37. Amber

Eventually,I throw my daggers at so many targets in the gym that the others will wonder what sort of war zone they’ve walked into when they come in for training tomorrow.

When I return to my room, exhaustion washes over me, dragging me into a restless sleep despite my worries about Damien and his mission to find and kill Viktor. I trust he’ll return unharmed and successful, but still… I’ll feel better when he’s back.

But my thoughts of Damien don’t make their way into my dreams.

Because my dreams belong to him—the Shadow Lord.

He moves with that powerful, otherworldly grace of his, smirking as if he knows secrets about me that I’ve yet to uncover. And those dark pools of his eyes trap me again, trying to pull me into their depths and never let me return to the surface.

“Amber,” he murmurs, making his way closer to me. “You look beautiful tonight.”

So do you, the thought comes to me, although I know better than to say it out loud.

His beauty is the kind that hides the poison in his soul, the darkness that wants to destroy anyone in his path and take their life force for his own.

“I don’t want you here,” I say instead.

His laughter, low and seductive, swirls around me. “But aren’t you curious?” he asks, closing the distance between us until I feel the cold radiating from his shadowy form. “About the power, the secrets, and the passion I can show you?”

“I don’t want it.” I swallow down my questions, unwilling to give in to the spell he’s casting on me. “Any of it.”

“I think you do,” he says, so close now that there are only inches between us. “You’re trying to fight it, but you do want it. Very, very much.”

My heart stops.

I can’t move. Can’t breathe. If I do, I’m afraid I’ll inhale the desire he’s trying to force inside me, and that I won’t be able to escape.

At the same time, I can’t pull away.

Just as his lips are nearing mine, promising a kiss that might consume my soul, he stops.

His smirk returns, full of secrets and promises.

“Soon, Amber,” he murmurs. “You’ll be seeing me very, very soon.”

Then he fades into the shadows, leaving me alone in the dream that suddenly feels too quiet, too empty. My heart pounds, not just from fear but from an anticipation I can’t quite name.

I didn’t have to fight him. I didn’t have to pull myself out of his spell.

He just left.

That was… different.

Suddenly, loud, insistent knocks jerk me back to reality, and I wake with a start, heat still coursing through my body from the memory of the Shadow Lord’s closeness in my dream.

More knocks, harder this time.

“Amber!” Cassandra screams from the other side.

Any bits of grogginess wash away at the urgency in her voice.

Damien, I think, and I rush to the door, yank it open, and see Cassandra standing in front of me, her eyes wide with panic.

“What happened?” I need to know, but at the same time, I dread the answer. “Is it Damien?”

“It’s Yannick and Abigail.” She forces herself into my room, slams the door shut, and ice-cold fear rushes through me as I wait for her to continue. “They’re gone.”

The news hits me like a physical blow.

“Gone?” I repeat, unable to make sense of it. “What do you mean?”

“We were out on patrol. And the downtown vampires…” She swallows to compose herself. “They ambushed us. They took them.”

My mind’s racing at a million miles a minute.

Took them.

“They’re not dead?” I ask, needing to hear the exact words. Because if they’re not dead, this can be fixed. They can be saved. I’ll make sure of it.

“They took them,” Cassandra repeats, her eyes hollow—empty. “And they left me a message.”

“What message?”

“It was from Lucas,” she says, hands shaking. “He said if we want to see Abigail and Yannick alive again, we have to meet him. The two of us. Only us.”

I don’t need to ask to know why he chose us.

Cassandra loves Yannick.

And I… well, Abigail has become someone important to me these past few weeks. I can’t let anything happen to her. I just can’t.

“Where?” I ask.

“Little Island.”

I know the place from when Morgan and I explored the city after I first moved here. It’s a pier along the Hudson River that leads to a small, manmade island with tree-lined paths and a sunken theater in the back.

But then the memories of the attack at Central Park hit me at once.

“It’s nighttime,” I say, even though that’s obvious. “If we leave now, the shadow souls will track me and attack.”

“And if we wait, Lucas will kill Abigail and Yannick by sunrise.” Her voice cracks with emotion when she says Yannick’s name. “We can’t leave them there to die. We have to go. Now.”

I’ve never seen her like this. She’s always been the embodiment of strength and resolve.

But she loves Yannick.

Deeply.

They tried to keep their relationship private, but looking at her now, I realize that the love she feels for him is stronger than I imagined.

Also, I haven’t forgotten Morgan’s text message.

Trust Cassandra.

This has to be what she was referring to.

“You can get us out of here?” I ask, since I’m sure Damien has security in place to make sure I don’t leave.

“I can.”

Of course she can. She’s the lead warrior of the clan. If anyone can get us out of here without drawing suspicion and staying under the radar, it’s Cassandra.

“We’ll take a cab to Little Island,” she says. “We’ve been looking into it, and we think the reason the shadow souls have issues with cars is because of their combustion engines. You’ll be safe in there.”

“And when we get to Little Island?”

Her eyes harden, her voice hard as steel. “When we get to Little Island, we’ll find Yannick and Abigail, kill Lucas, and bring the two of them back home, where they belong.”