Reign of Shadows by Melissa Wright Page B

tightness in his jaw to relax. He’d been close to Brianna, near enough to touch, but he still had to play their games. “Your suggestion?”
    His tone irritated the shadow, and Callan felt the skin of his arms prickle, sensed the change in the air, a gathering of power. The shadow stood, facing Callan at his full height, and said, “I suggest”—he let the words linger, the sensations permeate Callan’s skin, invade something deeper within in him, before finishing—“you find her secret.”
    Callan dipped his head in a nod, struggling to stay still. It was too much power, too overwhelming to endure. This man, the shadow, could crush his chest from the inside, with no more than a breath. And there was nothing he could do to stop it.
    “Go,” the shadow said. “Next time, bring me something of import.”

 
     
    Chapter Fourteen
    Brianna
     
    “Do you realize how much planning went into this?” Brianna glanced at Aern, he and Emily standing in uneasy postures across the table from where she sat with Logan. “He would have had to think this through for who knows how long, deciding, without question, that anyone but me coming to find Brendan would result in their death. Simply so he could push that other vision, that false lead to get me alone.” She dragged a hand across the polished mahogany tabletop, turning her palm up when it neared the edge. “Why? Just so he could tell me it was them, that they were the ones who bound us?”
    It didn’t make sense. None of it was playing out the way it should have. If that man—the one her nightmares were warning her of—was looking out for her, then why did her very instincts scream run ?
    “Bri,” Emily said. “What happened?” She would know it wasn’t merely the sight of Brendan’s mangled body that had her sister shaken. Brianna had lived her whole life with visions just as deadly, images of people closer to her than Brendan, torn and mangled, and it wasn’t a small thing to make her tremble like this.
    Brianna swallowed the lump in her throat, forcing her gaze to meet her sister’s. “It’s like I can feel it,” she said. “Like he wants me to know this was a gift.” Logan slid his hand into Brianna’s under the table, fingers lacing tightly with hers. The words made her stomach turn. “Like giving me Brendan means I owe him.” She closed her eyes for a long, horrible moment. “And I’ve seen what Brendan is now, seen what’s left of him.”
    Aern and Emily stared, uncertain, but Brianna couldn’t go on. Logan explained, “Apparently, this shadow has a talent for more than just sway. What Brianna sees is that when Brendan wakes up, everything we’ve known of him will be gone. He will be like a shell.”
    Emily rocked back. “How is that even possible?”
    Aern sighed, shaking his head. “It can be done. I don’t know if any of the Seven could have achieved something so complete aside from Morgan, but even before, both of us could erase small bits of memory here and there. Make someone forget a face, lose a few seconds in time.”
    Emily looked at him. “Can you get it back? Is there some way to reverse it, like you did with Morgan’s men?” But that wasn’t how it had worked with Morgan’s men. Aern had had to replace their direction with a new one; to supersede their orders.
    He shook his head. “I don’t think so, Emily. I don’t think this is something any of us can do.” His expression held an apology, but he would tell her the truth. “Honestly, the way it works, I doubt it’s possible even this shadow could help him recover.”
    Emily’s gaze fell to Brianna, just as her sister’s eyes opened. Brianna had seen what the future held for Brendan, and it wasn’t recovery.
    Emily slumped into a chair. Death, fire, destruction, these were the things she expected they’d have to face. But she wasn’t sure what to do with the helplessness, the waiting. “I’m sorry,” she said to the room. “I know he was your