Page 24

Chapter 24

Shadows And Lies

Xavier

The third Shade snuck up on me. I was so focused on getting to Blake’s side that I didn’t hear the scuttling from behind me. The ironlike spider legs wrapped around my chest and yanked me backward.

Dawn was fighting with bolts of electricity that kept bouncing off her target. Warrick had miscalculated a dodge and got cracked against the head by the Shade attacking them. He dropped to the ground, unconscious.

And then there was Blake. He’d been pinned against the far wall. He struggled against the shade, but it was useless. He’d lost his advantage. The Shade pressed up against Blake’s wolf form and latched its disgusting mouth around Blake’s maw.

No. No, no, no. Fuck no.

I managed to get a hand loose. I summoned a lethal dagger of sand and stabbed it into the Shade behind me. It let out a glass-shattering screech. The hairy spider legs let me loose as it scrambled backward. I had hit some kind of artery. Blood gushed out of its side like an oil spill. Still, it wasn’t dead .

I’d fix that. I mustered all the strength I had in me and swung my fist up, the dagger piercing through the Shade’s neck and up into its head.

It collapsed to the floor.

I spun around. Blake had maybe seconds left before he was turned to a gelatinous substance. I didn’t even have time to get across the room and fight the Shade.

Breathe. Focus. Follow the oxygen. Just like Blake had told me.

Breathe.

In and out.

I raised my arms. I had to save Blake. Breathe.

Had to save him.

A shining bow made of dense sand appeared in my grip. An arrow was notched. I pulled it back. The bowstring drew tight. I took aim. This shot couldn’t miss. It had to hit without penetrating all the way through, or it would hurt Blake as well.

He didn’t have time. His limbs went limp. Dawn shouted. She had her Shade subdued. She saw what was happening.

I let the arrow fly. It sliced through the air. I held my breath. My heart stopped beating for the brief second it took the arrow to find its mark.

It went directly through the back of the Shade’s skull. With the kill shot made, the arrow dispersed into individual grains of sand, raining down at the same time as the Shade fell to the floor. Blake collapsed on top of the creature, still in his wolf form, hardly moving.

I ran to his side. A cloud of white smoke enveloped him, dispersing to reveal a battered and bruised human Blake on the ground. He rolled off the Shade. His shirt was torn and blood spilled from a wound in his shoulder. I ripped off my shirt and pressed it down onto the puncture wound.

“You’re ok, Blake, you’re ok. I’ve got you.”

Dawn had finished her Shade with a hit of lightning directly to its heart. She turned her focus to Warr, who was getting back onto his feet and rubbing the back of his head.

“Did we get them?” Blake asked, voice shaking.

“We did. All three of them.”

“Creepy bastards,” he said. He was clearly trying to smile through the pain. “Is it bad?” he asked about his injury.

“Just a scratch,” I answered, even though my shirt was already soaked through. “Thankfully, he got your shoulder and not your neck. You should heal this up in no time.”

I lifted the shirt and found my words to be true. His shifter genes were already beginning to stitch his skin shut, although blood still trickled down his side. He laid his head on the ground and winced. Seeing him like this made my heart feel torn from my chest and laid out next to him. “You put up a really good fight.”

“Thanks,” Blake said, coughing. “I didn’t want to let you guys have all the fun.”

“Hey, Warr, can you help Blake heal a little faster?” I asked my younger brother. Being a green dragon, he not only could wield nature as a weapon, but he could also enhance the body’s natural abilities. He came over to my side, a slash across his chest having already healed.

“Of course.” He nudged me to the side. I didn’t want to move. My instinct was to stay as close to Blake’s side as possible .

Warrick placed his hand on Blake’s shoulder. Light green vines appeared like stitches, closing the gash. When the skin had been sewn shut and the bleeding staunched, the vines disappeared along with the blood, leaving behind a thin scarlet-red scar. Blake pushed up off the floor. I helped him back onto his feet.

The living room was a disaster zone. The three Shades were all dead, lying in a mess of broken furniture and black blood. I looked Blake over to make sure there weren’t any other injuries. When I didn’t see any, I reached out and rubbed his lower back. He smiled at me, which helped settle my racing heartbeat.

“I think it’s safe to say this asshole knew we were coming,” Dawn said. She prodded one of the Shades with her foot. “There was Dragonsbane and these three fuckers. What else could be in here?”

“Hopefully, the answer to our questions,” I said. “But you’re right. He was tipped off somehow.”

“Nice job with the bow and arrow, by the way,” Dawn said with a nudge at my side.

“You did it?” Blake asked. He’d been a little preoccupied, so I didn’t blame him for not knowing.

“I did.” The relief of seeing Blake safe mixed with the excitement of me pulling off a move I’d been wanting to do for a while now. I beamed at him. He surprised me by leaning in and giving me a kiss. My eyes went wide before I went in for another kiss.

Blake’s amber eyes practically glowed in the dim living room. “I knew you could do it.”

“Um, I think I missed a few chapters,” Warrick said .

Dawn fixed up her hair and gave us a wink. “I saw it coming from a mile away.”

“You did?” Blake and I both asked in unison.

“Duh. You two would always look at each other with those sweet puppy love eyes. It was really cute.”

“Huh,” Warrick said. “I must be really oblivious.”

“You are,” Dawn said. “And that’s why we all love you.”

“We’ll talk about our relationship later. Let’s focus on searching this house.” I realized I’d said “relationship” before anything between us was actually official. Blake didn’t seem bothered by it. If anything, his smile only widened. Was that what had happened between us? In the blink of an eye, we went from bodyguard/client to budding relationship.

“Where should we start?” Warrick asked, looking around.

“Blake and I will go down that hallway. You and Dawn take the other. Be careful of any more traps.”

Blake stuck close to my side as we began our search. The place was a maze of narrow hallways and small, cluttered rooms, all filled with old furniture, peeling wallpaper, and clothes strewn about.

“It looks like he left here in a hurry,” I noted.

“You’re right.” Blake looked around as we stopped outside of a closed door. The air was thick with the scent of rotting trash, and the faint creaks of the floorboards beneath our feet made the silence even more oppressive.

My hand hovered over the scratched bronze doorknob. I motioned for Blake to step back. I slowly opened the door. The hinges sounded out in protest, but no traps were sprung.

Good.

I moved into what looked like a study. The walls were lined with bookshelves, most of them filled with old, leather-bound tomes that hadn’t been touched in years. A large oak desk sat in the middle of the room, its surface cluttered with papers and a few random trinkets. I carefully sifted through the documents, looking for anything that might give us a clue about what had been going on here. Blake looked through the shelves. There was a window that looked out at the dry desert. A few Joshua trees stood nearby, bent limbs aimed up at the intense sun.

“Anything?” Blake asked. I looked up to see him leaning against a bookshelf, his face still pale from the fight but his amber eyes sharp.

“Nothing,” I replied, lifting a stack of papers to reveal a small, black notebook. My fingers tingled as I picked it up, flipping through the pages. Most of it was filled with scribbles and notes, but then I saw it—drawings of what looked to be monstrous dragons, unlike any I’ve ever seen. Their scales were an inky black, with tendrils falling from their jaws and bright red eyes. Underneath it was what appeared to be a hastily drawn blueprint of what I assumed must have been the testing facility.

“Hold on. I think I found something,” I said, holding up the notebook.

Blake nodded, stepping closer. “Do you think these are those Shade dragons Kalen was talking about?”

A shiver crawled down my spine. If it was, then we were staring at monstrosities. “It might be… Let’s take it with us.”

“Let’s get out of here, then. This place is giving me the creeps,” he said. He hugged me, his arms tight around my sides. His warmth flooded through me. I wrapped my arms around him and held him against me for a moment .

We separated, but I couldn’t stop myself from kissing him.

Dawn and Warrick rejoined us as we exited the room. “This place is a disaster,” Warrick said, rubbing the back of his head where the Shade had struck him. “But we managed to clear out the rest of the house. It’s safe now.”

“Anything useful?” Dawn asked, glancing at the notebook in my hand.

“Possibly,” I said. “It’s a blueprint, probably to a lab or some kind of secure location. Plus these illustrations.”

Warrick stepped forward, holding up a photograph he had found. “We found this…” I cocked my head, looking at the cracked frame in Warrick’s hand. Inside it was a recent picture of Cassius’ father, smiling alongside the very uncle we were hunting.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Blake said, his voice thick with confusion. “Cass told us his dad hadn’t spoken to his uncle in years. But this… this looks like it was taken recently.” Blake’s brow furrowed as he studied the photo. “Why would he lie? Or maybe he didn’t know…?”

“It’s hard to say,” I replied, my mind racing with possibilities. “Either way, this changes things. If they’ve been in contact, we need to find out what they’ve been talking about. This could be bigger than we thought.”

We all stared at the photograph, the implications weighing heavily on us. Had he been working with his brother all along? Or was there something more complicated going on?

“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Dawn said, though her voice was strained. “We need to confront him and get to the bottom of this. But first, we should head back to the castle.”

Dawn was right. We had to head back home and collect our thoughts. At least we weren’t leaving here empty-handed. We might have found more questions than answers, but it felt like we were heading in the right direction. I led us through the home, through the destroyed living room, and past the dead Shades.

My phone started to ring. I was going to ignore it and shift, but something told me to answer. It was Damien.

“Hey, Damien, what’s up? We’re heading back?—”

“Don’t. The castle’s been attacked. Go to the desert house. We’ll meet you there.”