Forsaken By Shadow by Kait Nolan Read Free Book Online

she’d obtained the antidote hadn’t said. If Matthias hadn’t recommended him as a source, Embry might be worried she’d given Gage some kind of poison. She moved back to sit on the edge of the bed.
    He looks like he’s fighting a war, she thought, watching his face. What was he remembering?
    Picking up one of his hands, she was startled at the sight of his palms. They held none of the usual lines but were, instead, covered in smooth, white scar tissue. Burns.
    Embry closed her eyes and could still feel the desperate terror of that night. She’d been trying to save him the only way she knew how—by banishing the shadows with light. The dojo and Gage’s quarters were housed in a building with no windows or doors. If she eliminated all shadows, wrapping him in light, they couldn’t touch him, couldn’t take him into the shadows and away forever.
    But he’d seen the aurora and mistaken it.
    You have to turn it off!
    The moment he’d grabbed her, something had changed. The nimbus of light she’d woven condensed and shot into him, slamming him back into the wall hard enough to crack the plaster. Then he’d slid limply to the ground and lay still. So still.
    Matthias had walked over, checked his pulse, and shaken his head.
    Matthias had lied. He’d let her live for ten years with the corrosive guilt that she’d killed the man she loved, until it suited his purposes to tell her otherwise. The bastard.
    With one hand, she reached out, tracing her fingers over the contorted muscles in Gage’s face, as if she could ease the strain. “I’m so sorry.”
    “ Embry!” The scream burst from his mouth, and her heart jumped into her throat.
    She leaned forward, intending to comfort, but he shot up, tackling her backwards.
    Her breath whooshed out as they landed hard on the floor, his hands tight around her throat. Power swelled inside her, but she held it in check long enough to see his eyes clear, his face shift from rage to horror. He released her and scrambled back. One hand clutched at his head as he stared first at her, then looked wildly around the room, struggling to get to his feet, to raise his fists.
    Embry sat up, clearing her throat. “It’s okay. We’re safe.”
    He stumbled a few paces, looking as punch drunk as Archer had, and fell to his knees.
    Embry scrambled to him before he could rise again, grabbing at his forearms, “Gage look at me. Look at me.” When he did, she could see the panicked fury in his eyes. She reached out to touch his cheek. “We’re alone. There’s no one here to hurt us. We’re safe. We’re safe.”
    “ Ember?” His eyes searched her face, and she wondered what he saw.
    “ I’m here.”
    Her breath whooshed out again as he crushed her to him, almost cracking her ribs with shaking arms as one hand cradled her head. The combination of strength and gentleness all but undid her. It took every shred of self control to hold her body stiff in his embrace when she wanted to stroke and soothe—anything to ease his transition.
    At length he stopped shaking. His frantic pulse slowed, and he loosened his grip, seeming to become aware that she was not returning his embrace.
    “ Embry, what the hell is going on?”
    His eyes seemed clearer, more firmly grounded in the now than when he’d first awakened. “I’ll explain everything on the way.”
    “ On the way to where?”
    “ I need your help. Can you walk?”
    “ Probably. Why do I feel like I just went ten rounds with Chuck Liddell with both hands tied behind my back?”
    “ It’s a side effect of the antidote,” she said, heaving him to his feet.
    “ Antidote to what?”
    “ The Lethe potion.”
    Gage slumped unsteadily against her. “The what?”
    “ Lethe. Like the river in Greek mythology. To make you forget.”
    “ Forget… I don’t… ” He shook his head.
    “ It’ll be clear in a while. But we have to move. We won’t be safe here for long.” She snagged the duffel and led him out the door.
    They were