Haunting Shadows (Book 2)

Chapter 6

Andreas started to an upright position, his mind suddenly alert again. It was just a dream… just a dream, but it had felt so real. She had seemed so real. For the first time since being banished to the cover, Andreas managed to lift himself to his feet. He ignored the gnawing ache of hunger in his stomach, his dream having lit a new kind of fire inside him.

Why had she looked at him that way in his dream? Like he had betrayed her in some way? Did she blame him for not saving her, or was he still blaming himself for being too late? The pain in her eyes was too much for him to bear, but he knew there was no way for him to fix it. The dream was so sweet at first… he could almost still taste her lips.

He hadn’t wanted it to end.

And the flames ignited and he was shocked to the land of the waking.He had felt those flames as if they were burning him as well. Those must’ve been the flames that took Lana away from him. Not that fire burned inside him, a boiling rage threatening to burst out.

He needed to get out of the cove. The sooner, the better. Someone had to pay for what they had done to Lana.

Raphael was first on his hit list for putting him in this retched place. But also for being the reason he was seconds late to save Lana’s life in the first place.

The Argeno brothers were nothing but trouble, and the sooner Andreas ridded the world of them, the better for everyone – mostly his own sanity though. John was the reason Dylan was dead, and now Andreas blamed Raphael for Lana, even though there was a part of him that knew he should have been more vigilant.

“Andreas, vengeance will not solve anything.

Every nerve ending in his body fired in that moment. He froze, completely immobilized. That voice. He knew only one woman who had that voice and she was long dead by his own hand.

He turned slowly toward it, and sure enough, there she stood. Emilia Grigoli, his mother. Her figure was somewhat distorted, like an image reflected from water, but there was no mistaking it was her. She didn’t look a day older and had the same strained look in her kind blue eyes.

“Mom,” he said, his voice breaking into a million tiny pieces as he fell to his knees.

She strode over to him, bending down and putting her arms over his shoulders. He couldn’t feel her touch. She was just a vision. Andreas closed his eyes in denial. “You aren’t real. You are dead,” his voice was coming out in a choke, his throat thick with tears he wouldn’t dare shed.

“I am dead, but that does not make me any less real, son,” replied in a gentle voice. “You must have heard of the powers of the crystal cove.”

Andreas’ eyes widened. The cove had many secret, some of which people only speculated about. The first was one every sorcerer knew about; as the source of light magic, the crystals served as a block to all dark magic, leaving sorcerers such as himself completely powerless. The second was, that if you ever found yourself trapped inside, the cove would test you, and illuminate a path for you should it deem you worthy. Those tests usually brought up shadows of the past, quite literally. The dead spirits were brought to the cove where they present guidance to the sorcerer, or are the subject of the test.

His mother was the first of these shadows.

Apprehension swept over Andreas in waves. There would be more ghosts after her, all presenting their own kind of pain in his heart, all with their own vendettas. There was a very real chance he would never get out of there if it depended on all his shadows. Some wouldn’t want him unleashed onto the world once more.

“You are here to test me,” Andreas stated, his voice flat now.

Emilia inclined her head to the side, her eyebrows drawn in as she regarded her son. “Yes, I volunteered to come first.” Andreas rose to his feet again and backed away from her.