Shadow Bound (Unbound) (45 page)

Kori shrugged. “At least my way’s quicker and less painful. I’m sorry.” She aimed, and her gun
thwupped
once. A neat hole appeared in Barker’s head, and he fell over backward in the middle of the foyer.

Kris and Olivia both stepped away from him as Kori took aim at Julia. And this time, I let her. Because I could.

“I’m unarmed,” Julia said, her tone reasonable, her fear almost hidden by steady hands and a firm jaw.

“You’ll never be unarmed as long as there’s a tongue in your mouth and a brain in your head,” Kori spat. “It was your idea to turn the lights off wasn’t it? In the basement. It was your idea to let me rot in the dark.”

“Jake wanted to kill you,” she said, arms held out, displaying her defenselessness. “I saved your life.”

“Because you wanted me to suffer.”

Julia couldn’t argue with that.

“Don’t worry,” Kori said as the first police sirens wailed in the distance. “I want you to suffer, too. Everyone’s gonna know you betrayed the king of the castle. And Kenley’s going to take away your loyal subjects, one at a time.”

Across the foyer, a door opened, and armed men came running toward us. Kris and Olivia ducked into Jake’s office, but Kori didn’t seem to notice. She moved closer to Julia with every word, threatening the new queen with her very presence. “And when you fall from the throne, and the castle comes crumbling down on you, I want you to remember who pulled down the first stone.”

Kori holstered her gun as I began to gather shadows from the corners of Jake’s office. Julia backed slowly away. Kori smiled. Then she kicked Julia square in the chest.

Julia flew backward into the foyer with an
oof
of stolen breath. She landed hard on her ass, her mouth open, her legs sprawled in front of her.

Kori slammed the office door shut as the first bullets whizzed toward us, over Julia’s head. Glass shattered, and we all ducked. Kori grabbed my hand while Kris took Olivia’s. I pulled the shadows up and around us, and Kori exhaled, her hand warm in mine. I could feel her smile, even if I couldn’t see it.

Then she pulled me forward, and we stepped out of Tower’s hell and into the rest of our lives. Which looked suspiciously like Meghan’s bathroom.

Kris and Liv tripped over one another in their haste to check on the others, but I pulled Kori back before she could go. Then I kicked the door closed and pulled her closer, wrapping the shadows around us again. “You’re free,” I whispered, running my hands over her back, while hers slid beneath my shirt. “So what do you want to do now?”

She kissed me, then her lips trailed over my chin toward my ear. “Now?” she whispered, and chills shot up my spine. “Nothing. Everything. Isn’t that the whole point? From now on, we can do whatever the hell we want.”

* * * * *

Acknowledgments

Thanks, as always, to my critique partner, Rinda Elliott, the first to read everything I write. Thanks most of all for your willingness to tell me when I suck. The truth is greatly appreciated.

Thanks to #1, my husband, for endless patience. This book an
d the subsequent revisions took up a crazy three and a half months of our lives and I may not have been the most pleasant person during that time. A huge thank-you to the MIRA Art department for the
SHADOW BOUND
cover art. The models are perfect. The colors are beautiful. The tone is dead-on. I love it.

And, of course, thanks to all the readers willing to give this dark and twisted world a chance. I promise, there is a light at the end of the tunnel… .

By blood, by word, by magic…

If you loved
Shadow Bound
, don’t miss the first title in Rachel Vincent’s Unbound series. Available in ebook wherever ebooks are sold!

Blood Bound

Fans of Rachel’s books can also enjoy the entire Shifters series in ebook format, beginning with the unforgettable
Stray
.

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ISBN: 9781459229976

Copyright © 2012 by Rachel Vincent

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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