Shadows of Fate (Shadow Born)

by Angela Dennis

  “He’s awake. We put him in the tub to heat his body.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief. “I want to see him.”

  He took her hands in his. “Not a good idea. Not right now.”

  “I can help him.” She sounded pathetic. When had her animosity dissolved and this neediness taken its place?

  Seraph placed his hands on her shoulders. “What do you remember about the blood exchange?”

  “Nothing.” As much as she tried, she couldn’t remember the taste of his blood or the feel of his power. Had Gray made her forget? Slipping a hand inside Seraph’s jacket, she freed the dagger he kept there. Before he could stop her, she sliced the blade across her forearm. The blood looked…different.

  What had Gray done?

  “I need to see him.” She studied Seraph’s eyes. He knew something. “What is going on?”

  “He saved your life. You should trust him.”

  “So you keep saying.”

  Seraph relented. “Can you walk?”

  “A little help would be appreciated.”

  With one arm wrapped around her waist, Seraph led her down the hallway to the bathroom.

  Gray laid his head against the ceramic rim of the tub. He felt like he had been beaten for hours with a crowbar then left in the Sahara to bake. His blood was still sluggish and struggling to regenerate. The heat of the water helped, but the healing process was taking too long.

  Once Brenna was strong enough, she would sense the difference in her blood. After their wedding, they had only finished the first portion of the mating ritual. He had built on that connection to save her on the mountain, completing the second step. The connection between them would be unmistakable. Brenna would feel it, though she might not understand it. Even so, he did not regret what he had done. She was alive. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He would enjoy the peace while it lasted.

  Footsteps outside the bathroom stirred him and he sat up with a splash. Seraph was in the doorway. “You need to announce yourself. I’m already on edge.”

  The other man didn’t answer immediately. Sitting up further, he saw Seraph was not alone. Brenna stood at his side. He fought the urge to reach out to touch her. “You’re alive.”

  The words were so soft he barely heard them. He had not expected her first reaction to be worry. It would be easier to deal with anger. Worry brought guilt.

  “I would join you, but I can’t seem to move.” It was an attempt at levity. It failed. Sighing, he took a deep breath and reinforced his glamour. He would keep the lie alive as long as possible.

  Brenna let Seraph help her into the room. She slid down next to Gray beside the bathtub. “You saved me.” She trailed her hand across his arm. Gray’s skin burned beneath her touch. He barely noticed the door closing as Seraph let himself out, a cheeky smile on his face. “Do you feel any different?” he asked Brenna.

  “Yes,” she admitted, “but every time I try to figure out why something blocks me.”

  Relieved, he sank back into the tub. The spell was working. He had paid a price for it, but it had bought him more time.

  He reached out and took her wrist. Ignoring her grunt of irritation, he pulled her to him and pressed his lips to her forehead. The firmness of her skin reassured him she was alive.

  When he released her, she got to her feet, using the tub for support. “What did you do to me?

  He sighed. Ducking the issue was no longer an option. He faced a choice—add another lie or finally let her know the truth.

  He rose from the tub and lifted some of his glamour, enough to give her a clear view of the scar that ran across the expanse of his lower back. It was from a wound he shouldn’t have survived. A wound he had gotten by her side ninety years ago. She gasped. He wasn’t ready to tell her the truth, but it was time. Fate had forced his hand.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Brenna froze. Her gaze was transfixed on Gray’s scar. It was the same size and shape Dunham’s would have been had he survived. Traces of other scars covered his entire body, but this one should have been impossible to heal. A scar that deep would have severed his spinal cord. Unconsciously she moved forward to get a better look.

  “How did you get that?” Her fingers itched to touch it and trace its deep grooves.

  “The war,” he replied. He grabbed his jeans from the floor, and pulled them on. “It’s nothing.”

  “A wound like that should have killed you.” She moved closer. “Why didn’t it?”

  “I’m lucky.”

  “No one is that lucky.” Her mind whirled as she processed everything she knew about Gray. Despite the fact he shared no physical similarities with Dunham, there was something about Gray that continually reminded her of the other man. Now, seeing the scar brought even more questions.

  No. It was impossible. Dunham was dead.

  She reached for Gray’s katana where it lay against the ceramic tile. All the times he had used it, she had never noticed the intricate carvings in the metal. They shone in the lamp light as she turned the blade in her hand.

  “Who are you?”

  “You already know.” He took the weapon back from her.

  “You’re one of the Vires. You’re too sympathetic to Dunham’s cause.”

  “But you’ve known that for a while, you just didn’t want to admit it,” he said, pulling on his shirt. “You’re getting closer.”

  She was stunned he had admitted it so readily. Apparently, this was going to be a day for revelations. “Why pretend?”

  “I needed to get close to you.” He leaned against the steam covered wall. “You’d never have trusted a Vires.”

  “Why? Not to kill me.” He’d had countless opportunities for that.

  “To find the truth,” he said. She had known he wasn’t what he seemed all along. Gray moved across the room until they stood toe to toe. “If you had betrayed my people, I wouldn’t have hesitated to kill you.”

  “Did Dunham’s family send you to find me?” She shook her head. “They knew I wasn’t part of it.”

  Gray tensed. “We were told you ran off with the guards and left Dunham to die. That you were in league with Orien and turned on him for your own attempt at a coup.” He shook his head. “It didn’t take long once I was here to learn that it was a lie.”

  Brenna braced herself against the wall. The news hurt far more than she wanted to admit. “Why send you? Why didn’t his brothers come?” She blinked back angry tears.

  “I didn’t give them a choice. It was my right. Not theirs.” He cupped her cheek with his hand, took a deep breath, and dropped his glamour.

  All of it.

  Still over six feet tall, his now thick white blond hair was pulled into a tight ponytail at his neck. His muscular body was a golden bronze that only came from lengthy exposure to the sun. His face was the one burned into her memories, that haunted her dreams. Only his violet gaze was the same as Gray’s.

  “That’s not possible!” she stammered, fisting her hands. “You’re a doppelganger. A twin.”

  Gray’s hands settling on her waist. “I have no twin. No one but my family knows I am still alive.”

  She struggled in his grasp, but he held fast. “I was there. I saw what they did. You couldn’t have survived.” The shock left a metallic twinge in her mouth. She prayed she wouldn’t faint.

  “My barriers are down. Touch me with your magic, Brenna. Tell me if I’m real.” He pressed her hand against his chest. “My brothers pieced me back together. It took years, but I survived.”

  “Yet you waited all this time to find me?” She paused. “You were going to kill me, weren’t you?”

  “It was a possibility. When I thought you had betrayed me.”

  “How could you believe that?” Anger spurred her on. “We took an oath.”

  “It seems those mean little to your clan.”

  “I’m not my father.” Her emotions were overwhelming her judgment. “I destroyed my life to avenge your death. Even after my p
enance is served, I can never return home. My family will kill me on sight.” She grimaced. “This isn’t real. You exchanged one glamour for another. Even if you were able to fool me, you can’t fool Seraph. He can see through any glamour I can construct.”

  Gray nodded. “Seraph knows. He has been a friend of my family for centuries. I asked him to monitor you. He’s not one of us, so I knew I could trust him to be impartial.”

  Seraph was the closest person to her on this plane and their relationship had been based on deception. It seemed she was destined to trust the wrong people.

  She gathered her energy and opened her bond with Dunham. Even though she could feel their connection, she needed to see it for herself. As she looked beyond the physical plane, she could see the golden cords, no longer hidden by Gray’s glamour, binding them together. That bond couldn’t be forged or imitated.

  Dunham was alive.

  It was impossible.

  He stared at her, waiting for her reaction. But the events of the past few days had pushed her beyond her threshold. She was at a total loss.

  “What am I supposed to do? Pick up where we left off? Live happily ever after? Pretend none of this happened?” She shifted her feet. “I’m glad you’re alive, but what do expect me from me?”

  His eyes narrowed, disappointed. “Right now we need to focus on defeating Orien. When we catch him, I will take him to the Council. I have proof that your father ordered Orien and his men to kill us both. The Council will sentence him to death, and they will allow me to carry out the sentence. That’s what I want. It is my right.”

  “If you go to the Council, you’ll only enflame the war back home. There will be no turning back. One side will have to exterminate the other for it to end.” She had no love for her father, but what Gray suggested would be genocide. “The goal of our marriage was peace. If you do this, the war continues. Blood for blood. Revenge for revenge.”

  “The only chance for peace is if your father abdicates. Only the Council can force him out.” Gray raised his chin. “Exposing his plot to the Council is the first step.”

  Brenna sighed. That much was true. “Okay, right now we focus on Orien.” Her mind was still spinning. “I need time to process the rest.”

  “I understand.” He paused. “I still want you to think of me as Gray. Dunham may not be dead, but I’m no longer Dunham. A lot has happened.”

  “I don’t know whether to cry or kill you.” She left the room with as much pride as she could muster. It was difficult when she had to use the wall for support.

  Seraph was waiting for her in the hall. “So, Gray told you,” he said. “About time.”

  As she stared into his lying eyes, her emotions took over. “I thought you were my friend. I trusted you.” She shook her head. “The whole time you were reporting back to them.”

  “Not them. Him. And I’m the reason he didn’t kill you,” he said. “I knew you couldn’t have betrayed Dunham.”

  “And that’s supposed to make me feel better?” She pushed away from him, heading for the bedroom. “We need to stop Orien. After that you can all go to Hell.”

  Gray’s patience was wearing thin. Seraph had spent hours studying the map of the Veils weak spots. Now that the wounds were healing, they were going to send teams to each and smoke Orien out. But the remnants of the IRT were still weak and for all they knew one of these spots was the new demon base. Seraph needed time to plan.

  The wait wore away at Gray’s self-control. Now, more than ever, it was critical they stop the demonic rebellion Orien had instigated. The sooner they could present Orien to the Council, the sooner he and Brenna could move on with their lives. If that was even possible.

  Brenna was avoiding him. They still shared the same small room and she was civil to him, even pleasant, but when he tried to talk about the past she shut him down. He wanted her to yell at him, but she was endlessly polite.

  “Have you seen Brenna?” he asked.

  Seraph turned from the map. “She is taking Mira to recon one of the nearby tunnels.” He raised his hand as Gray began to protest. “The tunnel doesn’t connect to a portal, we just need to eliminate it from the list. If they find anything unusual, they have orders to come right back.”

  “Why didn’t you wait so I could go with her?”

  Seraph sighed and folded the map. “I don’t think they’ve left yet, but you need to give her space.”

  “It didn’t go the way I expected,” Gray admitted.

  “I would say it went better than you had a right to expect, given how long you waited.” Seraph smiled. “At least she didn’t try to kill you.”

  Gray shrugged. “She’s not the person I knew.”

  “She was beaten and banished and forced to remain on this world without any of her kind for ninety years.” Seraph sighed. “You can’t expect her to be the same.”

  “I want justice,” Gray said. “My father wanted to see our clans united. We have to show them that even after all that has happened, we are willing to go forward with the original plan.”

  “Your brothers lied to you. You can’t trust them any more than Brenna can trust her father. The rest of your family is dead. Do you think your brother will step down from the throne without a fight? It’s your birthright, but he’s been ruling in your place for ninety years.”

  “I have to do it.”

  “Not with me.” Brenna stood in the doorway. She was bundled for the cold weather, a pack slung over one shoulder, Mira next to her. “I’m not going back there. My home is here now.”

  “You took an oath—”

  “That bond can still be severed,” she interrupted. “We never completed the entire ritual.”

  Gray’s heart seized at her words. “That’s not an option, Brenna.”

  “It’s your only option, Gray.” Slowly she walked toward him. “I’m not going to say this again. My home is here.”

  He jerked to his feet, knocking his chair over. “You have a duty to your people.”

  She met his gaze unflinching. “I have a duty to myself.” Walking around him, she turned to Seraph. “We’re leaving. I’ll call if we find anything.”

  Gray watched as she and Mira disappeared through the door. Her defiance now had an unshakable self-confidence to it. He admired the woman she had become, but it was going to make things a lot more difficult.

  Brenna cursed under her breath, as the cabin door slam shut behind her. The frosty winter air did little to soothe her fiery temper. How could Gray think she would leave this world behind as if nothing had happened? Had he forgotten they were fighting a war here? Capturing Orien would not stop the demons. There were too many of them on this side already. Her time here may not have been ideal, but this was home now, and she owed a measure of loyalty both to her friends and to this world.

  She was having a hard time coming to grips with Dunham’s return. Deep down she had always felt Dunham was still alive, even if she couldn’t believe it. Now she couldn’t reconcile Gray with her dead husband. They were similar in many ways, and yet so different.

  Gray had whittled his way into her affections. Her feelings for him had blossomed to the point she had been willing to take that next step. It was a relief to know those feelings had not been a betrayal to Dunham. Even so, she wouldn’t return home just to incite more chaos and violence.

  Even with his silence, Gray had lied to her. Looking back over their time together, she found it hard to differentiate between what was real and what had been part of his ruse. It wasn’t something she found easy to forgive.

  “Why so glum?” Mira teased walking next to her. “You look like someone stole your puppy.”

  Brenna shrugged. “I’m allowed to have a bad day.”

  Wisely, Mira didn’t respond.

  In silence they trudged up the hillside. Although it was only a few miles from the cabin, the atmosphere changed significantly as they approached. The air was tinged with magic at the place Seraph had marked. It seemed benign, but looks coul
d be deceiving. She felt the aura of leftover magic as she moved closer. It felt abandoned, in the same way a landmine was abandoned. “The tunnels should be empty,” she said, turning to Mira. “But if they aren’t, I need you to stand guard here. I’ll contact you if I get in trouble.”

  Mira tilted her head. Because of Brenna’s blood, they still had a light connection. “I’ll keep our link open, but I feel the power too. You might need my help.”

  She shook her head, motioning to the tree line. “Wait for me there.”

  Mira was right. It would be safer if they both went in, but the magic required to break the enchantment around the entrance was too dangerous. If it backfired they could both be hurt. Brenna had to do this alone.

  Brenna moved quietly through the foliage. When she reached the clearing, her eyes were drawn to the crumbling stone well in the middle of the field. Tangled vines with wilted yellow and white flowers twined through the stone at its mouth, it was filled to the brim with cement. As Brenna approached she could feel the spell deeply wrapped around the structure. It had to be the entrance.

  She stripped the glamour away and the cement core in the well vanished. She stared down into a dark abyss.

  Power surged from down below, swirling around her outstretched hand. It was a complicated defensive barrier. One she did not recognize. She wrapped her power around her like a cloak as she murmured a counter spell, and forced her body through the entrance. The surge fragmented the barrier. If Mira or one of the others ran into the splintered spell, they would be injured by the unstable energy. But she could get through. She would have to return and clean up the remnants later.

  She stared down the well and focused. A second later she shifted down to the bottom. Brushing the dust from her jeans, she looked around. She stood in the center of a maze, strangely lit from all sides by an unseen source. Entrances to multiple tunnels surrounded her on all sides. She felt Mira’s concern in her mind and reassured her she was alright, but warned her to stay back from the entrance.