A Dawn of Strength (A Shade of Vampire #14)(53)

“Well, yeah. Thanks.”

“I’m sorry if I disturbed you,” she said, her eyes falling to my bare torso.

“I was just about to get in the shower.”

“Okay,” she said breathlessly. She took a step away, and I was shocked as she almost tripped backward down the stairs. I whizzed forward and gripped her arm just in time to stop her.

I looked her closely in the eyes. “Are you all right, Adelle?”

“I’m fine,” she said, even as tears brimmed behind her eyelids. “I… I should get going.”

“Okay. Just take care of yourself, all right?”

She gulped, nodding. I waited until she’d safely descended the stairs before backing into the cabin again. I was about to lock the door when something slammed against it. I opened it, my mouth hanging open to see Adelle outside the doorstep again. This time, instead of timidly waiting outside, she pushed open the door and slipped in before shutting it behind her. Tears were now streaming freely down her cheeks.

“Are you alone?” she whispered.

“Yes. Why? What’s wrong?” I urged. “Talk to me.”

Her lips trembled as she said, “It’s just w-when we thought you all were dead… Oh, God, this sounds so terrible… It wasn’t Eli at the forefront of my mind.” Her voice broke. “It was you, Aiden. All the times we’d spent together flashed before my eyes. Our classroom chats, our walks by the lake, our chamomile tea breaks—” She buried her head in her hands. “It’s so wrong and I feel so awful about it.”

I stared at her, stunned speechless.

“I don’t even know why I’m telling you this. I just… had to let it out, I guess.” She roughly wiped away her tears with the back of her hand even as more flowed from her eyes. “Please don’t tell Eli I came here,” she croaked. “I don’t want to hurt him.”

Before I could gather myself to say anything, she’d vanished from the spot.

Leaning back against the closed door, I slid down to the floor, staring blankly at the opposite wall.

Adelle Ardene. She was my type if I’d ever had one. Everything about that woman—from her luscious red hair and slender long-legged figure, to her charm and intelligence—had had me yearning for her for years.

Now here she was standing before me, practically professing her love for me… too late.

Damn.

Why can life never just be simple?

Chapter 42: Derek

After Sofia and I had finished meeting with the dragons, we parted ways. She headed off to check on the humans and then begin preparations for the memorial ceremony we were to hold for those brave warriors we’d lost, while I took some time out to be alone. I headed to the beach near the Port, which had borne the brunt of the flames. Walking close to the waves through the piles of ash, I cast my gaze out toward the horizon. Dawn had now broken beyond the island’s boundary—the sun a brilliant ball of fire rising in the sky.

As I watched it, the promise I’d made Sofia replayed in my mind. She was right that survival had been our only way of living for the longest time. Ever since leading the first vampires to The Shade all those centuries ago, all I’d done was worry about securing ourselves against outside forces.

But after the victory against the black witches, and with the pending arrival of at least a hundred dragons, it couldn’t be denied that tides had turned.

Yes, there were still many uncertainties hanging over us.

What would the black witches’ next move be? Would they remain a direct threat to us, or would they move on to new shores?

How had our daughter suddenly developed her powers? And why would they come now, after all these years of lying dormant?

What was becoming of our son? His sheer strength combined with his lust for blood and lack of control reminded me all too much of the shadow of a man I’d been before I met Sofia.

What would become of the human world as we knew it, now that a supernatural’s existence had been broadcast on mainstream media for the first time in history? It was still too early to predict what the repercussions would be, but I feared that Ben’s breaking this ancient code of secrecy was the beginning of an avalanche of unforeseen consequences.

All these doubts and more crowded my mind.

But as I stood on that beach watching the sun’s ascent, a sense of calm formed within me, rising above the chaos.

Whatever we were up against now, this was a new dawn breaking over The Shade.

No longer one of weakness, or clinging to survival.

No.

This was a dawn of strength.

Chapter 43: Rhys

I hated myself for it. But I did it. I saved Mona from that burning tree.

After all she’d done to betray me and my people, I should have just left her to the flames. Yet as the fire closed in on the forest, something within me just… couldn’t let her go.

But that was the last piece of mercy she would experience from me if we ever crossed paths again. Julisse had waited toward the end of the battle to inform me of our younger sister’s demise. She hadn’t wanted the grief to distract me from our mission. But as we arrived back on our frozen island—most of us injured and all of us fatigued from the battle—she showed me Arielle’s corpse that she’d managed to salvage.

I gazed over her body as it lay on the floor of the entrance to the castle. Crouching down, I brushed my palm against Arielle’s bloodied forehead, planting kisses over her closed eyelids.