Light Shadows Read Online Free PDF Page A

power, and believe me, some will try. Whether or not they succeed is up to you. So cut the pity party and reverse the fucking spell.”
    “What?” I scoff. What the hell has gotten into him? Why is he talking to me like this?
    “You heard me. Reverse it. Now, Gabs. Fix what you’ve done before it gets worse. Before you kill them.”
    “But-but I can’t! I can’t do it! I don’t even know how!” Cold tears prick my eyes, but none fall. Fire licks my knuckles as I close my hands into tight fists.
    “Now, Gabs! Do it! Show me who you are! You wanted this; you chose this power. Now use it, goddammit!”
    “No! I don’t know how!” I shriek, my voice rattling the chandelier hanging overhead. A few crystal teardrops fall around us, pelting the floor like frozen rain.
    “Yes, you do!” Niko’s eyes grow paler, icier. He bares his teeth with a growl and steps in closer, yet he doesn’t touch me. Still, I can feel his power fan over me. I can feel the darkness seeping from his pores, infecting me. I feel his irrational rage intoxicating me until it is my own. Until I am drunk with fury and bloodlust.
    Winds howl and whip around us, and everything that isn’t nailed down crashes to the floor. I don’t care. I want to break it all. I want to destroy everything in this room to fucking rubble. I want to burn this hotel to the ground and dance on the ashes. I want to bay at the moon like the animal that I am.
    “Come forth!” Niko shouts in a heavy, ancient tongue. It’s neither English nor the language of the Dark, yet I understand it. I feel the words beckoning something inside me, overriding my human instincts and speaking straight to my darkness. Calling to the beast thrashing deep within me.
    Niko continues to chant, possessing more and more of my soul with every accented word. I can feel myself slipping away, but I can’t control it. I want to do as he says. I want to submit to this darkness.
    In his next uttered command, I am standing directly in front of Dorian and Alex. Another flash of light, and my hands are outstretched, reaching out to them. Then I’m chanting too, words I’ve never heard nor spoken. Words I don’t even understand.
    “Wake.”
    I can’t tell if it’s me that speaks the word or Niko, but as soon as it’s uttered, every droplet of crystal fixed onto the chandelier above us shatters. My hand goes up reflexively, halting their descent in mid-air before even one can touch us.
    “Gabriella?”
    The moment I hear his voice, my concentration falters and the broken glass above us explodes into glittering grains of sand. With iridescent dust raining down on us, my Dark Prince and my father return to me, stirring from their petrified state.
    “Gabriella?” Dorian repeats, his hands running over me, checking for injury.
    “I’m fine.” I look to Alexander, who frowns with confusion, then back to Dorian. “I’m sorry. Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened.”
    “What exactly did happen, Gabriella?” Alex asks, his voice laced with a hint of accusation.
    I open my mouth to answer, but Niko steps up, resting a hand on my shoulder. “Just a little hiccup. Our Gabs is a natural with immobilization spells.” He looks down at me with a smile on his lips, and he winks slyly. “But she was able to reverse it without much provocation.”
    Bull. Shit.
    I narrow my eyes, yet I don’t say a word. Without much provocation , my ass. Niko knows good and damn well I had no idea what the hell I was doing. Why is he lying?
    Before I can think to call him on his story, he steps around the couch and stands beside Alexander. “Geez, baby girl. It would be nice if you didn’t try to break my birthday present to you as soon as you get it.”
    “Your birthday present?” Dorian is on his feet and in his brother’s face, nearly touching his nose with his own flared nostrils. “Explain. Now.”
    “Easy, D,” Niko says pushing against Dorian’s chest, yet he remains as unmovable as