Page 2 of Shadow Scorching

Penn popped the rolls into a basket and handed it to me. Then, she dished out two bowls of stew and sat down at the table, placing one of them in front of me.

“Magic is my heritage. My mother’s a witch, my father’s Fae. I inherited her powers and his glamour. The best of both worlds, though my father would never have accepted me. My mother thought he loved her, but when I came along, he dropped her immediately. She doesn’t talk about him much,” she added, shrugging.

“But you know who he is,” I said. “I know nothing about my father.”

“Sometimes I think that would have been best,” she said, unfurling her napkin and placing it over her lap.

“What does your mother say?” I asked.

“I asked her once, what she would think if I searched for him. She said that if I wanted my heart broken, go ahead, but don’t come running to her when it happens. She wasn’t being mean, though. She doesn’t want me being disappointed. I can still hear the heartbreak in her voice when she talks about him. She loved him,” Penn said, shaking her head. She cut a biscuit open, slathering it with butter.

“I’m sorry,” I said, doing the same. “My mother was seduced by my father. Once, she called him an incubus, but I’m not sure if she meant it or not. I don’t think she loved him. I don’t know if she evenknewhim other than the night they slept together.”

As I bit into the biscuit, the layers of bread melted on my tongue. Penn and I had been close for years, but a few weeks of living together had deepened our friendship and we had started diving into our pasts, discussing the why’s and how’s of things that had happened to us.

“And I’m sorry your mother died. I know you loved, her,” Penn said.

I leaned back in my chair. Dante and Penn were the two people who knew how hard my mother’s death had hit me. And Penn…Penn had kept me from turning into a raging monster. Even Dante didn’t know the full story of what had happened, although he had also brought me back from the edge the first night we met.

I’d wanted to tell him the story for years, but Penn swore me to silence and I agreed. Because Penn had done what I’d wanted to. She’d done what might have pushed me over the edge for good, if I’d given in to my inner nature.

CHAPTER TWO

Nineteen years ago…

It was near midnight, and I was crouching in a tree, watching the apartment building where the serial killer who murdered my mother lived. The cops didn’t know about him, other than his name. But his name was as phony as the smile on his face when he picked up my mother for a date, the last time I’d seen her alive.

Over the seven years between her death and the day I tracked down Jace, I’d nurtured my rage, and had dedicated myself to seek him out and destroy him. Even after Dante saved me from the streets, I kindled the anger, keeping it on a low simmer.

During that seven years, Dante had sent me back to school. After I graduated at the top of my class at seventeen, he funded my tuition to a two-year program in Criminal Investigation. I had opened my own business—Shadow Blade Investigations—and now was established in the Supe Community. I hadn’t had many big cases, but I was building my reputation.

And then, Benny—who I met through Dante—showed up at the office one day, a sober look on his goblin-face. We’d never beenfriends, but for a goblin, he was a decent enough chap. Iliked Benny, but he loved money above anything and that made me stop short of trusting him. He knew about my past, because I wasn’t about to give him the space to attempt blackmail. And the best way to prevent blackmail was transparency.

“You look solemn today,” I said, as I dropped the file I was reading. I waited as he sat down across from me, his gaze locked on mine. “All right, you’re spooking me. Why the silent treatment? What’s going on? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” I paused. “Did you?”

“What?”

“See a ghost?”

Benny didn’t laugh, another warning that something was off. Instead, he cleared his throat and wiped his palms on the legs of his jeans. For a goblin, he was surprisingly fashion conscious.

“I have some information you might want to hear,” he said.

“What’s it going to cost me?” Benny brought me tips about cases and he was an effective snitch. He’d helped me out on a couple cases.

Benny continued to stare at me.

“Benny, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

Finally, he let out a long breath. “I thought I should talk to Dante about this but…”

“About what?” My worry began to shift toward irritation. “Spill it, Benny.”

The goblin stood. He began to pace around my office. “I know something that you’re going to want to know. But I’m not sure if it’s a good thing for me to tell you.” He turned toward me, genuine concern on his face. “Promise me you won’t go off half-cocked? Promise me you’ll sit with this news for a while?”

Now Iwasworried. “All right, what’s going on?”

“You remember Jace?”

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