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

sides of the war and had differing opinions on handlingthings, but there had always been a lot of love between them.

None of them had the same mothers, but theyall had each other, and their father loved them all equally. Theywould never betray each other.

They were supposed to have stopped him beforethe humans ever learned about the existence of immortals. Instead,while the war was still waging in the Shadow Realms, the Lord grewimpatient with its lack of progress and turned his dragons loose onEarth.

The humans, not expecting the attack andhaving never seen anything like the creatures scorching their landbefore, were slow to respond. But it didn’t matter; the Lord hadgathered enough intel that he sent the beasts to destroy thehuman’s military strongholds first.

No country was safe from the wrath of thedragons. By the time the humans responded, their military wasdevastated, and what remained of it was ineffective against thedragons.

The war had spilled out of the Shadow Realmsby then, and though the coalition spent much of the war working insecret to depose the Lord, Cole realized they’d failed. Now, theywere still trying to figure out a way to defeat him, but millions,if not billions, had lost their lives in the process, includingcountless immortals.

Once the human realm fell, those immortalswho fought on the rebel side had nothing left to fight for… otherthan their lives.

The war continued for almost another year,but it grew smaller and smaller until the rebels turned and fled inthe hopes of saving their lives.

“Because they think they might have some swayof the next Lord if it is one of theirs,” Maverick said.

“Why? The warlocks have no control over thisone,” Cole said.

“It makes no sense, but that’s the way itis,” his father said.

“Hmm….” Cole drummed his fingers on the tableand glanced at the empty seat across from Maverick. At one time,Del would have occupied that chair, but his friend was gone.

However, his daughter was still very muchalive. Cole pushed aside the image of Lexi’s awed face as she gazedat the luna flowers. Now was not the time.

“How do we go about finding someone to takethe Lord’s place?” Brokk asked.

“That’s the question no one can answer,”Maverick said. “That throne was built for an arach. Those dragonsbelong to them.”

“But they’re all dead,” Cole said.

“That they are,” his father muttered as hepoured himself a goblet of wine.

“There has to be someone who can handle itspower,” Brokk said.

“We haven’t found anyone in a thousandyears,” their father replied.

“There has to be something we can do,” Brokkinsisted. “We can’t sit here and wait for the Lord to decide hewants all our realms, and all of us, dead next.”

“Someone has to sit on that throne,” Mavericksaid. “The Shadow Realms will be almost as unstable with an emptythrone as it is with the Lord on it. The dragons will have freereign of the realms if someone isn’t on that throne to controlthem. And if those things decide to fly free….”

“We’re all fucked,” Cole finished when hisvoice trailed off.

“Exactly.”

“What if we kill the Lord and instead ofreplacing him with one immortal, we have a rotating group of them,each chosen by a member of the coalition?” Brokk suggested. “We canpick who we think will be the best choices for the throne.”

“And what if one of them sits on it anddecides not to give up the throne’s power?” his father asked.

“We’ll fight that battle if we come to it,but if they’re not on it for very long, maybe we can keep thethrone from corrupting them.”

“I think Brokk’s suggestion might be worthdiscussing with the others. Have you spoken with Circe?” Coleasked.

Circe was the witch on the coalition. Noother witches knew one of their most powerful coven leaders wassecretly helping other immortals bring down the Lord. They wouldhave been astounded to learn that at one time she was also workingwith a vampire, but Del’s death ended that relationship.

Tove had originally gathered Maverick, Circe,and Talon for this. After years of friendship, he felt he couldtrust them, and he wanted the powers other immortal creatures couldbring to the table.

He later brought in his sons, and Cole wasthe one who introduced Del. The man was a military genius, but noteven Del could figure out a way to get through the dragons todestroy the Lord. However, he’d been working on something he saidmight change things. Unfortunately, he died before anyone couldlearn what it was.

“Brokk’s suggestion could work,” Mavericksaid.

“There’s a lot of hate between the differentspecies; look at what happened here tonight,” his father said.

“There will be a lot more death if they don’tget over it,” Cole said.

His father sat back in his chair and claspedhis hands before him as he stared at the far wall. “I think wemight be on to something here. I think the others will approve ofeach species having equal time on the throne, and we can hold eachother accountable.”

“It’s going to require a lot of trust betweenthe species,” Maverick said.

“That’s something we’ve never had before,”Cole said.

“The humans never possessed knowledge of useither, and we never believed our families would be torn apart theway they are.”

“This may be our only hope,” Brokk said.

“I’ll talk with Circe and Talon,” his fathersaid.

“If they agree, we’re still left with thebiggest problem of all,” Brokk said.

“How do we get past the dragons to kill theLord?” Cole asked.

They all stared at each other, but no one hadan answer.

“Keep an eye out for Varo and Orin,” hisfather said. “Don’t put yourselves at risk, but if there’ssomething you can do….”

“We’ll save them if we can,” Cole vowed, andBrokk nodded.

Cole knew that was easier said than done asthe Lord’s men were relentlessly hunting his brothers, but he woulddo what he could to save them.

CHAPTER 14

Lexi strolled toward the large weeping willow nearthe lake. She inhaled the sweet scent of spring and the waterlilies floating on the water. The gentle breeze caused the smallgreen leaves to dance as she approached the thick canopy theycreated.

The branches spilling into the water sentsmall ripples across the serene surface when the wind stirred them.She couldn’t see it yet, but beneath the boughs of the tree andagainst its trunk,