As he came back to the present, Xander almost collapsed over the table, his stomach cramping as if he might throw up. He noticed his hands had left cracks in the wood from the pressure, his shadows rested like a blanket around him. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even blink.
It really was her.
“Xander? What did you see?”
He heard one of his brothers calling to him, but he couldn’t even make out who it was. His head was ringing, his heart pounding. His shadows seemed to wrap even tighter around him, making him feel like the world was collapsing in on itself and he was at the very centre of it all.
He noticed a small puddle had formed between his hands on the table. Another drop dripped down his cheek and joined it. He had been crying the entire time and hadn’t even realised.
Xander felt the despair of the last one hundred and thirty eight years come crashing down on him. He felt the pain, the guilt, the anger, the loss. It was worse than when Lilith had taken control of him, worse than when he had broken free from her hold that morning and found Adriana’s house in flames, worse than the four decades he had spent in isolation. He felt it all, everything he had pushed deep down for so long, and he let it explode.
A scream tore from his throat, the sound echoing round the room like a roar of thunder. His hands pushed down on the table, the wood splintering and falling apart under his strength, as he unleashed his shadows.
The room fell under his darkness for a few seconds, before it slowly disappeared like wisps of black smoke. He ran his hands through his hair, his eyes wild as he took in the worried looks around the broken table.
“It was her,” he breathed out. And for the first time in over a century, he spoke her name. “Adriana. It was Adriana.”
“But how?” Deion asked, as he stood and walked towards him.
“I turned her. I didn’t mean to, but I did it. I turned her when I…” his voice trailed off as he struggled to admit it out loud. “I turned her when I murdered her.”
Xander watched the Lupi shift in their seats, unsure what to make of his confession. But he had no time to explain, no time to make them understand.
“We need to find her,” he mumbled. “Ineed to find her. I have to make sure she’s okay, I have to tell her it wasn’t me, I—”
“We will find her,” Edward interrupted. Xander noticed his heart rate began to calm down as Edward’s hands twitched at his side, his Somnum magic seeping into his body. “We just need to work out where she is.”
“I think I’ve found her,” Katie announced. “Rafael just messaged me.”
Xander looked over to find her staring down at her phone, her face tense as she read whatever message had just come through. She walked to the TV in the corner of the room and switched it on, turning to one of the news channels that had recently been sharing the Liberators’ propaganda. It showed the newsreader presenting a video that reportedly showed a Daemon with lightwielding powers attacking a group of mortals outside a Manchester train station.
Xander moved closer to the TV as Adriana's face came on the screen, her Luciferus and Elementai magic blasting out of her hands with precision. She was fighting off four Liberators outside a train station whilst a crowd watched. The video tried to make it look as if it were an unprovoked attack, but Xander could see the knife in one of the Liberators’ hands before the video glitched to show Adriana slashing his throat open with her Lamia talons.
He stared at the TV as the newsreader then presented live footage from inside the train station, where Liberators and other mortals were fighting amongst each other. It was just as Xander feared; Lucas Rook’s followers were rising up. But now he had a more important matter to deal with.
“Open a gate,” Xander said to Nicolai, ignoring his brothers’ attempts to get him to calm down and think of a plan of action before running in blind. “Open a fucking gate, Nic. I’m going to get her.”
Chapter twenty-one
A Battle of Shadows
Xander
Xander and his brothers stepped through Nicolai’s gate, with only Ieuwan remaining at the headquarters with Katie and the Lupi. The entire train station was a chaotic mess with people fighting everywhere. It was complete and utter mayhem.
Xander could see the vast number of Liberators amongst the crowds, their cream coloured uniforms making them stand out. He could also see members of the public fighting back. Some of them were Daemons but the majority of them were mortals, and they were losing miserably.
The Liberators had substantially grown in size over the last few months, he knew that, but he had never seen this many in one place, especially outside of London. Every single one of them held some sort of weapon, a knife or some sort of club, and theyattacked anyone who wasn’t wearing their uniform. It didn’t matter that the majority of the people they were assaulting weren’t Daemons—they didn’t care who or what anyone was. If someone wasn’t with them, then they were against them, just like Lucas Rook wanted.
Xander looked around at the seas of people swarming around him, shrugging off his suit jacket and rolling up his shirt sleeves as he stepped further into the station. One thing was clear to him; Adriana wasn’t here.
Deion tried to hold Xander back, but he couldn’t just stand by and watch innocent people get hurt. He moved to stand behind a large group of Liberators who had cornered several mortals into a corner, their weapons swinging wildly to scare them.
“Put your toys down, boys, before you hurt yourselves.”
One of the Liberators turned around, the smile dropping from this face at the sight of Xander. “You… You’re… You’re the…”
“The man that’s giving you one final chance to run?” Xander asked, cocking his head to the side as he looked him up and down. The other Liberators had all turned to watch him, their eyes darting between him and his brothers as they began to break up other fights.
