Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
For a moment, everything went still. Even the shadow creature paused its attack, as if sensing a kindred darkness.
Then Caelen smiled the kind of smile that made Daniel's blood run cold.
"Such a crude thing," Caelen said, looking at the monster that had attacked Daniel. "Barely more than loose magic pretending to have form."
He raised one hand, and darkness pooled in his palm like liquid night. The shadow creature wavered, its edges beginning to blur.
"Allow me to show you what true shadow magic looks like."
Caelen closed his fist. The creature screamed , a sound like tearing metal, as its form collapsed in on itself, drawn toward Caelen's hand. Within seconds, it was gone, absorbed into his power.
The cave lurker roared, abandoning its pursuit of Lyrian to charge at this new threat. Caelen didn't move, didn't even seem concerned as the monster barreled toward him.
"Look out!" Daniel shouted.
"Always so worried," Caelen said, glancing at Daniel with something like amusement. "Watch."
Just before the cave lurker reached him, Caelen's form dissolved into shadow. The monster crashed through empty air, stumbling. When it turned, snarling, Caelen had reformed behind it.
"Pathetic." All amusement vanished from Caelen's voice. "You dare threaten me and what's mine?"
The shadows around him writhed and spread, darkening the entire lobby while Caelen's green eyes glowed even brighter, and his magic seemed to become even more vicious.
The cave lurker tried to retreat, but bands of shadow wrapped around its legs, holding it in place. More shadows rose like spears, impaling the creature from multiple angles. It thrashed and howled, but Caelen's magic held firm.
The cave lurker's form began to break apart, not into blood and gore, but into fragments of darkness and energy. As it died, the air around it shimmered and crackled with released power, sending waves of cold through the lobby.
The monster's essence dissipated as if it had never been more than smoke.
Slowly, the shadows receded, and Daniel felt like he could breathe easier.
Meanwhile, Caelen stood in the center of the lobby, not a hair out of place, looking for all the world like he'd just taken a pleasant stroll rather than fought off two monsters.
His eyes found Daniel's. "Well? No thank you for your gallant rescuer?"
Daniel swallowed hard. Having Caelen here, real and solid and powerful , was stirring up all sorts of complicated feelings—mostly horny feelings, let's be real—that he was doing his damndest to suppress.
"Thank you," he managed. "But this doesn't mean I trust you."
"Of course not." Caelen's smile held secrets Daniel wasn't sure he wanted to know. "But you will. In time." He took a step toward Daniel.
"Don't!" Lyrian said in a sharp tone of voice. "Stay where you are, Shadow King."
Daniel glanced at Lyrian. He'd almost forgotten the siren was there.
Caelen's smile didn't waver, but something dangerous flickered in his eyes. "Or what, little siren?"
Shadows pooled at Caelen's feet, and Lyrian's voice took on that otherworldly resonance again, the air around him shimmering.
"I may be weakened," Lyrian said, "but I won't let you touch Daniel."
Caelen moved faster than Daniel could track. One moment he was standing still, the next he had Lyrian pinned against the wall with shadows. "You won't let me?" He laughed, cold and cruel. "You forget yourself."
"And you underestimate me," Lyrian shot back. Despite being restrained, his voice grew stronger. The shimmering air around him solidified into those translucent barriers again.
The shadows holding him shattered.
Caelen's eyes narrowed. More shadows rose around him, and Daniel could feel the building pressure of power about to explode.
Oh no.
Oh hell no.
"Stop!" Daniel called. "Don't you dare hurt him!"
The shadows stilled. Caelen's gaze snapped to Daniel, and for a moment, he regarded him silently, face unreadable. Then the shadows retreated, leaving the dirty floor bare once more. "So long as he doesn't hurt me."
A low growl echoed through the lobby. All three of them turned toward the entrance, where another monster was materializing out of thin air. This one looked like it was made of crystalline shards and jagged edges.
"Oh, come on," Daniel muttered.
Hadn't there been enough monsters today?
Caelen looked at the creature the way another man might look at a cockroach. "This place has become seriously unstable. Too much magic, perhaps."
He dispatched it with a casual wave of his hand, the creature shattering into a thousand glittering pieces that dissolved before they hit the ground. "Now then," he said, as if they hadn't just been interrupted, "shall we discuss more pressing matters?"
"Yes," Lyrian spat. "Like you getting the fuck back where you came from."
"Such language." Caelen sounded utterly unimpressed with Lyrian. "Tell me, siren, can you stabilize this zone? Because I can." His eyes found Daniel's again. "With a little help."
"You can't think we trust you."
"I wasn't asking you." Caelen moved toward Daniel again. This time, Lyrian's warning didn't stop him. "Remember what I told you? About our connection?"
Daniel should back away. He knew he should. But his feet remained rooted to the spot as Caelen approached. Want and fear tangled in his chest, making it hard to breathe.
"How?" Daniel asked. "How do we stop the monsters?"
Caelen reached him, close enough now that Daniel could feel the warmth radiating from his skin. One elegant hand came up to cup Daniel's face. "Like this."
The kiss, when it came, was surprisingly gentle. Daniel went rigid, his mind screaming at him to pull away even as his body yearned to lean in.
"Open up to me," Caelen murmured against his lips, fingers threading through Daniel's hair. The touch sent shivers down his spine, and something inside him, some bit of resistance, crumbled.
When Daniel yielded, the world seemed to shift around them. Power surged between them, cold and electric, making his skin tingle and his heart race. He could feel the zone's unstable energy being drawn into that connection, smoothing out like wrinkles in fabric.
Caelen's grip tightened, possessive and triumphant, and Daniel wasn't sure if the whimper that escaped him was from fear or desire.
Maybe both.
Holy shit, definitely both.
The kiss broke, but Caelen didn't let go. His fingers remained tangled in Daniel's hair, his other hand sliding down to grip Daniel's waist. The air around them crackled with residual energy, making Daniel's skin feel too tight, too sensitive.
"There," Caelen said, his voice low and satisfied. "The zone is stabilizing."
Daniel tried to focus on anything but the way Caelen's touch burned through his clothes. This was so not the time to be swooning over the hot evil villain who somehow needed him to save the world even if the part of Daniel that longed to be a romance novel protagonist was having the time of his life.
Get your shit together, he told himself.
The lobby did feel different now. The weird distortions in the air had smoothed out, and that creeping wrongness that had been making his skin crawl was fading. So... yay for magical makeouts?
"Get your hands off him." Lyrian's voice cut through Daniel's mental spiral into hysteria.
Right. Lyrian. Who had just watched... oh God.
Could this moment become any more mortifying?
Daniel tried to step back, but Caelen's grip only tightened. "I don't take orders from you, siren." His thumb traced a small circle on Daniel's hip. "Besides, Daniel isn't exactly fighting me off, is he?"
Daniel's face burned. Caelen was right; he wasn't fighting. He should be. He knew he should be. But his body was still buzzing from whatever had just happened between them.
"You're manipulating him," Lyrian accused. "Using magic to do it."
"I assure you," Caelen's voice carried an edge now, "Daniel's responses are entirely his own." His grip loosened slightly, allowing Daniel to pull back if he wanted to. "Aren't they, sweetheart?"
"I..." Daniel swallowed hard, finally managing to take a step back. "Don't call me that."
"What would you like me to call you?"
"Something less lame." Daniel gestured at himself. "Look at me. Do I look like someone who deserves the most generic pet name?"
Daniel shook his head at himself. Why were they even having this discussion now?
None of this should be happening, and he had way more important things to take care of. "We should check on the teenagers. You know, the ones probably traumatized for life out there?"
Caelen's gaze flicked to the entrance. "Always so concerned about others," he murmured. "But if that's what you have to do…"
"That is what I have to do."
Daniel turned toward the entrance. He'd left Leon waiting out there long enough, and he really didn't want to continue his conversation with Caelen right now. His brain was too addled.
When he stepped outside, he found the teens huddled in his car. Leon stood beside the vehicle, arms crossed, radiating tension.
The moment Leon spotted Caelen, his whole body went rigid. "What the fuck ?"
"Nice to meet you too." Caelen's smile was sharp enough to cut glass.
Leon looked to Daniel and Lyrian. "Why is the Shadow King here?"
"He helped with the monsters," Daniel said, aware of how weak that sounded. "And stabilized the zone."
"He what?" Leon clearly struggled trying to piece together what had happened inside. "Didn't Knox send him back to Veridia?"
"I cannot be imprisoned anywhere," Caelen stated with an unamused expression. It seemed he still hated even hearing Knox's name.
"We need to get the kids to the police station," Daniel cut in before Leon and Caelen could keep arguing. "I'll explain everything to you later," he promised Leon.
"That explanation had better be good," his friend said.
Daniel tried not to grimace. He didn't have a good explanation. In the heat of the moment, he'd figured Caelen's help would be better than nothing, and definitely better than what the Barrier Keepers had proposed, but now that the immediate danger had passed, all he could see was that he'd summoned a villain from another world to add to his problems.
"We should head to your brother's store," Caelen said, his tone oddly casual. "If the zones are destabilizing this badly..."
Daniel's heart clenched. Jamie. God, he wanted nothing more than to rush to the store right now, make sure his brother was safe. If something like this happened there...
But the Shadow King had no reason to care about Jamie's safety.
He'd only said that to manipulate Daniel, the way he always manipulated everyone around him.
No matter how badly Daniel wanted to drive back to Oakridge, he wasn't going to fall for that. Besides, with Caelen here, they now had the option to fix the unstable zones without the aid of the Barrier Keepers. Knox and the others needed to hear about that.
"My brother is safe for now," Daniel said, hoping he was right. "I need to go back to Knox and the others."
Caelen's lips curled down. "The incubus won't welcome my presence."
"Tough," Daniel said. "I guess you'll just have to learn how to play nice."
"Nice?" Shadows gathered at Caelen's feet. "You know my history with Knox. You can't expect me to be cordial with the monster who murdered my parents."
"Your parents?" Leon's huffed laugh made them all turn. "Knox had every right to end them after they sacrificed twenty innocent people to their dark god. The novel didn't leave out that part of the story."
For a moment, Caelen's perfect composure cracked. Raw fury twisted his features as he focused on Leon. "You dare speak of things you know nothing about, human."
Leon didn't hesitate. "I know that your parents went mad."
"They rediscovered their faith! But you wouldn't understand. Your eyes are closed to the truth, to the injustice of this world."
"This world or your world?" Leon challenged.
"All worlds," Caelen insisted.
While the two of them argued, Daniel glanced at the teens in his car. What must they be thinking of this conversation? What…
Wait.
Was that…?
Daniel opened the car door and ripped the teenage boy's phone out of his hand. "Were you filming us, you little shit?"
The screen showed a livestream, already at fifteen minutes with over a hundred viewers in the chat. Comments scrolled past too fast to read, but Daniel caught phrases like "awesome special effects" and "the Shadow King is back!!!"
"Oh fuck." Daniel's stomach dropped. "How many people saw that?"
"Give that back!" The boy tried to grab his phone.
Shadows wrapped around the device. It cracked in Daniel's hand, rendering it useless.
"Hey!" the boy protested. "That was a new iPhone!"
"Be grateful that's all I destroyed," Caelen said coldly. "Mortals who talk too much tend to have... unfortunate accidents."
The boy went pale and shrank back in his seat.
"You can't threaten teenagers," Daniel snapped at Caelen. "And you can't go around destroying people's stuff."
"That phone was obviously bothering you, pet."
Daniel took a deep breath. "I don't need you to destroy things on my behalf and stop with the ridiculous names. I'm not your pet."
"Of course not." Caelen smiled.
Daniel glared at him. "No more magic. No more threats. We're taking the kids to the police station, and then we're dealing with... everything else."
Meanwhile, he really hoped the Barrier Keepers hadn't been watching that stream. This was not how he wanted them to find out he'd pulled another powerful Veridian to this side of the barrier.