Page 53 of Broken Shadows

Evie glances at Rosa and a smile unfurls across her face. “Thank you,” she calls as Rosa leaves the room.

Every muscle in my body tenses as I linger on the last ingredient. “Whose blood?”

“Mine and Gideon’s,” Evie replies without looking at me.

Gideon’s nostrils flare when he finally speaks, hushing the room into silence. “So, my choices are imprisonment or allowing you to leash me further like your little pet demon?”

“Fuck me, he does speak,” I say. “But yes, those are your choices.”

Gideon’s face remains passive, but his eyes frost and I swear I catch a glimpse of chilly lilac flames rising in his irises. The middle finger on his right hand taps an even beat on his thigh.

I chuckle darkly, then nod curtly at his hand. “You must be really bothered by all of this. I see you’ve not learned to control that little tell yet. You’ve been struggling to master it since what, adolescence?”

Ezra nods. “At least that long. In fact,” Ezra says and glances at me, “I think it’s gotten worse.”

Gideon inhales and exhales at a pace that is far too measured to be natural, holding his silence.

“Well? What’ll it be, Gid?” I ask.

He stares at me stonily. “I decline your offer.”

“It wasn’t a request,” I spit. “Oh, how could I have forgotten. You do have another choice. Allow my witch to bind you, or we lock you in the Shadow Realm for eternity.”

The muscles in his jaw feathers. “You’d imprison me in the Shadow Realm after the hell you suffered there?”

“Absolutely.”

He growls. “Why?”

“Because I’ll do everything in my fucking power to keep Evie safe. If that requires me to banish my entire family to that damn realm, I’ll do so without a second thought,” I state. “Besides, why do you think I had Evangeline create the Shadow Realm?”

Gideon blinks and a curious expression flits across his face before I can analyze it. “I see.” He sits forward and rests his bound wrists on his thighs.

Ezra claps his hands together, turning the topic back on our preparations. “So, who is carrying the humans? It’s not like they can shadow walk on their own.”

“No shit, asshole.” I pause, then sigh. “Any suggestions? “

“I call dibs on Rosa,” Ezra quickly demands, dragging the attention back to him as usual.

“Why?” Evie asks before Rosa can come back and hear this. She’s probably wondering if her friend is in danger, which she likely is if Ezra desires her.

Ezra lifts his heavy shoulders in a shrug. “What? She smells nice.” He looks around the room, stopping briefly on all our unimpressed faces. “Annnyway, Gid can go by himself. You and Aiden should go together, and Evie can bring herself,” Ezra suggests.

“No.”

Ezra and I swing our faces to Gideon.

“No,” he repeats firmly, then stands. Ice glitters across his knuckles.

“Care to explain?” I ask, my patience wearing thin.

“I will only go on to two conditions,” Gideon expresses.

Ezra snorts. “Which are?”

“One, I take Aiden through the In-Between.”

Rejecting his request is too easy. “Shit, I completely forgot,” I drawl. “I don’t cater to the whims of my younger brothers.”

---