Shadow Kissed 03 - Shadowman

just have to hold out, endure, until Shadowman came. Kathleen had been an expert at enduring; surely the nugget of that skill was somewhere in Layla, as well.
    â€œYou’re supposed to be dead, too,” Scissor Lady murmured in Layla’s ear, as she looked on Abigail’s death.
    â€œNot today,” Layla said through clenched teeth, jerking hard to free herself. Scissor Lady’s clamp on her hand was unperturbed.
    The naked woman, still astride Abigail, arched her back and laughed at the sky.
    Zoe’s grasp found the scythe. She stood, chest heaving, the weapon in her hands. “Get off my sister.”
    A wind riffled through the trees. The naked fae looked over cheerfully. Ready to play.
    A tremor started in the ground. Layla braced in Scissor Lady’s grasp, but Zoe didn’t seem to notice. Rage burned in her eyes. “I said, Get. Off. My. Sister! ”
    The darkness of the forest convulsed. The scythe gleamed. The tremor rose to a rolling earthquake, and even Scissor Lady drew back, though she dragged Layla with her. Shadow grew dense around Zoe as she bore down on the naked fae woman.
    With each step, blackness filled Zoe’s gaze. Her expression was fixed in anger, tilting the structure of her features much like a fae’s. The force of her feeling leached into her skin, making it shine with an eerie glow.
    Twilight was a place of emotion, dark and bright, both extremes on fire within Zoe. Here was the power of mortality. Layla knew she was witnessing a transformation.
    Zoe sliced through the air with the huge weapon, and in the rainbow arc of its sweep, the scythe, too, changed to match its new wielder. When Zoe struck down the naked woman, cut the laugh from her face, the scythe was a part of her, mastered by rage and love. The fae gasped into a cloud of Shadow.
    Zoe swung around to face the male fae, and in terror and confusion, Layla knew Zoe was the new face of Death. The first soul she’d shepherd would be her sister’s.
    What about . . . ? “Shadowman!” Layla screamed.
    â€œThis way,” Scissor Lady said, dragging Layla into the trees. The last thing she saw was Zoe facing the male fae, Shadow crackling at her back.
    â€œZoe!”
    But Scissor Lady put a hand over her mouth. “She’ll never find you. Would you want her to? She killed your man Death when she possessed his scythe.”
    Killed? Shadowman? “That’s not possible.”
    â€œHis power was in his duty. He’s left it for too long, and now another has taken it over.” Scissor Lady tightened her grip. “He’s gone.”
    â€œHe’s immortal.” He’d told her so.
    â€œNot anymore.” Scissor Lady’s mouth curled into a sneer. “Fool.”
    Layla was hauled through the trees. She caught a glimpse of dark branches, a violet sky, a blazing streak of a star. Her heart clamored as her eyes filled with tears.
    Shadowman?
    She’d had her chance to save him. A second life to bring him back to Twilight. To steal a moment to love. She’d failed Heaven.
    Much, much worse, she’d failed him.

Chapter 16
    Decision made, Shadowman settled into a defensive wait. The angels prepared to strike, but they could not harm him. The gate would stand, no matter the cost.
    kat-a-kat-a-kat-a-kat: So we’ll be friends, you and I.
    Hardly.
    Custo groaned, trouble pouring out of him. The angels’ minds were open to each other. The boy had to know their strategy.
    â€œYou need not betray them,” Shadowman said. “I know how they will approach. I have presided over many battles over the ages.”
    â€œAnd you call me a mind reader,” Custo said, the unease abating a fraction.
    â€œI’d imagine emotion is often more telling.”
    The angels would attempt a divide and conquer: a contingent to busy Custo, a larger one to busy him, and a third to attack the gate. It would not work.
    A long moment of silence, and then, as if on silent cue, the host attacked.
    Shadowman thrust a wall of pitch between him and the gate, and the fast-approaching angels were flung back, bodies skipping on the hard floor of the cave.
    Ballard lunged, wielding a blade, Heavenly in origin, so it seared as it sliced, but Death reformed just as quickly, unscathed. Ballard would have to do much better than that. Shadowman hit him, heard the snap of his spine, felt the shock of pain, as the angel flew back. At least the spine would take