Shadow Kissed 03 - Shadowman

line, the good and bad traded places? And nice people like her were sent to torment, while Layla Mathews’s existence challenged the Gate.
    Just look at that monster guarding Layla Mathews. Anybody could see that wasn’t right.
    The world was upside down, for sure.
    Rose glanced at the five-fingered claw that was her hand. The transformation had crept over her breast and now fed the pump of her heart so that she was alert, ready at all times.
    How far could she get before sunrise? Clear the forest. Steal a car. Run. Run. Run!
    Hell was kind in comparison to Death. Hadn’t Hell given her everything she needed to survive this harsh, unkind world? She should give thanks. If not for her arm, she’d be dead.
    â€œGate?” Rose said aloud.
    The gate was quiet. For once.
    Oh, thank goodness. Not that she wasn’t grateful, but still.
    She’d better get moving. Put as much distance between her and Segue as possible. The last thing she wanted was to face that monster again.
    So she was a coward, so what?
    Ladies were supposed to be gentle.
    Nothing, not even the gate, could compel her to go back.

Chapter 14
    Layla sat on the sofa in her apartment, arms crossed, elbows braced on her knees. She breathed deep so she wouldn’t be sick all over the nice rug, but each inhalation just fed the internal fire scorching her chest. Denying the message in her head was impossible, but coping with it now that she had found her place in the world was beyond excruciating. It was burning her from the inside out.
    Talia was using the bedroom as a makeshift nursery since her apartment had been battered and soiled by dead wraiths. She stood frozen in the doorway, as if on guard, a baby bottle in her hands. Adam paced on the other side of the room in front of the windows. Custo straddled a turned-around straight-backed chair. And Shadowman glared from the seat across from Layla. At least he’d managed to put on some clothes.
    Adam stopped abruptly. “Aside from the scythe issue, what exactly did you remember?”
    Layla concentrated on the crisscross grain of the upholstery of Shadowman’s chair. She hadn’t looked at him directly since delivering her message. Hurt too much. “That the existence of the wraiths is our fault. That souls are being lost to Shadow as fae prey on them when they cross. That he has to go back and restore The Order by lifting his scythe.”
    â€œBut nothing of what we shared?” Shadowman put in.
    She shook her head no. And she didn’t want to. What she already felt for him was strong enough.
    The wraith thing was beyond ironic. Here she’d spent years of her life trying to learn the origin of the wraiths when it had been she and Shadowman all along. Had that compulsion, that obsession, come from her, or had it been part of her reincarnation directive as well? Layla bet it was the latter.
    â€œFirst of all,” Talia said angrily, “you aren’t responsible for the wraiths. Yes, when Shadowman crossed to be with my mother, a fae demon got into the world, The Death Collector. I killed him, so in that case we’ve cleaned up our own mess. But the wraiths? Do you know what each person had to do to become one? They had to drink a cup of demon vomit. They had to choose it. Becoming a wraith was a deliberate, voluntary act, not some condition spread like a disease. And we’re still fighting them. We’ve dedicated our lives and our resources to that end. So that blame is in no way yours to bear.”
    Shadowman was silent through Talia’s tirade, the weight of his gaze heavy on Layla’s near-crumbling defenses.
    Apparently the wraiths had colluded with Rose Petty, a dangerous combination that still sent shivers down Layla’s back. With Rose’s ability to manipulate minds, and wights taking to the air, the wraiths had gotten into the main building. Into Talia and Adam’s apartment. Into the nursery.
    They must want Talia’s children bad.
    â€œDoesn’t matter if they chose it or not. The wraiths, a devil, that horrible gate,” Layla listed. She forced herself to meet Shadowman’s gaze. He had to understand. “We’ve been hell on the world and it’s time it stopped.”
    â€œLayla,” Adam said, “the problem is more complex than Khan returning to Shadow.”
    â€œNo, it’s not. It’s very simple. Very clear.” It rang like a bell in her mind, a horrible clanging