Page 3 of Broken Shadows

“I usually am.” I rub my temples. “Let’s be done with this conversation. I’m tired of looking at your godsdamn face.”

Ezra meanders to the windows, then pushes aside the purple, black, and gray layered drapes. He sighs and leans his ass on the sill. “I, too, am sick of looking atyourface.” He smirks. “So, in the spirit of that goal, perhaps we should form a truce.”

The dining room chair creaks as I drop my weight onto its velvet cushion, my anger retreating into a slow burn in my gut. I rub my temples and contemplate his suggestion. “You have been keeping secrets from me for hundreds of years. In order to have a truce, there must be some level of trust between us. How in the fuck can I trust you?”

Ezra grins, then shrugs. “Maybe you can’t, but you’ll have to take the risk if you want to save your witch’s skin.”

“Tell me why your motives changed,” I demand, reflecting on our earlier conversation. “Your goal was to keep me trapped in here and get Evie out so you could unleash her magic to what? Kill me?”

He smirks. “Isn’t someone clever?”

I roll my eyes. “So, what could have possibly happened that made you change your mind about destroying me? It must have been something big.”

Miraculous silence descends as Ezra taps his lips with a tattooed index finger before taking the seat next to me, the legs of his chair scraping along the stone floor.

“There is a lot you don’t know, but I’ll start with the most fuckity-fucked one.”

I dip my chin in acknowledgement as I wait for Ezra to reveal why he’s really here and possibly drop any hints to what Evie might be subjected to by The Order.

Ezra leans forward and bites his lip. “I think that Evangeline, you know theotherFallenmore witch, is in Hell doing her damned best to manipulate our father,” he confesses and my jaw drops. “She’s the reason all our brothers, including myself, allied against you initially. Well, Samuel told us you were after Dad’s throne. However, after spending time in the oh so lovely Shadow Realm—”

“And stalking me.”

“Yep, that too. I find it hard to believe that you give a shit about ruling Hell. You have zero ambition to return there.”

I shout, “Samuel is a fucking liar. I’ve never desired to rule Hell. How could you believe anything that cunt said?”

My brother’s hands clench into fists as they rest on the table. “Well, I deduced when you didn’t seem to know anything about the throne, that Samuel lied. I never actually verified anything our brother said with Lucifer. None of us, except for Eva and Samuel, are allowed to see Dad. But I’m observant, more than our other brothers, who still believe his bullshit. Samuel is obviously in love with Evangeline, even though she’s supposed to be with Lucifer. You know what she’s like, and I bet she’s manipulating them both.”

My eyes roll so far into my skull I swear I see brain matter. “Of course, she is. So, I guess now we’re both fucked.”

Ezra clears his throat. “Somemore than others. But the fact remains that all the shit our family continues to put up with from that bitch Evangeline is because ofyouractions,” he proclaims, accusation heavy in his voice. “Come now, Brother, I remember the way she clung to you, even if Samuel and the others pretend that didn’t happen. She was alwaysmy lovethis,my lovethat.”

I drum my fingers on my jean clad thigh, then freeze. Something about those specific words seems familiar. A locked box buried deep in my subconscious creaks open, oppressed memories flying out like a swarm of locusts. Shit. I grab the sides of my head as the information overloads my mind.

“Lor?” Ezra calls, but it’s as if I’m miles under the ocean’s waves. My thoughts come to a trickle, then cease all together as the pressure inside my skull threatens to crack it open like an egg.

I gasp as memory after memory detonates across my mind’s eye. Fuck, I’ve forgotten so much. Too much.

The memory unfolds, her voice echoing into my mind from decades before.

“Love.” Evangeline cackles as she sashays across an unfamiliar room, her jade robe swishing around her bare legs. Her image blurs as the next memory threatens to take its place. I dig mental claws into the scene playing out, enraged fury lashing through my bloodstream.

“I love you, Lorcan.No one will ever take you away from me. I’ll make sure of it,” Evangeline says, hovering over me.

Frost coats my ribs. My eyes burn like they’ve been scrubbed with sand. Fuck. I can’t close my eyes. What the Hell has this bitch done to me? I try to shove her away, but something is cutting off the circulation in my wrists and binding me to the bed. Metal clinks, and I whip my head to the side.

“Get the fuck away from me, Eva. Did you not hear a word I said last night? I want nothing to do with you,” I growl, my eyes landing on the glowing chains attached to my wrist. “Fuck!” I roar, flinching as agony screams into my bones.

“That’s not very nice, Love,” she pouts. Pulses of liquid agony throb throughout my wrist as the witch twists a metal eyehook deeper into the bone. “Let’s just tighten these chains a little, shall we? I certainly can’t have you escaping me again.”

My vision swims as the memory dissolves. Ezra’s crouched form comes into focus. “That was creepy as shit, Brother.”

“What?” I mumble, the coherent thought still struggling to resurface.

“Your eyes rolled back in your head, the whites showing and everything. Your shadows made this swirling cocoon around you a second later,” Ezra explains, patting my knee.

Two words burn into my brain matter.Unrequited love.

---