Shadows of Fire (The Shadow Realms, Book 1) by Brenda Davies (chrome ebook reader .txt) 📗

war, he would never remove theirtapestries from his solar. They’d stood against him, but he stillloved them; he always would.

If push came to shove, the king would laydown his life for those sons. They were now hunted as traitors, buthe would do what he could to make sure they survived. Brokk andCole were under strict orders to save them if they could, but theydidn’t require any such orders; neither wanted Orin or Varo todie.

Situated in the North Tower, the solarprovided a spectacular view of the Gloaming. Cole didn’t have tolook out the window to picture the fields full of crops rollinginto hills. Though the dark fae mostly survived on the energyproduced from sex, they also ate enough regular food to make cropsnecessary in the Gloaming.

During the summer, those crops would fill thefields, but now they were only half grown. Like Earth, the ShadowRealms had seasons, and the seasons in the Gloaming were similar toEarth’s.

It was June in the human realm and spring inthe Gloaming, but they didn’t have winter here. They had a longerspring, summer, and fall. The leaves changed colors and fell in theGloaming, but new ones sprang forth within weeks of the old onesfalling.

Cole’s uncle, Maverick, watched Tove as hepaced from his seat at the table. A golden goblet full of wine satbefore him, but Maverick removed the silver flask from inside hisjacket, unscrewed the cap, and took a gulp. His uncle was more of awhiskey than a wine guy.

Taller than Cole by about two inches,Maverick had difficulty getting his six-foot-nine frame to fitunder the table and kept his legs sprawled out to the side. Hisdark brown hair waved around his broad face, and his chestnut eyesshone with amusement as he watched the king.

Maverick was the alpha of his pack, but hecouldn’t stop some of his members from leaving to fight against theLord during the war. But then, the lycans always enjoyed afight.

His pack was not the only pack in the LunarRealm. Others resided there, and before the war, they often arguedwith each other. They would battle over land, losing bits andpieces to enemy packs only to reclaim it again the next day orweek.

Cole leaned against the wall as he sippedwine from his golden goblet and watched his father. It had beenyears since he’d seen Tove so enraged. Brokk glanced at Cole andraised an eyebrow. Cole shrugged and drank some more wine.

“What started the fight?” Brokk inquired.

“A vampire grabbed the ass of a lycan’s mate.Her mate punched the vamp in the face; someone hit a witch in theensuing battle. It was a free-for-all after that,” Tovereplied.

“You can’t blame a lycan for defending hismate,” Maverick said.

“Maybe not, but they’re all going to spend aweek in my dungeons.”

“You cannot blame a lycan for defending hismate,” Maverick repeated.

Tove stopped his pacing and turned to faceMaverick. The two men stared at each other.

“They are on our side,” Maverick said. “Someof them are part of my pack. They were wrong to fight in your hall.Let them stew in that knowledge for the night, but set them freeafterward.”

CHAPTER 13

A muscle twitched in Tove’s jaw as his teeth groundtogether. Cole didn’t say a word, but his uncle was right, and hisfather knew it.

“It might not be the best idea to make anenemy out of them,” Brokk said.

His father grumbled something and paced overto the table. He grasped the chair at the end, his chair, and gazeddown the table at his sons and Maverick.

“I’ll set them free tomorrow,” he relented.“Except for the vampire. He’ll stay in there until I say he canleave, and I don’t care if that’s three centuries from now.”

“They can’t fault you for that,” Colesaid.

“No one gives a shit about the vampire,”Maverick muttered.

His father released the chair and pulled itback to sit on it. He waved a hand at the two chairs beside him.“Join me,” he commanded his sons.

Cole stepped away from the wall and walkeddown to sit at his father’s right side while Brokk took the chairon his left. Maverick sat a couple of chairs down from Brokk.

They had originally planned to have a fullcoalition meeting with the other immortals seeking to end theLord’s tyranny. However, there was no reason for those members toremain in the palace once Tove commanded everyone to leave.

Maverick was family; it wouldn’t look odd ifhe remained, but it would look strange if the others did.

“I spoke with Talon,” his father said.

The warlock was a powerful asset to thecoalition, but he was also the most cautious.

“He’s determined that we find someone who cansit on the throne before we try to destroy the Lord,” Tovecontinued. “He believes it won’t do us any good if we remove themaniac but have no one to replace him.”

“The throne and the power are going to rotwhoever we replace him with,” Brokk said. “Just like it has thecurrent Lord.”

Cole still remembered what the current Lordwas like before he sat on the throne. He’d been a good man, awarlock who was chosen by the other immortals to take the place ofthe Lord before him.

Cole clearly remembered Andreas as a smilingwarlock with hazel eyes and a boisterous laugh that once reboundedoff the walls of the downstairs’ hall. He was one of the fewimmortals everyone liked, and now the throne had corrupted his mindand turned him into a madman who had unleashed hell upon theunsuspecting mortals.

“And each race of immortal wants it to be oneof their own,” Maverick said.

“I don’t know why everyone is so willing toclaim the next lunatic as one of theirs,” Cole muttered.

The idea behind the coalition was a good one.A few of the strongest leaders from different realms belonged toit, but unfortunately, the idea was better than the execution. Theyoften spent more time bickering with each other than they didundermining the Lord’s control.

His brothers had known what they planned andhoped to accomplish, but five of them grew impatient with the lackof progress and broke off to join the rebels. Only two of themremained.

Cole didn’t fear that they would rat out themembers of the coalition if they were caught. They may have stoodon opposing