Page 19 of Shadows of Light
Del didn’t reply or look back as he made his way into Aurora. None of the dancers were on the balconies or roof. To Orin’s disappointment, no one threw pasties at him when they entered the building.
Some of the shadow kissed and assorted sex workers were still in the building, but they wore more clothes than normal. Considering death and destruction were everyday events for immortals, especially during the Lord’s reign, it was strange how abnormally subdued they were.
“What happened here?” Brokk inquired.
“Something really scared them,” Orin replied.
He’d stated the obvious, but felt he had to say something to fill the silence enshrouding a room normally reverberating with moans and hedonistic calls of pleasure. This unnerved him more than nearly being killed by a wendigo.
Del walked straight over to a shadow kissed human. “What happened here?”
The woman’s lower lip quivered. “I didn’t see him; I didn’t know he was there, and suddenly, he was beside me… with ahead. And the shadows….” Her eyes darted around as if the shadows were still there. “They were everywhere. They hissed. They… they….” She leaned closer to Del and lowered her voice. “Theywhisperedthings.”
“What did they whisper?”
“That traitors will perish, and we would be next if we continue to harbor them. I’ve never been so scared in my life.”
Del leaned back as he surveyed the room. Orin didn’t bother to look around him; if it was possible, and his brother could leave shadows behind to monitor things, Cole already knew they were there.
He tried not to reveal his uneasiness over the possibility. But if Cole had known Alston was here, plotting, then he could use the shadows to monitor the realms. Which meant he most likely had shadows in Dragonia too.
“Did any of you see him?” Brokk asked.
“I did,” another woman said.
Orin studied the shadow kissed woman as she rose from a table and took a couple of tentative steps toward Del. Her face was so pale it was nearly translucent; her hands clenched at her sides.
“I saw him when he came in. He wasn’t the Cole I knew. Not the one who… who made me feel so good. And then, he vanished. One second, he was there, and the next, he’d vanished down the hall. Screams soon followed from the back room.”
Despite her words, some of the tension eased from Del, and his shoulders relaxed as he gave a brisk nod; Cole hadn’t come here to cheat on his daughter. He turned back to Orin and Brokk before jerking his head toward the hall.
“Thank you,” Del said to the woman before striding past her.
No one spoke as they walked down the hall and passed the closed doors that harbored abnormally hushed rooms on the other side. The last door was broken and open to the back room beyond. They moved deeper into the room before finding what they had come for.
Before entering the Lord’s throne room after the war, the sight that greeted them would have shocked Orin. While his stomach turned a little, he felt nothing else as he surveyed the blood-splattered walls and mutilated carcasses.
What his brother now did to immortals was something he’d never seen before, but it was effective. No one survived the wrath of Cole… or, he should say, the shadows.
“We have to get him back,” Orin said.
“Before he destroys the realms?” Brokk asked.
“He won’t destroy the realms unless Lexi dies, and none of us will let that happen, but this”—Orin waved a hand around the room—“this isn’t Cole. This is the shadowsrulinghim. He sacrificed himself for the realms. Wehaveto get him back.”
“You won’t hear any arguments from me,” Del said.
“How do we do that when we have no idea where he is or where he’ll strike next?” Brokk asked.
Orin kicked aside a shoe with a foot still inside it as he stepped into the room. “I’ll find him. You two should return to Dragonia and protect Lexi; I’ll search for him. If it’s the last thing I do, I’ll bring him home.”
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
Lexi trudgedthrough the halls with her dad and Brokk at her sides. She wanted to tell them to go to sleep, she would be fine, but it would be pointless.
There was no way they would let her wander this place alone, especially after what they’d revealed about Cole and why he’d slaughtered a member of the dark fae council. It didn’t astonish her to learn Alston had plotted against her; there were probably numerous other immortals out there scheming to bring her down.
She was young, she didn’t have a large army, and she’d never ruled anywhere or been taught to rule anything. She didn’t blame her dad and Sahira for this; they did their best.
