Page 105 of For Dear Life

No. Rowan’s ability to manipulate shadows can’t manifest. Nobody can know or he’ll become as big a target as me—not to kill, but to be manipulated. Shadows corrupt even the strongest minded witch and hold infinite power if harnessed.

I switch back to calculating where to strike Josef.

Don’t kill him, Violet.

Rowan’s voice heard as a distant whisper in my mind arrests me. How? We’re not telepathic with our bond.

If you kill him, they win.

“What are you doing, Violet?” asks Josef lazily. “Shouldn’t you act quicker?”

The wisps of shadow that Rowan showed the day we fought swirl weakly around his fingers. I snap my eyes away. Have I forgotten my other skill? Talking; distracting.

“How did you know we’d be here?” I ask. “Grayson?”

“I didn’t. I discovered what the human boy planned, and it seems that the witches’ pet bear told them Viggo intended to meet Kai. I never had a chance to contact Grayson, since I needed to get here and stop this attack. Looks like your nosiness helped me.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“You don’t need to.”

I eye Rowan and his magic again. “Were you close with Oskar? You appear to share his bloody-minded belief in your righteousness,” I say.

He clenches his teeth. “I’m an original Petrescu.”

“Yes, then?” I focus hard on not watching Rowan. “You do realize that whatever happens, Dorian will kill you.”

Josef sneers. “Not tonight, if ever. Now, your witch… that’s a different story.”

The air cools and the atmosphere becomes denser as the shadows come, but Josef shows no sign he’s aware.

“Whatever you’re planning counts on me not killing you tonight, hence you will not kill Rowan.” I wipe fingers across the blood on my face and lift them up. “Yes, I’ve more control than Dorian, but not if you harm Rowan. Stop bluffing.”

Josef’s nails remain frighteningly close to Rowan’s jugular, his hardened green eyes on mine. The wisps around Rowan become thicker, snaking around his arms, and I moisten my lips. Josef wants power. To see Dorian fall, which means he won’t risk falling himself tonight. But why shouldn’t I attack him? I can maim, not kill.

You know you’ll go too far.

Again. Rowan. This time I can’t help looking at him in alarm. Are you in my mind?

He raises a brow, his eyes now storms. I’ll sort this.

But if you use shadows, you’re at risk. Nobody should know you can summon them.

Perhaps I want them to, Violet.

As Josef’s nail presses harder into Rowan, he nicks the skin—and the hybrid breaks free in my mind, reaching for Josef in a split second.

The shadows edging Rowan implode, surrounding the pair until I can’t see either of them, and before reach Josef. Josef’s grip on Rowan loosens, and Rowan staggers from within the cloud, shadows consuming him too. Only Rowan sends the shadows away instead, forcing them into Josef’s open mouth as the vamp flails his arms, pulling at the incorporeal attacker, choking.

In my mind’s eye, Rowan’s a vaguer version of himself, silent. Josef flashes a look at me, and I wince as his mind pierces mine, scratching an image across my vision before he collapses to his knees.

Grayson and a hell of a lot of blood in the warehouse somewhere.

I dart forward and grab Rowan’s arm, sucking a breath as the icy cold magic eagerly greets me, turning in my direction. “No more.”

“Got the bastard,” he rasps out and points at the powerful vampire at his feet.

A vampire bound by shadows. The worst part isn’t the energy needed to hold Josef without killing him, but that he has the knowledge that Rowan can conjure the magic as easily as a Blackwood.

---