Page 8 of Shadows of Light
“Let’s go,” Lexi said.
They all turned to follow Alina up the hill, toward the palace, and around the back as Alina vanished behind the towering structure with all its golden peaks and turrets.
CHAPTERSEVEN
Cole unwrappedhimself from the shadows as he glided down the hall. Some of the immortals closest to him gasped when he emerged from the darkness; he ignored them as they turned to watch him pass.
The shadows monitored them as he continued forward, but no one would be foolish enough to attack him. If they were, they wouldn’t live to regret it.
At the end of the hall, he turned right and strode to the last door. He didn’t bother to knock before grasping the knob, breaking it off in his hand, and using his shoulder to open the door with little noise.
He barely paid attention to the large room with its numerous whips, chains, ball gags, and other assorted toys covering one wall. The other side of the room had ropes hanging from the wall, and at the back were a couple of beds with different apparatus sticking out from them.
He’d spent some time in this room but couldn’t recall a single woman who accompanied him. They were a blur of memories he had no desire to remember.
The shadows drew him toward a small back room. As he walked, he cloaked himself in darkness again.
Voices drifted to him before he turned the corner and entered a small room, bathed in red light and built for carnality and pain. The room’s occupants hadn’t bothered to close the door; they’d mistakenly believed the outer door would keep them safe and their treachery private.
He found three dark fae, two warlocks, and a vampire. He smiled grimly when he saw that one of the dark fae was Alston.
He’d been looking forward to killing this man for months. Alston was once a member of the dark fae council; he’d entered his young son, Eoghan, as a candidate to become king during the dark fae trials.
Alston had to have known his son didn’t stand a chance of surviving those trials, but inhisdesire to place his flesh and blood on the throne and rule through him, he hadn’t cared. Eoghan never made it through the first trial before he died a vicious death.
Cole would make Alston pay for that.
The shadows had whispered some of what was happening here to him, but his blood boiled when he stopped to listen. Alston had taken the lead as he plotted with these other fools to take Lexi down.
“She’s weak without Cole,” Alston said. “Now’s the time to go after her. She may be in power, but she’s nothing more than a child.”
“She still has the dragons,” a lycan said.
“And Cole’s brothers are still with her,” another said. “Orin and Brokk are formidable foes. Not to mention, she also has Del and Varo.”
“Varo is a weakling,” Alston retorted. “His half light fae heritage makes him almost useless.”
Cole bristled against this summation of his youngest brother. Varo wasn’t as ruthless as the rest, but he was lethal and could easily destroy any of the idiots in this room.
Alston rubbed his chin as he stared at the far wall. “Cole’s brothers were never stronger than him and are lost without him. She’s barely assumed control, is weak, and Dragonia is still scrambling. We have to move now.
“If we attack right now, we can seize control without much fight. The war decimated most of their army; the ones who didn’t die have started returning home, and she’s lost Cole. We can get to her.”
Cole didn’t like how much Alston knew about what was happening in Dragonia; immortals loved to talk. He was sure all the details of the war and Dragonia had spread throughout all the realms.
“Maverick is also dead, which means his pack is scrambling too,” another lycan said.
Cole winced at this reminder. He knew of Maverick and Niall’s deaths, the shadows had whispered about them, but he often forgot about it in the madness and whispers spinning through his mind.
It was impossible to keep control of any thought when the shadows constantly sought violence. As grief started to rise within him, the shadows slithered deeper, and a throbbing fury replaced any other emotion.
Beneath the shadows’ demand for blood, they reported on Lexi, who was now searching for the giant queen. None of those in Dragonia knew it, but the shadows had formed a noose around the neck of the giant with only one eye. One wrong move and they would decapitate the beast.
For now, he kept them from doing so. They were impatient to slice through the giant’s flesh, but Lexi was rebuilding the realms; he couldn’t allow the shadows to start another war.
The shadows resented him for this and berated him with their displeasure, but they calmed a little when he promised them this kill. He had to keep them under control, or hewouldbe the reason all the realms fell, and he refused to let the prophecy come true, even if the shadows became increasingly demanding and blood hungry with every passing day.
CHAPTEREIGHT
