Haunting Shadows (Book 2)

Chapter 43

Andreas was frozen in place, unable to even move a muscle. His eyes had to be betraying him. There was no other explanation for what he was seeing. Casian reappearing made more sense to him. But there was no way he could believe that Lana was alive. He had held her lifeless body. Felt her death as if a part of his very soul had been ripped from him. Yet, she was standing before him now, holding Izzy in her arms, staring at Casian like he had made some grave miscalculation.

“I guess you were wrong,” Lana said, a hint on disappointment in her otherwise accusatory tone. That was what finally snapped Andreas out of his stupefied state. And what had him finally noticing the arms that were draped possessively over one of his own. He didn’t think he could hate the mermaid more than he did in that exact moment.

He shrugged Leita off of him, earning one of her deadly stares. It did nothing to him, his attention focused entirely on the girl who couldn’t be real.

Izzy pulled away from Lana and her eyes traveled over to where Andreas was standing, Leita almost attached to his hip, and frowned. Her blue gaze drew Lana’s eyes to her and she was quick to respond. “Don’t worry, he hates her.”

Lana’s eyes widened, and Andreas could feel the malice radiating from Leita. Lana brushed a strand of blond hair from Izzy’s eyes, a sad smile on her lips. She chose to ignore Izzy’s comment entirely. “I’ve missed you. A little surprised to see you here.”

“We thought you were dead!” Izzy said and hugged Lana again. Andreas had never envied anyone more than in that moment. He wanted nothing more than to throw his arms around Lana and convince himself that she was real and not merely an image concocted from his mind. Perhaps he had finally gone crazy. That was the only logical explanation for all of this.

“Reunions are always quite touching, but there while we are all here, there is something quite urgent that we need to discuss,” Raphael said, scratching his head awkwardly. Instant rage pooled through Andreas in the moment he recognized the sorcerer. Before, Raphael had blended into the crowd, the shock of Casian and Lana’s presence distracting Andreas from his. Raphael barely blinked before Andreas appeared before him, a hand on his neck, cutting off his air supply.

Raphael was choking, trying and failing to fight Andreas off. But there was nothing he could do. Andreas’ rage overwhelmed him, his eyes shining a brilliant gold. “You. This is all your fault.” Andreas’ voice dropped low to a dangerous timbre. It chilled everyone in the room.

“Andreas, stop.” He stilled, hearing the only voice that could ever coax him into doing anything. Without releasing Raphael, he turned to her.

“I had stopped when you asked me to spare the life of Izzy’s brother, and I had stopped myself from killing your parents for what they did to you because I know if you could you would have asked me to, but him? I’m afraid I cannot spare his life. He went too far.” It was almost as if Andreas could feel Lana stiffen at the coldness of his words. He wanted to give in to her request, but he couldn’t let Raphael get away with what he had done.

Kalen was at his side in a second, placing his hand on Andreas’ arm. “No one here blames you for wanting to kill him, least of all me, but I implore you to wait. He claims to have important information that we need to hear. We should at least hear him out before his life is ended. Hell, I’d even help you kill him.”

Andreas narrowed his eyes on Kalen, still not releasing Raphael whose face had started turning blue. He suddenly noticed a girl with purple flecked eyes covering her mouth with her hand. Her eyes were doing the begging. He focused his attention on her. “You do not want me to kill him?” he asked, his tone softening almost insignificantly.