Reclaimed (Shadow Beast Shifters, #2)(10)

5





I was done, exhausted to the point of delirium. Shadow saw me swaying on my feet and nudged me toward his lair. “Get some sleep. I need you fully functioning when we make our way into the realm.”

I just nodded or shook my head… I might have even been drooling as I mumbled something about Simone, and was assured she would be secured and brought to the library. Then, with the help of Angel, who half-carried me, I made my way to the barrier between the lair and library.

“I’m coming with you to the Shadow Realm,” she said shortly, her face set in hard, determined lines. “I don’t trust Shadow Beast to put your safety above his own agenda.”

Our eyes met, and the magenta in hers was the pinkest I’d ever seen. That color felt like it was penetrating into my damn soul, but in a good way. Warm and fuzzies. “I feel the same way,” I said softly. “He’s proven more than once that I’m only a means to an end. But I need to know who I am as well, so I’m not going to fight him.”

Angel nodded once. “You must discover your truth so that, moving forward, you will be at the strongest you can be.”

She pressed her hand to the spot above my breast, where she’d previously bonded us, and I could have sworn I felt her emotions for a brief second. A mix of worry and determination to get us both through this alive.

Following this was a definite boost to my energy that would give me enough juice to make it into the lair and my bed.

“Our bond grows stronger,” she said, sounding surprised. “What should take decades appears to be maturing much faster.”

I blinked at her but didn’t bother to ask why. No one knew what the heck to expect when it came to me and my energy. We were just going with it.

“Get some rest,” Angel said softly, a heavier accent slipping through before she tucked her true self away again. Angel was excellent at blending—quite the achievement for a near supermodel-goddess. Occasionally, though, I caught a glimpse of the being she’d been before her family had been lost to her. Before she was alone and broken.

I got a glimpse of the true heart of Angel. And it was so fucking pure.

“I’ll see you soon,” I promised. “And thank you for taking this journey with me. Together, we will keep an eye on Shadow.”

“We certainly will,” she promised.

She left and I made my way into the lair. It was warm and welcoming inside, and I felt the oddest urge to run to the fire and give it a hug. Maybe it wouldn’t even burn me now that I’d found some unknown source of internal fire that I could produce on my skin.

On a whim, I tried to turn into a fireball again, but there wasn’t the faintest ember. My energy might have been too drained, or just like everything else, I could only channel that shit when I was rocking a fury so complete, it was its own entity.

Dannie… She was still on my mind, and just the memory of her “death” had my hands trembling. Every part of me was hoping that Shadow was right, that she was alive and reforming somewhere, and I would see her again. That was the one hope getting me through.

Not wanting to be alone with my messed-up thoughts, I ended up crashing onto one of the couches before the fire, snuggled down until my entire body let out a sigh.

Here, wrapped in the warmth of the fire’s embrace, I felt safe. So I let myself rest.





Inky woke me some time later, its energy a distinct tingle of power. As it drifted closer to my face, my eyes shot open, the wolf in my chest stirring as a low rumble spilled from my throat. It was instinctive after being woken by a powerful entity, even if I’d known exactly what was here with me.

Blinking, I cleared my throat. “Inky?” I rasped. “What are you doing?”

The smoke swelled larger, and in the same instant, I backed right up on the couch because it looked different. Inky was now more of a midnight purple, swirls of green breaking up the endless darkness. “Did something happen to you when I opened the doorway?” I asked. Stupidly, because I couldn’t communicate with Shadow’s bonded mist.

Mist. I finally had an idea of what Inky was, and the reason he was bonded to Shadow. The beast had taken a small part of the creation energy of his land and tied his soul to it. Weird, but what an awesome boost to his own powerbase.

“Inky?” I pushed. “You’re weirding me out. What do you want?”

Reaching toward it, I let my hand brush across the tendrils flickering around the dark edges. Inky hadn’t shocked me in months, so I was taken completely by surprise when a heavy jolt shot up my arm.

With a yelp, I almost fell to the floor as my arm went completely numb. Panic kicked in hard, and at the same time my wolf surged forward pushing us to change. She slammed against an invisible barrier, my body unable to shift with Inky’s power surging through us.

There was another pulse in my aching arm, and I tried to lift it to cradle it closer to my body, but I couldn’t even move a finger. Whatever Inky had done, my limb was no longer responding, and that was not good news. Especially for a shifter with excellent healing abilities.

There was one of two explanations for its current behavior: Inky had gone rogue or this wasn’t Inky. Both options were equally horrifying.

My legs still worked, so I pushed myself up, backing away from the clearly different-colored cloud of mist. My useless arm dragged beside me as I growled.