BREAKING SHADOWS (Shadows Book 1)

Chapter 30

For weeks I hadn't heard a word from him. He was my first thought at the breaking of a new day, my last as the sun bowed to the power of the moon and her cloak of darkness.

The coven didn't place any demands on me to fulfil my duties as High Witch, no-one asked me to prepare for an attack we believed to be imminent. One day soon, but not yet.

Gradually, the witches were returned to their covens, and the dead burned on funeral pyres as custom demanded. Promises were made for strict sanctions on the witches who'd freely left to join Tor Langin. Some of the descendants of the covens who'd performed the ritual with William Darkmore had their power returned. Others were not so lucky, their powers dying along with the people who stole them. I couldn't guess what that meant for them now.

Arden tried to keep me busy. He roped me in to helping him experiment with potions and elixirs. Our kitchen still hadn't fully reappeared from the time we swapped Lady's Mantle dew for foxglove in a cloaking concoction. My heart and mind thanked him for the distraction, so much so, I'd given him Gran's room. Even though it was my idea, and Arden was respectful, it had bothered me in the beginning until I resigned myself to the fact it was just a room. To the point where I let him redecorate. Grandmother lilac was replaced with grey and muted yellow.

The message came late on the Christian night of Christmas Eve, so close to our own Midwinter celebrations that garlands of evergreens and sprigs of yew and mistletoe still adorned the cottage.

A bird, the size of a small dog tapped its sharp beak on the glass pane of my bedroom window. I heaved up the frame allowing it to dart inside. It danced round and round my room, until it finally nosedived for my bed.

It held out a black talon where paper had been rolled into a scroll and tied around the spindly limb. Reaching out for one of the dangling lengths of string, I pulled until it unravelled and the scroll fell free onto my bed. The bird gave a gurgling croak, flapped its wings and shot out under the raised frame.

Frantic fingers fumbled with the curled paper until at last it revealed its message.

Meet me at the abandoned church - Rafe

Snow floated down from the heavens, falling through the curved protection of my dome. I'd slipped out of the cottage before Arden could question me, or cluck around like a mother hen. Valestone fell further and further behind, as I headed for the border, turning my coat collar up against the winter cold.

I steadied my breathing as the church loomed closer. Inside, the shadows clung to every corner spreading like mold across the crumbling walls. Rafe was already there, my heart faltering at the mere sight of him. He sat, back to the wall beneath the glassless window, long legs stretched out, one crossed over the other in front of him. A bar of pale moonlight shone on his beautiful face making him appear more ghost-like than angel. Bruises underlined each eye.

One second his head was whipping towards the sound of my intrusion, the next I was in his arms. He buried his head in the crook of my neck, fingers grasping at the material of my coat. I breathed in the scent of him, my own hands reaching round to grasp his shirt, wondering if I'd ever let him go again.

"I was worried something had happened to you. I tried to use the bond but...it broke."

Rafe released me, cupping my face briefly, thumbs sweeping my cheeks before putting some space between us. The loss of him was almost too much. "I felt it too."

"Then I suppose my question is why? You fulfilled your side, even though we had different souls in mind, but I haven't. I haven't resurrected your lost love and yet the magic dissolved as though the terms had been met."