Shadow and Bone

“Now,” he said in that same soft, conversational voice, as if
we were sitting together drinking tea, as if I did not stand
before him shaking, “let’s see what you can do.”
He brought his hands together and there was a sound like a
thunderclap. I gasped as undulating darkness spread from his
clasped hands, spilling in a black wave over me and the crowd.
I was blind. The room was gone. Everything was gone. I
cried out in terror as I felt the Darkling’s fingers close around
my bare wrist. Suddenly, my fear receded. It was still there,
cringing like an animal inside me, but it had been pushed aside
by something calm and sure and powerful, something vaguely
familiar.
I felt a call ring through me and, to my surprise, I felt
something in me rise up to answer. I pushed it away, pushed it
down. Somehow I knew that if that thing got free, it would
destroy me.
“Nothing there?” the Darkling murmured. I realized how
very close he was to me in the dark. My panicked mind seized
on his words. Nothing there. That’s right, nothing. Nothing at
all. Now leave me be!
And to my relief, that struggling thing inside me seemed to
lie back down, leaving the Darkling’s call unanswered.
“Not so fast,” he whispered. I felt something cold press
against the inside of my forearm. In the same moment that I
realized it was a knife, the blade cut into my skin.
Pain and fear rushed through me. I cried out. The thing
inside me roared to the surface, speeding toward
the Darkling’s call. I couldn’t stop myself. I answered. The
world exploded into blazing white light.
The darkness shattered around us like glass. For a moment,
I saw the faces of the crowd, their mouths wide with shock as
the tent filled with shining sunlight, the air shimmering with
heat. Then the Darkling released his grip, and with his touch
went that peculiar sense of certainty that had possessed me.
The radiant light disappeared, leaving ordinary candlelight in