Forsaken by Shadow (Mirus 1)

In her mind, she saw the dojo, saw the stream of her power shooting inside him. What have I done?

The guns glowed a vicious red. Palms blistered, the men dropped their weapons just before the rounds inside exploded. The shrapnel drove them back. And for a moment no more soldiers came to take their place.

What the hell? They can’t be falling back.

Embry crept forward to the remains of the next generator to get a better look. A series of unsteady tremors rocked the facility. Almost like… footsteps? Men screamed. More soldiers took position in the doorway, but not before she saw two others fly into the wall at the junction down the hall. The men in the doorway looked over their shoulders, and Embry took advantage of their distraction to knock them back.

Something roared, a high, vibrating screech somewhere between a T-rex and a banshee.

No way. Not possible. Surely the human military hadn’t managed to find and imprison one of the Drakyn. The dragon-shifters had gone deep underground during the modern era. There hadn’t been a reported sighting in over a century.

But something big kept coming, and whatever it was, it was drawing fire away from her. The cavalry, such as it was, had apparently arrived. She’d take all the help she could get.

With a spark of hope freshly lit in her chest, Embry stood to let off another volley of fire. And she saw him.

Emerging from around the bend in the hall, Gage fought amid a half dozen armed soldiers. He was bloody, favoring his left side as he systematically disarmed them with fists, feet, elbows. One went down a victim of the butt of his own gun. Two more were distracted by another roar of the Drakyn, but the remaining three converged on him at once.

Embry fired off a quick succession of charges, but not before one of them managed to dislocate Gage’s shoulder. He didn’t make a sound as he went down to his knees. He scissored his legs, dropping his assailant to the ground. Gage swarmed over him, using his one good arm to get the guy in a choke hold. As his face purpled, his hands clawing frantically at Gage’s arm, the others took aim.

“No!” Panicked terror had her stepping out from cover, fire flying from her hands, rippling over the rest of her body as the rage took her.

No one would take him from her again. Not like this.

The fireball hit the three soldiers. When the smoke cleared moments later, nothing remained but the blackened stumps of their legs. But more were coming. The endless stream of soldiers always kept coming.

Gage was on his feet again, already swinging. But he was slowing down. With no opportunity to reseat his shoulder, how much longer could he last? Without his abilities as a Shadow Walker, what chance did he have to escape? She had to fix this. She had to undo the botched attempt at protection she’d made a decade before so the shadows would take him back.

She lifted her hands, focused on the pulse of energy she could feel inside him. It beat like a second heart, calling to her.

She hesitated. What if it didn’t work?

She generated energy. Expelled it. Unlike other firecasters, unlike her father, she didn’t draw from sources outside herself. She was too much elemental for that. But what was inside him originated with her. It was still a part of her, so shouldn’t she be able to control it?

There were no rules, no guidelines, no training for this. She’d never heard of another case like his. What if she did more harm than good? What if I kill him for real this time?

The pain bloomed bright and hot in her chest, a shock to her over-taxed system. And she understood that the time for indecision was over. It was now or never, or neither of them would walk out alive. Body swaying, she lifted her hands and called to the light.

Chapter 11

Embry was nearby. Gage hadn’t seen her yet. He’d been too busy fighting and couldn’t see past the smoke. But the blackened remains of those three soldiers and the fireballs that intermittently flew by him proved that she could see him.

The creature screeched again, whipping its long tail in a brutal arc and slicing through two more men. Gage didn’t know what the hell it was, but it was keeping the influx of soldiers from getting beyond it into the narrow hallway, so he was grateful. A couple of others had joined him. To the left, just beyond the creature, a shrunken woman with dry, desiccated flesh slashed razor sharp nails, leaving gaping furrows in the chest of her nearest attacker. Her eyes flashed crimson and fangs descended as she fell on him, drinking greedily. A dozen feet away from the starving vampire, lightning speared out from the hands of an angular man in bloody clothes. A galvanic fae. Handy. Both of them tore through the crowd, exacting vengeance for whatever tortures they had endured as prisoners here.

Gage drove an elbow into the face of his nearest attacker and the motion jarred his dislocated shoulder. His vision flickered with black for a moment as agony threatened to take him to his knees. He needed enough cover to reseat the joint, not only because of the pain but because his left arm hung useless at his side.

Where the fuck was Adan?

Turning his back to the corner where the hallway turned, Gage surveyed the remaining soldiers. There were fifteen between him and the entrance to another room. He moved forward, intent on taking out the nearest one, when his body burst into flames. The shock and pain were so great, not even the oblivion of unconsciousness could cut through it. Staggering forward, still driving a reverse knife hand into his opponent’s throat to crush his windpipe, he was surprised not to see flames swirling over his skin. The fire was within him.

Embry.

He stumbled to the nearest wall for support, to keep from going down.

Embry, what the hell are you doing?

Something inside him ripped loose, as if an invisible hand had reached in to grab a vital organ and tear it out. Nausea and pain immobilized him. Unable to even breathe, Gage’s head dropped back against the wall. And through the heads of the cluster of shooters at the doorway to the next room, he saw her.

She was on fire. A living, breathing flame in the shape of a woman. Her hands were outstretched toward him, and he could feel the pull from them. His body fought it. He slumped down the wall, doubling over against the knife-sharp spasms, trying to hold on to whatever she was trying to yank out. He lifted his head to look at her. “Embry, don’t—”