Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifter, #3)(54)

My smile could have lit up a dark room. “Thank you! Seriously, thank you.”

I sprinted off, heading toward the nearest facilities. It might have been weird to have bathrooms in a place like this, built of fantasy beings and other worlds, but the truth was, most of them needed to use a bathroom for varying reasons, most of which I did not want to know about.

When I was done, I returned to find Shadow in the same spot, all but guarding the open doorway into the Honor Meadows. “Everything okay?” I asked, noting how hard he was staring into the swirling white abyss that existed on the other side of the doorway.

At the sound of my voice, his focus returned to me. “All good,” he said with a nod. “I was just checking out the Solaris System since it’s still coming online from my reboot.”

Despite the many beings already making their way along his paths between worlds, there were clearly parts of the system not quite up and running yet.

“Did you find any issues?” I asked, not really expecting any because Shadow made no mistakes.

He hesitated, and I frowned at him. “There’s an issue?” I asked.

Now he was the one frowning. “There’s a foreign entity coating the surface of my magic,” he said slowly, like he wasn’t quite sure if he was reading it right. “It’s so light and thin that it’s barely noticeable, but it’s not mine. It doesn’t appear to be affecting the general function, but I will have to look into it when we return.”

He didn’t want to leave it be, but at the same time, there was no way in hell he’d let me head into the Honor Meadows on my own. “Will everyone here be safe until we return?”

“Yes.” This time, he was surer. “There’s no malevolence in the presence. It’s just foreign, and since this is built from Inky’s and my energy, it’s obvious only to me that there’s a foreign beat in the heart.”

As if it had heard its name, Inky swirled down then, wrapping around Shadow.

“Can Inky feel it too?” I whispered.

Shadow nodded. “Yes, and Inky thinks it’s best if it stays here and investigates.”

I felt better to know that someone would be keeping an eye on it. “Fine with me, as long as you don’t think we’ll need Inky in the Honor Meadows.”

Shadow shook his head. “If we run into a situation that you and I can’t get ourselves out of, there’s very little Inky could do to help. I can think of only one being with enough power to worry us, and it’s the one I call ‘Mother.’”

That was good news… if you tilted your head and squinted at it. I mean, I was all about silver linings these days, and the fact that I wasn’t currently in Torma with Torin meant everything from here on out was good news.

Inky faded up into the ceiling, and I imagined it spreading out through the mechanics of the library. “Stay safe, buddy,” I called after it, just as Shadow nudged me toward the still-open doorway.

The Honor Meadows felt the same as they had the last time I’d stepped through. Warm, inviting, and ancient in a way that I couldn’t fully describe. I just sensed it deep in my own magic.

“This world truly fascinates me,” I said when we were standing in the long field of gold, the only part of Angel’s land I’d been to. My wolf rose up at the memories, and I was relieved to feel her strong and content in my chest again. Back with our true, true mate, we were once again whole. My wolf might have been team Torin for a while, but after witnessing her melancholy the last time around him, it was clear who we’d both chosen.

Our beast.

“This is one of the more ancient of the lands,” Shadow told me, his steps silent as he moved through the ankle-length golden grass. “It’s definitely the basis for the human’s perception of Heaven, and I believe it’s most probably due to those who heard stories from their ‘guardian angels.’ I know Angel told you some of her family’s history and work on Earth. I was the one to nudge them in that direction, as an additional safeguard over humans and shifters.”

I was near speechless.

It wasn’t as if I was particularly religious, and certainly not about angels and gods and the devil as such, since I’d always worshipped the Shadow Beast—still did actually, just in a different way now. But I knew how strongly humans felt about their religions, and the reverences they held for their gods. I didn’t blame them, either, because the world was damn dark, and to have faith in something greater, even if it was mere flickers of hope filling that darkness, was worth a lot more than what was tangibly returned to them. Shadow had helped shape some of that hope, and I felt very insignificant in comparison.

“Do all the transcendents go to Earth?”

Shadow shook his head. “No. Their big-picture role is like my mother’s with the Nexus. To keep the balance. To do that, they must travel between all places, holding evil at bay and protecting those who are destined to do great things. They sense where they are needed to be through meditation and their own personal psychic abilities.” He stood taller, the light here casting a perfect tint of gold over him, turning a god into something greater. “There aren’t many transcendents left now. Maybe a few hundred thousand, and as you can imagine, they’re stretched thin.”

Maintaining balance would be a thankless fuck of a job, and with all the worlds, a few hundred thousand wouldn’t go far. “Why are they dying out? I thought they were immortal.”