Reclaimed (Shadow Beast Shifters, #2)(36)

I closed my eyes against his words and wondered if this was the last peaceful night I’d ever have. The thought that Shadow was going to go up against his asshole of a sister, who had thousands of years to amass power, and who’d destroyed his life in the first place, was terrifying and liberating at the same time.

“Do you think she knows you’re here now?” I asked him sleepily, keeping my voice low.

He nodded, a single hitch of his chin. “No doubt at all. She’ll be ready, but so will we.”

He was strong enough. He was not the same young royal who had been kicked out centuries ago. He would destroy them if it was the last thing he ever did, and I had no idea what would come after that.

“Do you think I’ll ever learn what I am?” I asked, my eyes opening again, despite the exhaustion pressing on me. “Will someone in your family know?”

He shifted, and in the low light of the moon above, I couldn’t quite tell what expression he wore. Possibly pensive or… worried.

“My sister is the first I have to destroy, but she’s not the only one in my family. I’ll have to wade through all of them to figure out who was involved in my betrayal, but I expect some will be left standing when it’s all over. If there’s information among them, I’ll find it.”

I felt satisfied with that. Shadow would do a thorough job in figuring out what I was, and how I’d come to exist, and when I finally had my answers… well, I’d deal with it once that happened.

Before Shadow had stolen me from Torma, I’d thought I’d had a pretty solid handle on who I was. Shifter; book lover; broken but fighting to stay internally strong; full of sarcastic quips; fan of old action movies and sappy romances; aficionado of flipflops and denim cutoff shorts; unruly hair of indeterminate color; good friend; sometimes terrible friend.

So many facets of me, Mera Callahan.

All the colors of my rainbow spread out before me, visible and vibrant. And I got them, I embraced them. Now, though, there was a new streak of midnight threading it all—kind of ironic, considering I was bonded to a mist called Midnight. I didn’t understand this darkness dripping into my colors, and I had no idea how to handle it. Did I embrace it and say this was me now? Or did I fight it so the darkness no longer bled through, muddying the blanket of my being?

“You’re overthinking.” Shadow broke through my thoughts as he leaned forward. “Whatever we find out about your new abilities, it doesn’t change who you are. You’ve always been you; some of it was just hidden. Like your wolf. You never shifted, but she was always there. It was only that you had knowledge of her existence that you didn’t freak out when it first happened.”

I nodded, rolling over to use my arms as a pillow, staring up into the starless mists above. “You’re saying that this affinity I have with your world, with the mists and creatures, was always part of me? I just wasn’t aware until it all rose to the surface?”

“Yes.”

Well, okay. That did make me feel a little less like a foreign entity was living inside of me, ready to burst free Alien-style at any moment. As cool as Ripley was, I didn’t have any ambition to live her life.

“Thanks,” I said softly. “I’m sure you didn’t sign up for keeping me sane when you already have a lot on your plate.”

He chuckled, a deep rumble that filled the night with warmth. “Who said you were sane?”

I laughed too. “Are any of us, really?”

“Fair point, little wolf. Fair point.”

After that, I was too tired for further conversation, so I let my eyes close, allowing consciousness to drift away.





17





Once we crossed over into Trinity, Shadow grew grim, barely taking a second to converse as he pushed us to quicken our pace.

His dark mood had coincided with a very real security presence around us. His sister was paranoid, and it seemed that all the villages close to her compound were on high alert. It got so bad, that around midday, we found ourselves crouched behind rocks, staring down a long line of guards and creatures completely blocking our way through the next town.

“We can’t be detected here,” Shadow said shortly, taking in the line of defense. “If my sister knows my exact location, she’ll have the upper hand, and will come at me with full force.”

“She’s clearly expecting someone,” Angel noted. “Not really a surprise, since the spell on the door was broken.”

“Right,” he confirmed, “but as far as my sister knows, I died long ago when she cast me out. The door could have been opened by any, and this show of power might simply be her way of preparing for whatever is heading her way. I’m not ready for her to find out it’s me.”

“So how do we get through the guards?” I asked the most important question of the day.

Shadow pointed toward the entrance of the city. “It’s going to require disguises, and the hope that if I shield our energy, no one will really question us, at least not until we’re past the main guard.”

Our only plan did not fill me with confidence, as I snuggled further behind the rocks where we hid. There was no black tar this close to the village, the land around us widespread with golden trees, amber grass, and bright red, daisy-like flowers. They were beautiful but reminded me of blood spatter, and that was an ominous vibe as we tried to figure out our next move.