Shadows of Fire (The Shadow Realms, Book 1) Read online

  SHADOWS OF FIRE

  Brenda K. Davies

  Copyright © 2021 Brenda K. Davies

  All rights reserved.

  Distributed by Smashwords

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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  BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

  Books written under the pen name Brenda K. Davies

  The Alliance Series

  Eternally Bound (Book 1)

  Bound by Vengeance (Book 2)

  Bound by Darkness (Book 3)

  Bound by Passion (Book 4)

  Bound by Torment (Book 5)

  Bound by Danger (Book 6)

  Bound by Deception (Book 7) Coming 2021

  Hell on Earth Series

  Hell on Earth (Book 1)

  Into The Abyss (Book 2)

  Kiss of Death (Book 3)

  The Edge of the Darkness (Book 4)

  The Road to Hell Series

  Good Intentions (Book 1)

  Carved (Book 2)

  The Road (Book 3)

  Into Hell (Book 4)

  The Shadow Realms

  Shadows of Fire (Book 1)

  Shadows of Discovery (Book 2) Coming Summer 2021

  The Vampire Awakenings Series

  Awakened (Book 1)

  Destined (Book 2)

  Untamed (Book 3)

  Enraptured (Book 4)

  Undone (Book 5)

  Fractured (Book 6)

  Ravaged (Book 7)

  Consumed (Book 8)

  Unforeseen (Book 9)

  Forsaken (Book 10)

  Relentless (Book 11)

  Legacy (Book 12) Coming Spring 2021

  Historical Romance

  A Stolen Heart

  Books written under the pen name Erica Stevens

  The Captive Series

  Captured (Book 1)

  Renegade (Book 2)

  Refugee (Book 3)

  Salvation (Book 4)

  Redemption (Book 5)

  Broken (The Captive Series Prequel)

  Vengeance (Book 6)

  Unbound (Book 7)

  The Coven Series

  Nightmares (Book 1)

  The Maze (Book 2)

  Dream Walker (Book 3)

  The Fire & Ice Series

  Frost Burn (Book 1)

  Arctic Fire (Book 2)

  Scorched Ice (Book 3)

  The Kindred Series

  Kindred (Book 1)

  Ashes (Book 2)

  Kindled (Book 3)

  Inferno (Book 4)

  Phoenix Rising (Book 5)

  The Ravening Series

  Ravenous (Book 1)

  Taken Over (Book 2)

  Reclamation (Book 3)

  The Survivor Chronicles

  Book 1: The Upheaval

  Book 2: The Divide

  Book 3: The Forsaken

  Book 4: The Risen

  CONTENTS

  Books by the author

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Shadows of Discovery Excerpt

  Where to find the author

  About the author

  CHAPTER 1

  Elexiandra tried not to crumple the invitation the crow had delivered as she read it, but her blood pressure rose until it pounded in her ears. The neat, embossed gold lettering was far too cheerful for the words written on the thick parchment.

  She’d bet a lot of these invites had gone out through the mortal and Shadow Realms, and that at least a thousand immortals would accept and attend. She didn’t reside in the Shadow Realms, but—much to her dismay—King Tove of the dark fae must have decided to include at least some of the immortals who lived in the human realm on his invitation list.

  “What is it, Lexi?” Sahira asked as she appeared at Lexi's side.

  If Lexi showed her, Sahira would make her go. Her aunt would prattle on about proper etiquette and how exciting it was for them to get the chance to visit the Gloaming, the dark fae realm. But even if Sahira didn't force her to attend, Lexi had no idea how to get out of this.

  How did she say no to the king of the dark fae?

  She didn't, that was how. But why did he invite her?

  Sure, her father was a general on the winning side of the war, but he perished in that war, and she was a half vamp, half human who had never entered a Shadow Realm before. The only things separating her from mortals were that she drank blood, as well as ate food, and she was an immortal.

  She had no special abilities, no powers, and though she was stronger than a human, she wasn’t as strong as a full-blooded vampire. She was a nobody holding an invitation from one of the most powerful immortals in all the realms. And she would prefer to throw it away.

  Lifting her head, Lexi pushed back a loose strand of auburn hair as she studied the large manor only fifty feet away from her. At one time, the thirty-room, gray stone building was beautiful and in pristine condition.

  Then her father entered the war on the side of the “let's make our existence known to the humans” faction and everything changed.

  But then, her father never really had a choice. It was either fight or die, and at least he chose the winning side, even if it wasn't necessarily the right one, but she would never voice that opinion out loud.

  However, if he'd chosen the losing side, then the Lord would have most likely taken the manor from them or destroyed it, and she and Sahira would be on the run like all the other rebels.

  She was still staring at her home when Sahira snatched the invitation from her hand.

  "It’s an invitation to a ball!” Sahira gushed.


  Lexi winced and braced herself for what was to come. She didn’t want to attend some fancy ball, but the sparkle in Sahira’s eyes said her aunt was already planning what they would wear.

  The invitation specified attending in their finest attire, which meant ball gowns. That was all well and good, but she didn’t own anything fancy, and she wasn’t in the mood to go shopping.

  “It’s to celebrate the end of the war,” Sahira said, “and the king of the dark fae’s sons for helping the Lord win.”

  Some of Sahira’s enthusiasm vanished as she spoke. She may love the idea of a ball and fancy gowns, but they’d both lost a lot during the war and didn’t have anything to celebrate.

  She’d lost her dad, and Sahira lost her half brother. They’d lost the luxurious life they once lived and most of the humans who once lived at or worked the manor grounds.

  But they weren’t the only ones who lost a lot. The human realm lost its innocence about the existence of immortals as well as countless lives. Every day, they continued to lose more.

  And the dark fae king planned to celebrate those losses. Lexi found this a little strange considering he’d lost more than half his sons in the war.

  She bit her tongue as she lifted her head to gaze into the crow’s black eyes. When it tilted its head, the sun created a rainbow hue of colors throughout its feathers. The crow was the dark fae’s messenger, and it was waiting for her response.

  She didn’t know what to say. The idea of going to the Gloaming was tempting, she’d love to see how the dark fae lived, but she still didn’t understand why she was holding this invite.

  She’d never met a member of the royal dark fae before. She knew Colburn—or Cole as he was more commonly known—and Brokk were the only sons the king had left on his side. Out of his nine sons, five died in the war, and the other two survivors fought for the rebels.

  Like everyone who chose the losing side, they were stripped of their titles, land, and money. They were being hunted throughout the realms.

  Many of the rebels ended up in the mortal realm where there was less magic and they were harder to track. Many others hopped through the Shadow Realms to avoid capture and death.

  “We need gowns,” Sahira continued, and Lexi closed her eyes. “We’ll have to go to the marketplace to purchase them. It will be fun.”

  The two of them had drastically different ideas of fun, but at four hundred and fifty-three years old, Sahira was four hundred and twenty-nine years older than her. Her aunt had grown up and lived through far different times.

  Sahira once attended balls held by kings and czars in the human realm while Lexi grew up in jeans and T-shirts. Sahira would sometimes talk about the old days with wistful sadness while Lexi’s old days were bowls of cereal in front of her favorite cartoons.

  She often missed those days. They were much simpler, and her father was still alive.

  This invitation was making Sahira’s year and ruining Lexi’s day. She dreaded everything about it, but she knew what she had to do.

  Opening her eyes, Lexi used her finger to check the yes box for her and Sahira. Created by fae magic, a gold mark materialized on the invite. She lifted the invite into the air, and the crow swooped down to take it from her.

  It clasped the invite in its talons, released a loud caw, and soared back toward the clear blue sky before vanishing.

  With a sigh, Lexi looked beyond the manor to the smoke in the distance. She couldn’t see the ruined remains of the city a hundred miles away, but every day she saw the smoke rising from it.

  A week ago, she dared to travel close enough to investigate the devastation the dragons unleashed on the city, but she was still a few miles away when the roar of a dragon caused her to retreat.

  She preferred to stay as far from those beasts as possible.

  The humans who survived the massacre continued to filter out of the city every day. She’d heard from some that others were choosing to stay behind to rebuild.

  Every day, she watched as broken, ragtag groups of survivors fled the city in search of something more, but there wasn’t much left out there. Each morning, she walked out to the road to give those survivors food. Some stopped to talk, but most would simply look at her with haunted eyes before taking their bread and walking away.

  The dragons unleashed a fair amount of destruction on the world, but most of their larger fires had been extinguished. However, some smaller ones still popped up. Lexi had no idea what started them, and she wasn’t going into the city to find out, but their smoke filled the sky, and sometimes they burned for days.

  The war ended a month ago. It was too soon to accomplish much rebuilding and far too soon to celebrate the destruction unleashed on so many.

  Hell, she didn’t think what happened to Earth should ever be celebrated, but she was sure many other immortals would disagree… including the king of the dark fae.

  Time was moving on, and the war was over. The immortals of the Shadow Realms wanted to continue with their lives. It didn’t matter that many in the mortal realm still suffered.

  The winning side had gotten their way; immortals didn’t have to hide from humans anymore. The mortals were aware of their existence now, and that knowledge had ruined their lives.

  Despite all that, a small tingle of excitement sparked in her belly. She would soon enter a Shadow Realm for the first time; vampires usually weren’t welcome there, not even half vamps.

  And while there was a chance she and Sahira might get killed if they tried to cross into the Gloaming, she was excited to see what lay beyond the human realm.

  CHAPTER 2

  Twilight was settling across the land as Lexi and Sahira stood before the growing shadows spreading throughout the forest across from them. It had taken them an hour to reach the designated entrance to the Gloaming, and Lexi clutched the invitation that would grant them passage like it was a life preserver in a storm-tossed sea.

  Around her, half a dozen other immortals talked excitedly about what was to come, but Lexi couldn’t join in their enthusiasm. She was too nervous.

  It had been a week since the invitation arrived. In that time, Sahira had managed to barter enough of her potions in the marketplace near their home to purchase two gowns for them.

  Her aunt then spent the next couple of days getting those dresses to fit properly and adding special touches to them. They were some of the most beautiful creations Lexi had ever seen, but the exquisite gown only made Lexi feel more out of place. She’d never worn anything like it before.

  The other immortals and her aunt were all at ease in their fancy clothes while she felt like an imposter. They were also all excited about traveling to the Gloaming, and she couldn’t help wondering if she would be allowed to make the journey.

  Maybe the invite was sent to them by accident. Her dad did fight for the Lord, but she and Sahira were both half vampire, and vampires weren’t exactly welcome in the Shadow Realms. Neither were humans.

  When the time came, would they try to enter the Gloaming only to be bounced back or, worse, destroyed?

  She tugged at the collar of her dress as the possibility caused a sheen of sweat to dampen her skin.

  Trying to distract herself from the risk of impending death, Lexi studied the two dark fae standing at the edge of the woods. They wore only loose-fitting brown pants; their chests and feet were bare. Like all purebred dark fae, they had black hair, black eyes, pointed ears, and lithe builds.

  The shadows swallowed them until they flickered in and out of the spreading darkness created by the setting sun. However, the dark fae were known to be a part of the shadows.

  From her distance of ten feet, she sensed their power, yet their ciphers didn’t go past the middle of their biceps. She’d only encountered a couple of dark fae before, but she knew those black markings indicated the amount of power they possessed.

  They said the dark fae king and his sons possessed ciphers that extended to their wrists. The oldest supposedly had ciphers to the
tips of his fingers, like the king.

  Unable to stop herself, Lexi tugged at the collar of her gown again as the sun vanished. There was a moment when the entire world held its breath as the last of the sun’s rays stretched across the sky. Then the shimmering, deep purple entrance to the Gloaming came into view.

  Sahira clasped Lexi’s arm and practically jumped up and down in excitement. Lexi tried not to gawk as the doorway shifted from deep purple to black and back again. The dark fae standing beside it stepped away from the trees and waved their arms toward the portal.

  Lexi gulped and grasped Sahira’s hand on her arm. Her aunt was stunning in her maroon gown. Twisted into an elaborate coil, her mahogany hair hung against her nape, and black eyeliner emphasized the striking color of her amber eyes.

  Most days, Sahira wore jeans and T-shirts like her. She kept her hair in a bun and eschewed makeup until she looked more like a librarian than the half witch, half vampire she was. Now, she’d embraced the roll of ball attendee.

  “It’s okay,” Sahira whispered.

  “What if the portal doesn’t let us enter? Vampires were banished to the mortal realm centuries ago.”

  “It will let us enter, and if it doesn’t, then I’ll be stuck here with you, but we’re invited.”

  “That might have been a mistake.”

  “It wasn’t.”

  “Vampires aren’t welcome in the Shadow Realms.”

  “We have an invite, and vampires aren’t welcome to stay. They can travel through with permission, which we have. Come on, everything is going to be fine.”

  Lexi wanted to believe her, but her feet remained planted firmly in place.

  Sahira tugged at her arm. “Lexi, move!”

  Lexi gulped and shuffled forward until she stood at the edge of the portal. Gathering her courage, she closed her eyes and stepped forward. She fully expected to be knocked back on her ass or cut in two, but her feet continued onward.

  Her eyes flew open, and she discovered herself surrounded by the dark walls of the portal as she moved toward the Gloaming.