Page 5 of Solar Shadows

He’d been killed by Daniel, our real father, and brought back to life by the Rainbow Stones. He was fine, all good, but cruel flashes of his corpse still crept into my mind.

For a moment, he’d been gone.

For a moment, my world began to collapse.

What if he’d stayed dead? What if I’d lost him? Knowing each other for a short space of time didn’t matter. We’d bonded, we were brothers, and now that he was in my life, I couldn’t imagine a world without him.

He was the brother I needed, unlike the one I’d grown up with.

Okay, no thinking about my family. The lid stayed closed onthatbox. None of them had been in touch with me since the big Christmas incident last year.

Good.

I linked my arm with Riley’s, just to feel him there. He triggered every protective instinct, making me want to be his big brother. It didn’t matter if we were born on the same day. I came first, and so I carried the weight of responsibility I probably shouldn’t be putting on my shoulders. But since his brief death, I couldn’t help it. I wanted to be there for him, to keep him safe.

He gave me a squeeze. “Feeling okay?”

Maybe I should talk to him about this stuff. “All good, little brother.”

I checked a grubby popcorn stand, findingnothing but rot and mold and faded red and white stripes painted on its outside.

Ollie moved past me, inspecting a shooting range. I caught him looking at me before he stepped out of the pool of light made by our flashlights.

Uh-huh.

Movement sounded to my right.

Shit.

Jake’s flashlight beam spun toward the ghost train at the same time as mine. I unlinked my arm from Riley’s, moving forward. My sunshine power tingled in my fingers, ready to be unleashed.

Jake approached, holding his gun with his flashlight. The lights of his surgical steel witchcop bangle flashed green, indicating danger, and allowing access to spells for defense.

Mine did the same, offering me eight spells: Trip, Deflect, Hide, Taser, Seize, Blur, Freeze, Light.

We’d had our civilian bangles replaced for extra power.

Ollie joined Agent Jake in the same stance, but with his spells ready rather than his gun.

There were more sounds in the dark, the shuffling of feet, something like a twig snapping under a foot. I made out the silhouette of a figure hidden in the shadows of the ghost train’s torn awning jutting over its entrance.

“Come out with your hands up!” Jake barked, aiming his flashlight into the face of a man dressed inblack. A shimmer witch, his bronze civilian bangle glinting in the beam.

Shadow witches didn’t wear bangles, but that didn’t mean this guy wasn’t dangerous.

I inched closer as a second man appeared.

“Hands up! Now!” Ollie chimed in, his rich baritone cracking like sexy thunder. Blue magical energy rippled in his fingers, a spell about to be clapped out.

The men obeyed, another guy and two women appearing. Shimmer witches too, they formed a line, their hands in the air.

But one of the women held something tightly in her right hand.

A Hecate Crystal. What the fuck? No one ever touched the crystals for fear of depleting their energy. They were precious, the source of all magic on Earth.

Why would any witch willingly break one free?

“Put it down,” Jake demanded.