Read Online Shadow Touched by Erin Kellison - Free Book Online

said, his calm unperturbed. “How long have you lived with this condition?”
    All my life. “Since I was born. We came out that way.”
    “Very difficult,” he amended. “You’ve been strong to endure it and brave to ask for help.”
    Not so strong. Not so brave. Just ask Cam.
    “With your permission, I’d like to call her.” His gaze intensified slightly.
    “What?” Her shadow would be close, watching her, but she’d stay in hiding, ignoring Ellie’s calls, until he tried something. In case he tried to hurt her. Ellie couldn’t imagine what would happen then.
    “I can command her presence,” Laurence said, “but I won’t without your consent.”
    Impossible.
    He tilted his head. “May I call her?”
    Ellie gave a bitter laugh. “You can try. She won’t come for me.”
    He grew very serious, lifting a hand before him. “Ellie,” he said softly, then harder, “join us.”
    A bump of shadow appeared at the wall, halted for a second, then thrashing and bucking, straining for freedom, her shadow was pulled through the barrier. She fought as if invisible bands restrained her core, limbs clawing the air in an attempt to flee. “Let me go!” she shrieked. “Stop! Let me go! Help!”
    Flesh and blood Ellie slid to the floor, her legs suddenly unable to hold her weight. Before she touched down, the bedroom door burst open, and Cam appeared, face red, hands fisted.
    Laurence sent him an exasperated look. “Really?”
    “Let her go,” Ellie begged on her shadow’s behalf. “Please. She doesn’t like it . . .”
    Cam was at Ellie’s side, lifting her back to her feet, a strong arm around her waist. He addressed Laurence. “She said, stop.”
    “Ellie can speak for herself, thank you,” Laurence returned.
    Cam’s support at her side helped to quiet the screams of protest in her bones. Her shadow did not like force, had resisted all attempts at control. Who was this man who could so effortlessly bind the dark, deep half of herself?
    “I asked your consent,” Laurence said, that piercing gaze settling back on Ellie, “because I know she is part of you. The deepest part of you. It would be unconscionable of me to restrain her without your permission.”
    “I’ll kill you!” her shadow shrieked. But still she was caught in an invisible web, flailing for escape.
    Ellie tamped down on the panic in her heart. Consent. That’s right. He’d asked first. And if he could hold her shadow, then maybe . . .
    “Can you help me?” Ellie asked Laurence.
    “Again, it is your choice,” Laurence answered. “If you are willing, I can merge the shadow with the flesh, as was meant to be.”
    Merge?
    Ellie shook her head no, and fast. No way. Not merge. That was not what she wanted.
    “Set me free!” her shadow screamed.
    “How did it happen in the first place?” Cam asked.
    Laurence shifted his gaze away from Ellie again, a small relief while she piled together all the ways that she could say no. In this, she and her shadow were in agreement.
    “In recent years many strange things have been occurring. The world is changing in so many ways. Some magic—”
    “You mean Shadow, ” Cam said.
    Her dark half bucked like a wild animal, making incoherent sounds of protest.
    Ellie would never take that feral, lewd, childish thing inside herself. It was obscene. She’d wanted to be rid of it. Not, oh God, absorb it.
    Laurence smiled at Cam. “Yes. Shadow probably had something to do with what happened. An errant lash might have pulled her apart during gestation, or something similar. That Ellie lives is remarkable. Makes me think she was meant to live.” He shifted his ice blue gaze back to Ellie. “What say you?”
    Ellie didn’t care how much power Laurence had. “No. I’m sorry, I can’t. I won’t. Can’t you just . . . separate us for good instead?” Please?
    “That is impossible. I can only merge your two halves. Please consider carefully before you refuse. Think about what your shadow may be