Shadow City by Francis Diana Pharaoh

Author:Francis, Diana Pharaoh [Francis, Diana Pharaoh]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Published: 2011-12-26T16:00:00+00:00

VALERY WAS WAITING FOR ALEXANDER WHEN HE, Thor, and Tyler returned to Horngate just a few minutes before dawn. His skin was turning scarlet with the burn of the predawn. That was new.

He stretched and shook himself. The sixty-mile run had been arduous but had burned up some of the raging emotion inside him. Faith, he told himself. Faith. Max had to be alive. Anything else was too awful to even contemplate.

“You’re a son of a bitch,” Valery told him, her hands on her hips. The air around her trembled like desert heat off the pavement.

“So I have heard.” He reached out to hug her, and she shoved him away. He grinned and grappled her close.

After a moment, she hugged him back hard. “I thought I was going to lose you,” she said against his shoulder.

He closed his eyes. Max meant so much to him, but she was not everything. She could not be. He had Valery and Horngate. He could not let himself be swallowed up. “It will not happen again.”

“Better not.” She pushed away, and this time he let her go. “You need to eat. All of you.” She looked at Thor and Tyler.

Their expressions were still pissed. He had some fences to mend. “We will meet you in the dining commons,” he told Valery, and gave a slight jerk of his chin.

She hesitated, then nodded. When she was gone, Alexander turned to the two Blades. “You have something you want to say?”

Tyler exploded like a bursting dam. But if Valery had been hot, he was as cold as an Arctic winter. “You self-centered prick. Max left you in charge, and first you throw a temper tantrum and refuse to step up, and then you get a little bad news—” He broke off, his face contorting. He took a breath, his expression going flat as a snake. “And you run off like a pimple-faced teenager who gets pissed at his parents for grounding him. On top of that, you nearly get Niko killed.”

Tyler flicked a bitter look at Beyul, who had dropped to his haunches beside Alexander and was watching the exchange, his pink tongue lolling from his mouth as he panted.

“It’s time for you to suck it up. Do you want to belong to Horngate or not? Because if you do, you’d better stop acting like a pissy little baby and get with the program.”

Alexander nodded and looked at Thor. “Anything you want to add?”

His friend grimaced. “Tyler about covered it, boss,” he drawled. “ ’Cept to say that I expected more of you. You’re old enough to know better.”

Alexander winced. That hurt. Thor was his oldest friend in the world besides Valery, and he did not like disappointing either of them. “You are both right,” he said, rubbing his hands over his face and then straightening. “I have learned my lesson. I will not fail you again.” Or Max.

He stretched out a hand to Tyler. The other Blade looked at it and then gripped it solidly. “I’ll hold you to it.

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