Beyond The Darkness: The Shadow Demons Saga, Book 9

by Sarra Cannon

  When I looked at Lea, she fell to her knees, her eyes locked on that light.

  My truth.

  My deepest secret.

  My greatest love.

  She finally knew.

  I Didn’t Know My Own Heart

  Lea

  Tears rolled down my cheeks as my knees hit the ground.

  How had I been so blind?

  All this time, I’d been chasing that one moment in the veil when that locket opened and the most brilliant light I’d ever seen spilled forth like a dream. It was the happiest moment of my life, but it was a moment I never truly understood until now.

  Sobs shook my body as I cried for all those years of heartache. Misunderstanding. All those nights spent wondering how such true love could disappear in an instant.

  But it was right here in front of me the whole time.

  Aerden stood like a giant on the chest of the Stone Guardian, the light of his love dissipating at his side.

  He came to me, a question in his eyes. But I had questions of my own.

  He knelt in front of me, his heart at my feet.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked. “Do you know how hard this has been for me all these years?”

  His bottom lip trembled as his eyes filled with tears. “I know,” he said. “I was a fool. I was afraid.”

  “How long?” I asked. “How long have you felt this way?”

  “For as long as I have lived,” he said.

  I closed my eyes, trying to make sense of the hurricane in my heart.

  “The locket?” I asked.

  “I knew I couldn’t have you, but I wanted you to know how dearly you were loved,” he said. “I wanted you to understand the depth of it. All I wanted was for you to be happy.”

  I sat back, placing a hand on my chest, as if the locket were still there after all this time. “That locket was my greatest joy, and my darkest pain,” I said, looking into his eyes. “I don’t know what to do.”

  He placed his hands on my face, and I reached up to hold his wrists, uncertain if I wanted to pull him closer or push him away.

  “Forgive me,” he said. “I made a terrible mistake. One we have both paid for over the past hundred years. I can’t change what I did, but I promise I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you. Please, forgive me.”

  My eyes searched his, desperate for answers. For understanding. I didn’t know my own heart. I had spent so many years loving Jackson. Cursing him for showing me his love and then taking it away.

  That light had made me love him, but it had never been his to give in the first place.

  Where could we go from here? How could I possibly forgive Aerden for those years of unyielding, life-shattering pain? Those years of doubting everything, including myself?

  Yet, how could I deny the truth pounding through my heart at the touch of his skin on mine?

  I could not walk away from this moment, letting him believe he was alone.

  “Those years after you left changed me,” I said. “My pain changed me. I can’t simply forget all of that and go back to that shadowling who danced in the sunlight and laughed without a worry in her heart. If that’s the girl you fell in love with—”

  “I love you,” he said, his hands buried in my hair. “Not some distant idea of who you used to be. I love everything about you, and even if there is no hope that you could ever feel the same way, I will never stop loving you the way I do right now.”

  I kissed him, then, my heart overruling my mind and my doubts. My questions disappeared as my arms found their way around his neck, pulling him closer, tasting his lips for the first time.

  The emotion that poured from me as my heart finally opened to the truth terrified me, but there would be time for fear later. Right now, I wanted to feel his hands on me. His heart pounding against my own.

  Two warriors, fresh from battle, getting their first glimpse of home.

  The Only Thing That’s Real

  Harper

  I dreamed of home, but I woke to the pain of being dragged down the hallway to my death.

  I struggled against the ropes that bound my arms and legs, but the witch standing over me laughed.

  “You’ll only tire yourself out, dear,” she said. “Those ropes are unbreakable, sealed with a magic so dark, you’ll never break free.”

  I closed my eyes and begged for my magic to come. Nothing was unbreakable. There had to be a way.

  But whatever magic held me also blocked my power. I tried to think of another way, twisting my arms to try to reach the bindings.

  The witch brought a boot down on my temple, nearly knocking me unconscious again.

  Just a few more steps, and we would reach the staircase leading up to the third floor. No doubt they had found another way to conjure a portal, and once they took me through, I would be in the hands of the amethyst priestess.

  Judging from the power and strength of her assassins, she would not be an easy witch to kill. After last night’s battle against the Others, I wasn’t sure I would have the strength, anyway.

  All I needed was to find a way out of this rope. Without my power, I was helpless against them.

  But just as we reached the bottom of the narrow staircase, a bright light appeared below us on the first floor. I couldn’t see what was happening from where I lay against the cold hardwood floor. Had Brooke come back for me?

  “Go see who that is,” the witch dragging me shouted. One of the other witches nodded and ran down the steps to investigate. “Whoever it is, kill them quickly. We don’t have much time. The fairy only gave us an hour.”

  Fairy?

  I thought of Azure and the strange woman I’d met at the club that day. What did they have to do with this? Had the fairy opened this portal for them? Had she betrayed me?

  Azure would never do such a thing, but there had definitely been something strange about the other one. Sabine. The way she had looked at me, as if she knew a secret she couldn’t wait to tell.

  Sounds of a struggle down below made the witches stop cold. They turned toward the steps just as someone appeared.

  Tears blinded my vision, and I blinked several times, sure that I must be dreaming.

  Jackson stood at the top of the steps, an amethyst collar clutched in one hand. His eyes met mine, and one side of his mouth curled into a half-smile that made my heart race.

  He threw the collar to the floor and lifted his hand to form a shield against the magic the witches threw at him. The spell exploded in a burst of light, its energy dissipating well before it reached him.

  He wasted no time firing back, conjuring spears made of pure, blue ice. The first one sliced through the neck of the witch behind me, and she fell to the floor like a ragdoll.

  His second spear was aimed directly at me. I lowered my head as the pointed tip slashed through the black ropes, freeing me from its trap. I quickly reached for my magic and shifted just as the witch who’d been dragging me slammed the tip of her dagger into the floor, missing me by millimeters.

  I reformed several feet behind her down the hallway and held out my hand, summoning her dagger toward me. The witch lost her grip on the weapon and immediately reached for her power. Bright violet light exploded from her hands, but I knew that trick.

  I closed my eyes against the light and shifted again to smoke, flying toward her and reforming just in time to drive the tip of her own dagger through her heart from behind. I lifted my foot and pushed her forward. The wound in her back made a sucking sound as her body slid off the blade and fell to the floor.

  Movement out of the corner of my eye made me turn, just in time to see one of the two remaining witches lunge toward me, purple flames covering her hands.

  Jackson placed his palm on the floor and blue ice quickly travelled from his hand to the witch, crawling up her leg and torso until she was encased in it. I focused all of my power on her, lifting my hands into the air, commanding her body to rise off the floor. With one strong gesture, I threw her o
ff the balcony, where she shattered on the hard floor below.

  The final witch standing between us ran toward the stairs in a desperate attempt to call for help from whoever waited above, but Jackson covered the doorway in a sheet of ice, blocking her exit.

  She backed away from the door, glancing toward the balcony as if she were trying to decide whether to jump or fight.

  I didn’t give her time to choose.

  Without hesitation, I spun once, driving the dagger into the side of her neck.

  The final witch fell in a heap on the floor, and I nearly fell to my knees in disbelief. Joy. Exhaustion.

  Tears flowed down my cheeks as Jackson ran to me, pulling me into his arms and lifting my feet off the ground. He covered me in kisses, and I held tight to him, hardly able to believe he was here.

  “Is this real?” I asked, taking his head in my hands as he looked at me.

  “This is the only thing that’s real,” he said.

  I kissed him, drunk on happiness as his lips met mine. We had months to make up for. Decades. I clung to him like life itself, one touch of his lips healing me from the inside out. Every touch of his hands baptizing me with love.

  I wanted to laugh and cry all at the same time. I wanted to tell him everything, and I wanted to say nothing so that our lips would never have to part again.

  His hands dug into my hair and pulled me closer, only nothing was close enough.

  I could have stayed in that moment forever, but the sound of the front door opening pulled us apart. I reached for the dagger on the floor, and Jackson’s hands turned to ice.

  “Harper?”

  I leaned over the balcony to find Brooke standing in the foyer, a small army of girls from the institute standing in the doorway and on the porch outside. Some of them held spells hovering in the air above their hands, as if they had come here looking for a fight.

  “Brooke?” Jackson asked. “Is that you?”

  She laughed and threw her hands into the air, spinning around like a schoolgirl. “You found us,” she said. “But how?”

  “It’s a long story,” he said, putting his arm around me and pulling me closer. “One I’d rather tell from a different decade, if you don’t mind.”

  Brooke smiled as Mary Ellen stepped forward and took her hand.

  “I don’t mind that one bit,” she said.

  Jackson and I descended the stairs together, and Brooke ran forward, pulling us both into a giant hug.

  “Are the girls…”

  “Healed,” Brooke said, taking my hand. “Harper, even the ones who were lobotomized. Rend’s potions were a miracle. You have to thank him for me.”

  I smiled. “As soon as we get home, you can thank him yourself. But how did you get to everyone so quickly?” I asked. “You couldn’t have been gone for more than half an hour.”

  “By the time I got to the hospital, almost everyone had been discharged,” she said. “Each time a girl was awakened, she took a potion and helped to awaken someone else. There are only a handful of girls still coming. I saw James at the hospital, and he said he’d bring them as soon as he could.”

  I sighed, releasing the tension and worry I’d been holding inside for so long.

  We sent the girls through first, and waited until James arrived with the rest. I checked them off on the list the nurse had given me, making sure we didn’t leave anyone behind. Jackson kept his eye on the portal on the third floor, keeping the room filled with ice so that no one else could get through.

  Later, when the final girl had been sent through the portal back to the present, Jackson kissed my forehead, and I snuggled closer to him, breathing in the scent of him.

  “Take me home,” I whispered.

  And together, we walked out of the darkest place I’d ever known and stepped through a portal made of pure light.

  To Hell And Back

  Harper

  I could only imagine what it must have looked like when a hundred people walked out of the swamp that day. The look on John Pierce’s face said it all. Shock. Victory. Courage.

  With his help, we arranged transportation home for each of the girls who felt they still had a home to go to. The others were offered a home with us in the domed city.

  Nora, Mary Ellen, Brooke, Robin, and ten others chose to stay and fight beside us against the Order. We rented the largest van we could find and made the journey back to Peachville where we walked out to the lake and disappeared through the portal made of white roses. A tribute to a mother, I would never know.

  Mary Anne welcomed me home by nearly tackling me in the garden the moment I stepped into the Shadow World. We held onto each other as if I’d been gone for years instead of months.

  When we parted, she smiled and pressed something into my hand.

  A ring. The missing piece of the puzzle to free the emerald gates, at last.

  I untied the strip of cloth on my thigh and held up the master stone, the one thing that made all the other struggles disappear. The one thing that made it all worth it.

  My sister, Angela, ran from the castle and threw her arms around me, spinning me around like a little girl.

  “I missed you so much,” she said, planting a kiss on my forehead.

  “I missed you, too.”

  When I turned, I noticed a demon standing in the shadows, watching. He smiled at me, and I took off at a run, throwing my arms around his neck.

  “Thank you, Rend,” I said.

  “We did it together,” he said. “I missed you while you were gone.”

  “I would say I missed you, too, but I just saw you a couple of days ago,” I said.

  “It’s been a bit longer for me, but I’ve been meaning to apologize for that thing in the alley,” he said. “You know, with the fangs.”

  I threw my head back and laughed, the sound almost foreign to my ears, but welcome to my heart. I shoved him playfully. “Yeah, you owe me one,” I said. “Or actually, I owe Azure. Is she here?”

  “She’s inside,” he said. “Come on, we’ve got a surprise waiting for you.”

  Once I’d said hello to everyone, we settled down to a huge feast at the castle. Ryder, the young shadowling we’d once saved from poverty in the borderlands sat on my lap the entire time, telling me stories about the city and giggling with happiness as he opened gifts the citizens of the domed city had brought for me.

  I was overjoyed to see everyone, but Jackson kept catching my eye, and I knew exactly what he was thinking. We needed time alone together. To talk. To heal. To just be.

  When the feast was over and most of the villagers had returned to their homes, Jackson and I linked arms and headed toward the stairs that led up to my chambers.

  “We have so much to talk about,” he said.

  I placed a finger over his lips, and he ran his hands down my arms, caressing the scars that marked my journey to hell and back.

  “No talking tonight,” I said.

  Jackson gathered me into his arms and carried me over the threshold, as if we were newlyweds coming back from a wedding rather than warriors coming back from the darkness.

  He locked the door behind him and carried me to bed.

  The Promise Of Peace

  Harper

  When we finally emerged from our little cocoon, I was eager to explore the domed city and find out everything that had happened while I was away.

  I also couldn’t wait to get to Cypress for the ritual today. Eloise and her daughters would soon be free. It was finally coming together. Hopefully, Lea and Aerden would be home soon, too, and we could all celebrate the death of another priestess and the joy of coming home.

  As I walked down the stairs, though, I heard someone shouting from the streets. I moved faster, afraid of another attack so soon. We deserved some peace, and I wasn’t sure my heart could take more bad news.

  “What is it?” Gregory asked, his voice ringing out through the throne room.

  A guard came rushing up the steps of the castle, out of breath and
wide-eyed with terror and confusion.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  Jackson ran to my side, the same fear of bad news reflected in his eyes.

  “Someone’s at the front gate of the dome,” the young guard said. His mouth fell open, as if he couldn’t believe what he was about to say. “A woman in a red dress. She claims to be the ruby priestess. That can’t be true, can it?”

  Gregory’s face drained of color. “Is she alone?” he asked.

  “Yes, she’s all by herself, saying she wants to talk to Harper.”

  “Why would she be here?” Jackson asked, stepping in front of me. Always my protector.

  I placed a hand on his arm. “I think I know,” I said, surprise and confusion stirring in my heart. “I honestly didn’t think she’d honor her promise.”

  “Promise?” Jackson asked, running after me as I walked down the steps and through the middle of the city toward the front gate. “What’s going on?”

  “When she came to see me at Priestess Evers’ house the night of the fire, she told me that if I somehow managed to make it home alive, she would surrender herself to me,” I said. “I never in a million years thought she meant it.”

  “Wait,” Jackson said, taking my arm and pulling me back. “We can’t trust her, Harper. She could be coming here to attack us.”

  “What can she do to us here?” I asked, motioning to the dome above our heads. “She’s alone. As long as the dome is intact, no human witch can cast here in the city. Her magic will be useless.”

  “I still don’t like the idea of inviting her in,” he said. “This is a priestess we’re talking about.”

  “She warned me about the trap her sister set for you,” I said. “You wouldn’t be standing here if it wasn’t for her. She was telling me the truth then. Maybe we should listen to what she has to say. I think she’s scared they’re really going to lose this war. If she’s willing to switch sides, she could give us valuable information. The location of the other priestesses. The identity of the High Priestess herself. This entire thing could be over in a matter of weeks with her help. We have to at least talk to her.”