He only hoped she’d get the chance… and that he would get the chance to make things right with James.
David’s eyes moved toward the dim outline of the townhouse roof. Somewhere up there, the others would be getting into position. At any moment, they would see the signal to move.
The air lightened further, the buildings around them growing clearer. Birds rustled in the gated garden behind them and began to sing. And then, almost glowing in the soft gray light of early dawn, a shaft of spinning shadows shot into the sky over the roof and exploded silently overhead.
It was time.
Beside him, Elizabeth called two ruby-and-charcoal Shadow orbs into her palms. She shot one up toward the sky in reply while she spun the second into a blur with her fingers. On his other side, Bryn held out his hands, calling a soft green mist to lap up from his ankles to his thighs, then higher, quickly spreading to engulf them all.
David opened his palms and drew on his own Shadows, sharpening them into his preferred long-handled daggers—viciously curved and almost long enough to be considered swords—preparing for whatever they found on the other side of the door.
Without a word, they started forward together.
Shadows spilled out from their hands and meshed—shot through with ruby, emerald, and cobalt blue—forming a woven lattice of power and strength.
Finally, after so many years, they were a true triad. They climbed the front steps, Shadows spiraling outward, ready for almost anything.
Before they even reached the door, it swung slowly open. “Keep going,” Elizabeth whispered.
They had no choice. With his best friend and the love of his long life finally beside him, David stepped forward.
ChapterFifteen
Riley shivered.Gordon’s twisted wards scraped at her Shadows as they crept over the roof toward the oppressive darkness of the strange conservatory and settled into a rough formation beside the glass. It felt like some strange presence watched them hungrily even though she had checked to ensure no one was near.
James’s hand gripped hers so tightly that it almost hurt. Tension ran through him in waves, but there was nothing she could do to help except hold his hand just as tightly and stand firm beside him.
He’d wanted to ask her not to come—she knew it like she knew her own Shadows. But he hadn’t said a word, leaving the decision entirely to her. Instead, he’d hovered at her shoulder, sticking to her side. And he’d slipped deeper and deeper into a grim silence. A darkly stoic acceptance.
In the past, he would have made a joke to break the tension. He’d always teased her and flirted with her when she was worried about something. But not now. Now he was as hard as stone and almost as hard to read… except for the ferocity of his grip on her hand.
The few stolen hours they’d spent together had been like a magical bubble out of time. Those touches, those murmurs, the way their Shadows had danced together in ecstasy, had pulled them back together.
When they’d returned to the others, he’d held her close against his side. Claiming her for all to see. And she had never felt more wanted than in that moment when he gazed down at her, eyes gleaming. Looking so proud to be there with her.
But now they were on the cusp of battle, and that radiant moment was over.
It was like planting seedlings in a storm. Perhaps the plants that eventually grew would be all the stronger for what they had endured. But first, they had to survive.
Kay opened her palm and threw a ball of midnight-blue Shadows into the air, letting it burst into mist just over the top of the roof. She waited a few seconds, until Elizabeth’s ruby-streaked flare shot up through the sky, and then whispered, “Let’s do this.”
Riley gave a quick nod of agreement and then stepped away, dropping James’s hand. The air was colder without his firm grip, and she wished she could take his hand back. Hold him one last time. Tell him how very much he meant to her.
Remorse flickered. She’d told him she cared… but that was just another wall she’d put between them. She should have told him that she loved him.
Now, standing in the dark with too much space between them, she wished she had.
But no matter how much she might wish it, this wasn’t the time. Instead, she focused on pulling Shadows into her hands—calling the energy of the living earth—until she was surrounded by whirling jade and ebony.
Kay, Zach, and James worked together to create a lattice of blue-and-charcoal Shadows meshed to form a rippling net of slender strands. James’s sky-blue Shadows were there. Still a little tattered, a little fragmented, but she could almost imagine that they were slightly smoother than before.
Kay nodded toward Ethan and Emma, and they immediately began throwing handfuls of salt into the air. The Guardians’ net billowed, capturing the salt. Tiny pearls strung out along the gleaming Shadow strands like dew drops on a frosty web.
The net grew, undulating gently against the clearing sky. It was beautiful, fragile, and yet somehow impossibly strong. She wished she could have seen it on a different day, somewhere far from Gordon and his dark grove.
“Now,” Kay whispered, and they threw the net in a wide arc over the conservatory.
Wards sizzled and Gordon’s sticky blood Shadows lurched in sluggish disarray as they dissolved and ran down the glass like dark tears.
