We were a silent group the next day. The strain from the creatures I’d gathered was getting to me, and I lagged at the back of our group. It was a weird exhaustion, not the same as I’d felt holding the creatures back on Earth, but enough that my legs were heavier than usual.
“We’ll reach the Nexus very soon,” Ixana said. “I’ve never been here, obviously, since I would have been destroyed by the mists and creatures long before making it this far, and I’m just as interested as you all to see what we will find.”
“To my knowledge, no one has been to this sacred place, correct?” Shadow rumbled.
“As far as I know, there has been none strong enough,” Ixana confirmed.
“I can feel its energy,” Angel said, her head tilted back, wings expanding like they too were scenting the air for power. “It’s a spot of life in a land of death.”
It was calling me. It had been the entire time, really, and this close, I was a magnet dragged toward its polar opposite.
“Mera?” Shadow asked.
I shook my head in an attempt to reorient myself. “It’s calling me.” I breathed. “I felt the same pull the first time I touched the realm. The first time I saw you. The first time a creature appeared in my life.”
Shadow’s pull was the strongest of all, and I’d tried ignoring it, hating him, even fucking him, but nothing had changed that feeling deep in my body.
Our demons matched.
Our souls matched.
It was an absolute truth that was set to destroy me any day.
“I can see the Nexus,” Angel said, lifting herself up to fly above us.
I gestured to one of the abervoqs that were rarely far from my side. It knew without me having to say a word exactly what I wanted. Pawing at me with his bear-like claws, I was lucky not to be disemboweled as it started to lift me.
“No!” Shadow raged, cutting its movements off.
Ixana put her hands on him in an attempt to stop him from striding forward. “Lover, she has her army to help. You’re not needed any longer.”
Shadow and I did our thing, a long, drawn-out stare-off, where a fuck-ton of shit went unsaid, and I was mentally begging him to insist. For some reason, this felt like the moment where he had to choose sides. Mine or Ixana’s. Words were all well and good, but it was actions that said everything.
“Mine,” he rumbled softly. My heart lurched. “Until such a time I say she’s not, Mera Callahan belongs to me.”
Two steps and he stole me from the grip of the abervoq, and like any quasi-intelligent creature, it didn’t fight. Especially since it knew I was more than a little okay with this arrangement. I’d take as many of these moments with Shadow as I could. Even if eventually life tore us apart.
Shadow’s grip around my waist softened as he lifted me like I weighed nothing, hoisting me up to sit on his shoulder. I was perched on one side, awkward at first, but as he walked, his size grew. Bigger and bigger, until he was massive, and I could comfortably sit, able to see for miles.
Angel drifted in at my side, and the creatures let out their calls below. “Wow.” I gasped as the Nexus came into view. It was an oasis in the center of a desert. Not green as it would be back home, but bright yellows and reds. Like a plume of fire had sprung up, only the fire was built behind an impressive stone fence, with just an arched red stone entrance.
“The last of the power,” Shadow said, able to see it as well.
“We have to restore this land,” I told him. “It must have been beautiful at one point, all wild and untamed with creatures roaming. When the two mists were strong and intertwined.”
Midnight had shown me bits and pieces of this world, and now I was seeing that the images had been from here. A lot of them must have been from before the greed of the royals had stripped it bare.
“It used to be called Paldeena. The land of plenty,” Shadow said sadly. “Long before my time, of course. I’ve only known it as ‘The Grey Lands,’ but once upon a time, this was our haven.”
It could be that again. I sensed the truth of that deep inside. This could be the land of plenty again. In my moment of realization, envisioning the potential here, I felt better. My creatures would have paradise once again.
I’d be so focused on looking ahead that I hadn’t noticed just how freaking tall Shadow had grown until I looked down. “Holy shit,” I exclaimed, staring at the ground at least twenty feet below us. “Do you have a height limit?”
Shadow laughed, but I was seated so comfortably on his massive shoulder that I barely moved. “I’ve gone a hundred before.”
“A hundred feet?” I screeched.
Another laugh.
“I really can’t picture that, and please don’t decide to show me right now.”
“I’ve never seen anyone shape change like Shadow,” Angel said, still flying beside us, her stunning and powerful wings flapping between glides. “It’s definitely a unique power.”
He shrugged, lifting me momentarily even higher before his shoulders settled. “I developed the ability when I was thrust from the realm. Inky and I surmise that when I was scrambling to stay here, I gathered energy into myself that I should never have had. Like Inky itself, whom I drew with me, these other gifts were not mine by birthright.”
“They’re yours now,” Angel said. “Power is funny like that. Once it has been commanded, it adapts to the commander. You’ve become so much more than you would have if you’d stayed here and taken your mantle. You’ll be the most powerful Supreme Being to ever rule the realm.”
I expected Shadow to be pleased by this observation, but there was no smug twist of his lips. No acknowledgement or sign of excitement. He almost looked… resigned.
Was this one of those the grass isn’t always greener on the other side things? Shadow had wanted this for so long that I expected some aspect of being so close to his goals was overwhelming. But once it was all said and done, and he sat on his throne, the ground below decorated with chunks of his sister, he’d finally feel content. Right?
Since this might be my last chance to speak to Shadow without his mate hanging on to us, I had to ask. “Was getting back to Ixana always part of your plan?”
Even Angel was watching him closely, waiting to hear his response. “At first, yes,” he finally said. His eyes drifting to where his mate marched along below us, his face set in cold lines, looking fierce and very…
“She’s beautiful,” I said because she was. Beautiful and evil.
He didn’t acknowledge that. “Ixana has not been a priority of mine for a long time.” He lifted his gaze from her. “We knew each other for a few scattered years, lifetimes ago. We did have a bond, but as more time passed, the less I thought of her. I’m not really onboard with the way we’re assigned mates here. It’s why I didn’t plan for the same with shifters. A soul connection is always going to be stronger.” He trailed off, muttering something that sounded like at least I used to prefer it before he changed the subject.
“We should reach the Nexus soon. Are you ready to find out where your power comes from?”
I snorted. “Good try, dude. But I’m not done with my last topic. If you weren’t waiting for your true mate, wanting to return to her and cement the final bond, then why didn’t you kiss anyone before me?”
He released a deep breath. “For some reason, it was the one thing I held on to, until…”
Me. “Why?” I breathed.
Shadow was tense, his shoulders hardening under my ass. “You know why, Sunshine.”
Now I was tense, but I did know why.
Our demons matched.
Our souls matched.
We were more than just a random hookup. We’d been more the first moment I’d touched the Shadow Realm and drawn him into my world. But why were we more?
Why did we match?
And what did it mean for our future?
