Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifter, #3)(32)

In more ways than one. Every touch and kiss—our first kiss—burned like a bright light of memory in my mind. Every single moment that had been stolen from me.

“And secondly, I believe he left the hallway to Earth unbroken for a very specific reason, whether he realized it or not. I am the one being who can bring him back.”

Gaster held my gaze, but he didn’t argue. He nodded, like it all made sense.

“You are the key,” he said. “Thank the gods you didn’t fall into life back in Torma.”

That was when the real truth of what had happened hit me hard. I had all the context now, the memories, the history. “How could Dannie do this?” I whispered, trying to hold tears back. “She knew what my pack did to me. She fucking knew. And she sent me back to them. Back to Torin. If I hadn’t trusted my instincts…”

I trailed off at the horror of what might have happened to me if I’d listened to Jaxson and all the others. I would have fallen into bed with the alpha and never known what had been stolen from me.

“The sunburst stone is no ordinary faerie stone,” Gaster told me, reaching out to take my hand in his. “Very few could have survived being close to it, let alone taking it into their essence. Corruption was really the only ending for Dannie’s story, and I fear that as the stone has time to really root itself into her power, her views on the ‘balance’ will only grow worse.”

In a way, Dannie was a victim here as well, but unless she was willing to repent her ways, she was also the enemy. An enemy I needed my pack to deal with.

“Will you help me track the beast down now?”

“Yes,” Gaster said. “Your points are very valid, and I think the thing he raged about losing was you. You’re the one who can bring him back to us.”

“Damn right,” I said.

I’d lost a lot in my life, and what Dannie had done to me topped all of that, but I’d been given a second chance. A chance I would not waste.

For starters, no more pretending I wasn’t in love with the Shadow Beast.

Desperately, desperately in love.

A beast I had forgotten in my head but never in my heart. I knew now that Shadow was the main reason Torin had always felt like a spoiled, selfish, weak, petulant brat.

Shadow Beast was anything but weak.

He was worthy beyond all others, and it was time that I tracked him down… and made that bastard repair my library.

Right after he fucked me silly.

No lie, my heart and my vagina fluttered at the very thought.





18





Since he’d been trapped under what remained of my library, Gaster really had no idea where Shadow had disappeared to. Tracking the beast was never going to be easy, and especially not with his recently re-acquired ability to use shadowy energy to move between worlds.

He could be anywhere. Any of the worlds. Worlds I could not get to because there were no doorways.

However, I did have a few clues when it came to his whereabouts, the first being Inky. Shadow and Inky were bonded, and where there was one, the other was close behind. Dannie hadn’t taken their memories of each other away, so it stood to reason, Shadow was still here.

With that in mind, I headed straight for the lair, all the while reaching through my bond for Midnight. From the moment my memories had begun unraveling from their cage, I’d searched for my mist, but there was nothing at the end of our bond except static electricity.

I could only guess that my mist was still in the Shadow Realm and out of my reach. Hopefully, once I found Shadow, he’d have all the final answers to the timeline that had begun after Dannie had swirled me back to Torma.

Inky, Sam, and Gaster stayed with me, right until we reached the lair portal. A portal that was still intact despite the complete destruction everywhere else. Hello, second clue.

“This is as far as you can go,” I said to Sam. “Shadow is very particular about who enters his lair, and he’s obviously a little out of control, so let’s not test him today.”

She nodded, nervously worrying at her bottom lip. “I understand. I’ll stay here and help Gaster ferret out more books that can be saved.”

A woman after my own heart. “We’ll make the Shadow Bastard fix my library, don’t worry.”

She didn’t laugh, and I didn’t blame her. This entire situation was the stuff midlife crises were made of.

Gaster stepped closer, and I read the worry in his orb-like eyes. “Be safe,” he finally said. “Don’t trust that this is the same being you knew. His power and anger destroyed a library and Solaris System that have been part of him for thousands of years. You have your work cut out for you, Mera Callahan.”

I hugged him.

At first, he was surprised, but within a few seconds, his body relaxed against mine. I finally remembered why none of the powerful creatures here liked to hug: because they feared their energy being stolen by another. Gaster, despite his diminutive stature, was a being of great power and intellect, and his reticence when it came to touching was no different to the others.

I was the only one they let into their personal space, and because of that, I gave them hugs as freely as I could. “Please don’t die,” Gaster said against my shoulder. “Your light makes the world much brighter for us all. I truly missed you.”