by Lola StVil
Claimed By Shadows (Kissed By Shadows, Book 3)
Lola StVil
Book 1: The Girl
Book 2: The Fallout
Book 3: The Turn
Book 4: The Triplex
Book 5, Part 1: The Quo
Book 5, Part 2: The Lyris
Book 6, Part 1: The Shoma
Book 6, Part 2: The Nycren
Book 1: Blue Rose
Book 2: The Last Akon
Book 3: Fall of the Chosen
Book 4: When Angels Break
Book 5: Ways of the Wicked
Book 6: Rise of the Alago
Book 7: Rage of Angels
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Copyright © 2018 by Lola StVil
All rights reserved.
Formatting by Dallas Hodge, Everything But The Book
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Quinn Speaks
She’s been screaming for hours and won’t shut up. To be fair, I have been torturing her for days. I should be irritated, but it’s an earworm—annoying if you listen to it, but easy to ignore if you don’t.
I have brought my guest of honor to a damp, chilly cave nestled amongst the cliffs in Alaska. It should be pitch-black, but I’ve conjured up a few balls of light so that she can appreciate the view. Not that she can see much. She is strung from the cave’s ceiling, facing up, hanging by enchanted vines that get tighter the more she struggles.
I’m a little impressed with how quickly she figured that out and stopped struggling, although I’m not so impressed by the hope she continues to cling to. Hope that she will somehow be saved.
I considered a few ways to torture her, and in the end, I decided to go old school. I released a colony of fire ants on her and enchanted them not to leave her body. They will also eat away at her, starting with her flesh. They persistently nibble on her body. At first, it was just an irritant as they gnawed on her skin. But once they got through the skin and started on the tissue underneath, the screaming started.
You know the best thing about fire ants? Other than the fact their feet burn at the touch? They are small. They don’t need to eat much at a time. So, their delicious feast is going to last for quite some time. And we can all savor it together.
Sometimes though, I crave more than the insistent yet steady nibbling. Sometimes, like now, I think the guest of honor should have a bit of a change. They say a change is as good as a rest, don’t they? It’ll give me something to do while I wait.
I wave my hand, and the ants go into a feeding frenzy. I see my guest of honor tense up, the tendons in her neck standing out as she goes taut but tries not to struggle. Her screams increase in pitch. I think one of the ants might have reached her liver. To make sure she doesn’t die too quickly, I gave her a little concoction to keep her organs alive and well. She feels every little thing. As fun as that is, I’m not quite ready for my guest and me to part company yet, so I wave my hand again, and the ants go back to their usual pace.
“Why are you doing this?” she screams.
I suppose it can’t hurt to tell her. It’s not like she’s going to live long enough to tell anyone. I take a step towards her.
“Why not?” I smile. “You see, the thing about being evil is that not many people know how to do it right. But I do. You see, I’ve spent my whole life waiting for this. I didn’t know it then, but I do now.”
I pause while she lets out a particularly loud scream. There’s no point in explaining any of this to her if she’s not even going to listen. That’s just rude.
“Growing up, my mom spent most of my childhood raising the adorable Atlas. She barely even knew I existed because all of her focus was on her golden girl. I should have turned my back on Atlas the second she came back into my life, but I didn’t. In fact, I told myself that none of it was her fault. Not really. She didn’t ask my mom to abandon me and choose her. That was my mom’s choice.
“So, instead of shunning Atlas, I made an effort with her. I showed her how to use her powers when she first joined the team. Hell, I made her great. And how did she repay me for my troubles? Chocolates? Flowers? Life-long sisterhood?
“No. She repaid me by stealing my boyfriend and ripping my heart in two. And the worst part? She didn’t even want Regal. Not really. He was just a toy to her on her path to Kane. I guess I have to take some of the blame for that one myself though. Atlas should never have been able to rip my heart into two as she did because I should never have let myself have a heart.”
She makes an unintelligible moaning sound. It’s a change from the screaming I suppose, and although I wasn’t planning on telling her any of this, I have to admit I like this new level of torture. Now she knows this wasn’t random. Not at all. She was chosen for a reason. And the reason? The lovely Atlas.
“I hit rock bottom there for a while. I didn’t know how to deal with the feelings of hurt and betrayal, which is strange as I’ve dealt with those feelings all my life because of Atlas. You would think I was used to it by now, wouldn’t you?
“Then Arken came to me, and he made me the Keysu. The second most powerful being in the Shadow world after him. And I knew exactly how to make myself feel better. I was given a chance to get revenge on everyone who hurt me. And I intend to take it. And savor every last moment.”
The fire ants have reached some internal organs now. My guest of honor’s screams are getting louder.
“Please make it stop,” she whimpers between the screams.
“Soon,” I say with a self-satisfied smile.
It took longer than I expected for her to start begging, but it’s happened. I won. And I’ll keep winning.
I turn at the sound of footsteps approaching. Talon. Finally.
Part of me loves having Talon around. His thirst for blood and power knows no bounds, and I love his enthusiasm for anything that hurts people. I think even I could learn a lot from him.
But there’s another side to him. A side I despise. It’s clear by the way he looks at me, and the way his voice sometimes shakes a little when he talks to me, that he likes me a bit too much. And sometimes, more often than I’d like, he reeks of desperation when he’s around me.
He’s like two people in one body. Cold and ruthless to the core, but then there’s this need for approval. I hate needy people, and I hate people who need approval. It reminds me too much of how I used to be with my mom. Sniveling around, waiting for her to toss me a scrap.
“Did you get everything I asked for?” I snap.
My voice comes out harsher than I meant it to. Thinking about Talon’s neediness has angered me more than I expected.
He nods quickly. He looks pathetic, like a puppy waiting for a pat on the head.
“Yes,” he says.
“Good. Now I can set my plan in motion,” I smirk.
“You’re really going to stop Atlas from getting the next object on her quest, aren’t you?” he asks, his voice dripping with glee.
“By the time I’m done with her, the team won’t even want to get out of bed, let alone help her on her quest.” I laugh.
I get serious again, and I can feel the evil glare on my face as I almost spit out the next words.
“You see, Kane would never have made a good Keysu. He wasn’t imaginative enough. He just wanted to kill people,” I say.
Talon f
rowns a little.
“And you don’t?” he asks.
“I’m not against the idea if the situation calls for it, but killing everyone is such a copout, don’t you think?”
He nods, but I’m not sure he really gets it.
“Killing them is too quick. And this isn’t about just stopping them. It’s about destroying them from within. I’m going to tear them apart emotionally, break their pathetic hearts. Turn them on each other until they don’t know which way is up, only that it hurts. And when they can no longer bear the pain, they’ll come to me begging to die. And being the kindhearted Keysu that I am, I will be only too happy to grant their wish.”
Talon’s face lights up. Now he gets it.
“So, you want to break them before you kill them? Nice,” Talon says, nodding his head.
I hate myself for it, but his reaction pleases me.
“So, is that why you started with her?” he asks, motioning towards my guest of honor.
I nod.
“Yes. You see, my ex had a very close bond with this one. And it would shatter him to think she was in any pain because of him,” I say.
“I’m sure it would. So sad,” Talon says with a sinister smile.
“In a way, I’m doing my ex a favor. Loving people makes you weak, and by taking her away, I’m making him stronger. But will he thank me for it? I doubt it. Oh well, greatness is often underappreciated,” I say.
“Well, I sure appreciate the hell out of your gifts,” he says.
We watch as blood drips from her body. The blood is thick, and I know I was right. The fire ants have reached her liver.
“It would have been so easy to kill Regal. And it would certainly have been deserved after what he did to me. But it’s going to be so much more fun to rip his heart out,” I say.
Talon grins eagerly, an almost hungry expression on his face.
I take my cell phone out and hand it to Talon.
“Take this. Let’s make a movie,” I say.
He fiddles with the cell phone for a second.
“Ready,” he says.
I wait until the cell phone is on her body and step forward. I wave my hands, and the ants all stop eating her. The screams stop for a second, replaced with a relieved panting. I wave my hands again, and a piercing scream echoes through the cave, almost shaking the walls around us, as the vines that hold her in place spread out.
The vines pull apart, hard, ripping the girl limb from limb. A loud splat marks her torso and head hitting the ground. Her arms and legs remain hanging from the vines.
My voice is ice-cold as I step over her lifeless torso.
“Goodbye, Remy.”
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
— Martin Luther King Jr.
Life was so much simpler when I didn’t give a fuck.
I feel like Atlas is wasting away right in front of me and there’s nothing I can do about it. It sucks that she’s hurting, and I can’t take her pain away. It pisses me off more than anything. I’m torn between wanting to hold Atlas and never let her go and walking away and finding Quinn and tearing the bitch limb from limb.
I glance over at her. My Disney. My shining light in the sea of darkness that is my life. Or some shit like that anyway. I think she might be my redemption. But she’s more than that. She’s the one who looks at me and doesn’t see something broken. But now she looks broken, and nothing I can say or do will fix her.
I slip my hand into hers. She links her fingers through mine, but she doesn’t take her eyes off Regal. No one does. None of us even speak. We just sit. Waiting. Watching.
“You should eat something,” I say quietly to Atlas.
She looks over at the tray of untouched food that sits beside her.
“Mmmhmm,” she says, her eyes darting back to Regal, who lies in the bed in front of us, so pasty white he blends in against the sheets.
She makes no move to touch the food. I knew she wouldn’t. She hasn’t eaten anything in days. Not since we came here, to the Tamlo.
The Tamlo is officially a hospital, but we all know it’s more like a prison. Only with more relaxed visiting. The Tamlo is where Shadows are taken when they lose their minds, or when they can no longer control their powers. And it seems Regal is here for both reasons.
They’re giving him an inhibitor to stop his powers from overwhelming him. But that’s all they can do. The rest is up to him. He has to find a way to fix his broken mind so that he can get out of here.
As we sit by Regal’s bed, each of us hoping that today will be the day the warden (yes, a warden, not a doctor or healer, I told you it was like a prison) will tell us Regal has regained enough of his mental capacities to be allowed home, we can hear the sounds of some of the other prisoners. Sorry, I mean patients.
The silence in Regal’s room is broken by crying, people begging to go home, and the occasional scream that is so full of anguish it sends shivers down my spine. Regal doesn’t scream, thrash around, or cry. He just sits there, staring lifelessly ahead of him. I don’t know if that’s better or worse.
I suppose I should explain what happened. Why Regal is an empty shell now.
I’ve lost track of the days passing—they’re all the same in this place, and I’m almost certain that if you’re not crazy when you enter this place, you will be by the time you leave—but I think it’s been a week.
We sit in the lounge of the loft. Remy has been missing for almost a week, and the team is worried about her. Atlas has called a meeting so we can discuss what we are going to do to find her.
“Look, I don’t mean to be awful, but we have to at least consider the possibility that she went back to the pain dealer. She could be on a high, or she could be too ashamed to come back after she gave in,” Saudia says. “It’s not easy to break an addiction. Sometimes wanting to isn’t enough.”
“You would say that,” Perry snorts.
Saudia glares at him.
“I thought you were over this whole Tracey thing now you can see for yourself that she’s clean,” she snaps.
Perry holds his hands up in mock surrender.
“I am. But I just think it’s convenient that you are so quick to assume Remy has turned back to drugs, just because that’s all you’ve ever known with Tracey.”
“Stop it. Both of you,” Atlas says forcefully.
They stop bickering.
“Remy swore to me she was over it. And her pain dealer is too much of a coward to deal with her anymore after I visited him. I get why you want to believe she’s back to her addiction, Saudia—”
“Oh, not you, as well,” Saudia interrupts.
Atlas shakes her head.
“No, not for that reason. For the same reason we all do. It’s easier to think Remy went on a bender than to face the truth that none of us want to face. Remy isn’t back on drugs. Quinn has her.”
“Why would Quinn take Remy? It’s you she wants dead,” Langston snaps at Atlas.
Atlas ignores the venom in Langston’s voice and just shakes her head.
“I honestly don’t know. But it’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Maybe she wants to draw us in using Remy so she can take you down,” Regal puts in.
“Maybe,” Atlas says. “But why has she waited so long to get in touch? She can’t draw me in if I don’t know where to start looking.”
No one has an answer, and the team falls silent for a moment. Regal turns his attention to me.
“You’ve been the Keysu, Kane. Any ideas why Quinn would go after Remy and not Atlas?”
I pause and think for a moment.
“The Keysu’s mission is simple. Stop the Seeker from getting the objects. I planned to take the team out one by one, knowing Atlas would never be able to retrieve the objects alone. But that was because I could never have killed Atlas.”
I pause, and Atlas and I catch each other’s eyes. She gives me
a shy smile and then looks away, and I focus again.
“Quinn, on the other hand, was never exactly a fan of Atlas. She wouldn’t hesitate to just take her out. It just doesn’t make sense for her to have Remy,” I finish.
“Maybe she’s afraid of taking Atlas on. So she’s going to pick us all off one by one,” Perry suggests.
“Quinn isn’t afraid of anything. Certainly not of Atlas,” Langston says.
“I don’t know. You didn’t last long against her.” Perry laughs.
“Shut up, Perry,” Atlas says. “Langston’s right. Quinn isn’t afraid of me. She thinks she’s unbeatable now that she has been named Keysu.”
“Look, I hate to be the one to say this, but we have to consider every possibility,” I say.
“Go on,” Regal says, glaring at me.
“Is it possible that Remy has teamed up with Quinn?” I say. “I mean they were friends long before Atlas came along.”
“No,” Regal says, shaking his head. “Remy wouldn’t do that. She’s made mistakes, sure, but she’s never stopped trying to help with this quest. It’s her life’s purpose, Kane. Saving humans isn’t just a hobby for us. It’s in our blood. And Remy would never join forces with someone who wanted to destroy that.”
“Even if they promised to take her pain away?” I say.
Regal jumps to his feet.
“Even if they promised her everything she ever wanted. She’s no traitor.”
Regal’s cell phone buzzes in his pocket. He pulls it out angrily and looks at the screen. His face pales slightly, and he sits back down. Hard.
“It’s from Quinn. It’s a video titled ‘Where’s Remy?’” he says.
We gather around him so we can all see the cell phone screen.
“Play it,” Saudia demands.
“I…I can’t,” Regal says.
Langston rolls her eyes and reaches over his shoulder and presses play.
