Page 99 of Broken Shadows

Her smile almost betrays her to the rest. “Fine. Let us talk alone then.”

Ezra scoffs and looks from me to Evangeline, then back to me. “Are you fucking kidding?” he asks incredulously. “I did not go through all of that just to miss the real gossip.”

Samuel grunts as Evangeline whispers something unintelligible in his ear. “Let’s leave them,” he says, and Ezra’s pastel green eyes widen twice their size.

“Since when the fuck are you the authority? I’m staying.”

Evangeline flashes her pearly whites at Ezra. “There will be no gossip. I must simply dissect whether Lorcan is a threat to your dad.”

Ezra shakes his head, a laugh of disbelief bubbling past his lips. He stands up, murmuring under his breath. “Unbelievable.”

Before he leaves, I hear his voice clearly in my head.You better tell me everything. Also, if she tries anything, I’ll happily help you get rid of what remains of her soul before Dad finds out.

I shoot him a smirk, and he grins, which only annoys Samuel more. He pushes his chair out and hurries after Silas and Lazarus in what I assume is an attempt to do some damage control.

Once we’re alone, Evangeline stands, her gray dress flowing around her ankles as she stirs a scattering of sparks from the fireplace. “Now, my love, why don’t we drop all the bullshit?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Lorcan

I cannot hide a glare as I exhale a tense breath. Evangeline stands in front of me, taller than Evie’s short stature, but still five inches shorter than me. She smells like musk, death, and lilies—all the trappings of a funeral. “Samuel tells me you’ve fallen for the witch, but we both know you don’t have a heart.”

I don’t stop her when she walks her fingers up my chest, at least until she reaches my throat. I grab her fingers and gnash my teeth. “Touch me again and you’ll lose those fingers.”

She laughs but recoils her hand. “Your threats don’t scare me. Your father will never let anything happen to me.”

“He’d never hurt his son, either.”

She smiles. “You’re right, but I’ve been whispering sweet, poisonous little lies into his ear for years. He thinks you abandoned him. That you hated him. It broke his heart.” She pouts and bats her long lashes. “You should have seen him.”

A growl rumbles in my chest. “Enough! I know it’s impossible to reason with a fucking insane person, but—”

“Insane?” Shaking her head, she turns from me to stare out the window. “You still take no responsibility for what you did to me, do you?”

“You got your revenge. I was locked in the Shadow Realm for a godsdamn century.”

Her palms lay flat on the stone windowsill as she hunches over, her spine misaligned at an odd angle. Her body quakes as she sucks in a lungful of air, and I grip the back of a chair. “You were never supposed to be locked in there in the first place!” She spins to face me, her head tilted at an almost inhuman angle before she straightens herself out. “You forced me to lock you in there after you betrayed me.”

“I used you, just like you’re using Samuel and my dad.”

She runs her long, ringed fingers through her dark, dull strands and lifts her gaze to me mine. “Well, you know the saying. If you can’t beat them, join them.”

“You’re fucking psychotic,” I say, realizing being nice isn’t going to work. Lying about my intentions won’t either because of one fucked up truth—she’s still in love with me. I can see it in her dilated pupils and the way she keeps floating closer to me as if she’s magnetically drawn into my orbit.

“Thank you,” she hisses. “Are you impressed?”

I scoff. “Do you want me to call you a good girl?”

Her brown eyes alight with gold. “You’re more playful now. I thought all that time in solitude would destroy your spirit. Or was it my great niece? Did she warm the cockles of your empty heart?”

I grimace. “No.”

“Good,” she whispers, then glides her hand up my arm without actually touching me. “I wonder what she’ll do to you when I tell her you’re using her like you did me? How did you convince her, by the way?” she asks, drawing closer. “That what I wrote in the grimoire wasn’t true? She must have believed you because she destroyed the portal.”

I’m just so fucking glad she doesn’t think I care about Evie, else my witch would be in genuine danger.

I tilt my head. The purple flames from the torches on the wall flickering in her mad stare. “You Fallenmoore witches always were so damn gullible.”

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