Lady of shadows, p.1
Lady of Shadows, page 1
Lady of Shadows
LADY OF DARKNESS
BOOK TWO
MELISSA K. ROEHRICH
Contents
Also by Melissa K. Roehrich
World Map
A Lady of Darkness Reference Guide
A Lady of Darkness Reference Guide
A Lady of Darkness Reference Guide
The Darkness
Part I
1. Sorin
2. Callan
3. Scarlett
4. Sorin
5. Scarlett
6. Callan
7. Scarlett
8. Scarlett
9. Sorin
10. Callan
11. Scarlett
12. Scarlett
13. Scarlett
14. Callan
15. Callan
16. Scarlett
17. Callan
18. Sorin
19. Callan
20. Scarlett
21. Scarlett
22. Scarlett
23. Sorin
24. Callan
25. Sorin
26. Scarlett
27. Sorin
28. Sorin
29. Callan
30. Scarlett
31. Sorin
32. Scarlett
Part II
33. Callan
34. Sorin
35. Scarlett
36. Scarlett
37. Sorin
38. Scarlett
39. Scarlett
40. Scarlett
41. Scarlett
42. Sorin
43. Scarlett
44. Scarlett
45. Callan
46. Sorin
47. Scarlett
48. Talwyn
49. Scarlett
50. Scarlett
51. Scarlett
52. Scarlett
53. Sorin
54. Callan
55. Scarlett
56. Sorin
57. Sorin
58. Scarlett
59. Scarlett
A Note from the Author
Acknowledgments
Lady of Ashes Sneak Peek
Little Whirlwind & the Prince
Also by Melissa K. Roehrich
Lady of Darkness Series
Lady of Darkness
Lady of Shadows
Lady of Ashes
Lady of Embers
Book 5- Coming Spring 2023!
Lady of Shadows
Copyright © 2021 Melissa K. Roehrich
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
ISBN: 979-8-9852991-0-6 (paperback)
979-8-9852991-4-4 (hardcover)
Created with Vellum
For Lindsey Leigh, Megan Bollman,
and Chelsay Tysver-
Thank you for helping me battle my shadows and find their beauty when the stars went out.
World Map
The Darkness
Scarlett couldn’t tell what was real and what was a dream. She remembered riding with Sorin, racing for the border. She remembered fighting and cutting down Night Children. She remembered Callan and Finn and Sloan and Eliza. She remembered fiery pain in her side.
She remembered vomiting over and over. She remembered fire and water and ice and ash. She remembered pain. So much pain. Her entire body ached. Her ribs throbbed in agony where they had once been broken. Maybe they were broken again. She didn’t know.
There were times she could swear she saw a black panther lying at the foot of the bed. There were times white light seemed to encompass her. There were times the beautiful man was there, watching her. There were times she was sparring with Nuri. There were times she was sitting on a bed talking with Juliette. There were times she was walking along the beach with Cassius. There were times Mikale was kissing her, and there were times it was Callan whose lips were pressed to hers. There were times she was lying with her head in Sorin’s lap, each reading a book, content to just be.
Sorin.
Sorin with his arm wrapped around her waist while they rode. Sorin kissing her by a stream. Sorin telling her that her mother had been a Fae Queen, that she was a Fae Princess. Sorin, the Prince of Fire. Sorin, who called her Love. Sorin, who had saved her only to break her.
Was any of it real?
She didn’t know. She wasn’t entirely sure she cared anymore.
The only constant was the shadows. Shadows that kept her company. Shadows that twisted around her, keeping out the others. Keeping out the crushing darkness. Odd, she thought, that shadows were creatures of darkness but kept the dark from encompassing her wholly. Every once in a while, a light would try to break through, but the shadows were impenetrable. Shadows that protected her. Shadows that sang to her. Shadows that soothed her.
Now she found herself in a thick forest, and the beautiful man was here. His silver hair was the color of her own as he walked silently beside her. She was barefoot, but pine needles did not prick her feet. Sunlight streamed through the trees, illuminating a well-worn path.
The man stopped as they entered a clearing, so she did too. The air was still here. Not a leaf moved on the trees around the clearing.
“Close your eyes, Lady of Darkness.” The man’s voice was smooth and cool. A chill went down her spine. She hadn’t heard his voice since he’d bid her to rise when she had been in Mikale’s grasp.
Real? Dream? Did it matter?
Scarlett closed her eyes and images flashed through her mind.
Veda stabbing Cassius. Nuri bleeding out. Mikale taking her in an old office. A prince sleeping before a fire. Plunging a dagger into Juliette’s heart. A friend stroking her hair to help her sleep. A dark shadow leaping the rooftops with her. Golden eyes staring into hers. A star going out. A Prince of Fire.
She gasped, her eyes snapping open, her hands clutching at her chest.
“Shh,” the man murmured, and for the first time ever, Scarlett glimpsed a flash of sadness on his face. “Not yet, Lady. Close your eyes.”
Scarlett shook her head. If she closed her eyes, those images that haunted her, that dragged her down into the depths of her darkness, that pulled her under, would come for her again.
“Do it,” he whispered, bending down to speak into her ear. “See who answers your call.”
Dream. This was a dream. It was too bizarre not to be.
Maybe it had all been a dream. Maybe she would wake up on the cold stone floor in the Lairwood House. Maybe Mikale would still have her…
She sighed and closed her eyes. She wasn’t sure how long she stood there until she felt a soft wind rustle her unbound hair. The cloak she was wearing shifted in the breeze, and she felt her shadows almost vibrating with excitement.
She’s coming, she’s coming, she’s coming, they whispered to her soul.
Scarlett felt the man beside her stir. He had moved behind her and rested his hands on her shoulders. He squeezed them gently, tenderly. “Open your eyes, Lady of Darkness. See who answers to you.”
Scarlett slowly opened her eyes and before her stood a panther. She was sleek and beautiful and her muscles shifted under her gleaming coat of shadow and darkness and night.
“Shirina,” the man whispered reverently into her ear. “Lady Saylah’s servant.”
Saylah. The goddess of shadows and night. The goddess who was often whispered of along with her brother, Temural, the god of wildness and untamed adventure, and their parents Arius, the god of death and darkness, and Serafina, the goddess of dreams and stars.
The panther’s silver eyes mirrored Scarlett’s as it let out a loud growl. Scarlett jumped back, but the beautiful man steadied her. “Do not fear her, Lady of Darkness. She will guide you. She will protect you. A creature of untamed shadows.”
The panther slunk forward and brushed against Scarlett’s side. Scarlett tentatively reached a hand out and ran it along her back, feeling those powerful muscles under her fingers.
“It will be time to wake soon,” the man said quietly. “It will soon be time to face the shadows.”
“I’m not ready,” Scarlett whispered.
“One never is.” His cool, low voice sent shivers up her spine every time he spoke.
“Who are you?” Scarlett whispered, as she sank to her knees. Shirina laid down beside her and rested her giant head in her lap.
The man sank down to the ground next to her, propping an arm onto his bent knee. From the trees, a giant eagle swooped down and came to rest on the same arm. He gently stroked the bird’s head.
“Go and face your shadows. Then it will be time for us to meet,” he said, his voice impossibly gentle.
“I don’t want to go back.” She dug her fingers into the panther’s silky fur as te
The beautiful man beside her was quiet for so long she thought he had gone back to just being a silent presence, but then he spoke. “True strength, Lady of Darkness, is being brave in the hard seasons. True strength is getting back up one more time. True strength is believing you were made for such a time as this and fighting against all odds. True strength is having hope even when the stars go out.”
The panther had rolled to its side and was practically sprawled across her lap now, purring deeply. The eagle on the man’s shoulder ruffled its feathers slightly.
“Are you real?” Scarlett finally asked after several more minutes of silence. “Or are you just a dream?”
“Are reality and dreams mutually exclusive?”
Scarlett turned to look at the beautiful man, and a faint cool smile played on his lips. The eagle suddenly let out a screech and soared into the sky. The man stood and extended a hand to Scarlett. “Get up, Lady of Darkness. Hope is for the dreamers.”
With a final stroke of her hand down the panther’s sleek fur, Scarlett placed her hand in the man’s and rose to face the shadows.
Part One
THE SHADOWS
Chapter 1
Sorin
For the first twelve hours he was home, the Prince of the Fire Court did not leave his private bedroom. Beatrix had to summon additional Healers to help keep Scarlett comfortable and asleep. She vomited often as her body detoxed and went through withdrawal from the tonic. Sorin and Briar were exhausted from having to counter her magic as it surfaced over and over again. Finally, the vomiting ceased. Finally, a slight color returned to her cheeks. Finally, flames and ice stopped appearing. Finally, she slept.
Shadows still swirled around her, but they seemed to have lessened. Then again, maybe he was just hoping they had lessened. They wouldn’t let anyone touch her. Anyone who tried was burned by them. The Healers had gotten creative, using old spells to keep her asleep rather than relying solely on their healing magic. He forced his way past them a few times to try and comfort her in any way possible, but her darkness only allowed it for a few minutes at a time before he was forced back out.
When Scarlett hadn’t so much as sighed in her sleep in the last hour, he slipped from the room and found Prince Briar Drayce sprawled on the couch in his sitting room, his eyes closed. He opened one eye when he heard Sorin’s approach. Sorin flopped into one of the chairs and groaned.
“Well, that was delightful,” Briar drawled, thick with sarcasm.
Sorin grunted in reply, closing his own eyes. He hadn’t been this drained since before he went to the human kingdoms. He wasn’t sure he could summon enough flame to light a candle at this point. He had been drained when they arrived, and every time he managed to fill a little of his magic reserves, it was immediately depleted once more.
“So you’re back,” Briar said after several minutes of silence.
Sorin grunted in reply again.
“Did you lose the ability to speak in the mortal lands?”
Sorin threw him a vulgar gesture and heard him bark his laughter.
After a few more minutes of silence, Briar tried again. “You’re back for good?”
“I’m back for good,” Sorin replied, opening his eyes. Briar was still sprawled on the couch, ice crackling at his fingertips. “How do you have any magic left?”
“I haven’t spent the last three years in magic deprived kingdoms?” Briar offered.
“Valid point.”
“So the female?”
“The female.”
“She’s strong.”
“She is.”
“She’s Fae.”
“She is.”
“I’m going to need a little more here, Sorin,” Briar said, annoyance creeping into his tone. “You bring power like that into our Courts, I’m going to need some sort of explanation as to who she is.”
“She’s my twin flame.”
“You’re kidding.” Briar sat up, the crackling ice disappearing.
“Nope.”
“You’re sure?”
Sorin held up his left hand to show him the Mark that adorned it, closing his eyes again. Briar swore under his breath. “She doesn’t bear a companion Mark.”
“No, she doesn’t.”
“Normally both parties choose the Mark,” Briar proceeded cautiously.
“She is not normal,” Sorin replied simply.
“Clearly.” When silence filled the space again, Briar said, “Sorin, who is she?”
Sorin opened his eyes and found his friend watching him carefully. He snapped a shield into place around his quarters. Briar straightened at the action, and Sorin felt an icy shield snap into place as well. After another minute, he took a deep breath before saying, “She is Eliné’s daughter.”
“Bullshit,” Briar exclaimed. “How is that even possible?”
“I have no idea.”
“How can you be sure?”
“I can’t, but she has this,” he held up his right hand that was still adorned by the Semiria ring. He heard Briar swear again. “She also clearly has both fire and water magic. Something unique to Eliné.”
“Who is her father?”
“I have no idea,” Sorin answered. “She doesn’t either. Scarlett didn’t even know she was Fae, let alone that her mother was a queen.”
“Who?”
“Scarlett,” Sorin answered. When Briar continued with the confused look, he added, “The female in my bed.”
“Ah,” Briar said, understanding passing over his face. “So…you brought her here?”
“Where else was I supposed to take her? This is where she belongs. This is her home.”
“Talwyn will be livid,” Briar warned, the ice returning to his fingertips.
“Hence the extra shields,” Sorin muttered.
“Shadows dance around her,” Briar remarked casually.
“That they do.”
“Who are the others? That Cyrus and Rayner escorted to the guest wing?”
“A mortal prince who is in love with the female in my bed and his personal guards,” Sorin answered, his head falling into his hands.
“Because we didn’t have enough drama with Talwyn and Azrael, you decided to bring more?” Briar asked.
Sorin lifted his head from his hands to find Briar smirking at him.
“I am glad you find this so entertaining,” Sorin ground out.
“Is there anything else I should know?” Briar asked.
“Yes, but it can wait until tomorrow. I will tell you everything then. I need to sleep. I haven’t had a proper night’s sleep in three years,” Sorin answered, swiping a hand down his face.
“It shows,” Briar quipped.
Sorin glared at his friend, throwing him another vulgar gesture.
“Send word if you need me,” Briar said, standing from the couch, and stretching his arms above his head. “Although maybe use a fire message rather than your damn bird.”
Sorin chuckled and stood himself, facing Briar. “Thank you.”
