Shadow Touched (28 page)

Gunnar looked amused. “I haven’t attacked Segue. I have no quarrel with Shadowman. And he obviously doesn’t have a quarrel with me, or he would’ve made it known.”

“Your house attacked Segue
last night
.” She dismissed the argument about Shadowman’s role at Segue. Shadowman didn’t rule the place, but Gunnar wouldn’t believe her.

“No,” Gunnar said. “A stray mage who was once of my house has been attacking Segue. It wasn’t me.”

Zander hissed at his uncle.

Cam darted, his black knife flashing, and swiped the blade across the neck of the closest guard, who dropped to his knees, choking.

Ellie released her shadow, but the stupid thing merely sauntered over to watch the blood pump from the guard’s neck.

Cam seemed eerily triumphant at this as-yet unprovoked attack. He must have seen something.

She looked back at Gunnar, but he’d raised a hand, which had kept the other guard in place. Zander had backed up, though.

“Thank you,” Gunnar said to Cam. “That is exactly what I wanted done.”

The death throes of the guard chilled her mind, the sudden violence, but worse was the fact that everyone else had remained silent; none moved to help nor to escalate the violence.

She was now utterly bewildered. “Are you controlling Cam?”

“Of course,” said Gunnar. “That’s what I have been trying to explain to you. You and your man were both Zander’s tools the night my daughter died. Without him to wield you, my daughter would still be here. You are
my
tools today, come at my bidding. I’m cleaning my house. It’s fitting you should do the work of it for me.”

“You think
Zander
killed Mathilde?” Ellie said. She didn’t care if she sounded stupid; it was imperative that she understood, and up until now Gunnar had made so little sense. It seemed Gunnar
knew
that Zander had helped them. Gunnar knew that Zander had indeed seized an opportunity that brought him closer to inheriting Martin House.

“Mathilde was just as evil as you are,” Zander said to Gunnar.

Ellie almost snorted. Mages didn’t buy in to the good-evil dichotomy—they had no soul, so no Heaven or Hell awaited them. The comment had to have been directed to her and Cam. Trying to manipulate them? Probably. Zander looked at Cam. “Kill him while you have the chance. There won’t be another.”

Both
Gunnar and Zander were trying to pull their strings.

“You can’t win,” Cam told Zander, his voice all rasp and hiss and bite. “There’s no one left to protect you. I’ve
seen
it.”

Ellie didn’t like the ecstatic frenzy in Cam’s undertone, but she understood now. Gunnar was telling the truth.
Zander
had been the author of all the madness. After seizing the opportunity with Mathilde, he
had
thought that maybe he could orchestrate the same thing with Gunnar. What she and Cam hadn’t anticipated was that Zander would attack Segue to motivate them. They had indeed been motivated.

And now Gunnar was making his move.

“You’re
stray
,” Ellie said to Zander.

That was whom Gunnar had been talking about—the stray that had been attacking Segue. Zander just hadn’t known it until now. Becoming stray was the worst thing that could happen to a mage. Strays were fair game among their kind, preyed upon for sport. A mage was nothing without a house.

Zander tipped his chin up. “Not if I survive the day.” He glanced from Cam to Ellie. “If we work together, mage and human, we will prevail.”

She made a face at him. “If Cam says you won’t win, I’m pretty sure you’re screwed.”

Gunnar was smiling widely at Cam and Ellie. “All this, and I didn’t even have to overcome your free will. Your will has always been mine, just as my house and the mages sworn to it have always been mine. I knew everything Zander did; I knew it would bring us to this moment. And I know now that the human Cameron Kalamos will kill him.”

Ellie hated being used. It felt low. She rebelled against the idea. Would prefer to leave Zander and Gunnar together. They deserved each other.

But Zander had set the wraiths free at Segue. He’d had John Gerry shot at Segue’s gate. The soldiers from every supply delivery had been slaughtered. Talia’s boys had been threatened. Yes, he had to die. Gunnar could congratulate himself all he wanted. He hadn’t brought them there; Zander had.

Zander’s next mistake was reaching out a hand toward Ellie’s shadow.

Ellie felt her shadow’s spasm as it was caught.

Cam launched himself at Zander, who had no hope of managing her shadow and a lunatic scientist at the same time.

The Martin blade went hilt-deep into Zander’s gut, its macabre magic carrying out the will of the wielder. And everyone knew Cam wanted Zander dead. The mage coughed blood, and it sprayed Cam’s face.

Ellie’s shadow was suddenly loosed, and she pulled it back into unison with her in case she needed it for Cam.

Cam staggered, his gaze wild, his head craning to look in horror around him. What he saw now, Ellie could only guess. The world gone red or Twilight, each equally tormenting in its own way.

“Thank you,” Gunnar said, turning back to the door, as if dismissing them. “That will be all for today.”

The self-satisfied rat bastard. Ellie burned at the futility of arguing with him. But Cam was more important. She twined her arms around his shoulders, in the hope that he could feel he was not alone wherever his mind was lost. She was right there with him. They were still alive, so she sure as hell could get him back.

Before Gunnar could cross the threshold Cam spoke, though his gaze was distant and distracted. “Your house falls.”

Gunnar turned back as Ellie held on even more tightly to Cam.

“I saw Zander’s treachery today,” Cam said. “And I also saw the fall of your house. I see it now, your utter dissolution.”

Ellie only saw the sky deepening to a strong dark blue, but she believed him. She smiled at Gunnar and said, “We’ve been instrumental for you today, yes, but I sure hope we’ll be instrumental in your collapse as well. All in a good day’s work, eh?”

Did Gunnar dare attempt to fight them now? Or did the mage who was a master of war know when to retreat?

“It will be amusing to watch you try,” he said, and bravely turned his back on them. Ellie knew it for a bluff.

As soon as he was gone, she bent her head to Cam’s. “Come back to me, sweetheart.”

He was playing with his ring finger, twisting at something there, which was her habit with her engagement ring. She’d gotten the ring when the mess with Martin began, just before they had escaped.

“I’m going to be okay,” he said, though he was still obviously lost.

“I know you are,” she said. “Take as long as you need to come back to me. I’ll be right here, always.”

C
am stepped in close to Ellie, his hand closing over hers, which in turn was holding a silver cake knife. He turned his head to smile for the camera—
enough with the pictures, already
—when he spotted Cole’s suit trousers, gaping and slightly bloody at one knee, and Cam’s smile turned genuine. The kid’s new suit hadn’t even lasted the morning.

They cut the cake to applause and hoots—seemed a wedding was what everyone needed. The hotel was full. Laurence had indeed officiated, and he’d surprised everyone by taking smug credit for bringing Cam and Ellie together. Even Greatmage Kaye Brand attended, but she was still so bright to Cam’s eye that he settled it again on Cole Thorne, who now stuck out his tongue and panted like a dog that would only be satisfied by sugar.

Cam leaned in to Ellie’s ear while she sliced through the cream cheese frosting and into the spicy carrot cake, his favorite. “Yes, to having kids,” he said. “Whenever you want.”

His heart beat fast against her back, but for the first time in a long time it wasn’t charged by fear or anger. Instead, a panicky exhilaration ran through him, like just cresting a roller coaster, with Ellie at his side.

She paused, her head turning slightly. “Really?”

He’d need a little longer to get a handle on the sight thing, hopefully learn to rescue himself when his senses got confused. A minimum of nine months would be good. But yes. He wanted to give her everything.

“Yes,” he said, while she put a slice of cake on a plate and turned toward him.

Her eyes were so shiny with emotion that he couldn’t help himself—with a gentle hand to the back of her head, he kissed her.

More hoots and applause.

When he drew back, she mock-scowled at him. “You got frosting on your tie.”

The happiness was too much to contain. “Since it’s ruined anyway. . .” He kissed her again and only broke away when he heard Cole make a choking sound. No, the kid was just mimicking gagging.

“All right,” Ellie said, cutting into the mashed slice for a bite to feed Cam. “Let’s do this.”

Cam grinned. “Can’t wait.”

 

 

 

They haunt the halls of the Segue Institute, terrifying the living, refusing to cross over. But one soul is driven by a very different force.

 

 

It survives even death. And Kathleen O’Brien swore she would return to those she was forced to leave too soon.

 

 

He broke every rule to have her in life; now he will defy the angels to find her in death.

 

 

Forging it is his single hope of being reunited with his beloved, but through it an abomination enters the world. Leaving a trail of blood and violence, the devil hunts her too. Pursued through realms of bright fantasy and dark reality, Kathleen is about to be taken . . .

 

 

 

 

It is Kaye Brand’s power to wield. But outcast from her kind, she’s been selling herself to the highest bidder—money for her survival in exchange for a magic glimpse into the flames of the future.

 

 

One of the angelic Order, Jack Bastian has no use for a female like Kaye, as provocative and unexpected as her blazing beauty. Yet he has no choice but to hire her to uncover the secrets of his sworn enemy and her former fiancé, Ferrol Grey.

 

 

War is inevitable between the defenders of the Order and the mage houses who threaten to engulf the world in Shadow. For Jack, mage-born Kaye is off-limits, no matter how hot the impossible attraction between them. But in the coming darkness, beset by danger and desire, everything is about to change . . .

 

Erin Kellison is the author of the dark fantasy romances
Shadow Fall, Shadow Bound
and
Shadowman
, as well as the Shadow Touch, and Shadow Kissed series. Stories have always been a central part of Erin’s life. She attempted her first book in the sixth grade, a dark fantasy adventure, and she still has those early hand-written chapters. She graduated summa cum laude with a degree in English Language and Literature and went on for a masters in Cultural Anthropology, focusing on oral storytelling. When she had children, nothing scared her anymore, so her focus shifted to writing fiction. Find her at www.ErinKellison.com.