Shadows of Fire (The Shadow Realms, Book 1) by Brenda Davies (free e books to read .TXT) 📕

have swum so farin his condition, but entering the water would have thrown off histrackers until he arrived on her shoreline. And she could only hopeshe’d done enough to cover his scent.

Pulling her hands from the water, she wasrelieved to see the wound had already healed. Now, she had to takecare of her guest.

At one point in time, she would have run intohalf a dozen people on her way back to the manor; she encounteredno one now. But then, there was no one to run into anymore.

When her father was alive, and before thewar, a fair number of people worked the manor. Some lived there,but many fled during the war.

They were shocked to discover they worked forsomeone more than human, and many chose to be with their families.They also hoped to flee the destruction, but there was noescape.

The dragons had leveled most of the majorcities throughout the world. What the Lord of the Shadow Realmsunleashed on earth was something far worse than any of them everexpected, and now they were all suffering the consequences ofit.

The humans knew of their existence, andimmortals had gained nothing from it except more death.

Yes, the Lord had the dragons to keep themortals in line, and immortals possessed abilities and strengthsfar beyond the humans, but the humans still had weapons that couldmaim and kill them.

Most immortals could blend in with humans andstill choose to do so, but she’d heard tales of immortals whorefused to blend in anymore. After years of going incognito, theywere embracing their newfound freedom. Unfortunately, that was alsocausing problems.

After the war, the humans were petrified,broken, and resentful. They never had any warning that somethingbeyond their realm existed before the Lord smashed their reality topieces. And they hadn’t been given much time to adapt beforeimmortals started taking over.

The war between the immortals was over, butshe suspected the war with the humans was just beginning. The Lordof the Shadow Realms couldn’t destroy them all; vampires and boththe light and dark fae fed on humans. They could also feed onimmortals, but many immortals did not appreciate that, sovampires and the fae mostly relied on mortals for sustenance.

But then, with as crazy as he was, the Lordmight decide to destroy every human if they became a problemand require immortals to feed only on each other. Things wouldbecome desperate then as few immortals allowed others to feed onthem in any way.

She didn’t know how the light fae weresurviving. They’d refused to fight, and because of that, immortalsreviled them. At one time, she often saw them in the human realm,but she hadn’t seen any in almost a year.

Unlike the dark fae, who fed on the energyproduced by sex, the light fae absorbed the joy humans emitted, andeven if they weren’t scorned and terrorized by other immortals whenthey were in the human realm, there was little joy left in thisworld. But that was their problem to handle; she had her own todeal with right now.

Glancing over her shoulder, she made sure noone was around before she entered the manor, strode down the hall,and jogged up the sweeping stairs to the second floor. At the top,the hallway ran straight ahead of her for fifty feet before veeringaround a corner.

Her steps were muffled by the dark bluecarpet running the length of the hall. Unlike the first floor,where most of the rooms had gray stone walls, the upper level wasdrywalled and painted. The walls were a cream color and lined withfamily pictures.

The complete silence still felt so odd, andshe resisted hugging herself as the lonely feel of the placeweighed her down.

Stopping outside a door halfway down thehall, she took a deep breath before gripping the knob and shovingthe door open. She didn’t look around; she couldn’t as tears filledher eyes while the scent of her dad filled her nose. He’d smelledof the outdoors and mint, and those aromas lingered in hisroom.

She blinked back her tears as she opened hisdrawers. She removed a black sweater and some socks. Unable to keepup with the flow of tears, she gave up trying as she ran to hiscloset, pulled out a pair of jeans, and fled the room. Closing thedoor behind her, she leaned against it as she wiped at the tearsstreaming down her cheeks.

It had been six months since word of hisdeath arrived, yet the knife of grief digging into her heart madeit feel like it was just yesterday. She didn’t know if it wouldever get better, but she wouldn’t be returning to his room any timesoon.

Shoving herself away from the door, sheburied her misery as she hurried to one of the hall closets andpulled it open. She removed a couple of towels before returning tothe first floor and entering the kitchen.

Dinner was already in the oven, but Sahirawasn’t around. She had to be somewhere nearby as she wouldnever let one of her meals burn, but Lexi was glad her auntwasn’t here; she couldn’t deal with questions right now.

She rushed to fill a pot with water beforeSahira returned. She ignored the warm liquid splashing over herhand as she glanced around. She could always tell Sahira one of thehorses injured themselves, Sahira wouldn’t question it or go to thebarn to check, but she didn’t want to lie to her.

When she finished filling the pot, she leftthe room and was careful not to spill anything as she rushed downthe hall. Her feet didn’t make a sound on the red rug covering thegray stone floors. She kept her ears attuned for some hint ofSahira, but the manor remained unnaturally subdued.

No, it wasn’t unnatural anymore. This was theway it was now.

She slipped through the library's open doubledoors and paused to glance back into the hall. From the kitchen,she heard the back door click shut. Sahira must have been out inthe garden.

Lexi turned her attention from the hall andcrossed the room toward the large, gray stone fireplace. Overhead,the dark wood beams running across the cathedral ceiling didn’tblock the sun streaming through the skylights. It illuminated thehardwood floors and brought out the gold in the blue and goldOriental rug in the room's