Page 62 of Shadows of Light
What the fuck?
He didn’t have time to intercept her and find out what was going on before the back door of the building burst open and a large, black wolf leapt out. He recognized the wolf as the one Cole transformed into.
He had no idea what was happening here, but it couldn’t be good. Before Becca made it to the portal, the wolf lunged forward, grabbed her around the waist, and bashed her into the ground.
Becca’s scream reverberated across the land as blood sprayed from her mouth. Brokk’s jaw dropped when Cole violently shook Becca while she battered his head.
“Cole!” Orin shouted.
At the same time, he and Orin raced toward them. Brokk didn’t care about Becca. The manipulative bitch wouldn’t be missed, and the hierarchy of the dark fae had crumbled, but he had to know what she was doing here and what she’d done to enrage his brother so much.
Brokk was almost to them when a wall of shadows rose before him, blocking him from getting closer. He ducked when one of the shadows lashed out at him. When another tried to wrap around his wrist, he staggered back and nearly fell over his feet.
“Shit.”
“Cole!” Orin yelled as two shadows encircled him. “Cole!”
Brokk threw himself to the ground and rolled toward the portal where he’d entered this realm. The female dwarf scrambled forward, seized his arm, and helped pull him to his feet.
Orin had shaken the shadows and retreated to stand with Skog as Cole planted his paw on Becca’s chest. When his claws dug into her flesh, she screamed louder and beat him with fists that did nothing to dissuade Cole from planting his other paw on her head.
Brokk swore the wolf smiled as it pulled her head and body in two different directions. Becca’s screams became high-pitched, broken shrieks as, much slower than necessary, Cole decapitated her.
After a minute, Becca’s screams finally ceased when he succeeded in tearing her head away. As the shadows retracted into him, Cole transformed into a man again.
Blood covered him from head to toe; it dripped from his black hair to plop onto the rocks. Burns marked his shoulders, and more lacerations decorated his back, chest, and hands, but he seemed unfazed by the injuries.
“Cole.” Brokk’s voice sounded abnormally loud in the hush following Becca’s death, but it didn’t deter him. “Come back with us.”
Cole’s head swiveled toward him, but he didn’t respond before walking into the portal Becca had opened.
“Fuck,” Brokk muttered before plunging into the portal behind his brother.
“See what’s down below!” Orin shouted to the dwarves before following them.
They tracked Cole into the human realm and, from there, into Dragonia. The guards jumped out of the way and yelped when Cole shifted into a wolf, wrapped the shadows around himself, and vanished.
“Paw prints,” Orin said as he pointed at the ground, still wet from recent rain.
Cole could cloak himself in shadows, but he couldn’t hide the bloody paw prints he left behind when he raced across the earth. He and Orin tracked those prints into the mountains.
CHAPTERFIFTY
Brokk wasthe one who remained behind to guard the cave Cole entered while Orin returned to the palace. Orin wasn’t sure if Cole had known they were tracking him and didn’t care, or—and he believed this was more likely—Cole was too lost in the madness gripping him to notice.
Before they ever reached the mountain, the bloody prints faded, but the words of Cole and the shadows didn’t. Although they couldn’t see him, they heard his muttered words and the hiss of the shadows as they battled each other.
Climbing up those rocks, following the words, Orin kept waiting to be greeted by shadows and shoved off the mountain or torn to pieces, but they never attacked. When they arrived at the cave, they weren’t certain if Cole had entered until a bellow erupted from inside.
The shout, and the emotions within it, rattled the cave walls and rebounded off the rocks. Standing there, a chill crept down Orin’s spine as Cole’s words drifted further away until only silence remained.
He wanted to stand guard, but Brokk won the fight. It was less likely Cole would see Brokk as a danger should he emerge again; in his foul mood, he might kill Orin, who had always enjoyed being a thorn in his older brother’s side.
It had taken him far more time to descend the mountain than he would have liked. The sun was high in the sky when he arrived at the palace.
Now, as his boots rang out across the rock while striding through the hallways in search of Lexi, he regretted the decision. He should have stayed, but it was too late to do anything about it. The sooner he found Lexi, the sooner they could return and make sure Brokk was okay.
The throne room was empty, as were the kitchens, the dining room, the parlor, tavern, and the room where they’d all searched through the documents. Though it was early afternoon, he went to her bedroom, but the guards were gone and no one was inside.
