Shadow’s Fall Read online

  PRAISE FOR

  SHADOWFLAME

  “I absolutely loved this book! It was almost like I had been waiting for this story and it simply fell into my lap. I am hooked. Fans of vampire books everywhere, I have found the next big thing, and it is the Shadow World series by Dianne Sylvan. The twists and turns that Sylvan placed in this book kept me flying through the pages … Queen Miranda is one of the strongest female characters I have come across, and hands down this series is going to be sensational! I cannot rave enough over this one. The magic, mystery, intrigue, and each and every one of the characters have been well developed. Shadowflame gave me all the high-impact action, romance, and gore that I want in a book.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “Dianne Sylvan’s writing is captivating. She creates a world that will suck you in from the get-go. Her writing style is fluid and unrelenting. Shadowflame follows the same near-flawless writing style that book one did … I enjoyed the suspense and Dianne Sylvan’s creative way of keeping readers on their toes.”

  —Nocturne Romance Reads

  “Miranda was the sort of heroine I enjoy reading about; she didn’t just suddenly fall for David, she made him work at gaining her trust … The overall book was refreshing.”

  —Night Owl Reviews

  “If you thought Queen of Shadows was fantastic, you are going to be blown away by Shadowflame … Dianne really knows how to rip your heart out and get you feeling everything the characters are feeling as you read. Go out and buy it now; if you have not read Queen of Shadows yet, go out and buy that one, too, because you won’t want to miss them.”

  —Urban Fantasy Investigations

  “Shadowflame is everything I love about urban fantasy—a kick-ass heroine and plenty of action, compelling characters, and interesting world building. Shadowflame has it all—and I can’t wait for more.”

  —Michelle’s Book Blog

  “Shadowflame succeeds the previous Queen of Shadows in so many ways, and you are left wondering if it is even possible to turn the pages fast enough. Dianne Sylvan has truly created a vampire world that I would want to be a part of for years to come … Shadowflame was a phenomenal book from beginning to end. When you reach that last page, you will wish that you hadn’t, because the wait for the third book in this amazing vampire series will be that much more painful.”

  —Mystifying Paranormal Reviews

  “Dianne Sylvan is the queen of emotional storytelling. She takes the story exactly where she thinks it needs to go, even if it’s not pretty … I loved it. Even the gritty, hard parts. Sylvan goes where other authors don’t dare. And I praise her for it.”

  —The Spinecracker

  PRAISE FOR

  QUEEN OF SHADOWS

  “Sylvan’s powerful debut is packed with startling action, sensual romance, and delightfully nerdy vampires … [Her] compelling take on vampirism, her endearing characters, and a complex, unabashedly feminist plot will have readers hungry for a sequel.”

  —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “Queen of Shadows pulled me in … Dianne Sylvan’s rich, dark, sexy reimagined Austin is filled with people I want to visit again and again … Sylvan’s got voice, doesn’t miss a beat, and rocks it all the way to the last note. Sit down. Shut up. And enjoy the show. It’s intense, dark, sexy, with just the right touch of humor. Looking for a new addiction? Go no further.”

  —Devon Monk, author of Magic Without Mercy

  “Grabbed me on the first page and didn’t let go. Miranda, the heroine, is vulnerable and gutsy, with magical abilities even she doesn’t suspect. Vampire David Solomon is as powerful and heroic as he is deliciously seductive. Dianne Sylvan has created an original take on vampires that I thoroughly enjoyed, and I’ll be looking for her next book with great anticipation. She’s a skilled and talented storyteller who definitively knows how to deliver one hell of a book!”

  —Angela Knight, New York Times bestselling author of Master of Shadows

  “Dianne Sylvan is an incredibly talented writer. She draws the reader not only into the story but into the very marrow of someone who is starting to question their grip on reality … Queen of Shadows concludes with a great flourish, leaving the reader euphoric.”

  —Sacramento Book Review

  “My favorite book of 2010 so far … Moving, well written, suspenseful, and sensual, this is a novel you won’t want to miss.”

  —Fantasy Literature

  “Miranda’s character is a treat as she moves from victim to self-possessed, capable heroine … The supporting characters are equally well developed, providing a sense of weight and history to this thoroughly entertaining take on paranormal romance.”

  —Monsters and Critics

  “Plucked at my heartstrings in a smooth rhythm of fear, mistrust, and love … Watching the romance between Miranda and David develop was a treat. Watching Miranda become a true warrior woman was the icing on the cake.”

  —Bitten by Books

  “Queen of Shadows will make the reader feel. Feel the emotions of the characters and their own emotions … a perfect 10. Highly recommended.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  Ace Books by Dianne Sylvan

  QUEEN OF SHADOWS

  SHADOWFLAME

  SHADOW’S FALL

  SHADOW’S FALL

  DIANNE SYLVAN

  ACE BOOKS, NEW YORK

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are 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. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  SHADOW’S FALL

  An Ace Book / published by arrangement with the author

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Ace mass-market edition / April 2012

  Copyright © 2012 by Dianne Sylvan.

  Cover art by Gene Mollica.

  Cover design by Annette Fiore DeFex.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  ISBN: 978-1-101-56120-1

  ACE

  Ace Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.


  ACE and the “A” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  ALWAYS LEARNING

  PEARSON

  To Amber: This is all your fault.

  Table of Contents

  Part One: Phoenix in Flight

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Part Two: Ashes to Ashes

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-one

  PART ONE

  Phoenix in Flight

  One

  “You are sure that this Prime is the one we have been searching for?”

  From where she knelt below the dais, Lydia looked up at the woman sitting before her, into the cool pale eyes that held over a thousand years’ worth of memory. “Yes.”

  “We have been here before, child, and you failed us … twice.”

  “I know, Mother. I have paid the penance you set out for me.”

  “You understand the consequences should you fail again. We are out of time, Lydia. If he isn’t the one, if anything goes wrong, there won’t be another chance. Everything we have worked for has led us to this.”

  “I understand. I give you my word as I have given you my blood—we won’t fail.”

  The old one lowered her eyes, her hand moving unconsciously to touch the amulet at her throat; the same fire that had forged it had forged the Signets themselves, but hers was one of a kind, passed down through generations to a chosen successor, not by chance. She had led the Order for as long as Lydia could remember … and that was a long time. Once, she had intended to step down, leaving her power and her position to someone she had nurtured and loved as her own, only to be denied, betrayed. No one in the Order ever spoke of it, but Lydia knew the whole story, just as she knew the fate that awaited them all if she didn’t complete her mission.

  Did it seem, just for a moment, that the old one’s eyes were bright with tears? Or was it a trick of the light? “I had hoped it would not come to this,” she said, almost to herself. She seemed, too, almost transparent, as if her existence in the world were the last dried-out leaf clinging to a bare branch. “As I saw one piece of the puzzle after another falling into place, I prayed that I was wrong … yet here we are.”

  When she leveled her gaze back upon Lydia, however, it had hardened. “Go, then,” she said. “Make sure he understands his role in all of this. Everything must come to pass exactly as it has been written—only then can we know for certain that our people will survive the coming fire.”

  Lydia rose slowly. “I am as always in your service, Mother.”

  With a sigh that sounded almost hollow, the old one held out her hands, and Lydia stepped forward to take the carved wooden box offered to her. One of the Priestess’s hands lifted to touch Lydia’s head in benediction, and Lydia closed her eyes.

  “May the Dark Mother guide you, for you carry the future of the Shadow World.”

  Lydia smiled a little. “I will be home soon.”

  Their eyes met once more, and yes, this time Lydia was sure she saw tears. “Good-bye.”

  Night in California

  Early summer breezes lifted the hem of the curtains and exposed, gently but immodestly, the bare sills of the open windows beneath. The waning night was cool and quiet, the faintest distant scent of the ocean discernible on the wind; the call of an owl was the only sound from outside and the rhythmic tapping of keys the only sound inside until a voice asked, “Coming to bed?”

  Prime Deven O’Donnell looked up from the screen of his laptop. “Soon.”

  Jonathan leaned against the door frame, arms crossed. “What are you doing?”

  “Ordering someone’s death.”

  “I had to ask, didn’t I?”

  Deven smiled. “I told you years ago that you wouldn’t want to know.”

  Jonathan shrugged. “I wanted to know everything about you. Back then I thought such a thing might be possible.”

  The Prime glanced down at the monitor, then back up to his Consort, who was disheveled and sleepy and absolutely the most gorgeous thing Deven could imagine in that moment. The only thing that would have made Jonathan look more enticing would be if he were holding a bottle of Scotch. “You know me better than anyone on this earth, my love … well enough to know that I’ll always have my secrets.”

  Now Jonathan smiled. “And well enough that you should know you don’t have as many secrets as you think.”

  They held each other’s eyes. “Touché,” Deven replied, extending his hand.

  Jonathan walked over and took it, drawing the Prime up out of his chair and into the Consort’s arms. Deven burrowed his face into Jonathan’s shirt, inhaling the long-familiar scent of immortality, cologne, and Cuban cigars. That smell had always had the power to lift some of the weight from the Prime’s shoulders, to let him feel at rest in a way he never had before Jonathan had come into his life.

  “So who was it this time?” Jonathan asked, his voice rumbling against Deven’s ear. “Dictator, business competitor, candlestick maker?”

  “You don’t want to know,” he repeated, tipping his head back to meet Jonathan’s eyes. “But it’s worth four million dollars.”

  Jonathan’s eyebrows quirked, and he whistled, impressed. “You’re right. I don’t want to know.”

  “Come on,” Deven said. “Bed.”

  “It’s only four thirty.”

  Deven gave him a dubious look. “Didn’t you just say you were going?”

  He grinned impishly. “Only if you were.”

  “Ah, I see.” Deven laced his fingers through Jonathan’s. “Lead on, then.”

  Jonathan looked surprised but, as usual, didn’t object.

  Deven couldn’t say whether it was a genuine desire for more of his Consort’s company, guilt over what had happened in Austin, or perhaps a bit of both, but he had made a concerted effort to let Jonathan know how wonderful he was in as many ways as possible in the three years since then. He hated the thought that Jonathan had lived with the foreknowledge of what would happen between Deven and David for months, uncomplaining, unwilling to upset the balance of future events. The precognitive “gift” was burden enough already; Deven wasn’t going to add to his sorrows by acting like a spoiled brat—if he could help it, anyway.

  There had come a point, the first year, that Jonathan had sat him down and said, “Don’t get me wrong, darling, I love that you’re jumping me all over the house, but if you’re only doing it because you feel bad about shagging your boy, well, I’d just as soon you stopped.”

  Deven could defeat twelve vampires at once in hand-to-hand combat, but he knew quite well he was a disaster at relationships. He had ample evidence scattered throughout the centuries and over the face of the globe. And even though being Signet-bound guaranteed they would always love each other, that didn’t mean things weren’t downright horrid from time to time, usually because of his egregious misbehavior. They were still two people, after all, and while their souls might be a unit, their personalities definitely weren’t.

  About the only thing he could come up with to offer Jonathan was to have someone assassinated. Jonathan had passed.

  Since then things had settled down. Deven still had to work at being openly affectionate, and they still fought bitterly on occasion, but overall their relationship had gotten much stronger,�
�and Deven wondered from time to time if that wasn’t part of why Jonathan hadn’t spoken up about Austin before it happened.

  It was hard to say; people with precog tended to have a strange outlook on fate. Every Consort Deven had ever met had struggled with it, and the wisest, like Jonathan, had learned to keep their mouths shut and let things unfold as they were meant to, because to disturb the order of things often brought far more dire consequences.

  Of course, try explaining that to Miranda, for example, who was determined to forge her own destiny no matter what. It would take her a few decades to realize that seeing the future and having power over it were two entirely different things … assuming, of course, she didn’t get herself killed first.

  “What’s wrong?” Jonathan asked as they entered the bedroom. “All of a sudden you’re a hundred miles away.”

  Deven let the Consort lead him to bed and begin relieving him of his pesky attire, including the three concealed knives he wore, which by now Jonathan was well versed in ferreting out. “The Council meeting,” he admitted reluctantly. He might as well be honest; Jonathan might not know everything there was to know about his mate, but he did know Deven’s moods and expressions far better than Deven would have liked. “I have a bad feeling about it.”

  Jonathan smiled, gently shoving him onto the bed. “That’s usually my line, darling. What exactly are you dreading about it?”