Light's Shadow (Copper Falls Book 3)

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  Somehow, even now, she could not believe that they were a mistake. The warlock was the disease and the cause of the disease, all rolled into one. If she’d seen even a glimpse of him, she would have destroyed him. She’d never hated someone so completely in her entire life. She spent a large part of every day, hoping to see him again before she performed the spell. Vengeance and freedom both? That would be the sweetest thing of all.

  She’d worked all day, making the last preparations for the spell, and now it was dark, the sky lit by bright moonlight. She sat in her yard and looked up at the sky. The older she got, the more she enjoyed this. She felt so small, so insignificant when she looked up into the vast, endless heavens. In the overall scheme of things, she was but a speck of dust, temporary and almost invisible. She had once reveled in the power she’d held, feeling important, almost God-like. Her pride had had a cost, and her insanity had led to people being hurt…

  She heard a scream in the distance, in the direction of the settlement where her people lived. She had not been there in years, ashamed of herself. Claire had spent quite a lot of time there, though, with the witch sisters.

  She heard another scream, and then a deafening roar, and she burst into a run, then focused and appeared in the camp.

  She saw it immediately. Luc had a small boy cornered against the side of a rocky outcropping, roaring at him, moving closer, as a woman screamed and cried and the others quickly grabbed bows and arrows.

  “No! Stop,” Migisi said. She saw recognition in their eyes, and quickly put herself between them and Luc.

  He roared again, and she shouted his name. ‘Luc!”

  He turned to her, and there was that familiar hatred in his eyes. Then he turned back to the boy, and before he could do anything to the boy, and before anyone could shoot Luc, Migisi flung her power at him, throwing him as far as she could into the forest beyond. Without another look at the tribe who had once been her people, she ran after him, crashing through the undergrowth as mosquitoes buzzed near her ears.

  The forest was eerie, tree trunks silvered in moonlight, silent as death. Natural creatures knew exactly what she and Luc were: cursed. They avoided both of them at all costs.

  “Luc,” Migisi called. She heard a roar off to her left, and ran toward him, determined to keep him away from the camp.

  As she neared him, he looked at her. A growl started, low in his throat, but then he went silent. He closed his eyes, and, moments later, she saw him start to shift back, fur becoming smooth skin, bulk becoming lean muscle. All that stayed the same was his arresting blue gaze.

  He was sane. Whole, for the moment. Migisi’s heart sank. How sick was it that, after all this time, with a solution at hand, she was not ready to let go?

  But they were in the right spot, very near to the cliff overlooking the land they’d called home for so long. She could hear the falls crashing nearby. The satchel tied to her back contained everything she’d need for the spell. She had not taken it off since she’d completed her preparations, knowing that she would have to act as soon as she had the chance.

  “Are you ready, Luc?” she whispered. Luc nodded and stood, and held his hand out to her.

  Migisi placed her hand in his, and they walked toward the edge of the cliff. They stood, hands clasped, and looked out over forests, streams, all of it bathed in perfect light. She let go of his hand and shrugged the pack off of her back. She quickly arranged the items for her spell: herbs she had found only after days of searching deep in the woods, four particular types of stone, belongings of both hers and Luc’s, a coil of their hair, braided together around two tiny oak saplings.

  Luc took her other hand in his, and they stood facing one another.

  Migisi met his eyes, and remembered all the moments they’d shared, all the times they’d met one another’s eyes, and simple understanding and love had passed between them. The first day they’d spoken to one another, she’d been captivated by his light blue eyes, so very different from her own. Later, her gaze had stayed locked onto his as he’d lowered his face to hers and kissed her, so warmly, so possessively, that she’d felt it all the way into her soul. He’d always made love to her, looking deep into her eyes.

  They’d seen so much together. Been through so much. Created life, only to be forced to mourn. And when life had finally sprung from her womb, it had been Luc who’d brought her daughter into the world, Luc who had saved her life.

  Migisi wept, refusing to look away from Luc.

  “I have loved you since before I even knew you existed,” she whispered. “You have been my heart, my soul, my everything. I am so sorry for all of the pain I’ve caused you, my love.”

  Tears fell from Luc’s eyes, and he brought his hands to her face, cupping her face between his hands. “You have always been mine, Migisi,” he said hoarsely. “You have no apologies to make to me. You have given me love, and joy, and a reason for existing. We should have gone into old age together, loving one another, holding each other. I should have spent a lifetime loving you, serving you, protecting you. Instead, everything we had has been cut short.” He drew a shaky breath. “I do not want to say good-bye to you.”

  At this, Migisi couldn’t stop the sobs that wracked her body, and when he pulled her close, she knew that he was crying, too. She turned her face toward his neck and breathed him in, kissed his neck and experienced the familiar taste of him for the last time. His arms were tight around her, gripping her as if he refused to let her go.

  She shook her head and looked up at him, wiping her tears away. “This is not good-bye, Luc. Though our bodies will cease to be, though I will never feel your hands on me again, or taste your lips, or see your breathtaking eyes again,” she said, running her hands over his face, wiping his tears away. “This is not good-bye,” she repeated. “We will always be together. For as long as life reigns in this forest, as long as our blood runs through our children, and their children, we will live. We will stand sentry here, and provide sanctuary and protection to those who come after us. Together.”

  Luc nodded, and claimed her lips one more time, the taste of her lips mingling with the salty tang of their tears. He held her against his body, refusing to let her go, and soon he felt her magic swirling around them, felt it reaching deep inside him, felt it connecting him to her in a way he’d only felt connected to her when they’d made love, as if there was nothing between them, as if they were one and inseparable.

  He felt more. He felt the air and the stars and the trees and the creatures of the forest, who had gone silent. He felt the soil and all of the invisible life that dwelled there. He felt the spirits of their children, those they’d created together, and he wept, still kissing Migisi, her sobs matching his own, and he knew she felt them, too.

  He felt her. The essence of Migisi, her Shadow, her strength, her pain and sadness, her joy at being with him again. And in her, he felt his home.

  He felt her magic swirl faster around them, taking his breath away, raising gooseflesh along his skin.

  He felt the moment their bodies ceased to exist.

  He felt the moment they floated like leaves caught on a breeze, down from the cliff.

  He felt his soul take root in the fertile soil in the exact spot in which he and Migisi had first met, near the stream at the base of the falls.

  He felt Migisi, there with him, just as she had promised.

  He was rooted, and he was free.

  Protector and guardian, husband and father.

  Eternal.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Sophie hadn’t been able to make herself move. She stared, then slowly lowered her hand to her stomach.

  The moment she did, she was pulled into the house. She was lying on a pile of blankets and furs on the floor, panting, in agony, screaming, as her husband crouched between her thighs, hands extended, urging her on in a deep voice. French. He was speaking French, so gently that it was almost enough to make her forget the pain.

  One final scream, one final
push, and she felt the baby fall free.

  She looked between her legs, at the still child.

  Up into his eyes.

  And she screamed in mourning.

  The same room. There was a fire in the stone fireplace. She knew better, this time. She hadn’t told him, in the hopes that maybe she was wrong, but she knew. As the child slipped free of her body, he caught it in his hands, cradled it lovingly even as he wept for what they had lost, again. They cried together, and she gently stroked her son’s tiny fingers. Still bleeding, in agony, she followed him out into the snow, cradling the tiny body.

  Another grave, another child she would never get to hold again.

  “Please. Please please please please. S’il vous plait. Daga… Daga. Please!” she begged, in every language she knew, as she pushed again. She had felt the child moving even a week ago. Strong. Alive.

  Luc prayed, a whispered prayer in his native French.

  “There’s the head, little ghost,” he said. “Once more now.”

  And then he prayed again.

  When their daughter slipped free, it was clear their pleas, their prayers, had not been answered.

  They wept together, their daughter’s body cradled in Luc’s arms, Migisi’s blood smeared over his clothing.

  A flash. So quickly she almost missed it. A small stone house, deep in the forest. Swathed in Shadow. As she stood, trembling, her vision panned out, showing her where, which path led her from here to there, to the eye of the storm, to the one thing that was a real threat to her child now.

  Sophie opened her eyes. She was shaking. Sweating, yet she felt ice cold. Her hand was still on her stomach, and she patted it lovingly. The goats had all come back to the fence, and were watching her with their knowing stares.

  “Not this time,” she whispered. “I am not going to let anything happen to you.”

  You’re Shadow. You’re going to lose her anyway, doubt whispered.

  “And Shadow answers to me, not the other way around,” Sophie muttered. She tried to shake off the terror that the visions had caused. Visions of Migisi’s life, of her and Luc losing child after child, Migisi’s body incapable of sustaining life.

  But this baby… her daughter was already strong in the Light. She would survive. She and Calder would welcome a daughter.

  Sophie felt tears streaming down her face, overwhelmed with gratitude and fear and shock. She’d been on birth control even though she’d assumed, as Migisi had, that her body would be incapable of creating or supporting life.

  And yet, she’d been doing that for weeks now. Supporting life. Creating it where all life had felt lost.

  A baby, born of the Light. Calder was going to be a father.

  Sophie shook her head in shock, a little smile playing at her lips.

  I promised her I’d get the Light out of her line. I swore it to her.

  All at once, that last flash of a vision made sense. Her daughter was not safe while Marshall existed. He’d made that vow to Micaela, and it had fueled him for the last thousand years, at least. He would do everything in his power to destroy her, knowing it would be the end of Micaela’s line, finally. And she’d been shown, miraculously enough, exactly where to find him and put an end to his destruction.

  “Thank you, grandmother Migisi,” she whispered, and a warm breeze kissed her face.

  She pulled her phone out of her pocket, trying to call Calder. It went to voicemail, so she told him where she was going, hoping he’d get the message in time to meet her there. The other news… she’d have to tell him that in person. She texted him as well, then tried Bryce, Jon, and Layla. None of them picked up, but at least they knew where to find her. Hopefully, they’d get it soon enough to meet her there.

  There had been an immediacy to her vision, as if she’d been being told that she had to go, now. That this was her chance and if she missed it, Marshall would hunt her child as she’d hunted Migisi, and Claire, and Sophie’s grandmother and mother and then Sophie herself, and all of the generations of Light witches of her line who’d come before Migisi… this ended now, and this was her chance. She knew, somehow, that if she didn’t take it, she would not get this chance again.

  She ran into the house, where she found Esme shoveling strawberry ice cream into her mouth.

  “We need to go. I know where to find him,” Sophie said. She pulled on her sneakers. “Now.”

  “What?” Esme asked through a mouth full of ice cream. “Are you out of your mind?”

  “I had a vision. I know where to find him.”

  “Oh, please,” Esme said, putting the carton of ice cream back in the freezer. “You sound just as nutty as Migisi, now.”

  “There’s a tiny stone house, in the middle of the deepest part of the forest. Not too far from here,” Sophie said. Esme’s eyes widened, and then she shook her head.

  “Okay. Yes, he lived there at one time. But he doesn’t anymore,” Esme said.

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because I went and checked the second you dragged me into this mess. The house is falling down, crumbling into nothing. He’s not there. And: your boyfriend and his wolf friends are hunting Marshall. You don’t need to.”

  “I need to. And I need to now. This is my chance.”

  Esme shook her head, and Sophie could almost see the panic rolling off of her. “No.”

  “Esme. I’m going. You can come with me or not, but I need to do this.”

  “Wait for Calder.”

  “I tried to get a hold of him. Nothing. They must be in one of the more distant areas of the pack’s territory.”

  “Just wait for him.”

  “I have to do this now. There won’t be another chance.”

  “Sophie, just stop. You don’t know that,” Esme snapped.

  “Yes I do. Are you coming or not?”

  Esme was pale. She still hadn’t brought her glamour back up, and she looked even more ancient than she had before. She seemed to be thinking, and Sophie was about to walk out on her own when Esme finally spoke. “If he’s there, you have to strike quickly. You can’t give him a chance to say anything. You can’t second-guess whether you’re actually okay with destroying him or not. If he gets a chance to act, we’re fucked. Do you understand?”

  “Why are you scared?” Sophie asked. She’d never seen Esme actually frightened before, but she definitely was now.

  “Because if you get your dumb ass killed, I’ll have broken a promise, and I’m not letting Luc down again. If Marshall is there, he’s in the place where he’s strongest. This is probably a fucking trap. Maybe he got into your mind. Have you even considered that?”

  Sophie shook her head. “This wasn’t him. We need to go, before I miss this chance.”

  Esme unleashed a barrage of profanity at her while also furiously messaging both Calder and Jon.

  “Going now,” Sophie said.

  “I hate you,” Esme muttered. She grabbed Sophie’s arm, and Sophie took a step forward.

  “See? I told you,” Esme said when they stepped into the deep shade of the forest. About thirty feet in front of them, Sophie saw the crumbling remains of a small stone building. The roof had collapsed in, and the top two thirds of the wall nearest them had fallen, stones piles near the side of the house where they’d come to rest. The windows on the remaining walls were busted out, and she could see that the one-room house was empty.

  Sophie shushed Esme as she looked around.

  No. Something was off. It had obviously fallen into ruin a long time ago. Yet no vines grew over it. No tree saplings pushed up along the perimeter of the house.

  Sophie closed her eyes. “Keep watch,” she told Esme. She heard Esme sigh in response, and then she focused harder.

  She could see it almost immediately. The little house was shrouded in a glamour, much like the one Esme often wore. Bu this time, it was to make the house look more dilapidated. In truth, the little house stood strong and solid.

  Inside, Marshall slept on the
narrow bed in one corner of the room.

  Sophie ripped the glamour away, and she heard Esme gasp.

  “Fucking copycat,” she muttered, and Sophie shook her head. They quietly crept to the house and looked in the window. She watched Marshall sleeping for a few moments, nearly overwhelmed with disgust and hatred.

  Remembering what Esme had said, she put her magic to work immediately. She reached for Marshall with it, found his beating heart…

  And began to slow it down. If she did this just right, he’d die in his sleep, and at least she wouldn’t have made him suffer. She no longer held onto the idea that he could be spared, that confinement would be enough. It wasn’t just her anymore. He had to die, or he’d end up destroying her daughter. She understood that now, feeling her daughter bright and alive in her womb. But he didn’t have to die in pain.

  Marshall bucked in the bed, gasped for breath. He clutched at his chest, and Sophie worked harder. He made a pushing gesture with his hand, and she felt her magic snap as she lost control of his heart.

  She quickly tried again, and he batted the spell away. Marshall stood up and walked toward the door, toward where she and Esme were. He was naked, Sophie noticed with some disgust. He was actually quite muscular, his body decorated with black tattoos. He stepped out the door and smiled at Sophie.

  “What a nice surprise, kitty cat,” he said. He gestured down at himself. “As you can see, I’m ready for you.”

  She tried to choke him, and he swatted the spell away.

  “Oh, come on, sweetness. I’m not a tree. You can’t fucking manipulate me that way.”

  He took a step toward her, and she threw more power at him.

  “Esme, come on,” she hissed as he deflected the spell again.

  Marshall laughed, then glanced at Esme.

  “Ah, Esme. You’re looking well,” he sneered, and Sophie remembered all too well that he was the one who had done this to her, who had made Esme’s usual glamour necessary. He laughed. “What’s the matter? Why won’t you help your friend, Esme?”