Claimed In The Shadows Novels & Stories

I roared even louder. “Me? No, I am claiming what is rightfully mine. I didn't go to your hybrid; she came to us!” He resonated. “LIAR!” I shouted, exploding into growls. “Your servant has been hunting her for a long time, took our cub, and almost killed her; the shadows have been acting on her life.” “You know how subordinates are, beast, they can be stubborn and act on their own!” The shadow's ironic tone did not go unnoticed.

All of it would fall like cards in a storm. Killan suddenly asked, “You think Varric’s lying?” “I think he’s desperate,” I answered. “But desperate men sometimes tell ugly truths.” He didn’t press further. He knew better. As we rounded the corner, the weight of responsibility settled deeper into my bones. One thing was clear—if the Shadows were back, this wasn’t going to be a war fought in the open. It would be a slow, insidious game of death played in silence. And I had no intention of letting them win. Not this time.

**Into the Shadows** The cold air whipped through the open window as Claire drove toward the docks, her heart racing. She could feel the weight of the laptop beside her, the damning evidence it held burning like a ticking bomb ready to explode. The developers had set a trap with the fake documents, but now she had the real ones. The stakes had never been higher, and every passing minute brought her closer to either exposing the truth or falling into another deadly ambush.

“But if you’re lying to us, if this is some kind of trap…” Blackwell shook his head. “It’s not,” he said earnestly. “I swear it.” Sophie and Alex sat down with Blackwell, listening as he laid out everything he knew. It was a treasure trove of information hidden accounts, offshore transactions, and the names of key players who were still operating in the shadows. As he spoke, Sophie felt a mixture of anger and pity. Anger at the sheer scale of the corruption, and pity for the man in front of her, who had once been at the top of the world and was now reduced to begging for a chance at redemption.

It happened just as it did in my vision. “Are you really thinking you can get that amount for this?” one of the shadows asked. “It looks like it is about to drop dead at any minute.” He was leaning into the room like he wanted to see better, but didn’t want to taint himself with the horror of the room.

“If we’re using your logic Ashton, how would the killer have stayed out of sight then? People were already in the café. It would have been impossible to stay hidden” A sharp exhale suddenly left Ashton as his hand shot out to pause the footage. “Maybe they didn’t need to stay hidden.” He swore. “Fuck, why hadn’t I realized this?” Maya came closer to study the screen. “There.” Ashton pointed to a spot on the tiled floor of the café that was darker than the rest. “A shadow.” Maya breathed. “Fucking hell. The killer is a Shadow.” I stated with unequalled shock. Shadows had no shadows in their human form but when they wanted to stay hidden, it was all they were– Shadows.

“I know.” “You can tell me to stop.” Jamie looked at him. Really looked. The scar. The control. The restraint that felt like it was holding something dangerous in check. “I don’t want you to stop,” Jamie said, then winced. “I mean….” Adrian didn’t smile. He didn’t gloat. He just nodded, like that answer fit into something he’d already decided. “Good,” he said. Behind them, unseen but aware, La Corona Nera watched. And after midnight, Bar Della Luna closed its doors, keeping its secrets, for now.

One more lie had been erased. He walked to the back of Marcus’s SUV and used a finger to write in the layer of canyon dust on the rear window: SILENCE. He then took the laminated card—the same design as the one left for Julian—and placed it in Marcus’s lifeless hand. The silk has been cut. The Shadow’s Return Silas climbed back up the ridge, disappearing into the scrub brush as the first hints of a cold, grey dawn began to bleed over the horizon. He moved with the same deliberate, unhurried pace.

That was when something wholly unexpected happened. She was reaching for the were's chains again when she saw the darkness around her hands begin to grow . . . deeper. Yes, "deeper" was the only thing that made sense. Shamira could see in any darkness, except that blackness which now encircled her hands resisted even her vision. Total darkness, cold and hard. It crept along her hands, then began to extend from her fingers like . . . claws. Shane's words echoed in her mind. First was the Shadow Healing, then the Shadow Jumping and Shadow Sight. The fourth Shadow Aspect was called the Shadow Claws. Four Aspects, mean the fifth --

My family has been long members of the council, and as if it was some kind of inheritance, the responsibilities were passed on to us. The Council of the Moon Shadows were meant to protect, not hurt anyone. “How much do you know about the council, Ethan?” Alaric asked as his eyes, like Izobel’s color, which is golden yellow flickered from Zena to me. I shook my head and smirked. “Come to think of it, Nolan and I never really take all those stories seriously. We don’t know much.” I groaned and turned my gaze to Alaric. “I know you don’t trust me that’s why you wanted to erase my memories. But I also want to know what I’m dealing with. I feel blind walking in the dark.”