The Dark Between Dreams | ??

Chapter 19 ? Light and Shadows

Then his crows screamed. Crow cracked a grin. "You three!" he called out. "Take ten very long steps forward!"

We just stood there, gaping at him and his shadow, with our blood-stained weapons pointed at the ground.

Crow growled at us. "Now!"

We obeyed, all taking exactly ten steps as told. Crow dropped to the ground, refusing to release the shadow that desperately tried to twist around in his grasp to tear his face off. Another echoing crack made my friends and I cover our ears. The sand split apart where we had previously stood, right where Crow lay in wait. A smaller chasm than what had nearly killed Vale cut the desert. Crow rolled toward the edge of the chasm and released the shadow into the lux below.

The monster's screams were cut short.

Crow stood with a hop and brushed sand from his cloak with pursed lips.

I racked my brain for words.

The prince straightened up with a curious "Hm?" and turned in our direction. "Oh. You are very hurt."

Vale assessed our wounds with a cursory glance. "Just scratches. We're fine—oh, where's he off to?"

The cloaked man abandoned the chasm and fought the wind to skulk past us. He knelt beside the motorcycle, then rested his palms on it. "What have those foolish fledglings done to you, hm?" he muttered to it.

I continued to lack the proper vocabulary to express my befuddlement. "He's talking to the bike?" I said to my friends from the side of my mouth.

"I am talking to them," the man retorted. He opened up the gas tank and pried out the few remaining crystals. Their red light had faded, and they immediately crumbled away to ashes in his palms. "Ah..." Crow sighed and brushed the red stains from his palms. "They were treated too cruelly. That is why they are dust."

I shook my head. This was Crow. The enemy of After! The whole reason we were here! I aimed my spear at Crow again. "Prince of Light and Shadows!" I yelled.

The man curled his lip at his title, but he made no move to attack me. Actually, he didn't move at all while his flock of crows returned to him.

"We, um..." I choked on sand along with my words. How quickly my bravado faded. "We're here to end your assaults on After! Surrender and—"

"And why would I do that?" The hollow sounded more amused than threatened. He directed his words into the desert beyond us, never once directly facing either of us when he spoke.

Webb shoved past Vale and me. He pointed his sword at the other hollow's heart. "Because you're a murderer, you bastard! Do you know how many hollows we've watched get ripped to pieces because of your monsters?"

Vale grabbed him by the strap of his scabbard and pulled him back in line. "And how many hollows fade in the Light because of you!"

"My monsters," Crow repeated. He pursed his mouth again. "Hm. No, I do not think I will surrender. You will have to kill me." He wrapped his cloak around himself and stepped toward the point of my spear. "So, go on then. Be the little heroes. Do what you came out here to do." He had my spear tip pressed to his chest, right where his heart lay. "Save After."

Grains of sand pricked my skin. My hair was a hopeless mess from the gales. And my enemy stood in front of me. All I had to do was force my spear through his chest and he'd be dead. I'd done it many times before, but only to shadows. Only to things that attacked me first. Crow wasn't all that threatening, from what I could see of him. He was only a little taller than Webb and had a slender build. Killing an unarmed man seemed cold-blooded...inhuman.