You are the only distinct thing in this room. The rest is foggy and indistinct, blurred as words spoken underwater. Though the shadows swathe you in darkness and the night swirls around you with dancing tongues, they sharpen your features and carve out the lines of your face from the uncertain wash of your surroundings. They bring you to life.

Besides, there is no-one here to see me look.

No-one else in this house – no, in this saintsforsaken country, and if I could vouch for the world I would say in that – is this clear to look at in the shadow-realm we stand in. Even the boy sleeping below you is more out of focus, the darkness he hides behind his gloves pulsing less strongly than the one that has taken root in your soul.

And as for me, I faded many years ago. Now my face is nothing but darkness, and my soul is cloaked in shadow.

A/N

*ROLL CREDITS*

Hey guys!!! I'm back! I solemnly swear this isn't gonna happen again. Also, sorry to Lunka24 and GingerKaz13 for making you reread this. I had made a huge mistake in the version I first published. Sorry to all you guys, in fact, for taking this chapter down so abruptly.

This fic'll be done by 2019.

Despite the fact it's not halfway yet.

I SHALL MAKE IT HAPPEN!

*flies off on Thor's magic hammer screaming expelliarmus as the Fourth Wall breaks*