Free Shadow Rising by Cassi Carver Page A

normal—girls and then get caught up in all this crap. I’m trying to take it in stride. I swear I’m trying. But just when I think things are going to get better, they go from bad to worse.” She closed her eyes and buried her face in her hands, but Kara saw silent tears leaking out around the edges of her fingers.
    Jaxon picked Abbey up and carried her to the couch. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise. I will keep you safe.”
    Abbey’s cream-colored shirt was starting to show the seepage in the front where her wounds oozed. Images of Gable’s brutality flooded Kara’s mind. Abbey had endured too much.
    Kara sat on the coffee table across from the pair and rested her hands on her knees, waiting until Abbey was willing to make eye contact again. “Maybe Grammy D is right. Maybe you should go stay in the mountains until I get this figured out.”
    Abbey frowned and shook her head. “I’m not a coward. A woman’s allowed to cry, you know, without it meaning she’s weak.” It was a precious statement coming from between the biceps of a burly warrior.
    “You can take Jaxon and go where you’ll both be safe.”
    Abbey sat up. “No way. We’re not leaving. You need us. Manza and steel-toed boots aren’t enough anymore.”
    Kara didn’t have the heart to tell her that the three of them wouldn’t be enough to defeat a black-wing. “With these wards you put up, nothing can get to me here. It would be so much better if you and Jaxon went to the cabin.” She smiled. “You haven’t been to Witch Mountain in, like, forever.” They’d gotten a kick out of calling it that when they were little, and the name had stuck.
    “No,” Abbey answered.
    Kara allowed her expression to harden. “Let’s put it all out on the table here. If you go, no one can use you to get to me.” When Abbey opened her mouth to argue, Kara stopped her with a hand. “Don’t tell me that’s not gonna happen. It did before, and you’re still living with the aftereffects. Your leaving is for the best—for both of us.” And you won’t be around when I stand trial at the council.
    Abbey leaned forward, looking like a red-headed doll poised on Jaxon’s lap. “I’m not even considering that tonight. We can talk about it tomorrow. Now tell me why you thought you saw Julian.”
    The change of subject didn’t provide Kara any relief. She told Abbey every detail, as Jaxon listened carefully. The warrior was stoic, his burning eyes the only thing betraying his outrage over Kara’s run-in in the alley.
    Once Kara had showered and was alone in bed, the shaking started. It coincided with a few tears, but at least it wasn’t sickness this time, just a simple case of heartache and hopelessness. She tried to sleep, but images flashed through her mind—the couple laughing before their bodies merged with the sidewalk, an ominous letter sealed with red wax, a wingless warrior falling from the sky, Julian’s dimpled smile, his lips coming slowly toward hers.
    She reached for Pibby’s picture beside the bed. She’d invested in a nice frame, but the small photo was blurry. Abbey had taken it with the camera on her phone one day just for fun, and she’d printed it for Kara when the cat had gone missing. Kara had never been one to remember to take pictures, and she regretted it now. The only thing she had to show for her time with Julian and Gavin was a shattered heart.
    She set the picture on the nightstand and rolled over. It was time to move on, but she could still feel the black-wing’s mouth on hers and the slash of his fangs over her skin, and she knew she had another sleepless night on the horizon.
    Kara had told a half-truth to Abbey when she’d said she was good at being alone. She had been—until she’d finally experienced intimacy with her own kind. On that first night with Gavin, it was as though a puzzle piece had clicked into place within her. And then came Julian. Their chemistry was so perfectly attuned, they’d