Shadows Found

Rule #47 of surviving Absentia — when your ex-enemy shows up at midnight and kneels at your feet, you don’t let your found family murder him. Even if they really, really want to.

I’m Kaia. Valkyrie. Disaster magnet. Accidentally bonded to a man I should hate but can’t seem to kill.
Darian Luthar betrayed me once.
Then he walked into our camp, dropped to his knees, and confessed everything. And instead of letting the others end him, I claimed him. Because the bond between us? It’s real. Ancient. Corrupted at the source — but mine.

Now we’re racing toward Sorrow’s Keep, chasing a friend who was taken and hunting answers we’re probably not ready for. But we’re not going alone. I’ve got:
Darian — the broken one trying to be better
Finn — naming my shadows and pretending he’s fine
Torric — ready to burn the world if I ask
Malrik — steady, lethal, hiding something big
Kieran — my oldest friend, whose past just caught up in the worst way
Aspen — grounding me when I forget how to breathe

And then Callum appears in the road.
Corrupted. Prophesying. Twisted by whatever’s behind the Gate. Whispering about gods and hunger and how I’m exactly what it wants.

The Gate is waking.
My shadow army is growing (thanks, Walter).
The bonds between us are breaking and reforging.
And somewhere ahead, Seren is waiting — bait in a trap I can’t afford to ignore.

One Valkyrie with an army of judgy shadows.
Six men bound by fate, fury, and a bond that refuses to break.
A god that’s been imprisoned for centuries — and it’s starving.

If Alekir wants me to open the Gate, he’ll have to go through all of us first.
And we are not going quietly.