“What do you mean no?” I demand, tilting my head back at an awkward angle to see him properly.
He shrugs. “Just no. You get yourself out or you sleep there.”
“What!”
It’s still early morning. Long slices of light pierce through the reaching branches above me. It’s quite pretty, actually. All this green, with the blue sky brightening shade by shade.
“Killian, I thought we agreed that this kind of training is dangerous,” I try to argue.
“You’re safe under there. Even you can’t cut yourself on a tree.”
Footsteps crunch up the hill. I can’t see anything because I have a chuckin’ tree on top of me, but I know it’s Seth.
“Seth,” I call out – it feels like Seth.
“What’s going on?” Seth asks, jumping over the log and landing near my shoulder.
He looks from relaxed-and-polishing-his-dagger Killian to squished-and-laying-in-the-dirt me.
“He did it,” I say, pointing back at Killian.
Seth offers his brother a lopsided smile. “Why?”
“She needs to move it herself.”
“Oh, so this is a training session. I’m pretty sure Pax didn’t have this in mind when he told you to take Vexy away from the cottage,” Seth says, turning his smile back to me and squatting down next to my head. “Learning anything yet?”
“No, Seth. Just get me out.” No reaction.
The ground is hard. Leaves are sticking into my hair because Roarke refused to just put it in a band like I asked. The log is heavy, no surprise there, and it’s not perfectly round, and the ridges in the bark are starting to dig in. Add that to the small stone or stick or whatever it is underneath my right shoulder, and Killian’s sense of humor is already pissing me off.
“Please, Seth,” I beg, trying to pull a little of Roarke’s Allure.
Or a lot. Whatever it takes.
“Is she trying to Allure you?” Killian asks.
“Yes,” I cut in. “Is it working?”
Seth’s eyes roll up towards the sky for a moment – thinking. “No, nothing. Try again.”
“I don’t want to try again. I want you to lift the damn log and let me out.”
Seth shakes his head. “Not working. Are you doing it right?”
Roarke had said something about the words I use being lyrics to the song I want the person listening to sing. Actually, I don’t think he said it that way at all, but that’s the idea.
I take a deep breath, think of Roarke’s trickling water, and say, “Seth, you want to get me out.”
“Nothing,” Seth says, shrugging.
Nothing? How can it be nothing? I’m doing everything right! Everything I normally do to grab Roarke’s power and put it to use.
“Seth,” I growl, pushing hard against the log in pure frustration. Searching for some sign that I can actually access Killian’s strength. Nothing. “Let. Me. Go.”
Seth turns away from me, walking a few steps closer to Killian.
“Don’t leave me,” I gasp… and he ignores me.
“Maybe she needs to be close to us, to whichever person she’s using the power of?”
Killian points his dagger in my direction. “She’s close to me right now. She can move the log, or she can sleep there – no breakfast, no lunch, no dinner, or supper, or lates.”
I groan. This is Killian trying not to hurt me.
“Let me help,” Seth says, striding back to me then jumping over the log.
“What are you doing?” I demand.
“How ticklish are you, Vexy?”
Before I can answer, he’s running a stick or leaf or something up and down the bottom of my right foot, instantly hitting the nerves that make a kid giggle – and I can’t even squirm!
I bite my bottom lip and tilt my head back to glare at Killian.
“Help,” I strangle the word out – trying not to fall into laughter.
“Move the log,” he says, pointing at me with the knife one more time before slipping it into its sheath.
I punch the damn log, then groan in pain. “Seth, stop.”
I’m so pinned I can’t even bend my knees or pull my feet out of his reach.
“Yes, Vexy,” he says, still dragging something sharp ever so softly over my soles.
My leg muscles jerk involuntarily. Damn, I didn’t even know I was this ticklish! Left foot, then right foot, then the left one again.
I am not giggling, I order myself, trying to say, “Stop it,” out loud.
“Should I stop, Killian?”
“No.”
“Bralls to your no! Yes! Yes, you should stop.”
I fall into the need to laugh.
Which chuckin’ hurts – there’s not enough room under here for this.
“Stop,” I gasp.
“Move the log,” both of them order.
Move the damn log!
Seth doesn’t even pause in his tickling.
I’ll move a log. I’ll move a whole tree – and it will be in your chuckin’ direction...
The trunk of the tree behind Seth shatters, followed closely by the next tree over. Wood splinters with thundering booms, reducing the world to a high pitch ring.
But there’s no time to care about that as the first tree twists and smacks into Seth harder than I could survive. He’s tossed off his feet and into the air. I’m not even sure the guy knows what hit him. He somersaults, still looking far too calm, then disappears into the canopy.
I have this strange moment of relief, because I didn’t kill him, before focusing back on the fact that I’m going to be crushed.
Both massive trees collide and plummet towards me. Trunks too big for me to wrap my arms around.
Me – stuck under a fucking log with nowhere to run.
Bare threads of time, not even whole seconds or whole breaths or whole beats.
One – the branches hit the ground first, stabbing down, cracking and breaking off, making the ground shake as wood shatters all around me.
Two – pine scent fills the air, not that I dare take another breath.
Three – I wrap my arms around my head, but I can’t even close my eyes to protect them. Too scared.
About to die.
Four – Killian dives over me.
Staring me in the eyes with nothing but black pits, he forms a human shield, and the first tree slams into his back. Followed quickly by the second.
He grunts and shudders. Barely holding the weight. Time slows. Bits of bark and leaves hover in midair. I have too many agonizing seconds to watch his elbows quiver, teeth clench, and genuine pain crease his brow.
This is it. He’s not going to lift it – he can’t. Those trees would equal the weight of half a damn house, and even if he pushed them off his back, he’d only be dropping them onto me – onto the trunk I’m under.
A sheen of sweat coats his brow, and his jaw clenches tight, but he’s sinking closer to me. Slowly buckling.
“Fuck,” I gasp. “Killian, move, you’re going to kill yourself.”
I press my hands into his chest as if somehow I can support his weight and the world crashing in on top of us.
The whites in his eyes vanish under the blacks. Tendrils of Darkness unfurl and stretch like thick black smoke out of his pupils and over his face. Down his neck, onto his chest, wrapping around my fingers – deathly cold.
Time snaps back into place, and the leaves and bark that were frozen in an almost beautiful pose suddenly return to chaos and debris.
“Vexy!” Seth shouts from somewhere.
He’s too far away. I can’t see anything past Killian’s massive form, the tangle of trees, and the growing Darkness. But I can feel that Seth’s nowhere near my bubble. Shadows seep from the edges of Killian’s mouth. From his ears. Like they’re always inside of him, and they’re escaping.
Something crashes loudly, and I know it’s another tree.
“Move!” I order.
He has to move. He has to get out of the way.
But he doesn’t even respond, and no Allure drags out the fear. The tree smashes into us, crushing us both with his chest flush to mine and barely any room to breathe. But I know he’s still holding them up, and the second he stops, we’re dead.
“I can’t hold it,” he gasps, every muscle violently shaking.
“Then don’t,” I whisper.
I want to tell him to roll to the side, that maybe it’ll hurt, but he’ll heal. If he rolls, just a little, he can manipulate the trees. But that would require more air than I currently have.
He rests his forehead against mine. Frozen.
And safe. Even while being crushed, I still feel safe with him. Heart pounding, can’t breathe, scared as bralls – and possibly about to die – but safe.
I am safe in the Darkness… The thought occurs to me, strung with an ice-cold power that I’ve never felt before.
Darkness, keep me safe, I ask, and his shadows obey.
They slam backwards, hitting the four trees that are piled on top of us, and in one sharp swirl of ash and smoke and all things dark, they’re gone.
Just. Gone.
Like the Darkness opened up and took them.
All of them – even the ones that were seeping from Killian’s eyes.
Seth runs over, suddenly able to get to us. Maybe he was thrown so far away that he’s just getting back, or the massive trees were blocking his path. I don’t know, and I only care that he’s here now.
He throws himself down next to us, landing on his hands and knees, puffing and panting just as badly as we are.
Killian inhales fully and straightens.
My back arches, and my lungs sigh with relief. I’m partway through rolling over, feeling bruised and shaken, when Killian pulls me into his arms, pressing me to his chest like he needs a moment longer to be sure we’re all alive.
To be sure I’m alive.
I hug him back, even though it means the whole breathing thing is once again constricted. Seth rests his head on my spine, at the nape of my neck. Each of his deep inhales sends a new shiver down my spine.
“I couldn’t even see where you were,” he whispers.
“I’m sorry,” I offer.
“Never, Vexy. Never be sorry.”
“Agreed,” Killian rumbles, standing and taking me with him.
He scoops an arm under my legs, cradling me to his chest. Carrying me toward the cottage.
“I can walk,” I start to protest because protesting my need to apologize is useless.
“No,” Killian growls.
“What hurts, Vexy?” Seth asks, his voice still shaken as he bounds down the boulders beside us.
I pause to check before answering, “Nothing, I’m fine.”
“She’s fine,” Killian says, but the way his fingers are pressing into me, one hand under my shoulders and the other hooked under my knees, I get the impression he doesn’t feel fine.
“I’m fine,” I repeat, searching Killian’s eyes.
The shadows seeping from his body have vanished, but it’s like I can still feel them there as we beeline towards the cottage, or maybe that’s just his ready-to-murder-someone vibe. Then we’re inside, Seth barely closing the door behind us before Pax slams the thing open again.
“What,” Pax begins.
“Happened?” Thane finishes.
Killian’s arms relax, letting my feet fall to the ground before handing me off to Seth. I’m wrapped up in Seth’s arms and his bitter sweet orange-cherry scent. Not the coppery tang of mischief. Just worried, running his hands over my body, heart beating way too hard, Seth.
“She used my Shadows,” Killian says, with a genuine pang of fear in his voice.
Pax’s jaw tenses. His skin ripples part wolf, then man, wolf, then man. Like they’ve regressed to their original struggle for dominance. His hand balls into a fist, but he doesn’t – or can’t – move.
“She used my Chaos first. It was my fault.”
“She can’t use the Shadows,” Thane growls, and none of us move or talk until Pax is back.
“She can’t use the Shadows,” Pax repeats.
No one is arguing. Actually, for an argument, there’s not a lot of talking happening at all. Killian storms past Pax, putting his fist through the wall on the way out. Pax takes careful steps closer, obviously struggling with all the reactions the sigil isn’t letting him have.
There’s no words, but as Pax approaches, Seth presses a kiss into my hair, then unwraps his arms from around me and retreats.
Leaving me with my mate. I want desperately to throw my arms around him, but everyone is so on edge that all I end up doing is waiting to see what he’ll do.
He steps in close enough to rain Alpha down on me but still says nothing. Instead, he threads one hand underneath my hair and presses it to the back of my neck, his other smoothing flat on the small of my back. The contact soothes my soul even though my shirt is muffling the spark of his touch.
I wait as long as I possibly can before asking, “What just happened?”
“The Shadows come through the Veil. It’s Killian’s way in and out. If you pull Shadows into this realm, you risk pulling things from the other side over here with them – and you risk dragging yourself back through the Veil when the Shadows retreat.”
“I sent those trees through the Veil?”
“Trees? Whole trees? That’s what you used them on?”
I nod because trees seem like a big deal – so I won’t mention that there were four of them.
“Killian usually moves or removes weapons. Small things like knives or arrows. He took something bigger out once, once. How big were these trees?” he asks, tugging something from my hair.
I lean back – it’s a leaf, and I’m pretty sure it’s not the only one.
“Going-to-crush-us size,” I say.
“Of course, they were,” he says, his gravelly tone slipping closer to Thane’s.
“Of course?” I ask.
“Because you never do small – always big. You’re very good at big.”
“What happened?” I ask, getting to the bottom of the stairs to find Kitten in Pax’s arms – stress and fear drawn along both their foreheads.
“She used the Shadows,” Pax says.
“Fuck.”
Kitten looks at me with wide eyes. Apparently, a sharp curse from my lips worries her.
Pax pushes her back to arms’ length, leaking Alpha dominance that forces her gaze to meet his. “You can’t use the Shadows. They’re too dangerous.”
“I didn’t mean to,” she says, and by the sound of her even tone, I’d say she can’t see how frightened he is.
Or how hard my heart is pounding.
“Never touch the Shadows,” Pax and Thane growl in unison, and their Alpha power strikes out so ferociously that I’m forced to stagger backward, and for several long heartbeats, I struggle just to inhale.
She shakes her head, a cross between defiance and clearing a thought.
Disbelief consumes me. She’s resisting his order. Without effort, maybe without even knowing it, she’s becoming his equal.
“You are forbidden,” Pax and Thane order.
I grip the door frame, using it to support me through the fresh blast of his power. He’s not directing it too well, either because of the bubble or his emotions – I’m unsure. It’s bloody uncomfortable, but there’s not a hope I’m walking away.
“I hear you,” she says, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. “But it wasn’t intentional in the first place.”
“Forbidden,” Pax and Thane repeat.
“I can try,” Kitten whispers, still not submitting.
He clenches and unclenches his fist. A tinge of his Alpha desire to control is in the air, but his desire to protect her is far more pungent.
He turns towards me. “We need a Power Blocking Potion.”
I almost choke on my shock. She’s resisting – and he’s letting her?
Jessamy was sweet. Short and gentle. She
barely mustered a growl. She was his mate – but she was never his beta and nothing that I know of equals an Alpha.
I add researching Alpha hierarchy to my list. It might be more complicated than I assumed. Maybe there are things Pax hadn’t shared, things I brushed over because it wasn’t important at the time.
“What? Wait,” Kitten cuts into my thoughts, proving that she’s oblivious to half of what’s going on around her. Maybe it’s partly to do with the worn-out sag to her posture and whatever series of events filled her hair with leaves and dirt. “I’ve spent days trying to use your powers – now you want to block them and throw all that hard work down the pit?”
Pax moves towards me.
One, two, three – three steps – and she staggers forwards.
“Was that your bubble?” I ask.
Pax turns sharply at the same time as he demands, “Pace it out.”
She leans back, and it’s clear she’s pressed against the solid wall.
“That’s it,” she says, her lip quivering a little.
I pace towards her. Press my palm to her stomach and give her a little push.
“Count them,” I ask softly.
“Three, two, one,” she whispers.
“Why?” I demand. “She had five a few hours ago. We should have had days to work this out.”
I turn in a circle, running my fingers roughly through my hair. Tugging a little too hard on the snags at the end. Days. My heart’s racing, and I take the stairs just as quickly. I needed days, not hours. Anything could steal those last few steps.
What are we doing wrong? Is it something we’re doing or something she’s doing…
“She used your Shadows?” I demand.
Everyone is looking at me like I’m maybe overreacting, but I can’t let go of this train of thought. I don’t even wait for them to answer – rushing up the stairs to the attic, and my charts on the table. My finger taps next to the scrawled numbers, doing the math.
It’s missing bits, information I didn’t think was important, like the steps she lost on the ride here. So I add those bits as I think.
She used power in the Lackshir markets, maybe that wasn’t the only time – I just missed the signs. She Allured me when we arrived, Allured the mortal mage, Allured Pax, Allured and Chaosed Seth, Aeons-knows-what she did to Rose… I add each one… each day… each lining up with steps…
Shadows and Shade Box Set Page 110
