Page 86 of Shadow Guardian

Kay leaned back just enough that she could look into his eyes, her arms still wrapped tightly around his neck. “I love you, Ethan.”

He smiled tiredly and pulled her back into his arms, nuzzling against her neck as he whispered, “I love you too.”

ChapterThirty-Two

Ethan openedhis eyes to dim light filtering through unfamiliar curtains and the early trills of the first birds. And Kay, sleeping safely in his arms.

He had spent the night wrapped around her, holding her tight into his body so that they could, just about, both fit in her single bed—and because he needed her close. Her leg was thrown over his hip and her head was tucked under his chin, flyaway strands of hair tickling his nose as she snored softly. There was nowhere in the world he would rather be.

Golden daylight spread softly through a chink in the curtains as he lay, holding Kay, feeling her breathe. Letting the knowledge that she was safe—and that she loved him—anchor itself in his heart. She stirred, then settled again, and he lay still, letting the minutes pass slowly. Letting the peace wrap around them both.

A dog barked in the distance and Kay twitched, grumbling as she opened her eyes. She blinked slowly, looking at him fuzzily. And then she smiled.

Nothing, not even all the time they’d spent together, had prepared Ethan for that smile. Bright, and open, and full of love. Nothing standing between them. Everything ahead of them.

Whatever they still had to face—James, Gordon, Oracle—they would face it together. And in the end, they would still be standing, side by side, together.

Ethan threaded his fingers through her soft hair, tilting her face up so that he could press his lips to hers, and she sighed, warm and soft with sleep.

He helped her out of the shirt she’d slept in, rolling her gently until she was under him. Her skin against his. Her breath in his ears. Her hand reaching out to twine with his, fingers interlocked. Her Shadows reached out and merged into his in an unhurried dance of slow-moving fire. And he knew, without question, that he would wake up beside Kay for the rest of his life.

Epilogue

Zach leanedback against the wall of Bryn’s small cottage and tried to massage the knots out of his tired shoulders.

He, Bryn, and Ethan had been taking shifts to care for James for three very long days. Three days of repeated Healings, watching the man who had once been his friend slowly regain consciousness, emerging back to awareness in flashes between long screaming nightmares.

Listening to James groan helplessly as his body shuddered—as he alternated between weeping bitterly and screaming in violent rage—had been soul-destroying. Emotionally and physically exhausting. But there was nothing else they could do, and no way to get help without revealing James to the Council. And to Gordon.

The damn Council. The very people who were supposed to protect the Order and now could not be trusted. Maybe never should have been trusted. The Council he’d spent most of his life working day and night to earn a place on. God.

Their only hope was that when James woke up, he could tell them Gordon’s plan.IfJames could tell them. Bloody hell.

There’d been one moment, that morning, when James had finally been aware enough to hold his cup of water and take small sips. He’d shakily set the cup back down, made brief eye contact with Zach, and whispered, “Tell her I’m—” before his voice faded, and he sank back into a fitful sleep.

Tell who? Kay, or someone else? Tell her what, exactly?

Zach’s phone buzzed, and he opened a text from Kay. He chuckled softly. She and Ethan had gone swimming in Llyn y Fan Fach with Elizabeth and David, and she’d sent a photo. They looked absolutely bloody freezing.

He didn’t think he’d ever, in all their years of friendship, seen Kay look as happy as she did wrapped in a fleece, leaning against Ethan, and he was genuinely glad for them both.

Elizabeth looked less serene. She had a slight frown on her face as she looked toward David who stood several steps away, his arms folded over his chest, face shuttered—neither of them seeming aware of the stunning mountain scenery or the dark waters of the lake behind them. God, that was a difficult relationship. But if life had taught Zach anything, it was that nothing was ever easy.

He put his phone away and leaned against the wall, his mind wandering back almost twenty years—to the time before James and Kay had arrived in Wales—to himself as a boy, freckled from many hours playing outdoors. And a pretty girl with flyaway red-blonde hair and a shy smile.

He remembered playing out on a windy beach, their mothers chatting, huddled in their coats, while Emma laughed and they built complicated sandcastles together. He’d been eleven years old, almost twelve, not yet too cool for building castles on the beach, but very nearly. Just on the cusp of adolescence. Old enough to know that he liked Emma. A lot.

They never did play on the beach again. Her mother had been healthy one day, and then, seemingly overnight, too unwell to leave her bed. Within weeks, she was gone, and Emma was sent away to school in France by her father.

Her father, Gordon Dennehy.

A few months after that Zach’s mother became ill, and he’d stopped thinking about Emma and her family. But he’d never forgotten her, and he still wondered, from time to time, what had become of her.

Zach sighed, scrubbing a hand down his face.

What was Oracle? What was Gordon planning to do with the disturbing blood Shadows that he’d brought back into the world? And why the fuck did he want a meeting with the committee responsible for national security?

They had to stop him. And they had to do it quickly and quietly if they were going to prevent whatever abomination the man had planned in order to make himself Archdderwydd. There was one major problem; no one knew where Gordon was. He’d disappeared and not even the Council knew where he’d gone. Or maybe they did and were refusing to say. Which was arguably even more terrifying.

That was where Emma came in. He didn’t know her and hadn’t seen her for years. But she was his access to Gordon.

He had to find the girl who’d once been his best friend and get her to tell him where her father was. Then he would find the man responsible for bringing blood Shadows back into the world and for breaking James. And stop him.