Page 18 of Broken Shadows (Corrupt Shadows Duet #2)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Evie

My eyes fluttered close as we enter the In-Between and the noisy world falls into silence. The experience is akin to taking a benzo. Gomez’s wings close around my forearm as I hold him to my chest, and a sense of calm washes over us both.

Perhaps it’s knowing what’s coming but being here is like standing in the eye of storm. I peel back my eyelids to reveal shadows dancing in illusory spirals around us, the mist and fog clouding everything in this aimless plane.

Lorcan struts to my side, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. I hear a pop when he rolls his shoulders, pressing a thumb against the muscle in his neck. We both needed this quiet, it seems.

His voice comes between a whisper and his normal, deep tone. “This plan of yours is good.”

My eyes widen as his approval gleams through our bond. Speaking of… “You said the bond we have is more of an imprint. You never told me that before.”

“I did and it is.” His hand squeezes my shoulder as I step forward. “Let’s take our time getting there.”

“The others are at least four shadows ahead of us,” I say as Gomez climbs up my chest and onto my shoulder.

Lorcan shrugs. “I know. I want to talk.”

My brows raise. “The King of Demons wants to just talk ?”

The corner of his lip tilts. My eyes track his large, tattooed hand as he runs it through his disheveled, raven locks. “I’m just as surprised as you, Baby Girl.”

My stomach dips on hearing my nickname. While I love Little Witch, this one is far more intimate and makes my heart flutter. With the absence of arousal, I realize my feelings are stronger than I knew. “The bond,” I say as we amble slowly through the In-Between. “You were saying that it’s an imprint.”

He wets his thick lips with his tongue. “I’d only ever heard of it in Hell,” he admits, his eyes flitting everywhere but on me. “How when a demon feels certain things for a human—or witch—it’s possible for a bond to form, like a mating bond.”

I exhale shakily, and Gomez purrs in my ear as if he can sense the swell of my heart. “So you feel certain things?”

The muscles in his arms tense, straining the sleeves of his shirt. “Yes.”

“Except, you cannot love,” I add, wishing I didn’t sound, or feel , all doe-eyed and desperate.

“Supposedly I can’t.” He lifts a hand to his chest, placing it over his heart. He doesn’t elaborate but instead shifts the topic to one that halts me in my tracks.

“What happened at The Order, when you were tortured?” He turns to face me, and tucks a lock of hair behind my ear, gently brushing Gomez’s fur as he does. “We never properly discussed it, but your magic is more powerful than ever now.”

“You saw what happened.” I lower my stare to our shoes. “In that compact mirror.”

His thumb tucks under my chin, with a gentle nudge, he lifts my gaze back to meet his. “All I saw was a result of what he did and I’m proud of you for it. You know I don’t care about murder.”

“I do,” I admit, my eye twitching as memories flood back from before our time in the Shadow Realm. “I mean, not about Edward, because I know I did the world a favor. But I can’t help but think about all the people that have died because of me. Like, some had it coming but others didn’t.” I pause, recalling the neighborhoods kids that died because I had let them into our home. But I’m not ready to talk about that, so I mention another that I haven’t properly addressed. “Like Jay,” I bite out. “He was an asshole, but most people are and that doesn’t mean he deserved to die, not over me. I was using him.”

“Let go of that guilt,” Lorcan orders, and runs a thumb down my cheek. I lean into his touch as he whispers. “It’s not yours to carry.”

“Wait, are you saying you feel guilty ?” I ask, blinking twice.

He grimaces. “No, I don’t.” Reaching up, he drags his thumb over my bottom lip. “Don’t do that.”

“What?”

“Expecting me to be human just because I happen to care about you. I don’t give a damn who dies, as long as it’s not you.”

“That’s…”

What is it? Disappointing? Romantic?

My heart balloons when I look at my demon. At least he isn’t pretending to be anything other than what he is.

Gomez wings flap unexpectedly, sending a whoosh of air into my ear and Lorcan laughs.

“Calm down, Fluffy Fucker,” Lorcan states and Gomez hisses in response. “You’re a part of my witch.”

I pat Gomez on the back. “That’s about as close as he’ll come to admitting he cares about you too.”

Lorcan tsks under his breath. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you shift the conversation away from the torture. What is really bothering you and don’t pretend it’s about your old fuckboy.” Our bond ripples as his intrusive gaze bores into mine, plunging into the depths of my dark soul.

We continue to amble at a snail’s pace, shifting from one shadow to another, moving through a monochrome kaleidoscope. “Edward, my father, he, well, I can’t remember everything but when I came around, his… cock was on my stomach. It’s not the first time it happened.” The rest of my words evade me as a rage simmers through me, piping hot and ready to explode. My father might be dead, but I want nothing more than to kill him all over again. “Do you think he’s in Hell?”

His fingers ball into fists. “I fucking hope so!”

“It’s not just him either,” I choke out. “Samuel showed me who I really am. I killed people because I wanted to. I used to think I was born evil, but he made me remember things in my childhood that I’d forgotten.”

“Evie.” He grabs my shoulders, feet planted apart, grounding me. “ I’m evil. You are not close to that. Look… ” He huffs and glances up with a growl. “God gives humans all these insane fucking emotions then expects you all to do no bad with them. Give me a fucking break. It’s why he cast my father out. Lucifer questioned shit and you can’t do that there.” His pupils swallow his irises, his nostrils flaring as he stares at me. “My brothers are complete dicks, but my uncles are worse.”

Uncles?

At times I forget how biblical all of this is. Lorcan is the son of Lucifer, a literal fallen angel and his uncles are freaking angels in what, Heaven?

Wait, so then his grandfather is God?

I press my fingers into my temples and puff out a breath as my lens widens and the bigger picture sinks in. I can’t wait to discuss this with Rosa because it’d sound insane to anyone else who isn’t in this situation with us.

“Are you okay, Little Witch?” Lorcan asks and I nod slowly.

“Yeah, it’s all just really sinking in. So,” I add as curiosity takes over the pain in my chest, “who is your mother? In the abstract I guess I know you have one, but it’s sounds so strange to say”

He chuckles. “Her name was Lilith.”

“As in Lilith from the bible?”

Of course it is. Who else could it be.

“Mmhmm,” he says and whistles a breath as if all of this isn’t mind-blowing. Which, to him it isn’t, I suppose. “I didn’t know her well. My father destroyed her eons ago when she tried eating us.”

My jaw slacks. “She tried to what?”

“Eat us,” he says with a shrug. “I guess she wasn’t particularly maternal.”

I suppress a laugh, but he sends a comforting tug down our bond, telling me it really doesn’t bother him.

A tree passes through our next step into a shadow. Pain radiates in my forehead as Gomez pulls on my hair, clinging to me for dear life. I pat him on the side. “Your father has really had bad luck with women.”

Lorcan stops, pauses, brows furrowed, then laughs that boyish laugh I rarely get to see. “Yeah, he hasn’t. It’s why it’ll be hard to convince him about Evangeline’s motives. I’ll need to find a way to show him.”

“I hadn’t thought about that.”

He ushers us along. “I haven’t stopped thinking about it, but we need to focus on getting to Hell first. We should be arriving soon.”

I shake my head, scattering my thoughts. “Are you nervous to return to Hell?”

I notice the subtle shift to his breath and the crease forming over his left brow. “No.”

Tenderly, I speak through our bond, It’s okay if you are. I am.

I think about Edward and how he’s probably in Hell along with other people I’ve killed and realize I’m not the only one with metaphorical demons I need to face while there.

Just stay close to me? he asks in a moment of vulnerability.

By the time we arrive at the dense wooded area, my brain feels like a sponge that’s been wrung dry. I glance up as the sky darkens from a deep indigo into an inky black, and silvers dots pinprick the rich night sky.

The group comes into view. Rosa taps her fingers against her hip, shaking her head when she sees us walk up the dirt road between the trees. “Take your time? It’s not like we’re on a schedule or anything.”

Ezra side-eyes Rosa then smirks. “They were probably fucking again. At least this time we didn’t have to listen to it.”

My eyes bulge. They heard us last night.

Good. Now they all know you’re mine, Lorcan responds, and I realize I unwittingly pushed my thoughts into our bond.

They’re your brothers, I admonish. You don’t need to prove anything.

It wasn’t too long ago that Ezra had his hands around your throat in the Shadow Realm, he reminds me and my cheeks flush with heat.

My arousal was not my fault. I despised him at the time, but you know, I like being strangled a little and…

Lorcan’s fingers flex at his side. Don’t make me mark you again, Little Witch.

My neck flushes this time, and a bloom of desire veins through my chest all the way down to between my legs.

Ezra tsks and Aiden sighs from behind them, with Gideon standing a few feet away. “We’re not doing this again,” he says, wagging a finger at us both. “We can’t hear you when you talk through your bond, so all we see is some broody and pouty looks with longing glances between long bouts of silence. It’s crazy awkward.”

“Say that again,” Lorcan threatens.

Rosa hisses a breath between her teeth. “Why don’t we just get going. Before some of us overreact.”

She glances at Lorcan who’s giving Ezra a murderous look and I quickly realize they’re now talking through their demon brother bond. And you know what? Ezra was right, it’s awkward. “Yes,” I agree. “Let’s go.”

“Agreed. Let’s stop playing with each other.” Gideon’s words cut through us like a blade. His words holds more gravitas than all of ours combined.

Ezra huffs and crosses his arm in mock sadness. “But why must we stop, Gid, when you’re so much fun to be around?”

Gideon rolls his eyes and holds up a flashlight for Aiden. Rosa plucks out her phone and uses it to illuminate out surroundings.

Ezra bounces on his heels, his hands shoved in his jean pockets. “Alrighty then, lead the way, Witch.” He nods his head in my direction, and I look around, trying to familiarize myself with the map I’d studied at the house.

“The first gate should be right off the road up here. It’s visible any time of day.”

“What and the others aren’t?” asks Aiden. “Why are there even gates to Hell here of all places?”

The group look at me, although I am certain the demon brothers know the true reason. “The legend says there was an asylum that burned down here with the patients inside who tried to run,” I explain to Aiden and Rosa, after having read through the human’s urban legends on the gateways, versus the history as written by witches. “The locals believed the gates were built to stop those patients from escaping, and another legend tells of a doctor who built them to keep trespassers out, but neither story is true.”

Aiden glances into the darkness between the tree line and shudders. “Great, your version is going to be so much creepier, isn’t it?”

Lorcan grins from ear to ear as Aiden backs away, closer to the edge of the dirt road strewn with vines and leaves. “It’s so much more terrifying. If you knew what was truly in this woods, you wouldn’t be moving so close to the tree line.”

Ezra, cloaked with shadows, appears behind Aiden and yells “Boo,” into his ear, sending Aiden wailing with his hands in the air.

I slap my hand over my mouth, snort-laughing behind my palm while Ezra and Rosa’s hands are on their knees as they belly laugh. The only one not impressed by Ezra’s stunt is Gideon, who swiftly strides next to Aiden, taking a protective stance that Aiden seems to lean into.

Do I detect something there? Gideon bridal carrying him was one thing, but now it seems Aiden reciprocates. Well, fuck. It seems we all might end up with a demon brother, although I am determined to keep Rosa from Ezra. Mostly because I don’t quite trust his intentions and she deserves so much better that a demon who can’t feel love.

Aiden places his hand over his heaving chest and groans. “Fuck the pair of you.”

“I’m good,” Lorcan replies.

Ezra chuckles and says, “Me too, although I’m sure Gid will take you up on that offer.”

Aiden’s cheeks turn tomato red. “That’s not what I meant,” he says but checks to see Gideon’s response, who has gone so still he could almost pass as a statue.

Lorcan pulls his pack of cigarettes out and pushes one between my lips. His zippo lighter flickers blue as he flicks the lint a few times until it flames orange. I inhale deeply, closing my eyes as I bring the smoke to my mouth, hold it there for a couple of seconds before dragging it deep into my lungs.

Mmm.

My shoulders relax and I look at the group, Rosa in particular, who’s tapping her nail over her bottom lip. “Are you going to tell us what happened? Don’t tell me I have to hear it from him?” She points at Lorcan.

“No,” I reply, exhaling a puff of smoke. “The so-called asylum runes here is actually an old mill. But the violent energy many feel here is real. What most don’t know is that just a little past the ruins of the old mill is the birthplace of my great aunt Evangaline, before she moved to my hometown. This is the original place where the Fallenmoore Coven originated and it’s also where they practiced a lot of dark magic. She’s the reason these gateways exist.”

Lorcan scrunches his lips. “Unfortunately, she’s right. Evangeline wanted a link to the human world so she could come back after her death and visit .”

Aiden pulls on the strings of his hoodie. “That’s not that bad. You made it sound like something really creepy happened here.”

“It did,” I bite out. “My ancestors loved practicing sacrificial magic, meaning a lot of men, like yourself, were strung up in these woods and slaughtered.”

His eyes widen twice their size, the moonlight making the blue in them even more potent. “You scare me sometimes.”

I smirk. “Good.”

Rosa rolls her eyes. “She’s not as frightening as she thinks she is.” Her hand disappears into her bag, surfacing with a fistful of granola and feeds it to Gomez who grabs it in his tiny claws, from on top my shoulder. “We should go before the ghosts of all those men start haunting us.”

The group moves in tandem, and Aiden whispers to Rosa, “Do you have to say that?”

Lorcan presses his lips into a tight line and speaks into my mind, He’s really not going to do well once we’re in Hell.