The cliff we’d arrived on had had white wildflowers scattered underfoot, contributing to the sweet scent that filled the wind, but the farther we got from the water, the more desolate the realm became.
The air still smelled clean, a slightly tangy taste on my tongue, but the flowers soon died off, making way for what resembled black tar. “Is this what all of The Concordes looks like?” I asked, grimacing as I lifted my boot to find dark sediment clinging to it.
Shadow, whose jaw was set, brow furrowed, looking down as well. “This is rocky leftover from a lava flow, but… when I was here, it was only around the chasm. I’ve never seen it so widespread.”
“Excellent,” I muttered. Shadow didn’t have the answers about what was going on in this world, not after being exiled for so long. We’d just have to discover it together.
“How does it feel being back here?” I asked when the endless expanse of the same parched land lost my interest. “I mean, you must have thought of this moment a million times over the years.”
My question even had Angel easing up on her warrior focus of the land around us, as she tilted her gaze toward Shadow.
“It’s odd,” he said slowly. “My energy is returning now that the shackles of my expulsion are fading, but my inherited power is still missing. I worry that without it, this battle against my family will be harder than anticipated.”
It was so odd to see him unsure about anything. His confidence basically followed him around like an entourage. Inky and Shadow’s ego were his constant companions. Being out of his element was going to take some getting used to, but I thought it was smart of him to be wary about what he was walking into.
Might keep all of us alive.
“You expected that once the spell on the door was broken, you’d be gifted the full range of your power again?” Angel asked.
Shadow’s chest rumbled, like the memories were swelling his anger. “Not all of it, since the ceremony bonding me to my position still has to be performed, but I was hoping for a good chunk. Right now, I’m probably at sixty percent of what I expected.”
In a flash, he faded out, smoky mists twirling around him. Then he was a few hundred yards away from us. Then he was back at our sides. “I have gained some new gifts.” He sounded energized, his voice vibrating with energy. “My ability to move through the shadows of worlds was a power lost. I can’t go too far or someone will feel our presence, but it’s nice to know it has returned.”
I blinked. “So, technically, you could zap into the library right now without a doorway?”
He shook his head. “The library is protected from this power, but I could go straight to Earth or Brolder. I no longer need the Solaris System pathways.”
Angel cleared her throat, her brow furrowed. “I finally understand why you created the portals of the Solaris System now. You wanted the ability to world jump again, and that was the closest you could get.”
He shot her a sardonic stare. “I shared the power, didn’t I? Be grateful.”
She wrinkled her nose at him but didn’t bother to comment on her “gratitude.”
“What other powers have returned?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “A few others, but mostly it’s my strength. I’ve been drawing from my shifters for years, as your mate pointed out. But no longer do I need their energy to boost my own.”
The way he’d said mate was the same way I said fuck when I stubbed my toe. Shadow hated that alpha, and if I was Torin, I’d be sleeping uneasily at night, knowing there was a beast out there stalking my ass. If Shadow hadn’t been busy with his few-thousand-year-old revenge right now, Torin would be fucked.
“You definitely don’t have the power of a Supreme Being,” Angel said, examining him like she could feel his energy.
Shadow growled, a howling rumble that reminded me of my wolf. “Only the death of the one who usurped my position, and the ceremony, will give me my full power.”
“They should not have been able to utilize the power,” Angel said, shaking her head. “Only the one born to the position can play with the mists.”
Shadow’s flames appeared, and they were so much stronger than I’d ever seen or felt from him that I had to jump back or risk being barbequed. Inky swelled larger as well, seemingly absorbing the energy from its master.
He wasn’t kidding about sixty percent of his true strength reappearing here. His powers had been impressive before, but now… they were scary.
He was scary.
There was no reflection of humanity in his face. Instead, it was pure and unadulterated fury. This was our devil. The god of shifters who had created an entire race of beings—and literal pathways between worlds.
He was lost to the new surge of energy, and I knew that someone had to pull him back, but I wasn’t sure I could get any closer. Taking the risk, I stepped into the flames, but the burn was instant, and when I pulled my hand away it was red and blistering. It healed fine, but it was enough for me to know that I couldn’t run in headfirst and take him down.
Shadow was literally untouchable to me.
What about my wolf?
Dropping my heavy backpack, I shed my clothing, knowing I’d need them again since we were on limited supplies. When I was naked, standing with a light breeze blowing my hair all around me, I allowed the chokehold on my wolf to ease—she was more than a little excited to finally have freedom. Just as she started to surge up, Shadow’s gaze snapped to meet mine.
I paused, the change hovering on the edge, my fingers rippling into claws, even as the rest of me remained human. Shadow didn’t move, neither of us did. One covered in flames, the other naked with flaming red hair dancing around. Both of us locked in his power.
“Shadow,” I whispered. There was no way he should have been able to hear me over the noise of his fire—it sounded like a jet engine, the ground near shaking from the decibels, but somehow, he did.
He heard me.
When he took a step forward, I shivered. Not from the cold, but from the sheer force of his stare. Holding me in place. Turning my body into one that would literally die for this beast if he just continued to look at me like that.
“Shadow,” I choked out again. “Come back to me.”
This was a reversal of what he’d had to do in Torma with me, and the irony wasn’t lost on me. I also wondered what would happen if both of us lost it at the same time… who would call us back then?
He took another step toward me, and I was dragged further into his forcefield. My trembling legs drove me toward his fire. The heat was intense, and not only was my body responding, but so was my energy. That connection—path—I had to this realm sprang to life.
As flames burst across my skin, rough hands hauled me up and against his body. I wrapped my legs around him, not caring that not only was I naked, but we had a witness in one of my best friends.
“What are you?” Shadow rumbled. “That you make me feel…”
He trailed off, and I was desperate to hear more. Made him feel what?
He said no more, though, and it took me a few moments to understand that what he meant was feel in general.
My gaze dropped to his lips and I desperately craved a taste of him. It was a frantic need that had my breath raggedly escaping in huffs. Kissing him was a bad idea. We’d never kissed before, not even when his tongue had been buried deep in my pussy, making me come until I saw stars.
That night, he’d stopped me from touching him in any way, but today… today he wasn’t stopping me at all.
His mouth slammed against mine, and an actual rumbling groan spilled from my lips as our tongues tangled together. Shadow took control, angling his head so that he could suck my bottom lip into his mouth, biting against it, as we fought to taste each other.
I was clawing at his back, and it wasn’t until I opened my eyes that I saw his were open as well. Burning gazes clashed as we kissed, and that wasn’t all that burned. Our flames were a raging inferno around us, and no doubt this sort of power and energy was not the incognito approach he’d hoped to take here.
There was one positive of the fire: no one could see us in the midst of the flames coating our skins, which meant I could let my control go for a moment, vulnerability creeping into my gaze as I pulled away from him.
“What am I, Shadow?” I whispered.
He was still staring at me, as he had done when he’d taken control and completely owned my fucking mouth. That unbreakable gaze dissected my very being, breaking me down into whatever energy formed my soul.
“What are these scars from?” he rumbled, and the rapid change of subject took me by surprise. Scars?
It was then that I felt his hand on my back, tracing up my spine, and I was reminded of the day I was held down and branded by Dean Heathcliffe. I’d been fourteen, it had been a few years after my father’s death, and the beta had called me for a meeting to discuss my options of improving my place in the pack.
Looking back, I had a feeling the entire setup had been about Jaxson. Maybe he’d stepped out of line again, or maybe Dean was just a bastard. He’d tortured me for hours in the field. Branding a hot iron down my spine, all the while “interrogating me” for information I didn’t have.
I remembered that day well, from screaming until eventually the pain had been so fucking much, I’d passed out, to regaining consciousness a few hours later, alone and in agony.
It had taken me weeks to heal from the wounds, and when it had all been done, I’d still borne the faded circular scars down my spine.
“Scars of my past,” I breathed, my demons rearing their heads as memories flashed at me. I’d just kissed Shadow, a soul-destroying kiss, and instead of grinding against him like I wanted, all I could see in my head was Dean motherfucking Heathcliffe.
Talk about cockblocking.
Shadow wasn’t satisfied with that response, the fire in his eyes surging to greater heights.
With a sigh, I added a little more to the story. “The beta took his interrogation a little too far, and his branding iron left a mark.”
Shadow’s chest rumbled under my touch, that deep reverberating sound he made when he was truly furious. He’d made it the day he’d killed Alpha Victor, and when he’d faced off against Torin. Both times it had been about me, and no lie, I was into this grouchy, alpha, kill-everything-that-got-in-his-way side of him. Especially when it wasn’t directed toward me.
“I have a lot of scars,” I told him, forcing the words out, their truth burning my throat. “Both inside and out, but they don’t define me.”
He still wasn’t talking, his breathing harsh, same as mine, our scents mixing together. Needing to lighten the mood, or I’d self-destruct, I said the first thing that came to mind.
“I’m pretty sure we’ll get Shadowshine.”
His lips twitched; he hadn’t forgotten the last time I’d said that, either, and thankfully, my reminder had the desired effect.
“Sundow sounds like a pet’s name,” I babbled, saying whatever words entered my head.
I was gently set on my feet, and wanting to keep him in sight, I tilted my head back.
“Shadowshine is exactly how I see us,” he rumbled. “One too dark, the other too light, and nothing but destructive storms between us.”
I swallowed roughly at the tone of his words, almost broken. He didn’t really believe we would ever have a couple name because we’d never truly be a couple. “Storms are my favorite,” I said fiercely. “I always dance in the rain.”
He leaned down, his nose running along my cheek as he scented me. “You forgot the destructive part, little wolf.”
I hadn’t. I just didn’t care.
I shivered as he pulled away, those serious eyes still on me, even as our fires faded to almost nothing. “I won’t let you be swept away in the deluge,” he warned, and then he was gone, walking away from me, leaving me naked and alone.
Once again.
