AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Ah, seriously? That’s mine!”
“We shared a womb for nine months,” Kota snarked. “You can’t share your snack?”
“First the womb, then a mate, and now you’re after my snack too?” Axel guarded his bowl protectively.
“You wound me, brother.” Kota’s sarcasm was thick as he shook his head at Axel.
“Luckily you’re the pack healer, so it shouldn’t smart too much.” Axel grinned smugly, tossing another kernel and catching it without looking.
It was honestly impressive, and I bit back my laugh at their antics. It was good to see them joking together. I hoped it meant they were on the road to mending the strained parts of their relationship.
The two of them went back to studying the map at Kota’s behest, and I moved farther along the bookshelf, craning my neck side to side to stretch the muscles that had cramped while I’d been hunched over the laptop.
My fingers trailed along the shelf aimlessly until I picked up the stone Rook, the fae prince, had given to Dason. Carefully, I weighed it in the palm of my hand, admiring the smooth, almost iridescent quality of the rock—if you could even call it that. I’d never seen anything like it here in the mortal realm.
It must be from the fae lands.
“There are only a few things the shades are motivated by,” Axel chimed in, drawing my attention back to their conversation. “Their master and gaining their freedom from the shadow realm. If we assume their master is using them to weaken other supernaturals, then we can rule out these attacks.” Axel’s finger glowed orange as he circled the incidents around L.A. and New York. “We know they have a way to track Lorn when she’s not behind warded territory, so we can rule out the attack on New Orleans and anything around her childhood home as well.” Axel sliced through them.
“Okay, what do the ones left have in common?” Kota shook his head, staring, waiting for the answer to come to him.
Kota and Axel stood side by side, and from my vantage point, it was easy to see the similarities between the twins. Besides their height and similar coloring, they held themselves the same way, both holding tension in their broad shoulders as they studied the map in almost identical poses.
I played with the rock as I rounded the room, taking in the sight of their defined jawlines, and the same angle of their noses and line of their brows. Even their eyes were the same color, though Axel’s were more mischievous while Kota’s held a seriousness he didn’t often relinquish.
“How do they achieve their goals? The shades want their freedom. Their master—some shadow touched bastard, if our predictions are correct—wants to open the gate for reasons we still don’t fully understand. How? Right now, our guy is summoning them out of the veil one by one and into the mortal realm using magick, I assume, but that’s taxing, and at that slow rate, the shadow touched have been able to keep up with the problem. But that’s not what this guy wants. He wants to open the veil. What does he need to accomplish his goal? I agree with Axel, I think the shades are searching for something,” I mumbled to myself, brainstorming out loud as I rolled the stone between my fingers. Fidgeting helped me think.
The guys were throwing out ideas, but I was too lost in my head to listen.
“Open the veil. Small towns. Looking for something,” I murmured, staring at an unimportant spot across the room while my brain raced.
Slowly, the pieces started coming together.
“Axel,” I called, “can you put another map behind the dots we’ve marked?” I moved to the computer, set down the rock, and typed into the search bar, pulling up the map I wanted. “Try this one.” I moved away and let Axel do his thing.
“Ley lines?” Kota furrowed his brows, crossing his arms as he studied it. “I thought this shit wasn’t real.”
“It’s very real, though I doubt this map is fully accurate. I don’t have my official texts from the Witching Academy any longer, but for centuries, witches have pulled energy from ley lines to increase their power. Look.” I called on my magick, and it took me a minute to get it glowing in my hand.
The map appeared like a prepubescent teen with a bad break out. Red dots littered the map, and I went about marking all the ones that intersected with the ley lines.
“It’s a start.” Kota shrugged, warming to my theory.
“It’s better than any other ideas we’ve had.” Axel leaned over and bumped my shoulder in solidarity. “Good job.”
“Except there aren’t any ley lines near Cedar Falls, Nebraska. In fact, there are only two that run through that entire state, according to this map. How do we explain all the dots that are unaccounted for?”
Axel and I joined Kota, and I was sandwiched between their broad shoulders as we all studied the map.
Eventually I sighed in frustration. “I have no idea.”
“Now then, what kind of attitude is that for our cherished veil keeper?” chided a masculine voice that definitely did not belong to one of my six men.
I whirled, but Axel and Kota were already half shifted, pushing me behind them as they snarled at the intruder.
“My, my, what a welcome.” Rook smirked as he lounged in Dason’s computer chair, his expensive, gilded boots propped on the wooden desk. He tossed the rock I’d been playing with and caught it deftly. “Hello, dearest. We meet again.”
He inclined his head in a deep nod of greeting, and once again, I wasn’t sure what was appropriate in return. Was I supposed to curtsey to his royal ass? Or did the fact that he’d broken into our home negate manners entirely?
