Reign of Shadows (11 page)

“No,”
Brianna repeated, unable to voice the truth while looking at anyone but her sister. “He thinks he is the chosen one, the heir to the dragon’s name.”

It took longer than it should have, for her audience to make the connection, but she felt more than heard their final
comprehension. Logan was a statue behind her, only the memory of his hands, the heat of his body assuring her he was still there.

“He wants to create a bond,” Emily said, “with you.”

Chapter Twenty-five

Shadows

“Brianna burned through their connections,” Callan said. “None of them are left.” He said the words with all the confidence he could manage, even though a lie told to these shadows could cost him more than simply his life. He wasn’t used to having to resort to deceit, but he knew better than to attempt his gift on them. Not without the bond in place. Not without Brianna.

“And the other girl, the prophet?” the shadow asked. “What of her power?”

“She is under my control. There is no need to remove her until we have
the chosen in place.”

It was more than a simple untruth. He’d been worki
ng for months, since before she’d been found. It was no small thing to convince an army of shadows to go after the wrong girl. But the prophecy had been working with him, and the girl’s own mother had practically laid the path in place by marking her sister as a decoy. They only wanted the power Emily held, intended to destroy the prophet. Brianna had assumed they’d wanted the wrong sister, and they had, but only because he’d misled them. To keep her safe.

“You assume too much, weak-blood. We will decide when the prophet is removed.”
The shadow stood, the light of the hearth fire flickering behind him when the air shifted. When his power swelled around them. “The only thing keeping her alive is the secret. And if you don’t find it soon—”

His wor
ds didn’t so much trail off as end. Both Callan and the shadow knew what the outcome would be if he failed.

“Sir,” Callan said, inclining his head to go.

“We are watching you, son of Acacius,” the shadow said in a low, even voice. Callan looked up from beneath his brow, his gaze connecting with the liquid heat in the other man’s eyes. It was more than a warning when an ancient spoke his disgraced father’s name, and there was no mistaking the menace in his tone. “Do not disappoint us again.”

Again
. The word ran through Callan’s mind as he backed from the room, lost at the implication. Had he let go of Brianna’s power too long, had some part of the shadow’s prophecy came to their seers? Or was there something else, some other misstep he’d not realized? The shadows who had attacked Council would have lived to tell, but he had wiped their memories after Emily’s work was done. Even if they found their way back, they’d be no danger to him. There was no way they would reveal his plan.

The heavy wooden doors closed behind him, and he held his head high, glancing absently at the empty hall.
There were no guards waiting—these shadows didn’t need protection. But they’d given him a new team, a set of men he was to prepare for the next assault. They would certainly try for Emily, thinking she was the prophet, but it would only take them a moment to realize the truth and change course, as the other shadows had, to understand they had been deceived, that Brianna was their true prize.

He walked toward the main hall
to gather his new charges, the ones he would lead straight to Brianna, and wondered how he was going to save her this time.

Chapter Twenty-six

Brianna

“It doesn’t work that way,” Emily said again. The last few minutes had been tense, once the initial shock of Brianna’s announcement wore thin and they’d sent a messenger to find Wesley. Emily pointed at Aern. “He doesn’t take anything from me. He has never drained or hurt me.” She leaned closer to her sister, who sat heavily on one of the padded chairs, eyes averted from Logan’s. “This guy is bad, Brianna. He isn’t trying to save you.”

“You think I don’t know he’s bad?” Brianna shot back, running a hand over her arm as if her skin was crawling even now. “But he’s the only thing stopping them, Emily.
He
was the one who warned us they were coming.”

Aern stepped forward, wincing at jumping
into their quarrel, and said, “You aren’t disagreeing on that. No one thinks this guy is harmless.”

Emily’s glare shot to Aern, daring him to
argue that they shouldn’t find and destroy the shadow who was drawing from Brianna.
Now
.

He held up
a hand, shaking his head. “All Brianna is saying is that we have no idea what’s going on, no evidence of who’s running things or why this is happening. And right now, this shadow is the only thing keeping either of you alive.”

Emily crossed her arms. It was all the argument she needed, but
he would feel her anyway, the anger and nearly uncontrollable need to act. But there would be something else beneath it. Concern for Brianna, for the way she’d progressively gotten thinner, the dark circles under her eyes. And fear. Fear of the unknown, of what this man could do to them. Brianna could guess, because she was feeling it too.

They were both scared, neither knowing
what kind of monsters were behind this shadow, how they could be strong enough to drive someone so powerful to obey. But the fact that their mother had known the man’s father, the possibility that she’d somehow laid a plan in place, kept Brianna’s hope alive. Because maybe there was some chance, some small possibility of fighting the fate she’d seen for them.

“We
can’t know what’s going to happen,” Brianna said. “We might need him, to use him against the others.”

“Oh, right,” Emily said. “I can burn him, Aern can swa
y him, and we can walk right into his lair to meet the bad guys.” Her tone was less scorn than disbelief. “You don’t just keep someone around who’s hurting you. Not on the off chance he’ll be some kind of help.”

“He hasn’t hurt me,” Brianna said in a soft voice. “I’m not okay with what he’s doing, but if it helps us…”

“He has,” Logan said. Everyone, even Brianna, looked at him. “The first time he sent you a vision. Before the fight with Morgan and every time since, Brianna. He is hurting you.”

Recognition sparked in Emily first, the memory of Bri
anna being knocked to the floor in what was nearly a seizure, and then nothing as she lay there, lifeless. And again, when he’d shown her the shadows coming, the vision that had saved them only days ago.

Brianna wanted to argue, to say maybe that was the only way, but doubt flickered at the impulse, because she had a memory of the look that had crossed over
the shadow’s face when she’d said he was hurting her.

“Okay,” she finally
agreed. Her eyes came back to Emily. “You can burn him. But don’t do it until I can see, until I know for sure you’ll be safe.”

“Why can’t you see them, Bri?” Emily
replied. “You can see me, you can see my future. Why are the others out of range?”

It was another accusation, but Brianna didn’t have the answer. None of it was making sense, and she still hadn’t
shaken the cold spike of fear at finding he had a way to reach her, to touch her even now. It was worse, so much worse than the invasion of her mind. This was a part of her; her power was a physical thing.

Aern glanced at the floor, running a hand over his neck.
She knew he was picking up on her emotion, how keenly she was feeling the dread, the revulsion, the uncontrollable pull to this other shadow. She knew he felt like it was an invasion of his own.

“She’s right,” Logan said. “What’s so different about them, what’s keeping you from finding only their future?”

Brianna was silent as she concentrated on the fog, not for the first time. She’d felt as if something was there, some obvious
thing
she was missing. Before she’d found her connections to the power, she’d been missing a lot of things. But this was different. This was a blur that covered only one part of her ability, and she couldn’t figure out why.

They would have to work on it from a different direction, find some other connection to lead her there. Like the clues, when Logan had helped her discover the hints her mother had left them.

“He’s a dragon,” Brianna said. “So what do we know about those abilities?”

All eyes in the room suddenly on him, Aern didn’t
appear to like the direction the conversation was taking. That this threat, this thing that wanted to hurt Brianna and Emily was somehow related to his line, his power. He cleared his throat. “Aside from the sway, I can sense intent, moods, and the occasional random impression, though it seems to be sharper with certain people. I can communicate those same senses to Emily through the bond, and my awareness of her is more acute than with anyone else.”

“But
he doesn’t hurt me,” Emily said, though it held less heat than her previous arguments. “It isn’t taking anything from me.”

“Intent, maybe?” Logan asked.

His eyes were on Aern, but Brianna answered. “I don’t disagree with any of you. I know this man doesn’t care if it’s taking more than just energy from me. But we still don’t know his purpose. No matter what you think of what he’s doing, we have to consider his goal, that it’s kept us alive.”

Emily shook her head at her sister’s persistence. “Fine, we’re alive. But what else, Brianna?” She pressed her palms against the back of the chair sitting opposite of Brianna. “
Why
is he keeping us alive?”

The silence of her request was broken by a knock on the
closed door. “Come in, Wesley,” Aern said, not moving to greet the boy, but looking up to gesture him on.

He was a bit timid
, but out of breath, as if he’d run the entire way to the office suites only to lose his nerve once he’d seen them all together. Arguing.

“Everything is
well, Wes,” Aern promised. “It’s only that we wanted you here for your expertise.”

He’d apparently been catching up on his rest as Aern had suggested
, because instead of his usual Council-appropriate attire, he was sporting sleep-tousled hair, worn-out jeans, and a faded tee shirt that displayed a similarly-coiffed Muppet playing guitar.

At his bewildered expression, Brianna
motioned toward a chair. “Aern explained to me what you saw pass between me and the shadow.” He slid into the seat she’d indicated, face reddening. “We thought you might be able to help us,” she began. “To use your talent to explore Aern’s power, to learn as much as we can about how it works and what this shadow is planning.”

Wesley’s expression cleared. “Of course. Anything you need.”

Emily pulled up a chair beside him. “And the bond. We want to understand why Aern doesn’t take anything from me, but this shadow can somehow pull power from Brianna.”

“It isn’t like your bond at all
,” Wesley said, glancing between Emily and Brianna. “He’s stealing it from her, like a leech.”

The corner of Emily’s mouth tightened, something
very near a self-righteous smirk. “Right,” she said. “Like that.”

At her encouragement, Wesley added, “Actually,
Aern doesn’t need to take anything from you personally, because the connection is supplying it. Like a generator. It kind of
converts
into energy.”

Emily’s mouth dropped open, all trace of smugness vanished. But
apparently Aern couldn’t enjoy it, because he was too distracted himself. “Wait, what?”

“Yeah,” Wesley said. “I didn’t feel it at first, because it’s not like the other powers. You’re not pushing it at anyone, not throwing the pulse outward. But I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and when you came back from the yard, and y
ou were all…”—he gestured helplessly toward Aern’s clean skin, shrugged—“fixed, well, then I started to look closer, to search your own energy, and it made sense.”

The room was once again frozen in stunned silence, this time
staring at the young, red-headed savant, who at the moment appeared to belong more in a garage band than a clandestine organization fighting to restore the fate of the world.

“Wes,” Brianna whispered after a moment, “are you saying Emily and Aern are
creating
energy?”

“Not
from nothing. It’s already…” His hands went up, swirling through the air in another helpless gesture. “Around.”

“So instead of sending the pulses out,” Logan said, “they’re drawing this somehow i
n and converting it to energy?”

Wesley
nodded. “Or using it. Sometimes it runs back through them, like it’s strengthening their connections.” He glanced at Emily, suddenly sheepish at admitting he’d studied her links. She didn’t notice, simply barked out a laugh and threw her arms around him in a too-brisk hug. Emily was not generally known around the Council properties as a hugger.

When she released her grip, Aern simply pat
ted the wide-eyed boy on the shoulder. “Thank you, Wes. I can’t tell you how much help you’ve been.”

It was coming together, the shadow’s ability to draw from Brianna, the way Wesley had seen it reach out, searching. The bond had given
Aern and Emily an advantage, creating power where the shadow had apparently resorted to stealing it.

Aern glanced
absently at Logan as he voiced his concern to the room. “The question remains, why hasn’t Brianna created a bond?” Brianna was certain he’d simply been thinking aloud, but she could see in his reaction that Aern had felt something from Logan. His lifelong friend hadn’t moved, there was no outward sign of pain or agitation in his body or expression, but clearly Aern could feel the emotion, and it was like a punch in the gut. Logan hadn’t been able to protect her, couldn’t save her from the threat, and now this shadow was trying to bind her to him. He must have been a wreck.

Aern ran a palm over his chest,
and Brianna glanced up at Logan, taking his hand in hers. “Maybe I can’t create a bond. Maybe he’s wrong.”

Wesley held up a finger hesitantly. When
it garnered everyone’s attention, he drew it back, as if he wanted to change his mind. “Actually,” he said, “I’d need to be closer to be sure, but I think there already is…”—his gaze swept the audience, stopping on Brianna—“some sort of link there.”

Brianna
felt sick, her hand dropping from Logan’s to press against her stomach.

Wesley leaned forward as if he
might reach out to her, but his own hands remained in his lap, twining together anxiously. “Not a bond,” he assured her. “Nothing so strong.”

“What, Wes?” Aern said. “What kind of connection?”

“It’s just, I think that’s how he’s doing it,” Wesley said. He shrugged. “I think somehow he’s got a line to her, figured out how to sink his claws in and send her these messages.”

“So it’s different from what I’m doing?” Aern asked.

Wesley nodded. “I can’t feel exactly how, but this isn’t sway. The sway doesn’t work on Brianna”—he glanced up—“or Emily. This is something else. Some ability to draw from her, but it doesn’t feel like your bond. Not at all.” He looked back at Brianna, his words earnest. “Their bond is pure. It’s secure, and it’s keeping them safe by giving them energy. It’s not a bond, Brianna. This thing he’s doing is one-sided, parasitic. And it’s ugly.”

Brianna
had known she was in danger. It was why she’d not explained to them until now the shadow’s desire to create a bond. But if he could do so much damage with a partial connection, there was no way Brianna could risk allowing it go further.

The question was, how could
she stop him?