Haunted by Shadows
Magic Wars: Demons of New Chicago Book Two
Kel Carpenter
Haunted by Shadows
Kel Carpenter
Published by Kel Carpenter
Copyright © 2021, Kel Carpenter LLC
Edited by Analisa Denny
Proofread by Dominique Laura
Cover Art by Covers by Juan
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Created with Vellum
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
3. Ronan
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
6. Ronan
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
11. Ronan
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
15. Ronan
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
19. Ronan
Chapter 20
21. Lucifer
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
One Week
Two Weeks
Three Weeks
Four Weeks
Five Weeks
25. Ronan
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Author’s Note and Acknowledgements
Also by Kel Carpenter
About the Author
To the future us.
You, me, and everyone that is struggling right now. Hang in there.
It’s going to get better.
There are two kinds of guilt: the kind that drowns you until you're useless, and the kind that fires your soul to purpose.
Sabaa Tahir, An Ember in the Ashes
1
The static crackle in my ear was driving me fucking crazy. I shoved my gloved hands into the pockets of my new leather jacket to keep from swatting at the thing like an unwanted fly.
“Whatever you’re doing over there, you need to stop. I can’t scout out for Ronan with this thing crinkling like a plastic bag in my ear,” I said under my breath.
“Sorry, I’m trying to figure out the frequency. If I could just ask Barry—”
“No,” I said, cutting her off. We’d had this conversation a dozen times in the last three days. “It’s already bad enough you got the tech from him. I don’t want him butting into my business.”
Nathalie sighed into the mic that fed to the tiny speaker in my ear. “Have I mentioned how much your trust issues are a pain in my ass?”
“Only a time or twenty,” I replied. “Now hush. I haven’t seen Ronan yet, and if he sees me talking to myself, he might not show.”
“Somehow I doubt it’ll matter if you’re crazy when he’s more concerned with getting in your pants,” Nat commented dryly before cutting the mic, and by extension the static that was driving me nuts.
My boots were silent as I walked the length of the Navy Pier. It was beautiful this time of day. The sky was painted the same shade of creamsicle as the ice pops Bree and I would eat while our parents strolled side by side next to us. Those rose-colored memories were still marred with the signs of bite marks on my mother’s neck and the glint of steel on my dad’s hip, but it was a better time all the same.
And it was long gone. While there was still the odd light from the city, most of the streetlights were either broken or didn’t work. The cobbled walkway was covered in graffiti and bird shit. There were no strolling couples or children milling about. Anyone I ran into at this hour wasn’t someone I wanted to make nice with.
I pivoted on my heel, turning to walk the length of it again, when a figure standing at the end caught my attention.
My pulse quickened. I started walking toward him, my hands itching to reach for the two pistols strapped to either side of my hips. A long hunting knife was wedged in my boot. My leather jacket didn’t have all the nifty compartments my old trench coat did, so I had to forego the rope and hook that often helped me out of a pinch. Not that I saw that being a thing with Ronan. The nearest roof was through a museum that had long since closed. The odds of me getting that far weren’t high given I was headed straight to him.
Just like he wanted.
“You came,” he said, his voice a rumble of thunder and night. The very sound caressed my skin and sent a trail of goosebumps up both arms.
“You didn’t exactly give me a choice.”
His hands dropped away from the railing overlooking Lake Michigan as he turned to face me. Silver eyes edged with black fire swept over my form hungrily. While it was freezing in New Chicago, heat touched me in that moment. I hated it.
“But I did. You told me pursuing as I was didn’t work. You didn’t have a choice, so I gave you one. You’re choosing to be here of your own volition, despite your desire to run.” His eyes focused on the edge of my long-sleeved shirt. It wasn’t a turtleneck for once. The very edge of one of my brands peeked out from the faded black fabric.
“Fine. You forced my hand. Either way, I’m only here for Bree. Where is she?” I made a show of looking around even though I was damn sure she wasn’t nearby.
“Safe,” Ronan said, his eyes flaring with a touch of anger. He extended a hand to me. I didn’t take it. “Come. We’ll talk over dinner.”
I reeled back, my hand instinctively reaching for the pistol at my side. I’d shot him once, and he got back up. Maybe if I just kept shooting, he’d stay down long enough to find a way to incapacitate him. A crackling in my ear made me pause. “If you’re reaching for your gun, that’s stupid.” The fact that she knew exactly what I was doing—but couldn’t see me—was annoying. “You need to get more info out of him if we’re going to find Bree. Go to dinner. Talk to him.”
Ronan waited expectantly as I waffled in indecision. “Dinner,” I insisted. “That’s it. We eat, and you tell me where Bree is.”
His lips curled in a cruel smile as he regarded me. “We’ll see. We have much to talk about.” I didn’t like that answer, but what real other choice did I have? Either I walked, and our odds of finding Bree were zero-to-none, or I went with him.
I straightened my back and took his hand. Instead of threading his fingers through mine as I expected, he pulled me slightly in front of him and then released my hand, possessively placing his on my lower back. I lifted an eyebrow at him, and he mimicked the motion mockingly as he led me around the pier.
“For someone that says we have so much to talk about, you don’t say much.”
The corner of his mouth curled upward. “I’m just admiring that my atma finally came to me willingly. What can I say? After chasing you for weeks, I’m savoring victory.”
And will be for the last time if I have my way.
He chuckled. “You’re wary of me. Understandable to an extent, given what you’ve been through—”
“You have no idea what I’ve been through,” I said sharply. Ronan paused, and his hand fell away. I turned back after walking a few feet.
“Oh, but I do,” he said softly. There was a dark edge to his voice. A dangerous note. “What do you think I’ve been doing when I’m not chasing you? Claude Lewis’ memories gave me a starting point. I followed those pieces of information I gained like a trail of breadcrumbs, finding people you’ve worked with or for. I’ve tracked places you’ve been. People who’ve hurt you. These last few weeks I’ve immersed myself in your world for you.” He stepped forward, and I stood my ground. “I know the Magic Wars hurt you and your family. That made you power hungry. Desperate. You would do anything to save them and save yourself. You’ve always been proactive that way, and it led you down the path you’re on now.”
“Don’t talk like you know me,” I spat. “You hunted down people who haven’t known me. What they saw was a phase of my life. A mask. A child. You invaded my privacy—”
“I wouldn’t have to if you weren’t so stubborn,” he said quietly, but not harshly. Ronan lifted a hand to run one finger down my cheek.
“Exactly. I’m stubborn. Willful. I don’t like change, and I like magic even less. It ruined my life, and you can’t change that. You can’t make me love it or you. So I don’t understand why you keep trying.”
“It’s not about love. It never has been. Love is for humans.”
“Then what’s it about?”
“You’re mine,” he said, as if it were that simple. “I’ve existed for a long time, Piper. The world I come from is different, but also the same in that I stopped caring. It didn’t matter where I was or who I was with. Numbness was settling over when you created the door and called out. I felt your magic, and for the first time in a very long time, I was alive. I smelled you and knew it was a scent that could intoxicate me. You’re an enigma, and I find that fascinating. I want to know you. I want to own you. Not because of some misguided love, but because the first moment I laid eyes on you, I knew there was no going back. I couldn’t, even if I wanted to—and I don’t.”
My lips parted, somewhat in shock, because he wasn’t lying. He truly believed that, and I knew in that moment there was no going back for me either. Ronan would never leave me alone.
“Surprised you, have I?” he mused, a cruel smirk playing on his lips. Then he reached around and rested his hand on my back and guided me toward the water. “Come. Let’s eat.” I moved mechanically at his side as he led me onto a riverboat. It was the only one in the harbor. A wooden board bridged the gap between the walkway and the ship. In my ear, the piece crackled once more, reminding me Nathalie was there and had heard every word.
“Hot damn, are you sure you don’t want to reconsider this bond business?” Nathalie said. “He might be a demon and a stage five clinger, but—”
I reached up and flicked the earpiece, knowing it would get my point across.
Nathalie groaned in my ear right as Ronan gave me a look. I didn’t bother giving either of them a response.
The riverboat was upscale. Only half a dozen two-top tables were seated on the deck. Twinkling lights ran along the edge of the overhang. A waiter was already standing at one of the tables, a neutral expression set in place. She was a few inches shorter than me, but she had pointed ears. Half-fae, if I had to guess. Explains how she managed to land a job at a place like this.
Ronan and I sat across from each other with only a two-foot table between us.
I squared my shoulders as she placed the menus on the table and then poured each of us a glass of water. The wind whipped over the lake, batting against the thick siding around the deck that was designed to keep the worst of the cold away.
“Welcome, Mr. Fallon,” she began. The rest of her speech was lost on me.
My eyes narrowed on Ronan, who was now smirking widely. As if sensing my rising ire, he lifted a hand and said, “Thank you, but we’ll need a moment to look over the menu.”
She bowed her head graciously and moved to give us space.
“You took my last name,” I said. Both my hands were clenched into fists on top of the table in an effort to not reach for my guns.
“I didn’t have one,” he said with a shrug. “Where I come from, we’re known as the son or daughter of our parents. That’s not the way of your world, though, so I adjusted.”
“How gracious of you.”
“I thought so.”
My fingers twitched, and it was like he knew what I wanted to do, even if I was stopping myself. “If I thought I could shoot you enough times to keep you down, I would.”
He inclined his head, not at all bothered by my death threat. “But then you’d never find Bree, assuming it worked—which it wouldn’t.”
“Unfortunately.”
The server chose that moment to reappear. “Have you had a chance to look over the—”
“I’ll have whatever is most expensive on the menu,” I said. “Since Mr. Fallon here is paying.”
The waitress opened, then closed her mouth. Ronan simply continued to smile. I wondered if he knew it was pissing me off.
“Make that two,” he said, “And a bottle of your best red.”
She nodded once and went to place our order, leaving us.
I squared my shoulders like we were at a showdown and not dinner.
Considering he was holding my sister hostage to get me there, it wasn’t far off.
It was why I didn’t expect his next statement.
“Tell me about your life.” He demanded it. Expected it. It wasn’t a question at all.
“If you already know everything, I don’t see the point.”
“I know pieces of it. Things that I’ve gathered and then filled in the blanks. I want to hear it from you. I want to know you.”
“You want to own me,” I corrected. “I don’t understand the point in getting to know me.” He chuckled.
“They’re one and the same in this case. You showed me that. The only way I’ll have you is if you choose it. So indulge me. I want to know everything.” He settled back with one arm sitting loosely on the table and the other on his lap. Three inches to the right of my left hand was a silver knife. I could put it through his hand if I wanted. Wouldn’t kill him, but it would hurt like a bitch. Maybe test that dedication he claimed to have.
The only problem—if it wasn’t as strong as he claimed, then I’d be fucked. Again.
“Everything is a tall order,” I mused, instead reaching for my glass of water. I took a sip, the crisp cold hitting my throat and grounding me.
“Then start at the beginning. What’s your earliest memory?”
I stiffened. Ronan lifted a brow.
While I could push it down and be obstinate in this, there wasn’t much point. He already knew, to an extent.
“The day we learned magic existed.”
“‘We’ being the humans?”
“Yes,” I said softly. He looked like he wanted to say something about it but didn’t. “I was sitting next to my sister on the floor in our living room, playing with Barbies. We were watching cartoons when the tv started blaring. My parents ran into the living room right as the sound cut out and the screen changed. The forty-three seconds that played after that changed the world.”
I didn’t tell him what I’d seen. If he looked through my past, he certainly saw it himself. Everyone had seen it that day. Never before had a massacre like that taken place on public television. Hell, I was only a child. I barely knew about such things. My parents weren’t the type to even curse in front of us. They didn’t raise us sheltered, per se, but we weren’t exposed to the darker facets yet. We were only children, after all.
“You’re talking about the public execution of your leader and his guards.” That was one way to phrase it. Although I suppose
they might not have presidents where he came from.
“Yes,” I said, though it wasn’t really needed. He got the idea.
“I heard he brought it on himself by starting a slave camp for those of magical kind,” Ronan continued. Years ago, I might have bristled. To me, the insinuation that we somehow deserved what came after was . . . I didn’t have words. Just rage.
But I wasn’t a child anymore, and I’d heard those whispers enough times to not lose myself to the anger.
“Rumors,” I said stiffly, shrugging one shoulder. “The evidence was scattered, and either way, the crimes to a few hundred never justified the crimes to millions.”
He tilted his head. “I never said it did.”
I opened my mouth to tell him he insinuated it, but the waitress reappeared, two plates in hand.
“Duck confit on a bed of greens,” she said, not clipped, but pleasant enough. She set the dishes in front of us, and Ronan dismissed her with a wave of his hand before she could ask if we needed anything else. I reached for my fork, thankful for the excuse to stop talking.
“You feel wronged on a very personal level by the events that occurred, but it sounds like both sides were ultimately wronged. Magical beings had been hiding for hundreds of years because humans had tried to hunt them to extinction. Only when they forgot did it give them enough time to grow. The attack on their presence had been renewed, and they exacted their vengeance on the man they viewed as responsible.”
I stabbed my duck harder than needed, and the plate beneath it clanked when the metal prongs of my fork hit it.
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