Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifter, #3)(61)

“Mera is hoping that she’ll release it on her own,” Shadow added, “always trying to save us, even when we’re barely redeemable.”

He wasn’t just talking about his mother. “I would never give up on you,” I assured him, squeezing his hand. “And while I’m mad at her as well, I believe Dannie deserves a chance.”

Angel tilted her head, probably considering my words. “The stone itself is neither good nor evil. It was just too much power for her to handle. She wanted to return the balance to how it had been before Ixana. Before Shadow was expelled from the realm. Dannie’s logic was flawed, though, because the path of destiny was long changed from that time.” She waved at me. “Take Mera, for example. Until Shadow was exiled from his world, Mera’s path did not exist in the cosmic plan. Her life came about to match the new Shadow who would emerge from the flames of the wreckage of his last life. There’s no turning that back, which was why neither of you embraced the world Dannie tried to create for you.”

Shadow nodded, reaching out to drag me closer to him; he’d hardly let me out of his sight or hands since we’d found each other again, and I was one lucky shifter.

“Not even with her current power could she change our fates,” Shadow said. “She was only muddying it up, but thankfully for all of us, Mera is too damn stubborn to accept that sort of subterfuge.”

I found myself feeling strangely proud. Sure, I’d had some help from Shadow’s spell, but those niggling doubts and inconsistencies wouldn’t have meant much without the stubborn part of my personality forcing me to dig deeper until I uncovered the truth. I never gave up. My time being the pack’s punching bag, of refusing to roll over and die, had prepared me well for my future.

A future that was now in grave jeopardy.

Hopefully, a few of my other life skills would come in handy because I was not ready to lose my current fated path. Not when it meant losing Shadow and the rest of my pack.

Yeah, hard pass, Dannie. Hard fucking pass.





33





With Angel up to speed and the countdown clock still ticking, we decided to head back to the library. “I’ll take some energy from the layers of my ancestral power,” Angel said as we left her cabin. “I don’t need as many levels of protection as I have, and if we all die because we lack the power to best Dannie, it’ll be useless anyway.”

She had all of my attention now because I really wanted to know how she planned on taking energy from a “layer” of her world.

She didn’t touch the forest level, leading us back to the spot we’d first entered it. “This is a main connective point,” she explained, motioning to the exact area Shadow had used to step through. “From here, I can take as many layers as I need.”

A blade appeared in her hand, shimmery and gold, with small spirals of smoke wafting from it even though nothing burned. Angel lowered the blade and sliced it into the ground. It parted the same way it had for Shadow, but there was one difference. For Angel, every layer appeared like pages in a book, allowing her to rifle through and select from them.

“Holy shit.” I gasped. “How many layers do you have?”

We’d crossed three to get to her, and I’d assumed that there weren’t many more than that, but from what I was seeing…

“Eight hundred and seventy-four,” she said succinctly. “Varying in worth and power.”

She reached out then, grasping on to a level of water that existed below her forest land. “This level is a good start,” Angel said, pulling that water page up toward her until there was a grating sound of her tearing the page free.

“What the fuckery?” I muttered, staring at the shimmering piece of “land” she held, no larger than a piece of printer paper.

Angel winked at me, and then she opened her mouth and… ate the freaking page.

I mean, sure, I expected a lot of humans and shifters had eaten some paper before, but this was taking “eating paper” to an entirely new level.

“What does it taste like?” I asked.

Was that a weird question? It felt like it might have been a weird question.

Angel paused in the process of ripping out the next shimmering layer of land, tilting her head to meet my gaze. “There’s only one way to find out.”

She tore a small corner from the glowing level and handed it to me. “We’re bonded, Mera. This won’t hurt you, and the best way to learn is by doing.”

Holy shit. Excitement shot me forward, and I didn’t hesitate to take the corner from her. When it hit my hand, it felt like I held a boiling stone. The texture was smooth, and it sizzled against my hands but didn’t hurt me. And the power… it filled me with heat, like that of my fire, but also different. Ancient and heady, it pushed and pulled at my essence, and I swallowed roughly in an attempt to pull myself together.

Shadow leaned closer, drawn in by my power, just as I always was with his. His eyes were flaming orbs, eating me up, and I ended up both weak at the knees and horny like no one’s fucking business. “Eat it, Sunshine,” he said in that deep rumble of his voice. “Swallow that power down.”

Motherfucker. His words were saying one thing, while his eyes reminded me of our last dance in the bedroom when he’d come in my mouth and I’d felt a burst of power from tasting him like that.