BREAKING SHADOWS (Shadows Book 1)

Chapter 9

Far out in the distance, rolling grey skies greeted a dark sea. An eastern wind battered our faces, the screams of gulls in our ears.

I'd removed my shoes and socks to walk along the water line, freezing water lapping my toes. I sunk into the soft sand with each step, the cuffs of my jeans sea-soaked. Rafe trailed me, keeping a consistent few steps behind with hands thrust deep into his pockets. I looked out on the silver-lit sea, a glimmer of escape drawn on the horizon line. She'd follow though, as sure as the tide laps the shore under the pull of the moon.So I diminished my hope of escape and would return to my grandmother obediently.

"What is this place to you?"

I turned inwards toward the promenade. "See the black railings there?"

"Yes."

"One of my only remaining memories of my parents is me standing on those railings, my mother behind making sure I didn't fall. I remember the taste of salt thick on my tongue. She was whispering in my ear. 'Shout Daddy, Riley.' And I did, to my father who was about here, but further out to sea, trousers rolled up to his knees. He turned and waved every time I shouted and I must have done it a hundred times."

"What happened to them?"

I carried on walking. "Car crash. Must have been terrible for them not to have time to use their powers."

"So that's why you were freaked out by the lack of safety equipment at the festival."

I cocked an eyebrow. "You remember that?"

He nodded once. "And you've lived with your grandmother ever since?"

"Yeah. I think their deaths affected her more than me, especially now. I've been longer without them than with them. But my grandmother - she never talks about them and sometimes I just need to. Each little piece of information fits like a jigsaw piece in my mind, helping me build a picture of the parents I barely knew. And I can get so jealous. Jealous of anyone who knew them because they will always know them better than me."

"But no-one else will be a part of them. That is something unique to only you in this vast world of ours. To be told one of your parents was a great reader pales in comparison to feeling the truth of it through your own love of reading."

Stopping in my tracks, I faced him. "You're a good listener."

Casually, he shrugged. Then ran his fingers through his hair. "I'm an angel."

I choked on a laugh. "You're not that kind of an angel."

He laughed too, and I found myself wanting to see him laugh more, thinking what I could do to make it so.

"I am a good listener," he confirmed. "And I will listen if you want to tell me about this." Rafe touched his own jaw, the corresponding spot to the bruise that darkened my skin.

"I received a note, apparently from my dead teacher, asking to see me in the school library. Arden and I went and were attacked. One of them hit me. Arden knew someone was coming for us, his mother had warned him before her and their entire coven were massacred."

"The Silver Lake coven?"

I nodded, angels didn't miss a thing.

"And you've no idea who they are?"

"No. The coven are investigating."

"I'll see what the angels know," he caught my gaze. "I'm not going to go to any special lengths, but if I overhear anything, I'll pass it on."

"Thank you," I took a deep breath.

"Just one more thing. If someone you know is dead asks you to meet them. Don't go."