Page 56 of Broken Shadows

I raise my brow, then clear my throat. “Evie and Fluffy Fucker are with me,” I remind Gideon. “Follow your bond with Ezra.”

Gideon ignores me and stalks into a shadow near the door without another word. I tilt my head to the side.Is he attempting to run?I ask Evie through our bond.

Her lips purse and her brown eyes glass over as if all her concentration has turned inward.No.He’s still somewhere on the property.Evie pauses, then tucks her hair behind her ear.Actually, he’ll come back through that same shadow in a couple seconds.Gideon returns precisely two seconds later, just as Evie predicted.

Impressive. At least we know the ritual worked.

I raise my brow, then clear my throat. “Evie and Fluffy Fucker are with me,” I remind Gideon. “Follow your bond with Ezra.”

Gideon settles his great sword’s sheath strap over his chest, strides purposely toward Aiden, and pulls the top half of his blue-black hair into twin war braids. My brow quirks as my brother plucks Aiden from the ground and secures him against his chest in a bridal carry. Aiden yelps and covers his mouth with a hand, a deep rosy flush creeping up his throat to his cheeks and ears. Gideon adjusts Aiden’s fucking hat, then disappears into the In-Between.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Evie

My eyes fluttered close as we enter the In-Between and the noisy world falls into silence. The experience is akin to taking a benzo. Gomez’s wings close around my forearm as I hold him to my chest, and a sense of calm washes over us both.

Perhaps it’s knowing what’s coming but being here is like standing in the eye of storm. I peel back my eyelids to reveal shadows dancing in illusory spirals around us, the mist and fog clouding everything in this aimless plane.

Lorcan struts to my side, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. I hear a pop when he rolls his shoulders, pressing a thumb against the muscle in his neck. We both needed this quiet, it seems.

His voice comes between a whisper and his normal, deep tone. “This plan of yours is good.”

My eyes widen as his approval gleams through our bond. Speaking of… “You said the bond we have is more of an imprint. You never told me that before.”

“I did and it is.” His hand squeezes my shoulder as I step forward. “Let’s take our time getting there.”

“The others are at least four shadows ahead of us,” I say as Gomez climbs up my chest and onto my shoulder.

Lorcan shrugs. “I know. I want to talk.”

My brows raise. “The King of Demons wants to justtalk?”

The corner of his lip tilts. My eyes track his large, tattooed hand as he runs it through his disheveled, raven locks. “I’m just as surprised as you, Baby Girl.”

My stomach dips on hearing my nickname. While I love Little Witch, this one is far more intimate and makes my heart flutter. With the absence of arousal, I realize my feelings are stronger than I knew. “The bond,” I say as we amble slowly through the In-Between. “You were saying that it’s an imprint.”

He wets his thick lips with his tongue. “I’d only ever heard of it in Hell,” he admits, his eyes flitting everywhere but on me. “How when a demon feels certain things for a human—or witch—it’s possible for a bond to form, like a mating bond.”

I exhale shakily, and Gomez purrs in my ear as if he can sense the swell of my heart. “So you feel certain things?”

The muscles in his arms tense, straining the sleeves of his shirt. “Yes.”

“Except, you cannot love,” I add, wishing I didn’t sound, orfeel, all doe-eyed and desperate.

“Supposedly I can’t.” He lifts a hand to his chest, placing it over his heart. He doesn’t elaborate but instead shifts the topic to one that halts me in my tracks.

“What happened at The Order, when you were tortured?” He turns to face me, and tucks a lock of hair behind my ear, gently brushing Gomez’s fur as he does. “We never properly discussed it, but your magic is more powerful than ever now.”

“You saw what happened.” I lower my stare to our shoes. “In that compact mirror.”

His thumb tucks under my chin, with a gentle nudge, he lifts my gaze back to meet his. “All I saw was a result of what he did and I’m proud of you for it. You know I don’t care about murder.”

“I do,” I admit, my eye twitching as memories flood back from before our time in the Shadow Realm. “I mean, not about Edward, because I know I did the world a favor. But I can’t help but think about all the people that have died because of me. Like, some had it coming but others didn’t.” I pause, recalling the neighborhoods kids that died because I had let them into our home. But I’m not ready to talk about that, so I mention another that I haven’t properly addressed. “Like Jay,” I bite out. “He was an asshole, but most people are and that doesn’t mean he deserved to die, not over me. I was using him.”

“Let go of that guilt,” Lorcan orders, and runs a thumb down my cheek. I lean into his touch as he whispers. “It’s not yours to carry.”

“Wait, are you sayingyoufeelguilty?” I ask, blinking twice.

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