Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifter, #3)(83)

Len sighed dramatically. “I really miss the days when the bad guys just tried to kill you without pretty speeches. If you’ve heard one, you’ve heard them all.”

For some reason—probably stress—that struck me as extra funny, and I barely managed not to laugh out loud and make the situation worse.

Dannie’s eyes flashed, and when they filled with red and gold flames, it was a reminder that this was Shadow’s mother. Not that he appeared to care as he wove a prison to steal her strength. Dannie also had zero fucks to give about her son, since she was clearly about to attack him.

Her timing was excellent, with the seven only a few strands away from having a complete fortress. If she shattered it now, they’d be destroyed.

I couldn’t let that happen.

In a split-second decision, I decided that it was on me to be the distraction.

Stripping off my clothes, I allowed my wolf to surge up, and with her change came the flames of Nexus power. This burst of energy drew Dannie’s full attention, just as I’d hoped.

Shadow roared my name, but we were fighting to win here, and that required all of us to play our parts. This was mine. Cage her, I shot back at him, hoping those words would get through our bond.

“Thread faster,” he shouted. “Reinforce it for the final transition.”

Since I’d heard him, so had Dannie, who immediately lost interest in my flaming wolf, focusing her attention once again on the circle of power. She went for them, ribbons of energy building around her as she prepared to attack.

Nice try, bitch, but not on my watch. My wolf shifted direction, and when Dannie floated over the land, I launched myself at her. If I could give them a few seconds of time, it might be the chance they needed to take her down.

Come on, wolf. Let’s do this.





45





Ninety percent of me had expected Dannie to move out of my reach, so I was somewhat shocked when I made contact, claws digging into her soft feathers. On a regular being, my claws would have torn through in an instant, but there was nothing regular about Dannie.

Her body felt soft, but beneath the fa?ade of softness, the rest was stronger than any substance I’d ever come in contact with. Nothing would tear through her in this state, and I had a split-second freakout wondering how we could possibly steal the stone from her, until I remembered the fortress was designed to weaken her.

That had been the entire point of this dangerous spell in the first place. We could not get the stone from her without her energy being weakened, hence why I was acting as a distraction.

“Mera, my sweet Mera,” she trilled, her hands coming up to wrap around my wolf neck. “Why do you so recklessly throw your life away?”

I shifted back in an instant, surprising her when I chose to return to my physically weakest form. Her second surprise came when I shot a blast of power at her, and she loosened her hold enough for me to get away. I would have landed hard if Inky hadn’t caught me, the mist then raging up into a sparking barrier between us and the goddess, giving the others the last few seconds they needed to finish their cage.

On Shadow’s command, they gathered the cage in their hands, ready to attach it to the goddess. Dannie let out a loud chuckle; it was the oddest bird-human sound as she watched the golden coils swirl around them.

“You need to listen to us,” Shadow said, and for the first time, someone had all of her attention—the son she might still love deep down. “You can fix this. You can reject the stone from your energy and allow the true balance to be restored. The fae magic you use has no place in the Shadow Realm.”

She paused, tilting her head, a look of consideration creasing the corners of her eyes, obvious even on the bird face. “The power it holds is from the realm,” she chirped in her power-laden voice. “Power that was stolen from my creatures. Stolen from the mists. Power that I will be able to return when I am the only one who controls it. You must see that this is the best solution for the realm… and all of the worlds. What if another Ixana happens?”

She’d retained her logic, which hurt, because my Dannie was still in there. And the thought of trying to destroy the Dannie I’d known in Torma was breaking me.

Shadow didn’t seem to be burdened with the same worry, his previous statements nothing more than another distraction, giving Reece a chance to weave a tiny sliver of the fortress net around Dannie’s tail.

The long, stunning plume of her feathers was bright and ostentatious… and possibly her downfall. With a substance to grip on to, the fortress spell settled into place, and a burst of gold released the seven powerful beings who’d worked tirelessly to constrain her.

Dannie’s amused expression faded as she felt the power of their cage wrapping around her body. It was so fast that before she could lift her feathery red eyebrows, it was up to her neck. The strands tightened, cutting off her air, and when her head disappeared, I let out a breath, pulling myself to stand. My healing had already kicked in, and by the time I got dressed, any aches from my tiny battle with the goddess were gone.

“Did it work?” I asked, hurrying toward the others, surprised to see that Shadow still held one of golden strands.

“We just need to get the last link secured,” Reece grunted out. “She’s fighting harder than ever.”

Together, they pressed in with the final strands, and as it settled against Dannie, I had a brief moment of thinking we’d won. But the moment was over before we even had a chance to celebrate.