Page 32 of Broken Shadows

“Pretend?” A fiery determination crosses his pastel green eyes.

I take a step toward the doors leading to another room, when he races over to me. His hands cup my cheeks before I can push him away.

His smell, all warm and heavy, spiced with a crisp note. That cologne mixed with his skin is like damn pheromones.

“Get off me.” I push him back, but he doesn’t budge. He takes my fists hammering against his chest as if it’s nothing, and instead of shoving me away, he holds me tighter, as if I might fall apart at any moment.

His breath is hot against my ear when he speaks into my hair. “I’m proud of you.”

My heart cartwheels. “For breaking you out of the portal?”

“No. For standing up to your father and surviving when he tried to break you.”

“Don’t,” I plead. I’m stronger when he’s not holding me. I can think straight. Hell, I can destroy entire buildings if I want to. Except my magic is sedated under his touch.

He lifts one hand, his touch dragging over my clavicle. I clench my thighs and close my eyes. Just one damned touch can do this. How?

No. I won’t be pulled back under his command.

“I said, get the fuck off me,” I shout with the last of my resolve. “Your games won’t work on me.”

“Work on you?” He lowers his arms, letting me go.

“Just stop it. You’re free now and you have what you want, there is no need to manipulate me like you did Evangaline. All I want to know,” I say as I back away from him, “is will you still work with us to kill Samuel and keep us safe from The Order?”

He arches a dark brow. “That is all you want from me?”

“Yes,” I lie.

We stand six feet apart, unblinking as we wait for the other to fold first, except I won’t be caught in another game.

I turn and walk into the living room with Rosa, Aiden, Ezra, and Gomez. Ezra points at me and says, “That was fucking awesome!”

Aiden nods in agreement, but Rosa’s eyes aren’t on me. Lorcan is behind me, again.

Don’t follow me.I push the thought into his mind and walk out of the room.

CHAPTER TEN

Lorcan

I’m free.It’s all I’ve obsessed over for the better part of a century. Yet now the time has come, all I feel is fucking pain. I mangled my heart for Evie until it bled emotions, but she threw it back in my face.

She said it herself. All she wants from me is to kill Samuel and to keep her and her friend safe from The Order, as if that wasn’t already a given and I wouldn’t have burned down the world to keep her safe.

The world is bright, as if it’s the first time I’m seeing color. In truth, I forgot just how vibrant the Human Realm is. My eyes adjust after a century of seeing everything with saturation lowered and follow Evie through the manor.

Either she really doesn’t give a fuck about me, or she still doesn’t believe me. But this time I’m not going to wait around to find out.

I dissolve into the nearest shadow, tracking her scent through the house, and silently slip out one several feet behind her.

The scent of vanilla dipped rose perfume ghosts the air in Evie’s wake. My heart backflips as I inhale languidly through my nose. That fucking scent. I rub the nape of my neck as each inhale nearly sends me to my knees.

Scent is one of the strongest triggers of all creature’s olfactory senses, evoking a slew of memories from our time in the Shadow Realm. Yet, here in the Human Realm everything is stronger: scents, colors,feelings.

I have missed her essence drifting through the manor, saturating everything it touches with an incorporeal caress—marking me in the process.

She winds her way around the right side of the grand staircase and into the kitchen. I step into a shadow under a wall sconce as my little witch’s head turns wearily over her shoulder, then quickens her pace through the exterior door near the counter.

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