My expected death never arrived.
There was no end once I was encased in a dark cocoon of tar, which held me in stasis, like a coma victim who was still aware but couldn’t move.
I wanted to scream. To shift. To push through what held me, but I was lost to the dark magic of my prison. The outside world didn’t exist, at least not at first, and then it was freezing cold. So icy it stole my breath, until it was gone, replaced with a heat so intense, I wondered if I was being baked alive.
The hot and cold continued for so long that it could have been days or years or lifetimes. In this waking coma, time had little relevance, and my thoughts were sporadic and scattered, as if oxygen deprivation was getting to me, and I could no longer think in linear lines.
My wolf slipped farther inside as time went on, and at some point, I lost her, returning to my human form.
“Fight, Mera! Come on, Sunshine. You are stronger than the leicher scourge.”
I heard him. The first outside noise that had penetrated my prison since I’d been encased, and while I had no idea what leicher scourge was, I liked the concept of fighting it.
I’d been a passive victim for too long.
Clawing out with my energy and hands, I scraped against my cage, the ice and fire of temperature still alternating as I fought. As I pushed more power, my energy near tapped out, I felt a slight crack under my fingers. This boosted my strength as I pressed harder until a gust of fresh air hit me, and I was rolling free of the cage.
Strong hands caught me as I coughed my guts up, air filling my lungs. Wondering why I was being held as I was, I focused on my surroundings, only to find I was dangling over a rolling world of red.
The lava chasm.
Holy fuck.
“Shadow,” I choked out as he hauled me up and away from the burning stream below.
I collapsed against him, completely wrecked and unsure how I was even alive. His arms wound tightly around me, and as his chest rumbled, I pulled back to see him half-beast-like, the fire wolf above him and all around us.
He was not in control.
Angel was visible on the outside of Shadow’s fire, trying to get closer, but every time she stepped forward, his rumbles increased, the flames growing larger.
Even Inky—and Midnight?—were stuck on the outside.
What in the worlds? I must have unknowingly called my mist when I’d been in danger. The mark on my hand started to tingle, as if to remind me that I was bonded to a mist.
Mera. Midnight’s familiar voice was in my head, and it was so soothing, I almost cried.
“I’m okay,” I choked out, talking to all of them. “But seriously, what the fuck just happened to me?”
Angel tried to answer, but Shadow’s power was like standing next to a loudspeaker set on rumble, so I couldn’t hear a word she said. Midnight was the only one able to communicate with me. Shadow will not let any of us get close to you.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but I wasn’t mad.
You were hit with a very rare weapon, built from the mists. It could only have been made from an upper royal, and why they had it in that small town is odd, but whatever the case, you should not have survived. It sucks the life from whomever it encases, but it could not take yours.
And once again, whatever I was had come in freaking handy.
We think it was designed for Shadow; his sister guessed he was coming and when they saw the flaming wolf…
They assumed it was Shadow Beast. Which made perfect sense.
“I’m okay,” I repeated, trying to get through to Shadow, who still held me so tightly, it was clear he was not letting go anytime soon. “I don’t know how, but I’m okay.”
His chest shook beneath me, his features very much wolf man now, with an elongated jaw, more facial hair—I was kind of digging that, to be honest—razor-sharp teeth, and those lethal claws tipping his hands. The fire wolf that formed around us looked just like its master. Scary.
“Shadow,” I said softly. No response. “Shadow, come on, dude!” Louder this time. “You’re squishing me. I’m fine. Better than fine.”
Liar. Midnight sounded like it was laughing at me, and I could see it jiggling.
Yeah, I wasn’t better than fine. I felt completely wrung out like an old dishcloth, but I wasn’t dead, so anything above that was a bonus.
Finally, the fire and heat around us faded, and like the absolute moron I was, I missed it immediately. “Feels cold when it’s gone,” I said softly, my face still pressed against Shadow’s chest by his big ass hand on the back of my head.
“You were almost gone,” he thundered. I’d never been so relieved to hear his voice. “You’re in so much fucking trouble, Sunshine.”
I wiggled against him, naked, of course—that was pretty much my thing at this point. “You going to punish me, Beast?”
His hold on my hair tightened, and I groaned at the painful and arousing tug against my scalp. “If we didn’t have a very large audience,” he murmured close to my ear, “I would show you exactly what happens when you almost die on my watch.”
“Fuck.” I groaned again. “Can you get rid of them?”
“I can hear you!” Angel shouted, her words getting through now that Shadow had released some of his power. “Let me at her.”
Shadow reluctantly set me on the ground, and I found myself swept up by Midnight and Angel, both of them wrapping around me and holding on for life. “You almost died,” Angel said hoarsely, “and I was alone again.”
My throat was tight, but I forced the tears to stay put. It was just… the thought of her being alone again, after losing her entire family, was too much for me to handle. I couldn’t be so reckless with my life. Angel didn’t let a lot of people in; I’d made it into her inner circle, and that meant I had a responsibility to stick around as long as possible.
“I’m so sorry,” I choked, holding on to her with everything I had left in me. “I promise I didn’t mean to scare you, and I would never want to leave you. We’re family, Angel.”
I’d never seen her cry, but it felt like she was holding back tears as well.
I should have come with you.
Midnight was distressed too, pressing closer to my spine. I’d scared them, and the fact that I had this much love in my life made me one lucky shifter.
Eventually, I pulled away. “I’m so sorry,” I repeated. “I honestly didn’t mean for my wolf to escape like that, but once she was free, I had no control. This land… It boosts her energy, and she called all the shadow creatures to her like it was fucking nothing.”
Shadow was standing, watching silently, Inky at his back, swelled right up to a huge curtain of black.
“What was I hit with? And how did you get it off me?”
Midnight had already told me it had been a mist weapon, but I wanted to hear the rest.
“It was a weapon built from the leicher mists,” Angel said. “I have no idea what the exact translation is, but it roughly works out to be ‘scourge’ or ‘sludge.’”
“It’s designed to suck the life from any that it touches,” Shadow added. “And then whoever controls the weapons will be powered from it.”
“The creatures killed him,” I said softly, trying to wrap my head around it.
Shadow shook his head. “No, they just killed the one who was on the frontline. The one who controlled that weapon is safely in the compound. My sister is the only royal nearby who has the power to create such a destructive force.”
I sucked in some air. “Did she steal energy from me?”
The last thing I wanted was to assist Shadow’s sister in any way, shape, or form. Fuck no. But I was drained… completely wrecked, so it stood to reason she had absorbed my power.
“I don’t think so,” Shadow said, his gaze tracking across my features. “You’re exhausted from fighting against the scourge, but I can’t sense that you gave any energy to your attacker, and if anything, you will have stolen their power as they fought to keep you contained.”
Good. That was very good.
“And how did I get free?”
“Shadow dumped you into the lava,” Angel said shortly, fine lines of stress appearing on her face at the memory, “and then into an icy bath that he created in the rocks.” She tilted her head and I saw the pond behind us. I had no idea how he’d made it icy, but apparently, Shadow managed the impossible on the regular.
“How did you know to do that?”
He looked grim. “We learned about creating these weapons when I was young, and thankfully, some of the information came back to me. I knew that to have a hope of disrupting the membrane of the power, I needed extremes. Usually by the time you start the process of breaking the outer shell, the leicher has already stolen their victim’s life. Thankfully, this wasn’t the case, and I could weaken it enough for you to find your fortitude to fight and break through.”
“It should have killed me before you could break it?”
He nodded. “Long before.”
His expression was haunted. He’d been fighting for me, but he’d expected that I’d be dead by the time he’d gotten me free. That was…
“The mists are scary,” I said softly, trying to catch my breath again after my most recent near-death experience. “I’m finally starting to see that.”
Angel shook her wings out, once again looking like her calm and collected self. “Yes, that’s why Shadow’s position as the Supreme Being was so important. Only he would have the ability to communicate with and somewhat control the power of the mists.”
I swallowed hard. “How is the realm still standing if no one has truly had that power for thousands of years?”
Shadow crossed his arms, looking resigned. “The mists for the most part just exist. They don’t attack for no reason, but they also can be unpredictable. I have no idea what they’ve done for the past thousands of years to keep the balance here. I don’t know who performed the ceremony to keep leicher and ether from clashing. I don’t know why the land is strangely drained and desolate when it never was before.”
He clearly hated having so many unanswered questions. An emotional setting I could strongly relate to.
“You’ll find your answers when we make it to the compound,” Angel reminded him.
Shadow’s face settled into dark lines, his frustration leaking through. “They know our location now, and if I can predict my sister’s actions, they’ll be amassing everything they have to throw at us.”
Shit! And it was all, just maybe a tiny bit, my fault.
Whoops.
