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

  Lifting her chin, she was about to ask him to move his hand when he said something that stole the words from her. “I intend to marry you, Elexiandra.”

  She couldn’t keep her jaw from falling at the statement; she also couldn’t stop a nervous chuckle.

  “You find that funny?” he asked.

  Not funny, more astonishing, but the malice in his eyes caused her chuckle to stop abruptly. “No, I don’t find it funny at all.”

  She’d never spoken truer words in her entire life.

  “We come from good families, our properties adjoin each other, and you will give me fine children,” he said.

  Lexi could only stand and stare at him. She had no intention of marrying him. Of course, she didn’t say that to him, but he would soon learn it didn’t matter what he wanted. He couldn’t make her marry him; her father would never allow it.

  Lexi grimaced as she replied, “I’m not marrying you or anyone else.”

  He smiled as his gaze raked her. Despite keeping her shoulders back, her spine straight, and her chin raised, she had to resist covering herself with her hands. She wore a black sweater and jeans, but she’d never felt more exposed in her life.

  “Malakai, where are you?” his father’s voice, drifting through the barn doors, didn’t make Malakai move away.

  “I’m coming back from this war, Elexiandra,” he told her. “And when I do, I expect to claim all the rewards the Lord of the Shadow Realms promised us for winning. You will be one of the first things I claim.”

  “I am not a spoil of war.”

  She was not one to push back or fight against others, and she had no idea where those words came from or how she found the strength to utter them, but she refused to be something he claimed.

  If she did marry, it wouldn’t be to a man who believed he could own her. It would be to someone who treated her as an equal, and that would never be Malakai.

  He smiled as he lowered his hand to run a finger down her cheek. Lexi compelled herself not to recoil from his touch; she would not give him the satisfaction.

  “But you will be mine,” he murmured.

  “Malakai!” his father called from outside.

  He lowered his finger from her cheek, and before she could stop him, he kissed her forehead. Lexi was too stunned to respond, and by the time she formed a response, he was striding down the shedrow. His swagger caused her teeth to clench.

  Now that she could see beyond him, she spotted her father and Malakai’s stepping into the barn. His father’s irritation was evident on his face, but she couldn’t quite make out his clipped words. When they disappeared, her father walked toward her.

  The light filtering through the windows and the doorway at the end illuminated his broad shoulders and solid frame. Stubble lined his jaw, and dark circles shadowed his eyes, but they were still sharp as they narrowed on her.

  “What did he say to you?” her father demanded.

  “He said the Lord of the Shadow Realms has promised to reward the fighters, and he intends for me to be one of those rewards. He wants to marry me.”

  Her father snorted as he ran a hand through his pale blond hair. “Well, since he ranks far lower than me, you won’t have to worry about that. It’s not something I’ll ever let happen.”

  Her shoulders sagged, and she smiled as she linked her arm through his. “So, you don’t plan to give me away anytime soon?” she teased.

  The smile slid from his face as he patted her hand. “I never want to give you away, and I’m certainly not going to give you to someone you don’t choose.”

  His words had assured her. He was her protector; he was stronger and held more power than Malakai. She never had to fear being forced into marriage.

  But that was months ago. Now her father wasn’t here to protect her, Malakai’s father was dead too, and she was standing beside Malakai, who had that awful, leering grin on his face. It was the grin that said he could see straight through her clothes, the one that said he’d come to claim his reward.

  CHAPTER 8

  Cole watched Elexiandra as she stood beside Malakai. Her delicate chin jutted out, and fire shown in her eyes as she kept her hands clasped firmly before her. He couldn’t hear what Malakai said to her, but he could tell she didn’t like it.

  Malakai held his hand out to her, and she stared at it before glancing around the dance floor. Cole sensed her panic as she stared at the couples with desperation in her eyes.

  He stepped forward to intervene, but Brokk blocked his way. Cole shot his brother a withering look that caused Brokk’s eyebrows to rise. “What’s gotten into you, killer?”

  Cole watched as Elexiandra’s shoulders slumped, and she slid her hand into Malakai’s. The vamp grinned as he led her onto the floor. When he went to grasp her other hand, she jerked it back, but Malakai grabbed it and placed it against his chest.

  Cole’s teeth ground together; Malakai fought in Cole’s army, but he’d never liked the arrogant vamp who took far too much joy in tormenting and killing others. It was what they all had to do to survive the war, but Malakai was one of those immortals who smiled the entire time they slaughtered others.

  Malakai was dark and twisted, and Cole disliked him anywhere near Elexiandra. Resisting the inexplicable urge to go out there and beat Malakai into a bloody pulp, Cole focused on Brokk.

  “What is it?” Cole asked.

  Brokk continued to stare questionably at him as he took a step back. “How are you enjoying the party?”

  “As much as you.”

  Brokk smiled grimly. “Then you’re having the time of your life.”

  Cole chuckled. “Absolutely.”

  Brokk clasped his shoulder and squeezed it. Neither of them wanted this, their father knew that, and if it had been up to Cole, this party never would have happened, but it wasn’t up to him.

  If they were going to keep up the pretense of being on the Lord’s side and being thrilled about their victory in the war, then a celebratory ball was a necessity. And they were all going to have to grin and bear it.

  “Enjoy, brother,” Brokk murmured before slipping into the crowd.

  As he walked, some of the women reached out for him, and Brokk stopped to speak with them before moving on. Cole turned his attention back to the dance floor as the musicians continued to weave their magic upon the crowd.

  He spotted Elexiandra amid the crush of bodies. Whereas everyone else was smiling while they danced with their partners, she remained rigid, and the look on her face said she’d rather be anywhere but here.

  He was shocked to find himself wanting to intervene, but he had no idea why. What did he care if she was uncomfortable? He’d never considered the feelings of anyone outside of his family before. And as a dark fae, he’d only ever had two uses for women… fucking and feeding.

  Yet when Elexiandra’s gaze darted to the doorway, something inside him stirred at her unease, and he realized it was the lycan making its presence known again. He contemplated this strange development as Malakai grasped the hand Elexiandra had rested on his shoulder and spun her around.

  Whereas most women laughed when their partners did such a thing, Elexiandra glanced anxiously around when he pulled her close again. Malakai said something to her, and when she shook her head, he gripped her chin and lifted her head, so she had to look at him.

  She tried to jerk her chin free, but Malakai refused to release her. And then she winced.

  Before Cole had considered intervening, he found himself striding through the dancers toward them. The action surprised him, but not enough to make him stop shoving his way through the crowd.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw immortals turning toward him and the smiles on some of the women’s faces, but he didn’t acknowledge them. He didn’t give a shit if they considered him rude; he couldn’t stop. He had to get to her.

  In the corner, the bow fell away from the cello, and the flute fell silent. Elexiandra said something and tried to turn her face away, but Malak
ai kept hold of her chin. They were still fifty feet away from him, and he was about to start ruthlessly shoving his guests out of the way when the woman who walked onto the dais with her appeared at her side.

  Sahira, he recalled Sindri announcing the woman’s name, and then another memory tugged at the edges of his mind. He recalled Del talking about someone named Sahira. It took him a couple of seconds before he remembered the woman was his half sister.

  She was half witch and half vampire, which had to be the rarest combination of immortals in all the realms. He wasn’t sure how such a thing happened, given how much the witches despised the vampires.

  Cole couldn’t hear the words they exchanged before Malakai released Elexiandra. She took a few steps back before turning and vanishing into the crowd with Sahira.

  • • •

  A gasp caught in Lexi’s throat when she stepped out of the hallway and into a room made of glass on all four sides. For a minute, she couldn’t breathe as her head fell back to take in the glass ceiling almost fifty feet over her head.

  The gold beams running across the ceiling held the glass in place. In each corner of the room was a gold tree trunk and, carved to look like tree branches, the beams stretched overhead.

  Hundreds of brown vines with hand-sized, green leaves covered at least half of the glass walls, but none of the vines touched the ceiling. They left it open to the two moons beyond the glass.

  Flowers the size of her head clung to those vines. Their multicolored blooms lifted their petals to the moonlight spilling through the glass ceiling. They basked in the rays shining down on them.

  She’d never seen flowers with colors like the ones in here. There were reds in shades she couldn’t begin to describe, pinks that weren’t quite pink and might be some color she’d never heard of, and yellows and oranges so vibrant they rivaled the sun. With their large petals and stigma in the middle, they reminded her of hibiscus, except they were larger and more luminous.

  She doubted she was supposed to be here, but she couldn’t get her feet to turn away. This was the best thing she’d seen all night, and she wasn’t ready to leave it.

  She had no idea where she was in the castle or what this room was. She’d told Sahira she was returning to the room assigned to them, but she must have gotten turned around somewhere.

  Her aunt wanted to come with her, but Lexi insisted she stay and have a good time. It was so rare Sahira ever got to do anything like this, and unlike Lexi, she was enjoying herself.

  Lexi glanced behind her; she could still hear the music, but she didn’t see anyone. She should go, but she didn’t move. Drawn to the flowers and excited to get a closer look at them, she descended the two steps into the room and strolled across the white, marble floor.

  This was so wrong and might get her into a ton of trouble, but she felt like Sleeping Beauty being lured to the spindle as she crept further into the room.

  It did not go well for Sleeping Beauty, she reminded herself. However, she didn’t stop.

  She couldn’t decide what to look at first, the spectacular flowers or the bright, full moons. Stopping in the middle of the room, she tipped her head back as she stood beneath one of the moons. Her skin prickled from the energy they exuded.

  She closed her eyes and breathed in the sweet aroma filling the room.

  CHAPTER 9

  Cole stood cloaked in the shadows of the moon room as he watched Elexiandra descend the stairs. The awe on her face captivated him as her mouth parted. His father would be irate if he found her here; this room was built for his mother and remained a shrine to her.

  It was once a place for her to retreat to when she needed to think and rejuvenate. His father spent weeks having it constructed and made sure the room's design made it so a piece of a moon could always be seen from somewhere, no matter what time of day or night it was.

  At noon, that piece of moon was found in the far-right corner if he stood with his toes against the glass, but it was there.

  This room was his mother’s retreat and her small piece of the lycan realm in the land of the dark fae. She’d brought the luna flowers in when they were no more than seeds and grown them until her death.

  Cole barely recalled a time when the vines were no more than a foot tall. She died before she ever got to see them grow into something more, but he imagined this was what she’d envisioned for the room.

  When he was a child and she was still alive, he’d sit on the bench in the far corner of the room and watch as she cupped each small vine in her hands. While she talked to them, they weaved around her, and some stroked her cheek.

  Sometimes, he swore they laughed with her. And on the day she died, they wept with him when he retreated here. He’d come here in the hopes they’d all been wrong and a rogue warlock hadn’t killed her.

  He’d come here believing he would find her smiling amidst her flowers. He would run to her, and she would envelop him in her arms and dry his tears while she laughed over the silliness of the mistake.

  She hadn’t been here, it hadn’t been a mistake, and he’d lain in this room for days while he grieved her. The servants tried to lure him away, but he remained where his mother’s essence still thrived in the plants that hugged him while he cried.

  Three days later, his father came for him. Cole recalled watching his father’s strong hand slip past the vines that had closed protectively over him while he slept and wept. He recalled being drawn from the vines to discover his father’s black, bloodshot eyes staring at him.

  Cole hadn’t seen the man since he delivered the news of his mother’s death. Afterward, he’d retreated to his private solar. Broken and crying, Cole locked himself away too.

  He remembered being astonished to see his father. He hadn’t expected him to come for him, but as his dad lifted him from the ground, Cole wrapped his arms around his neck and cleaved to him as he started crying again.

  His father carried him from the room, put him in a bath, and dressed him. He’d never forget the broken slump of his father’s shoulders as he cared for him. Stubble lined his father’s normally clean-shaven face, and his tears had swelled his eyes.

  Cole was only seven when his mother died, but a part of him died with her. A larger part of his father followed her into the grave.

  Afterward, his father spent years torturing the warlock before Cole’s uncle, Maverick, convinced him to kill the monster. When Cole was fifteen, he overheard Maverick telling his father he shouldn’t keep the warlock alive and in the same house as Cole.

  Maverick was still livid over his sister’s murder, but he believed Tove was only extending Cole’s suffering by keeping her killer alive. His father must have agreed as the warlock was dead a few days later.

  However, his vengeance did nothing to ease Tove’s sorrow. And no matter how many women followed his first and only wife, Cole knew his father never loved any of them like he had his mother.

  And now, another beautiful woman stood in his mother’s room. And to Cole’s amazement, the flowers turned their heads away from the moons and toward her.

  He was the only one the flowers reacted to, partly because of his mother and partly because of his lycan blood. Over the years, the peace he received from the flowers and his love for the moon were the most lycan things about him; they were probably the only lycan things about him… until he encountered her.

  And now, he could feel the beast stirring within him while he watched her.

  Was she also part lycan? Was that why the flowers responded to her too?

  No, Del had said her mother was a human, and Del was very much a vampire. Or maybe he remembered it wrong? Maybe he only thought Del said his daughter was part human, and he’d said lycan.

  Cole believed he would have remembered if she was part lycan, but they’d been fighting a war and there was often a lot of drink involved when Del opened up about his daughter, so Cole could be wrong.

  Elexiandra sighed and lowered her head. The serenity on her face and the moonlight strea
ming over her caused his breath to catch. The flowers reacted to her because it was impossible not to; she was magnificent.

  They didn’t respond to her in the same way they did to him, but they weren’t indifferent to her like they were to everyone else who entered this room… except him. The flowers’ interest in her intrigued him almost as much as she did.

  Cole released the shadows cloaking him, and they slid back into their places along the wall. He stepped forward and waited for Elexiandra to realize he was here.

  When she opened her eyes, she spotted him and gasped. Her hand flew to her throat, and a panicked look crossed her face. Smiling, he stepped further away from the shadows caressing him and strolled toward her.

  He’d been there when she entered the room, but she’d never noticed as the shadows kept him hidden. After she left Malakai behind, Cole lost sight of her and assumed she retreated for the night. Needing some time to himself, he slipped away to what was once his mother’s place and was now his.

  Her gaze returned to the doorway, but she had to know he’d stop her before she ever made it there.

  “Are you part lycan?” he asked as he stopped a few feet away from her.

  CHAPTER 10

  A small crease formed between her eyes. “No, my father was a vampire.”

  “I’m aware. I knew your father.”

  The confusion left her face as a spark bloomed in her exquisite green eyes. “You did?”

  “Yes. He was an amazing strategist.”

  “I didn’t know that,” she murmured and glanced at the door again. “He didn’t talk about the war much.”

  Of course, he wouldn’t talk about the war with her. He recalled Del saying she was young, but even if she was a couple of centuries old, an air of innocence surrounded her, and Del would seek to protect that.

  “I spent a lot of time with him,” Cole said. “We fought together often, and I considered him a friend.”

  “Were you….” She paused to swallow as tears briefly glistened in her eyes. “Were you there when he died?”