Page 13 of Broken Shadows

For once, I’m grateful for Ezra’s company.

I laugh sharply. “Aww, is our demonic presence too scary for you?”

A smile spreads across her face, but it appears more like a grimace. “Oh, I’m sorry. It’s not like every day there is a demon in my mirror! No, two fucking demons. Jesus, fuck. You made me smear my lipstick,” she seethes and rubs at a spot on the side of her mouth with a jewel blue knitted sleeve.

Ezra watches her intently. “Aww, don’t be mad, Sweetness.”

I grin. “Too bad, too. That shade of blinding purple paired perfectly with your petrified expression. Really set the tone of the scene for the jump scare.”

“Lorcan,” Ezra growls, as if he’s a damn lifeguard saving me from pissing off Evie’s best friend, or rather, saving her from me. Rosa scoots back and draws her knees into her chest, the fight leaving her. Shit. He’s right and I fucking hate it. If my witch saw me treating her best friend this way…

My eyes dart to Ezra, widening as I decipher the rare display of seriousness on his face. “Fucking Hell, fine,” I snap, then transform my features into their less terrifying counterparts.

Rosa’s manicured eyebrow arches but no words move past her lips. It’s then that I see it—sorrow and pain shimmers in her dark chocolate eyes. Although I hate to admit it, she, too, is affected by Evie’s capture. Hell, she’s a damn captive herself. Anxiety flows through her faintly pinched features, the barely there crow’s feet bracketing her eyes deeper than the last time I saw her. But there’s something else too, lingering just below the surface of her show of bravado.

My silence speaks for me as I tap my forefinger on my biceps.

“What do you want, demon?”

I roll my shoulders back, then stiffen. My eye twitches as the persistent bat shrieks scrape down my eardrums and I wonder why Gomez has waited until now to make himself known. “Do something to shut him up. I cannot think over his nonsense.”

Two fierce streaks of crimson color her cheeks. “He’s trapped here just like Aiden and I. What do you expect?”

Ezra side-eyes me, nonverbally conveying his concurrence with her. “Give him some snackies. There’s some in your enormous purse.”

“How? Nevermind.” Rosa flops onto her back, the mattress jostling beneath her.

“I need you to answer all of my questions. If you do, you might have a hope of getting out of there alive.”

She covers her face with both hands. “Fine, go ahead,” she snaps, her acquiescence muffled by her palms.

“Have they let you out of the room?”

“No.”

“What about food? Any idea when your mealtimes are?”

“No, but Aiden,” she jerks a thumb over her head to the wall separating their rooms, “swears he can hear a clock chiming the hour, every hour on the hour. He might have a better idea.”

“Perfect.” I clear my throat. I really don’t wish to think about my little witch suffering while there is absolutely fucking nothing I can do to rectify it, but I need to know. “Are they abusing you or Aiden in any way like they are, Evie?”

“That’s none of your fucking business.” She huffs, sits up, then crosses her arms over her chest defensively.

“It is my business when you might very well be integral to freeing her. You must disclose any injury or handicap,” I command threateningly, the deeper, gravelly tone of my demonic form breaking through.

Her features soften, and my eyes narrow. “Oh shit, you reallydocare about her.”

“Fucking crazy, right?” Ezra interjects, but we both ignore him.

I roll my eyes. “Obviously. Would I be speaking to you if I didn’t?”

Rosa snaps, “You’re obnoxiously arrogant.”

The corner of my lip twitches upward as I glance from the mirror in my hand to Ezra, and the beginnings of a plan form in my mind.

“Pass the compact to Aiden through that crack behind the desk when they return him. I have an idea.”

CHAPTER FIVE

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