Reign of Shadows (5 page)

Chapter
Eleven

Brianna

“Damn it, Brianna. What are you trying to do?”

Brianna sighed, staring up at her sister as she stood, arms braced at her sides. The pacing was gone; nothing was left in Emily but fury.

“You think you have to do this yourself?”
Emily demanded. “What good are the rest of us if you leave us in the dark?” She leaned forward. “What are we supposed to do?”

“I didn’t have a choice,
” Brianna answered. She felt Logan beside her, and was suddenly sorry she’d used the word. He’d still not said anything about her decision to ignore his warning, but she knew it was her choices that kept getting them into trouble. She bit her lip, reminding herself that they were okay. Whatever that was, whatever had happened, things were fine now. Better than fine.

Logan had recovered in record time, dozing off
during the ride back and waking in time to find Emily jerking open their car door to confront them—all of which had happened mere minutes ago. Brianna hadn’t had the chance to decipher any of it before they were dragged back to her room. But they were okay. They would be okay. She pulled her lip free, gaze returning to Emily with a certainty she finally felt. “It was the only way.”

Emily’
s arms tightened, knuckles going white, and Aern stepped up beside her, placing a hand on the small of her back. “Brianna,” he asked, “What do you know now that we didn’t know before?”

She’d given them the short version of events, but they were still no closer to finding Brendan, to understanding what this man wanted. “He must be
afraid of the other shadows,” she said. “Or at least not want to interfere.” Her thoughts returned to his words, to the “us,” and she shifted to the edge of her seat. “But he warned me they were coming. And I’d already seen that in the visions. My visions.” Not his, not the images of the now that he was somehow sending her, but the ones that had come when her connections were repaired. The real ones.

“So he’s a shadow,” Aern said. “What
you told us before, about the feelings you were getting from him …” He crouched to her level, bracing an elbow on his knee. “Ellin said something while you were gone; something about the way he almost seemed to drive fear into her.”

Brianna
nodded. “I think he was trying to give me direction. But Emily and I, we’re immune to sway.” It was what made them special, what allowed them to fight Morgan. Why the prophecy had chosen them. And that wasn’t all lies, was it? At least some part of the prophecy was coming true, with or without the shadows’ help. “It was like I could feel him try to push me, like somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew what he wanted me to do. But I didn’t have to.”

Aern exchanged a glance with Emily, whose arms went suddenly slack at the loss of tension.

“What?” Brianna asked. “What is it?”

“I thought it was the bond,” Emily said.
“It just… it felt like the bond.”

“It had been getting stronger,” Aern explained. “And then, aft
er you repaired new connections”—he shrugged—“it just feels like it’s moving through the bond. Emily and I, we can sense what the other is feeling.”

“It’s like you said,” Emily added, “I know what he wants, but I don’t
have
to do it.”

Logan leaned forward. “He came alone, and with Morgan’
s men he took a command position. He isn’t hiding, this is something else. If they’re searching for Brianna, they’ve had her in their possession twice that we know of and they’ve not acted on it. They’re holding Brendan, questioning him. Whatever this is, whatever they’re waiting on, they’re afraid of the outcome.”

Aern nodded. “Because the shadows
wouldn’t have planted Brianna and Emily here if they were both immune to the sway, if they couldn’t control them.”

Brianna went still, remembering the dark-haired man’
s questions.
Did you see the end, Brianna? Do you know how it all comes out?
“Or because they have their own prophets,” she breathed. “Because they can see something I can’t.”

Logan’s arm went around her waist. “Then why aren’t they interested in Aern or Morgan?” he said. “
Why Brendan? What does he know that they don’t?”

Emily’s foot twitched as she fought the urge to resume pacing. “
Could be an assumption. Brianna was with Brendan longest.” She gestured toward Aern. “While we were running across the city, she was at the Division. Maybe they don’t have as many spies as we think, maybe their information is outdated?”

Aern ran a palm over his chest, considering. “This Jackson was with Morgan the whole time. He could have gathered every scrap of intel with his sway. Anything they had.”

Was he a spy, working for the men in her visions? “Then why would he warn us?” Brianna drew her jacket up tighter, though the room was warm. “What would he have to gain if he was reporting to them?”

A shadow passed over Aern’s face, a memory of the comrades he’d lost to Morgan’s rule. “Not everyone has the option to choose, Brianna.”

And there was that word again. Choice. She straightened. “Okay, so what’s left? They want us because we can’t be affected by the sway?”

“Maybe that’s what we’re missing,” Logan said. His gaze shot to Aern’s. “Morgan was able to use his power on a shadow, to control her.”

Emily looked sick. “That’s right. Even before she’d given him the extra control.” Her hand dug into the material at her waist, wrapping around the handle of her blade. “He turned our mother, Brianna. Used her.”

B
ut Brianna wouldn’t believe those men were afraid. Not after the visions she’d seen. Not after the images of death and war. “He said she tricked him.” Her eyes met Emily’s, confessing all of the doubt and worry she’d been pressing back. “He said she was smarter than they gave her credit for, and she’d deceived them all.”

Aern’s focus was still on Logan, and Brianna realized she’d missed the implication. “You mean that’s why they’re staying clear of Aern and Morgan?” Because they could turn a shadow with their sway. They were the only ones strong enough among the Seven
; only the pair of them left that were of the dragon line.

T
he man’s warning was back, his promise that they’d saved her, that she and Emily were somehow comparable to Morgan, to Aern. That there was something special enough about the two of them to cause a disruption, to put their lives and the lives of their family in danger. “It’s the prophecy,” she said. “They want us because we can destroy their power. And because we can create it.” Her gaze came up to meet Aern. “In you.”

In the Seven.

Emily’s grip came free of her blade. “She tricked them, Brianna. She put us here to hide us.” She paused, taking a breath, and there was no question it was shrouded in relief. “From them. From the shadows.” Not from the Seven. Not from Aern and Logan. She stared at Brianna. “So what do we do now?”

Brianna couldn’t help but smile at the turn her sister had taken, but it was only half-hearted, because her answer was too real. “We get ready to fight, because the shadows are coming for us.
For the Seven.”

Emily kicked the toe of her shoe around the leg of a low table, drawing it close to sit in front of her sister. “Great. I guess if I’m going to be a shadow, now’s as good a time as any.”

Chapter Twelve

Aern

“
That is so weird.”

Aern laughed, watching as Emily marveled over the heat radiating from her palm. Her power had
begun working almost immediately, and they’d left Brianna alone to recover before she started another round. Emily had been practicing ever since.

“Is it taxing you yet?” he asked.

She considered that, shook her head. “Doesn’t seem to be. I think Brianna must just be working harder than the rest of us.” She pursed her lips. “This is going to take her a while.”

She was
right; building a force formidable enough to fight the shadows wasn’t going to be quick. Seth would be next, and Eric. Ellin if she felt up to it. Brianna was going to start with the team leaders, the strongest soldiers, and make as many connections as possible before the men from her visions came. But they still hadn’t found Brendan, and Aern couldn’t help but scour the maps and ledgers once more.

Emily shifted in her chair, the paperwork on Aern’s desk fluttering at the edges before
a breeze flipped it into the air. He slapped a hand over the pages, catching all but one before they blew onto the floor. “Maybe you should practice that one over there.”

She glanced doubtfully toward the corner of the room, a shelf of ancient books and documents, some sort of bronze sculpture. “That stuff looks expensive.”

“I would imagine,” Aern said. The Council interiors hadn’t changed much through the last few years. Morgan’s focus, and now Aern’s, had been on the constantly transforming security needs and system upgrades. While Brendan might have been busy procuring art for the Division houses, Council’s only concern was keeping their leaders safe. Not that Brendan hadn’t had ample security, just not at the level of Council. Aern ran a hand over his jaw, knowing that none of it would be enough for what was coming. No amount of prevention would have averted the Westlake property from being reduced to ash.

“How strong do you think you can make it?” he asked.

“In here?” She quirked a brow, surveyed the room again. “I think I could do some major damage, to be honest.”

“I’m thinking of Westlake,”
Aern explained. “How many of them do you suppose it took to torch all of that metal and stone?”

Emily glanced at her palms, plainly
still not certain she could believe what she was creating with them. “I don’t know, Aern. I mean, I’ve only had this for a few hours. And look …” She pushed a flame to one of the papers on his desk and it lit, burning an irregular corner before he had a chance to smack it out. She wrinkled her nose. “That wasn’t important, was it?”

“But you were only the source of ignition here,” he said. “The amount of heat required to melt steel, how long could you sustain that?”

She leaned forward, planting her heels to the side. “Logan did it.”

He fought a smile at the sudden defense of her skill. “So it’s possible we’re only dea
ling with one, maybe two shadows for that kind of destruction.”

She sat back, flexing her palm as if it were a strange, new thing. “It does seem possible.” Her eyes
met his, as she remembered. “Look what you did to a room full of Morgan’s men.”

He had used the sway on several dozen soldiers at once—convinced them they were no longer loyal to Morgan—and that was what worried him. If
the shadows were so much stronger, if one of them could do that much damage, then what were they in for when a band of them showed up to fight the Seven?

“Toast,” Emily said.

Aern looked up at her, torn from his thoughts. “What?”

“Toast,” she repeated. “I could make toast
. With. My. Hands.”

He blinked, unsure of the proper response, and then caught sight of movement in the hall. Emily straightened, turning just as the messenger shot through the door. “We’ve got a hit on Brendan.”

Aern stood, slowing only to grab a jacket from its hook on the wall, Emily close behind. They were three steps down the corridor when he felt her doubt, the tug that said she wasn’t sure.

He stopped, looked back. “What is it?”

“Brianna,” she said. “She didn’t want us there, because of her vision.”

Emily had been furious when her sister left them in the dark, but now that it was her decision, she trusted Brianna’s advice. Aern nodded. “We’ll find her first.”

Emily’s head tilted to the side, peering around him, and she raised a finger to point to the end of the corridor. To Brianna, who was already there, Logan in tow.

“It has to be us,” Brianna said. “You stay here and explain to the others, let
them know what we plan to do, how we’ll change them. Eric, Wesley, Seth, Ellin. All of them.”

“Kara?” Aern asked.

Brianna nodded solemnly. “We’ll need everyone.”

Aern had
been moving toward them, finally laying a hand on Brianna’s arm, eyes going from her to Logan when he said, “Stay safe.”

“We’ll come back,” Logan
answered. His arm went around Brianna’s waist. “And this time, we’ll have Brendan.”

Chapter Thirteen

Shadows

“The Samuels boy is dead,” Callan said. “I’ve wiped his memories and left him in a pool of his own blood.” It wasn’t a lie, exactly. Even if his heart did still beat, everything that had made him Brendan was gone.

“And what of the girl?” the shadow asked. “All of your resources and you’re still no closer to finding out what s
he’s hiding?” He shook his head.

“If y
ou were to allow me to move now…” Callan offered, but the look on the older shadow’s face cut him short. It was not anger, not annoyance; this warning was more dangerous, because all expression, all interest fell from his face. There was nothing left but darkness. Callan glanced down, an apology, or at least an act of submission, before returning his gaze to the shadow. “The prophets have been unable to call it into view. Perhaps if we bring in someone from their current Council, someone close to the Archer boy—”

“He is no boy,” the shadow said. “You have seen what his
kind is capable of.”

Callan paced his breathing, forced the tightness in his jaw to relax. He’d been close to Brianna,
near enough to touch, but he still had to play their games. “Your suggestion?”

His tone
irritated the shadow, and Callan felt the skin of his arms prickle, sensed the change in the air, a gathering of power. The shadow stood, facing Callan at his full height, and said, “I suggest”—he let the words linger, the sensations permeate Callan’s skin, invade something deeper within in him, before finishing—“you find her secret.”

Callan dipped his head in a nod, struggling to stay still. It was too much power, too overwhelming to endure. This man, the shadow, could crush his chest from the inside, with no more than a breath.
And there was nothing he could do to stop it.

“Go,”
the shadow said. “Next time, bring me something of import.”