Shadow and Angel started down the path from the hilly outcrop we’d been standing on, and just as I went to follow, an energy stirred behind me and I shot a glance over my shoulder. For a moment, a dark shape moved beneath the water, but it disappeared so quickly that I wondered if I’d imagined it.
Hurrying, I caught up to the others. “Does anything live in the waters here?” I asked.
Shadow glanced back. “The Depths are filled with many creatures you don’t want to meet. Best to stay on land.”
A trickle of unease traced down my spine. “Roger that, dude. Roger that.”
Shadow’s chest rumbled. “I’m not a dude, little wolf.”
Holding both hands out, I shrugged, the backpack moving with me. “Everything is a dude in my world, just with minor tone changes. You’re a dude, Angel’s a dude, Simone is a dude. When I stub my toe it’s a fucking hell, dude. All dudes.”
At this point, I’d used the word so much, it now sounded weird.
“I-I don’t…” Angel was at a loss for words, while Shadow just shook his head.
I stared between the two of them, truly not understanding what the issue was.
“You’re a reader,” Shadow bit out. “It’s one of your few redeeming features. So how about you use more than six words when having a conversation.”
My nose wrinkled. “Aw, come on. That’s a little harsh. I have a few more redeeming features. I mean, I’m an excellent dancer and my singing voice has been described as operatic.”
“You’re a horrendous singer,” he told me, deadpan.
I opened my mouth, but Angel got there first. “He’s right. It literally hurts my ears when you hum a tune.”
Forcing my facial expression into one of fake sadness, I sighed. “My feelings would be very hurt right now, if I wasn’t fully aware that I’ve never been able to carry a tune.”
Angel chuckled, the musical sound enough for me to know she probably did have the voice of an angel. I’d stick to singing loudly in the shower and scaring the crap out of anyone in close proximity.
Shadow, seemingly done, picked up the pace, his long legs eating up the distance down the hill. Okay, right! We were doing this, apparently. Time to head into The Concordes.
Oddly enough, I wasn’t feeling too uneasy. I trusted the two gods at my side would give us a decent shot at taking out anything that came our way. Plus, being here was still a hundred times better than being in Torma.
I’d take death over that any day.
Away from the cliff, we descended along a rocky path, and I was grateful for my wolf’s help with keeping balance. She was squirming uneasily in my chest, and I knew that meant it had been too long since I’d released her. “I might have to shift soon,” I warned them. “Will the energy for that be detectable?”
“I’ll shield you,” Shadow said, his gaze running over me, like he was searching for the wolf.
I paused. “You can do that?”
Shadow shook his head, an expression of incredulity on his face. “You continue to underestimate my control over shifters. Just because I’ve let you all basically go free to create your own fuckups, doesn’t mean I couldn’t turn puppeteer at any point. Your freedom is not guaranteed.”
There was a low rumble in my chest, and I barely managed to hold on to my wolf. It was truly fascinating how my beast alternated between wanting to roll over for a belly scratch from Shadow and trying to literally tear his face off.
“My freedom better always be guaranteed.”
He shot me a cocky smile. “Can’t promise anything, Sunshine. Only time will tell how you and I end up. Where our pieces will fall. There’s also that little topic of a bet you lost that we need to discuss.”
Fuck, I was hoping he’d forgotten about that.
Needing a distraction and taking full advantage of the fact that touching him without his permission didn’t shock me any longer, I jabbed him right in the side. “No. Just no, beast. You can’t take people’s freedoms. It’s not okay and you’re deliberately missing my entire point.”
Angel was staring at us with her jaw slightly unhinged. No doubt she’d never seen anyone treat him with such little reverence, except maybe his friends, and even they still approached him with a certain degree of respect.
“Listen up, wolf—” he rumbled, and then strangely, he cut the rest of his words off.
I was about to jab him again when I focused on his expression. It was the same look he’d worn when we were about to be attacked by a creature.
Something was close by… watching us, and Shadow was on full alert.
Angel, too, twin blades appearing in her hands, the impressively curved weapon her clear favorite. She twirled them, and I tore my gaze away. No point in focusing on the two I knew weren’t a danger to me.
My wolf rose up and I used her senses to discern the threat in our vicinity. If I wanted to survive this, I had to start relying on her. My wolf was not to be underestimated; she’d been able to touch the Shadow Hunters, she’d given me boosts of power so I could burst into flames and call on the mists—she’d gotten me through a lot of shit.
There was a hidden strength and destiny tied to my wolf and me, and in a life-or-death situation, I liked having her there as backup. I’d happily shift into a wolf covered in flames who could call the dark mists, if it meant saving my friends.
“Keep moving,” Shadow said, and he looked visibly calmer. “The mists are curious about a new power in their lands—it’s been so long since that happened that we briefly caught their attention. It’s not any concern for now.”
The mists… Great. My wolf remained restless in my chest, pacing back and forth, searching for an opening so she could burst out of the human skin.
“Don’t release her yet,” Shadow warned me, feeling the tension wrapping insidious tendrils around my insides. “We still don’t know what will happen the first time your wolf is freed here. In this land that has been calling her. Let’s hold off as long as possible.”
I heard the rest of what he hadn’t said. Maybe even he couldn’t control me here.
“I don’t know how much longer she’ll stay in her cage,” I warned him.
Shadow stared into my damn soul, as was his way. “We’ll deal with it when it happens, but I know you’re strong enough to lock her down now. Do it.”
My chest rumbled again, and I patted my right boob in a comforting gesture for my wolf. It was weird, but fuck, what part of my life wasn’t now? We will be free soon, I promised her. We will find out our truth.
If it was the last thing we did.
