Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifter, #3)(82)

“She’s missing the entire point of balance,” Angel stated, and no one was going to argue with truth.

“Has the true Nexus been destroyed?” Alistair asked, sounding less serene than usual. “Was that her first step? I swore I felt it in The Depths, but… can there be two Nexuses?”

“One cannot be destroyed until the other is born,” Shadow said without hesitation. “Otherwise, there’d be no realm left for us to stand upon.”

“He’s right,” I said quickly. “I feel the other Nexus still thrumming within my power, but it’s weakened. Its power is bleeding out of the cracks Dannie left within it.”

We were moving slower now, the fortress nearing completion. When we finally made it to the side of the castle with the chasm, the red of the lava came into view, and… What the fuck?

There had been no real warning about what we were going to see, and to my shame, I found myself captivated in a way I never remembered being before. Not even with Shadow.

“How did we miss that from above?” I choked out.

Stunning ribbons of gold and red had shattered across the sky, filling it with the sort of beauty that could make grown men cry. Wherever I looked was another pattern and shape, sparkling in the low light of the new realm sky. The one true illumination left in this world.

“She hid it from us,” Shadow said, emotion finally threading his tone.

The “she” became apparent as we got closer, her body in the center of the kaleidoscope of power and light that had fragmented across the chasm. Dannie. Only it wasn’t the Dannie I’d known from Torma. Or the phoenix hybrid Dannie who had stolen our memories and changed the course of the realm and all the worlds.

She had changed again. Evolved one last time.

It was hard to truly understand this evolution while she was covered in swirling tendrils of power, the red and gold shooting off her body in a thousand swirling arcs and beams. So bright and mesmerizing. I wasn’t the only one staring like we’d just found the first oasis.

“She’s literally becoming a Nexus,” Angel breathed. “The metamorphosis is almost complete.”

Like a damn caterpillar, Dannie was about to become the Nexus butterfly, and if that happened, it would be too late. We couldn’t defeat the power of creation.

I took a step closer, and even though Shadow growled, he couldn’t break the fortress to stop me. Inky wrapped around the front of me, as if to halt my forward progress, but neither of them needed to worry. I wasn’t going to do anything stupid; I just wanted to get a better look at what we were facing.

Hello, Mera.

I froze, my hands trembling as I pressed them to my head. It wasn’t like when Galleli or Midnight spoke in my mind. Dannie’s voice erupted as a vibration of power within my own, and with that zap of energy came the knowledge that she could destroy me with a single thought.

I see you have proven stronger than ever expected, breaking through my memory spell.

I swallowed roughly. You should have known I’d pick at every little inconsistency. I don’t settle, Dannie. I never have. My fight might be small, but it’s consistent.

She sorted through my words, mulling over them, all the while continuing her journey to the next stage of power enlightenment.

“The power is growing,” someone shouted from behind me, but I couldn’t turn away to see who. I was too busy not succumbing to the seductive lure of the goddess before me.

Stop it, I said with force. I do not belong to you, Dannie. You cannot drag my power into this.

The chuckle that followed was low and heady, and not in my head. She was speaking out loud now, and it seemed that was for everyone’s benefit. “You should not have come here today,” she said slowly, swirling and swirling on the spot until the magnificent light of her power twirled back inside of her, and then it was just Dannie there, floating and glowing in the sky above. “I’ve already set everything in motion, and none of you are strong enough to stand against me.”

The others couldn’t move, still weaving their fortress, which seemed to be of no concern to this version of Dannie. A version that was now a complete hybrid of human and phoenix. Dannie was red and gold, covered in both flesh and feathers, with huge wings extending from behind her back. She was naked, but you couldn’t see anything around the feathers that trailed down her chest and over her middle, flowing out into a long tail. Her face was hybridized, with human eyes, a beak-like nose and mouth, and a high-reaching plume that stretched across her head and down her spine, forming part of the tail.

The phoenix lady.

It wasn’t weird to see her looking this stunningly powerful; it felt natural to me, and I wondered if she could have changed into this version of herself even before swallowing the stone.

When she drifted closer, Shadow’s power whipped up behind me, and I knew he was about to do something stupid. No doubt because he was pissed about me being a few steps in front of their group. With that in mind, I gave into Inky’s nudging, backing up a few paces to stop just before I touched Shadow—the fortress was almost complete, and I wouldn’t be the reason they had to start all over again.

“My memories of you are fond,” Dannie continued, “but I’m no longer the Dannie you knew. I have a mission now, one that is essential in controlling the balance on a larger scale. A scale that will ensure the yin and yang of the universes are never in jeopardy again. In that regard, no fond memories will save you.”