Page 65 of Broken Shadows

Then I see Ezra, smirking right at me. “Found your way out then, Brother. Took you long enough.”

“Where’s Evie?” I growl.

He shoves his hands in his pockets and glances over his shoulder. “She’s back there, but you can’t help her. They can’t see you and if you touch them, it’ll just feel like the fog is suffocating them.”

I take off in the direction he indicates, my heart racing when I hear the squeaks of Gomez flying over Evie. The bat shoots me a scowl, and I sigh in relief. “I’ve never been happier to see you, Fluffy Fucker.”

He does not appear to share my sentiment.

“Where is she?” I ask and he flaps his wings down a path. I sprint after him, then my steps falter. This trial is destroying her. I walk closer to her crouched form, and swallow back a curse as my witch cries so softly it could break hearts. A statue of a cloaked man looms over her and focuses all of its nefarious energy Evie.

“Baby Girl,” I whisper, but she doesn’t shift. Instead, a statue moves behind her, gnarly stone fingers reaching toward her. “No!” I grab the statue's hand, but I’m thrown back by what feels like hundreds of volts of electricity. Suddenly, their eyes are on me and the awareness in them surges ice through my veins as I lay twitching in the dead grass. It’s taken me less than a heartbeat to recover, but they seized their opportunity with voracious malice. They’re not demons or helpless souls, but the worst of the worst—murderers, rapists, serial killers, devoid of any humanity, hungry to pull anything good and living into themselves.

Ezra finds me and cups a hand on my shoulder. “I have to hand it to Samuel. He did a good job.”

Shrugging him away, I turn to face my witch, fists clenched as the statues grow closer. “Run, Evie. Stand up. Anything. Do not give up!”

“We’re not strong here,” Ezra proclaims. “This place zaps your energy, so you can’t help anyone else when you wake up and can see through the veil. It’s smart.”

“Yeah, it’s so fucking stupendous,” I snap sarcastically. “Are you going to help, asshole?”

“Help what? She needs to figure it out like we did.”

I growl. “You don’tunderstand! She can’t take this.”

“Ye who has little faith. Give her a chance. I’m going to check on Rosa.”

I arch my brow. “Oh. So, youdocare about someone other than yourself. Consider me shocked.”

He shakes his head. “I don’t, I just can’t stand here and watch all of this.” He waves his hand over the area of Evie slowly breaking as she cries into her palms. “It’s too damn depressing.”

With that, he races away and my stomach knots. I kneel in front of her. Even though she can’t see me, I touch her arm anyway, and she flinches, sensing the chill from what she thinks is fog. “I’m here, My Witch. You can do this. Please, Evie, come back to me. You’re not alone. You never will be.”

She lifts her eyes, but looks past me at something I can’t see, her beautiful browns devoid of any hope.

Whistling greets my ears as Ezra strolls through the fog and walks toward me. He ignores my glare as he pats my back heavily. “She wouldn’t want you to torture yourself like this, Lor. Come wait with Rosa and me until it’s over. You can’t do anything. It’s fucking tearing you apart.”

My fists ball at my sides and a growl rumbles in my chest as I turn away from Evie. I’ll go with him, for now, but only because the temptation to hold and comfort her is too great, it will only worsen her pain.

I can’t watch her suffer like this without trying to soothe her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Evie

A sharp slice of ice digs into my shoulder and I shrink away. It’s then that a detached certainty crawls over me as I crouch near the closest statue’s stone feet.

These statues want me to fail.

I squeeze my eyes shut and try to reach Lorcan through our bond again.Lorcan? Can you hear me?My stomach hollows as only silence deigns to reply.

I don’t want to be alone here. I need to find the others before it’s too late.

The air shivers against my skin as five statues circle me, bending at the waist and reaching for me. Pain lances through my chest, sobs tearing from my throat. Something tickles the back of my mind, like an awareness that isn’t mine. This is reality and yet, it’s not.

My heart shrivels as whispers so low I can only just make out the words rise around me as I stare into three cold stone faces.

Alone.

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