The Shadow Children (The Demon-Born Trilogy Book 1)

by L. C. Hibbett

“You are certain, Gabriel? This is your choice. You know the price you will have to pay to be free of your duty here.” Aza’s voice was low.

  Gabriel’s smile was frayed at the edges. “I will pay. The path chose me, Aza. It is written.” Aza bowed her head, and he embraced her tenderly. She spoke to Sam over Gabriel’s shoulder. “Go, nobody can know my part in this. Much has already been jeopardized.”

  Sam nodded, gesturing for Megan and Elijah to go ahead. I watched them disappear into the void with a pounding heart. Lucas took Brandon’s hand tentatively in his own. “I’m sorry. I will explain everything.”

  Brandon’s expression was hard, but he gripped Lucas tightly as they stepped into the portal. Sam molded his arm to my waist and led me forward. I stopped on the threshold. “Gabriel, you coming with us?”

  Gabriel nodded into Aza’s shoulder. She stroked his hair as she spoke. “I release you from your duty to the Demons of London.”

  In a heartbeat, the knife was in her fingers, and the cup held below it. Gabriel’s blood gushed into the silver goblet and ran in rivers over Aza’s smooth hand. Her face shattered into a thousand creases, each brimming with agony. I leaped towards them, and she threw his limp body into my arms. I fell backward into the portal with Gabriel’s blood on my skin and Sam’s arms still wrapped around my waist.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  “What happened to him?” Jasmine collapsed onto the floor beside Eve’s bed and cradled Gabriel’s head in her lap. Blood dripped from his abdomen and ran across the wooden floorboard, pooling underneath the window. I pressed my hands over my mouth.

  Brandon sprang into action. “Lucas! Get me towels. Megan, I need a belt or a long strip of fabric. Jasmine, you need to keep pressure on that wound. Raise his legs, Elijah, put those pillows under his butt. Damn it, dude, move.” He peeled Gabriel’s shirt away from the wound. “Sam, get you phone out. We need an ambulance.”

  Sam grabbed my hand and pulled me to Eve’s bedside. She was still lying on her back, chest rising and falling evenly. Sam squeezed my fingers. “You have to wake her, Grace. She’s his only chance.”

  I reached out and shook Eve, but there wasn’t even a flicker in response.

  “I can’t, Sam. The charms. I can’t undo them. I don’t know how.”

  Jasmine wrapped her fingers around my ankle. “Please, Grace. Try.”

  I clenched my teeth together and opened my mind, seeking Eve’s essence. The emotion in the room smashed into me, and I gripped onto the bedpost to steady myself, focusing on the faint pulsing of Eve’s energy. I sucked air into my lungs. Pain. So much. And guilt. And fear. But not for herself. I called out to her. Eve, come back, I’m so sorry. No response.

  My brow creased in frustration. “I can’t do it, Sam. She isn’t hearing me.”

  I tried again, thrusting myself into her consciousness but I couldn’t burst through. Tears of desperation stung my eyes, and I made lashed myself at the barrier, one final time. As I struggled forward, Sam touched my skin and a flare of energy united with my own, ripping through the barrier in a blaze of light.

  Eve’s eyes flew open, and she drew in a shuddering breath. “Grace. Gabriel.”

  I pressed my face against her shoulder. “Eve! Eve, I am so sorry.”

  “It’s I who should apologize, Grace. A thousand times over. I should have trusted you with the truth. I was a coward.” She cupped my face in her hands. I shook my head, crushing my lips together and standing aside to let Eve tend to Gabriel. Brandon kneeled back and relinquished control, his fine black eyebrows arched high. Eve stroked Gabriel’s lifeless face. His lips were a deathly shade of gray and his breath was ragged. Eve’s voice was strained. “Gabriel. Don’t you dare let me down again, old man.”

  She closed her eyes and lifted her face up to the sky. Her lips were still, but every inch of her body appeared to be begging favour. It was as close to true prayer as I had ever seen. The skin on Gabriel’s abdomen began to heal, the wide gash knitting together effortlessly. Brandon bent closer and examined the skin in wonder. Gabriel’s eyelashes fluttered. “This is awkward, kid, but I’m afraid you’re not my type.”

  Brandon moved back and grinned. “No worries, the exception to prove the rule, right?”

  Gabriel’s lips curved upwards, and he pulled his eyelids open with effort. “You are certainly turning out to be that, Human.”

  Jasmine smiled down at Gabriel, and he wiped a tear from her cheek with limp fingers. “Yes. Quite the group of exceptions.”

  He grunted and pushed himself into a seated position, coming face to face with Eve. She screwed her eyes shut and covered her face with her hands. Gabriel threw his arms around her and cradled her against his chest. “You’re all right, my girl. It’s all going to be fine.”

  A tiny part of my brain twisted at the sight of this beautiful boy comforting a woman old enough to be his mother. Consoling her like she was a small child. But my soul could look deeper than the eye. All it saw was love. I let Sam support me in his arms, pressing my ear against his chest to listen to the rhythm of his heart. His energy called to me. My heart. My heart.

  Eve dabbed at her cheeks with the hem of her dress. “You're here.”

  Gabriel’s eyes were a well of sorrow. “I should have gotten here sooner. Elizabeth sent Mathas to me, to let me know you were with the Shadows, but the message didn’t reach me until after your waif had left the dungeon.” He tilted his head in my direction, and I grinned.

  “You let her come to harm, Gabriel. And you never came for us.” Eve’s voice was frail enough to shatter in a breeze.

  “There was no real danger to Grace, I would never do that, Eve. And I tried to get to you, but everything was a mess. The London Demons are in turmoil, it was like every step I took somebody was two paces ahead of me.”

  Eve nodded. “They’re here, Gabriel. They found us. Emmanuel gave me your message about the children, they’re special. They have the ancient powers.”

  Gabriel nodded, his face grim. “Yes. We suspected as much for a while. Elizabeth has sensed a Seer. There is something afoot, a change. If we had more time.”

  My chest tightened again, the sense of urgency building like a hurricane. I flew across the room and rifled through Eve’s desk drawer, unearthing the small gilt-edged card. “It’s him, isn’t it. He has them. He’s the one who wants us. He’s one of those Brothers that Gabriel told us about, or their servant?”

  Eve took the card from my hand and ran her finger along the edge. “I believe he is. I suspected, believed, it was Emmanuel.” She looked down at her hands. “I used blood magic to make him speak truth, but his heart was pure. He felt it, the darkness in this house. Cain and Jabol too. They felt its pull.”

  Jasmine’s face was as white as the sheet on Eve’s bed. “Who, Grace? Who has Cain?”

  I flinched, unwilling to speak the words, and handed her the small card. She turned it over in her delicate hand and read the words aloud. “With thanks, Peter.”

  Sometimes truth arrives like a tsunami and sometimes it appears in a whisper, a secret your heart already knew. Jasmine bowed her head, and Elijah fell onto the floor beside her, pressing his skull against hers. Eve’s voice was heavy with a thousand sorrows. “I’m sorry, children. I wish it wasn’t your family.”

  Jasmine lifted her chin and pushed her shoulders back. “You have no apologizing to do. Blood doesn’t make a family.” She pressed her hands against the floor and leaped to her feet. “Now where the hell has he put the others? We need to get our real family back.”

  Gabriel stared at her with eyes full of light before striding over to the writing desk. Everyone crowded around the table. “Okay, first things first, are we certain that we have the right man?”

  Eve’s lips thinned. “I’ve monitored every adult and child in residence. He is the only one, besides Emmanuel, who leaves regularly. He has a fixated interest in the Demon-Born children. His behavior was unusual on the night of the New York attack, he had no desire to assis
t the other cell, tried to sabotage our attempts to assist, even. At the time I thought it was fear...”

  I bit my lip and stared down at the wood. “My keeper. The first day I talked to him that’s how he referred to you. Not my foster mother or my mother. My keeper. And the cards. Are they like the ones you used to get in London?”

  Eve grimaced and nodded. “Identical. Down to the gilded border.”

  Sam inhaled sharply. “Is that why those Demons were outside the theater today? Were they waiting for him? Could they have been working with Peter, Gabriel?”

  “Fergus and Lara? That makes no sense, all contact regarding the Demon-Born was to go through me, I was second in command.” Gabriel glared out the window. “Unless Niamh was keeping something from me.” He fell silent.

  Jasmine shuffled on the spot. “Peter walks with a cane too.” Megan raised an eyebrow at Lucas and Elijah, clearly baffled by the conversation. Jasmine blushed. “Gabriel told us about Eve’s father. He was a Spirit-Eater. He walked with a stick. I know the cane thing is stupid.” She glanced at Gabriel. His face darkened. “Have you a photograph of this man?”

  Elijah pulled out his phone and began to flick through his photo gallery. Jasmine touched Gabriel’s sleeve. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that I thought it was him. I thought the cane might be a weapon the Brothers use, or a magic implement. Peter is only barely older that Eve.”

  “These are not ordinary men, these Spirit-Eaters. That much we know,” Gabriel said. Elijah handed Gabriel the phone. “Gods. It’s him. Charles.”

  Gabriel’s face was entirely drained of color as he glanced at Eve. She leaned over the desk and squeezed her eyes shut. When she opened them her glare cut through the room. “We need to find the others. This is no coincidence. We are playing his game, all of us. We need to take the pieces off the chessboard.”

  Sam touched my cheek. “I think that Grace can find them.”

  Gabriel set his jaw. “Do it.”

  Eve pulled open the window and touched my shoulder. I let my mind float above the house, inhaling the fresh Atlantic air rolling in through the open window. She waved the others away, forcing them to perch on the sides of her bed like oversized garden gnomes. Brandon’s whisper hit my eardrums like a shout. “What is she? A seer?”

  Lizzie’s voice tickled my memory. Whatever you are, mystery girl, you aren’t my seer. My energy fluttered on the breeze and carried over the rooftops. I pressed my palms against my heart. Fear, panic, terror. The main floor of the house was flooded with Spirit Demons, writhing around the chapel walls like a ravenous fog.

  My skin prickled as I burst through them, trying to sense Cat and Dawn in the crowded hall. Fear, love, courage, weariness. Flashes of energy stabbed me, but none belonged to my sister or niece. I tried to slip away, but something had gripped me. I recoiled from the dark taste of greed, struggling to free myself. My body convulsed, shaking my soul loose and sending it soaring above the house.

  That’s where I found her. Sweet and pure as the first moment she tore into this world. Dawn. Her energy wound itself around me, and we plummeted back into Eve’s bedroom. My eyelids exploded open, and I doubled over, drawing breath into my lungs with a ferocity born of desperation.

  “They’re here.”

  The words were threadbare, savaged by my anxiety.

  Sam bolted past Eve and kneeled before me. “Who, Grace? Who’s here? Cain?” He braced himself. “Or the Spirit Demons?”

  I pressed my fingers against his lips. “Both.”

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Dread and hope twisted across Sam’s face like oil mixed with water. Megan was the first to regain her composure, reaching my side a split second before Gabriel and Eve. “Where are they? Is everyone else safe? Have the Spirits got hold of anyone?”

  I held my hands up in an attempt to shield myself from the avalanche of questions gushing from Megan’s mouth. “Your dad and Mark are in the chapel, Megan. The Spirit Demons haven’t breached it. The others are right here.”

  Megan cast a suspicious glance around the room and Lucas eased the wardrobe door open, peering inside. I shook my head and walked to the bedroom I shared with Cat and Dawn. I faced the empty space against the outside wall. “He’s blocked them in. Made one of those barriers that Ozzie made the night of the New York attack.”

  Eve pulled closer and ran her hand over the smooth plaster. Sam knocked on the brick. He turned to Elijah and Megan. “I can’t feel anything. Can you?” He met my eye. “You sure they’re here, Gracie?”

  I pushed past his doubt and fear, let my mind feel the buzzing energy of the concealed space. I shoved against it with all my strength. The wall trembled, but didn’t fall. I tried again, clenching my teeth in frustration. Eve stood beside me and wound her fingers between mine. She gestured at Sam to take my other hand. “A chain. It’s one of the things I learned from Gabriel’s books. A technique they used during the Spirit-War. If our bodies are connected, then we can combine our power, funnel it from a single point. Sam and I will send our power to you, Grace, and you use it to break the barrier.”

  I grasped their hands and let the energy flow through me, merging with mine in a rush of light that struck the barrier and shattered it into a thousand pieces. Cain rose from the debris like a god of old, child in his arms and a fearsome goddess at his side.

  “Catherine, Dawn!” Cat let me envelop her in an embrace. She ground her face into my shoulder.

  “It was my turn to frighten the crap out of you, Gracie.”

  I lifted her off the ground and swung her around like a ragdoll, sweeping Dawn and Eve into our hug as I turned. Dawn slithered from my grasp and whistled for attention. Brandon smirked and patted her shoulder. She turned her crystal gaze in his direction. “Brandon, you’re here already. That was quick.”

  Brandon tipped his head to one side and studied her small face. Dawn turned her attention back to Eve. “They’re all downstairs. People in the chapel. Spirit Demons outside.” Dawn crushed her cupid’s bow lips together. “He’s just waiting for us.”

  Gabriel dropped to his knees at Dawn’s feet. Cat pressed her palm against her chest and walked to her daughter’s side. “My name is Gabriel, Dawn, you met me once. When you were a very tiny baby.”

  “I know.” Dawn reached for Cat’s hand. “My mum told me about you.”

  Gabriel’s mouth creased at the corners. “I see. And what did your mother tell you?”

  Dawn pressed her small hand against his cheek and stroked it gently. “That sometimes guardian angels wear the devil's clothes.” Something in Gabriel’s eyes shattered, and he bowed his head, undone.

  Brandon was the first to break the silence. “Not to fixate on the data side of things, but Grace and Dawn have both mentioned some sort of Spirit Demons are waiting to attack us. Could we, maybe, open that discussion?”

  Lucas bit his lip and edged a step closer to Brandon. Eve clapped her hands. “Catherine, Cain, what can you tell us?”

  Cain’s jaw was clenched tight enough to burst. “Very little, I’m sorry. It was Peter. He blindsided us. Told us he needed to talk to us about Dawn’s episodes, that he believed she wasn’t ill but that she was having visions. A Seer. The minute he got us into the room he erected the barrier and trapped us here.”

  Eve kneeled down in front of Dawn. “Is that what happens to you when your ill, Dawn? Do you travel away from your body?”

  Dawn nodded and Sam caught my eye, both of us remembering our conversation with Lizzie. I squeezed Dawn’s hand. “Did you see anything tonight? Do you know what’s happening?”

  She screwed her eyes up. “It’s hard. I don’t get to see it all. He has everyone in the chapel. He’s not pretending anymore. He’s waiting. He wants Emmanuel to show him were the black bauble is. He wants to crush it and let the Spirit Demons in. So he can take us with him, all the Demon-Born. Back to where his Spirits come from.”

  I turned to Gabriel. “Another dimension? Are they like shifters? Or the vampire r
ealm? Sucking life force from the soul instead of the blood?”

  Gabriel frowned. “No. None of the Demons here have ever seen Spirits like these before coming to this realm. A world of Spirit Demons. How would they feed? How would they multiply? No. They’re something else. And he can’t intend to take you beyond this realm, the veil prevents it. Even the most powerful can’t pierce it.”

  Megan kicked her foot against the door. “Doesn’t matter where they come from. That asshole isn’t going to a lay a finger on any of you. Emmanuel will never give him Danu’s heart.”

  I squinted at her.

  “The black globe he wants. It’s what binds the charms covering the chapel. If it breaks, there will nothing protecting the people inside.” Megan’s voice wavered. She stared down at her feet.

  “We won’t let that happen, Megan. Your dad and Mark. We’ll protect them.” I patted her arm, hoping I sounded more certain that I felt.

  Elijah pulled himself up to his full height and ran her eyes around the room. “So what are we going to do?”

  Gabriel flicked his hand in the air, and his briefcase appeared at his feet. “Uncle Peter wants to play games? We’ll give him a show he’ll never forget.”

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t afraid. Sometimes I think my first breath must have been filled with seeds of pure terror, and fear has grown inside me ever since. Like a parasite. Eating away at my soul. Leaving me hollow.

  I opened my mind’s eye and surveyed the space below us. The darkness was all-consuming. Cloying tendrils of despair were packed so tightly that nothing could penetrate their depth. I shrank back. An image formed in my mind of a small, fierce face under a cloud of dark hair, and I strengthened my resolve. I had to find a crack. No more children would be harmed in my name. My energy surged forward and burst through the wall of Spirit Demons, calling for Gabriel with my essence. The world spun and suddenly my feet were once more on solid ground.