Page 97 of Broken Shadows

Evie unfolds herself from me and I flinch with the desire to keep her close, but she’s led away with Ezra, Gideon, Rosa, Gomez, and Aiden before I can. A chill skates over my flesh, the chasm behind my ribs gaping without her. Without all of them, I suppose. A shockwave pierces through my bones like an electric current and my breath catches.

“I always hated you, Lorcan,” Samuel says once they’re gone and it’s just me, Ezra, Samuel, Lazarus, and Asher, who’s no longer paying attention. “But at least I respected you. Look at you both with those humans,” he spits, sneering sneers at Ezra too. “It’s pitiful.”

Ezra balks, his shoulders squaring when he faces Samuel. “I can still beat you in a fight, Sammy. You know that. Go on, test my wrath.”

Samuel laughs but visibly shrinks back against the banister. “All brawn and no brains. As always, nothing changes. How disappointing.”

“I’m heading to my room,” Asher says, completely unaware of the tense atmosphere. Or more likely, doesn’t care. “See ya.”

Samuel grasps at his hand, but Asher slips away before he can force him to remain. “We agreed to go together.”

“There’s no reason for me to be there,” Asher says from halfway up the staircase, his voice always the same, flat and unbothered. Even when he saw Rosa, which was a surprise, considering she knocked his ass out. “If Lorcan tries to hurt Dad, you’re all more than capable of stopping him.”

I scoff. “I have zero interest in the throne and Dad fucking knows that.” Without Evie to protect, I turn to face Samuel, leaning closer until he’s poising backward. “Listen to me, youcunt. I don’t know what you’ve done with Dad, or where you and the bitch have hidden him, but I amnotleaving until I find him.”

“Enough,” barks Lazarus. “There’s no need to fight. Evangeline’s already waiting for you.”

It takes less than a minute for the five of us to shadow walk to the small solar at the other side of the castle.

Samuel gestures his arm out to the open door when we arrive, and I halt at the threshold, reaching my shadows within first. The dark smoke of my magic curls around the corners of the solar until I’m satisfied it isn’t a trap.

Ezra huffs out a breath, pushing past me to walk inside. “See, it’s fine,” he says, arms wide open as he stops beside the bone table that takes up most of the room. He pulls one of the eight chairs out, screeching it back until it stops at the stone hearth of the fireplace. “Come on. It’s been an age since we’ve sat in here.”

Slowly, I walk inside, hands deep in my pockets and look around. Everything is the same, from the stone walls covered in tapestries showing each of the deadly sins as humans suffering, to the small arched window with fractured stained glass, and the black cabinet displaying books bound in skin and swords that ended the grisliest of battles.

Lazarus stomps behind me, then brings the fire to life, the purple embers settling between half-charred logs. He brushes any remnants of ash from his double-breasted jacket and takes the seat next to Ezra.

I grab the seat at the head of the table before the bastard Samuel can. Ezra glances at Silas, and with a mocking smile, pats the seat next to him. “Come sit, Sil. I know you don’t really want to sit next tohim.”Ezra gestures to Samuel, who takes the chair at the bottom right of the table, leaving the chair directly opposite me empty.

After a few heavy seconds of silence, Ezra slams his hands on the bone slab of the table with a grin. “Well, this is nice. All of us together after all this time. I mean, except Gid.” He points down to Samuel. “You should be glad about that. After he realized you lied to him, he wanted to run you through with his sword.”

Samuel shifts in his chair. “I’m not afraid of Gideon.”

Ezra laughs with his whole chest. “Oh, you should be. Truly. Even I am. Just don’t tell him that.”

I cut through the bullshit, my eyes fixed on Samuel. “Where’s the bitch?”

His dark brows pull together and his lips crease into a deep frown. It’s only when the second entrance to the private sitting room opens does he offer even a hint of a genuine smile. He must genuinely like her. I’d never have guessed it. I’m shocked he has any emotions.

The purple hue of the candlelight flickers shadows over Evangeline’s square jaw and angular cheekbones when she saunters into the dimly lit room. Drips of blood fleck her ivory bone corset. She rolls her shoulders, pushing her chest out when she locks eyes with me for the first time in a century.

Those dark brown eyes, with flecks of gold, which used to soften when she looked at me, now pin me with contempt. She stops at Samuel’s side, standing over him. He reaches his fingers close to hers, but she pulls back before he can touch her. Of course, they have to pretend they’re not fucking. She’s meant to be my dad’s bride, not his.

“Lorcan.” Her voice echoes, sounding throatier from when I knew her. “How good of you to stop by.”

The glow of her skin waltzes between translucent and opaque. She’s dead, yet somehow preserved, unlike the other spirits. She really has manipulated my dad. He’s the only one with the power to do that.

“Let’s save the niceties,” I spit. She holds her expression steady, unlike when she was alive and trapped me in the fucking Shadow Realm. “Where’s my father?”

She exhales slowly, her face unreadable as she flicks her eyes to Samuel, then slides into the seat directly opposite me, but fortunately the furthest away. “He’s not taking visitors.”

“I am his oldest son,” I snarl. “Iknowyou’re keeping him from me, from all of us.”

Her laugh is girlish, a tinker of insanity lacing each giggle of disbelief. With her hand pressing over her heart, she says all too sweetly, “You think I have any power over Lucifer, the almighty King of Hell?”

“We both know you do.”

Silas shakes his head in my peripheral vision and leans forward. “Do you hear yourself, Lorcan?”

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