Shades of Darkness (Guardians of Eternity #16) - Alexandra Ivy Page 0,74

pierced her heart, just as the sight of the devastated village crushed something deep in her soul.

When she’d been here before she’d been locked in Zella’s evil clutches. The beast hadn’t forced her to betray her pack and sacrifice everyone she loved for her own ambitions, but once she’d given into temptation, her mind had been filled with darkness. She accepted the stark destruction that surrounded her, barely able to recall how the place had looked before the attack by the goblins.

Now she allowed the memories to slowly, painfully return. At the center of the village had been a large building with a slate roof where the pack would gather to celebrate holidays and matings and the births of pups. Next to it had been a storage shed and a smaller community center that was used as a nursery for the older pups. Weres were animals at heart, and they preferred to play and nap in big piles.

Finally, there had been a wide circle of stone cottages with thatched roofs. In the summer each home had a window box filled with flowers, and each winter they would build fires and drink warm cider at the edge of the village to celebrate the solstice.

So many traditions shattered. So many loved ones lying in charred ashes…

“Mon dieu,” Levet muttered, as he rose to his feet and brushed away the clinging dust. Then, as he glanced around, his eyes widened and his tail twitched with horror. “There has been a terrible mistake.”

Brigette glanced down at him in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

He waved a stubby arm. “We managed to escape one hell dimension only to end up in this gruesome place. You indeed have the most ill luck.”

“No.” She shook her head, sadness tightening her chest until it was a struggle to breathe. “For once I have been given exactly what I desire.”

“To be here? But…” Levet shuddered. “It is a ruin.”

“For now, yes. It wasn’t always like this, you know,” she said, keeping her voice soft, not so much out of respect for the dead, but to avoid the pain at the echo that resonated through the empty landscape. “Once it was a place of beauty. Peaceful.” She sighed. “Serene.”

“You hated it,” Levet reminded her.

“I hated the gnawing sensation inside me that refused to be satisfied,” she corrected. “It made me feel like an outcast.”

“So you destroyed everything?”

“Yes.” The image of a sleepy fairy-tale village shattered as Brigette forced away the memories and instead allowed reality to return. “I destroyed everything.”

There was the sensation of Levet’s wing brushing against the back of her leg, as if the gargoyle was attempting to comfort her. Brigette froze. When was the last time anyone had touched her in anything but anger? She couldn’t remember.

“And now you have returned. Why?” Levet asked.

Brigette sucked in a ragged breath. “Redemption.”

Levet furrowed his brow, casting a doubtful glance around the crumbled stones and stunted weeds.

“Do you intend to rebuild the cottages?”

Brigette shuddered at the mere thought. Not only had the village been burned to the ground by the goblin raiders, but it’d been soaked in evil for over five centuries. The only good thing that could happen to this place would be to have it slide off the edge of the cliff and plummet into the sea.

“No.” She firmly shook her head. “New bricks and mortar can’t disguise the blood that stains these foundations.” She held up her hands. “Blood that is on my hands.”

“You can’t remain here on your own,” Levet protested, his snout wrinkled. “It is unhealthy.”

Brigette slowly turned, staring down at the tiny demon who’d become oddly familiar in the short time they’d been together. Almost as if he was…her friend.

“Why do you care?” she abruptly demanded.

He blinked. “Pardon?”

“You bound us together to try and keep me from escaping the mer-folk,” she reminded him.

“I thought you were evil.”

“I am evil.” She waved her arm toward the destruction. “Look.”

“You have done bad things,” Levet conceded.

“Unforgivable things,” she insisted.

“Perhaps.” He tilted his head back to regard her with a strange expression. “But you are no longer infected by the beast.”

Her gaze moved to the burrow where she’d first heard Zella’s whispers. If only she’d walked away. But she hadn’t.

Brigette sadly shook her head. “The taint remains. It will forever stain my soul.”

“Oui, but you can change,” the gargoyle insisted.

She grimaced. If only it was so easy. A part of her wanted to believe that she could close the door on the past. The beast was locked away