Page 338
Story: City of Smoke and Brimstone
And then an echoey male voice said, “Hello, Roman.”
Roman opened his damp eyes. Raised his weary head.
Standing there, among the wreckage of the I-5, was Donovan Slade, his two-headed wolf Familiar stalking out of his shadow to stand beside him. All the other people, the commotion that had been going on all around him…all of it was gone. It was just the two of them.
Roman’s mind spun as he glanced between the lifeless boy he was cradling in his lap and his father.
His hand flew to his neck—to the missing talisman.
‘Something isn’t right,’Sayagul had said, the day Darien had sprinted into the purple house.
Back then, something wasn’t right. And now…
Something wasn’t right here, either.
Roman’s mind spun as he remembered everything Roark had told Darien—about the falling of the Veil. The wellsprings of magic that had been tucked away behind the curtain for so long. Don had always had the magical ability to create hallucinations, use his shadows to force a person to see things that weren’t there—only, it was stronger now that the Veil was falling.
Hewas stronger now.
As if he wasn’t strong enough already.
“This isn’t real,” Roman whispered.
Donovan smiled. His eyes were as black as pitch as he said, “You’re catching on quickly for once.”
Roman laid Paxton—thehallucinationof Pax, not the real thing, thank gods—down carefully on the pavement. Slowly, he got to his feet. “What the hell do you want?” he whispered.
“I want my kid back,” Don replied.
Roman shook his head. “You can’t have him,” he choked out, nausea swirling in his gut. “I won’t let you have him.”
Donovan gave a cold smirk. “I find it so funny how someone like you—someone so weak and pathetic—actually believes you stand a chance against someone like me. Aftereverything.Have you not learned your lesson, Roman?”
Roman kept his mouth shut.
Don slid his black stare to Dean. To the illusion of his eldest brother’s dead body. There was zero remorse in that stare. Zero feeling. Roman knew it was only an illusion, but…
The man standing before him was empty. A diabolical shell.
“Nice little family reunion you’ve got going on here,” said Donovan.
“I want you,” Roman began, chest heaving, “to leave us the hell alone.”
“Oh, I’m sure you do. You’d all be one big, happy family then, wouldn’t you? Father and son, together at last.”
Roman turned very still. For a moment, time felt like it stopped, and so did his heart. “What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded.
A cold chuckle. And then: “You really don’t know, do you?”
Roman waited. The longer he stood there, his attention flicking between his father and his uncle, the thinner his breaths became. The harder his heart pounded. The faster his stomach churned.
Donovan began to pace. Circling him like a hungry lion. “Haven’t you ever wondered, Roman…why Travis has a dog for a Familiar? Why Paxton has a dog for a Familiar? Why your mother had a dog for a Familiar?” A loaded pause. And then: “Why I…have a wolf?”
Roman was no longer breathing.
And he swore his heart outrightstoppedas Donovan continued, “And why you…have a dragon?” Don flicked his brows up in question.
Roman’s focus jumped to the wolf Familiar lurking at Don’s side, eyes glowing in the dark.
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