He sucked in a ragged breath and called a sword into his hand, but it was blunt and misshapen, too weak to cut through the smothering blanket that wrapped around him. This was his curse now. His Shadows were only a fractured memory of what they had been.
He had to get away from the suffocating cloud. He had to get through that door. Had to take this one chance at redemption.
He lashed out with his fists, beating against the Shadows that trapped him. There were Shadows in his ears and the world sounded muffled and echoing. There were Shadows over his face, in his mouth, choking him. Swirling and cloying.
He fell to his knees, helpless but still fighting, the sound of his thudding heart loud in the silence of the Shadows. Sweat poured down the sides of his face and bile churned in his cramping stomach. But he couldn’t see who had attacked him. A sack over his head would not have been nearly as effective as the storm of smothering Shadows.
He wanted to scream in despair. This wasn’t supposed to happen. They were supposed to let him in! Gordon had told him to come!
He fell forward, only the thick cage of swirling Shadows preventing him from scraping his face on the road as the enemy Shadows swarmed, giving him no reprieve, no chance to even breathe. He was helpless.
James whimpered. He had failed. He hadn’t even got anywhere close to Gordon, and now it was over. He hadn’t saved Riley after all. He hadn’t saved anyone.
His muscles cramped and spasmed, and somewhere in a distant part of his mind, he knew he was convulsing. A scream tore out of him, fueled by pain and grief.
Darkness filled his vision and the world faded.
ChapterThree
Dread coiled uneasily through Riley.It didn’t matter how many times she forced herself to take even breaths, pushed her shoulders down from around her ears, or reminded herself that Elizabeth’s vision wasn’t real…. Not yet, anyway. Not even the vibrant energies of the birds and insects in the gated Belgravia garden they were hiding in helped. She couldn’t steady her heartbeat or ease the aching tension wrapped around her lungs.
Her parents had given her so many dire warnings over the years. Death, destruction, pain. But she hadn’t listened—not really. She’d been so sure that all the world needed was a little kindness and a lot of love.
Those were the things she could offer. She was a Healer, and that was what she wanted to do. So she did.
It took her a while to settle into new places. To feel comfortable with new people. But she never let that hold her back from doing what she thought was right. Or from hoping that, one day, she would find her people.
But that was before James broke her heart…. Now, she was questioning everything.
God. All those years she’d wished she wasn’t alone, maybe she’d been better off. She’d been lonely, sure, but never this vulnerable. Never this afraid.
She was still reeling from James’s note when Kay found his phone. And then his password turned out to be the date they first realized who they were to each other. Just another little fact to throw into the fiery turmoil of her emotions.
And that turmoil certainly hadn’t settled during their frantic race back to Belgravia or their fraught invasion of Gordon’s street—covering themselves in Shadows as they ran straight back to the danger they’d only just fled—all while praying that they would get there before James.
They hadn’t seen him anywhere on their journey back to Gordon’s house. Did that mean they’d beaten James to get there? Or that he was already in Gordon’s hands? That he’d already handed himself over to save her.
Tell Riley I did love her.
Tell Riley I didloveher.
Love.
God. She had to stop thinking about everything he’d said and focus.
Like that was going to happen. Riley snorted miserably to herself, startling Kay, who was crouched down, hidden behind bushy green foliage and swathes of Shadow beside her.
Kay turned her head and raised an eyebrow.
Riley lifted one shoulder in a tiny shrug. She didn’t have any answers. The only thing she could hold on to was how quickly they’d made it back. Hopefully, they had arrived in time.
Please, God. Let us be in time.
James had fled Wales, leaving safety and friends behind so that he could sacrifice himself to Gordon. He’d taken Gordon’s offer to save her in exchange for his return. And what the hell was she supposed to do with that? He was prepared to die for her. But he couldn’t be bothered to discuss it with her or give her a choice in the matter. He didn’t want to see her. Left her. Said goodbye. Said he loved her.
All her life, she’d tried to assess people by the character they showed. What they did, not what they said. But James… James contradicted himself at every opportunity.
By going back to Gordon, James was delivering the very weapon his uncle needed right back into his hands. But James was doing it for entirely selfless reasons. Wasn’t he?
