Page 1 of Broken Shadows

CHAPTER ONE

Lorcan

“I’ll tear you into fucking scraps for this. Then, I’ll feed you to my demons,” I hiss as I prowl toward Ezra, glittering shards of glass crunching under my boots.

“I’d love to see you try,” Ezra challenges. “Besides, all I did was tell her the truth.”

My fingers dig into my kneecaps as I pant through the onslaught of torturous reflection ricocheting inside my mind. I yearn for my Evie with every godsdamn breath. The ache to have her safely back in my arms suffocates the oxygen in my blood as effectively as a pillow pressed tightly against an enemy’s face.

“You wanted her to leave me.”

“Of course,” Ezra says with a shrug, “but it’s not like I could’ve guessed she would pull a magic mirror out of her ass. Not to mention, you clearly have feelings for the witch and no relationship should start on a bed of lies.”

“Idespiseyou.”

Ezra grins. “Like wise.”

I think back to when my hatred for Evie morphed into something else. The moment I placed one foot in the Human Realm, I was done for. Naturally, I didn’t realize my feelings until it was too late, and Evie left me. It was my fault. I should have known she’d find out the truth in that grimoire, not that it was the whole truth.

Trust for Evie’s great aunt Evangeline to warp the truth, even in the pages of her own journals.

I grab the sides of my head. I would claw the flesh from my skull if it would stop the vile thoughts of worry spreading like the plague in my mind.

Where has Edward, and therefore The Order, taken her? What are they doing to her?

I stand in front of the shattered portal mirror. It’s been days and I still haven’t been able to track her. The memory of Evie’s blood soaking into the carpet burns across my vision, and I stumble back a step.

My shadows coil in my chest, then explode from every pore. “Fuck!”

A warm emotion tightens around my loathing like a thick, gray storm cloud picking away at my hatred and need for revenge like a corrosive. The full strength of her aura rocked the foundation of my sanity, and some part of me knew I couldn’t ever let her go. I should have told her when my feelings changed, when I knew I couldn’t keep to my original plan to have her take my place here. Maybe then she wouldn’t have left.

Ezra clears his throat, dragging me from the what ifs plaguing my mind. “All hostility aside, telling her the truth was the only sure way I had to drive you two apart.”

“The truth? You mean half-truths and barely veiled manipulations. Whatever you want to call our relationship, it’s a moot point.” Mental claws shred through my psyche, the scant amount of sanity left dangles by a thin thread. My organs catch fire, then turn to ash as my rage boils me alive from the inside out. “She left me.”

Ezra snorts. “I’d be happy about that, if it wasn’t for the fact that she trapped me in here too. At least I’m ingreatcompany.”

I throw my hands up. “What’s another few centuries of solitude? Except I’m trapped with my egomaniac of a brother who plotted against me and trapped me in a cage for decades.”

“Or maybe you never left the cage andthis,” Ezra proclaims, with laughter in his voice. “Is all a grand, twisted illusion.” He throws his arms out to his sides and spins slowly.

“I won’t let you fuck with my head again. Not that it matters. I feel nothing without my little witch.”

“Pathetic,” my brother declares, shaking his head.

“What the fuck did you just say?”

I said you’re fucking pathetic. Ezra’s voice sounds in my mind as he pushes the thought through my mental shields.

“Get out of my head!” A shiver races up my spine, dragging memories of the cage and every barbed mental taunt from Ezra and Lazarus. The carpet shreds and the pine baseboards crack underneath our feet as my shadows swirl into a cyclone and into the ground, thrashing and demolishing everything in my path as I sprint from the servant’s quarters, powdery snow clouding the yard.

A shadow connects with the doors of the manor’s grand entrance, slamming them open. My footsteps echo off the marble flooring as I pace between the two staircases. Ezra’s arms fold over his chest, snow flurries drifting around him. I rub the nape of my neck and glare at him.

“Are you done?” he asks and steps forward, his shadows closing the doors behind him.

I squeeze my eyes shut and breathe through my clenched teeth. “No.”

I reach for his throat, but his fist smashes into my face, sending streaks of agony through my cheekbone. My eyes blink several times, then warm, heavy hands land on my shoulders as my vision finally clears.

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