"Are you a new resident?" he asked, then paused. I got the distinct feeling he was examining me. "You look human."
I sucked in a breath, and a wave of shock ran through me as I realized why that voice sounded so familiar. Only he could say the word human with such a strange mix of fondness and exasperation, as if humans were nothing but a bunch of troublemaking children and yet he couldn't help but love them.
It'd been around eighteen years since I last heard that voice, and yet I was sure. It had to be him.
Unable to hide the tremble in my voice, I stepped forward, closing some of the distance between us as I reached for him, my hand unsteady. "Shade?"
Shade
I blinked, surprised the human knew my name. The way he was behaving... how did he know me?
"Ah, yes? Have we met before?" I asked carefully, and his hand dropped, his eyes falling to the floor. There was something about his eyes, something that'd caught my attention. Not that he was blind, but something...familiar.
"Oh, you don't remember me," he murmured in a tone that implied it should've been obvious to him that I wouldn't.
I gave him a second look, taking in everything from his dark, wavy hair to his hazel eyes, his dark skin, his slim body. He had to be in his early twenties, if that, and he was beautiful. Like a fae prince.
The comparison reminded me of another person I'd once thought of as a prince, a child with dark, curly hair and the happiest brown-and-gold eyes.
"Diego?" I asked, the name blurting out of my mouth the moment I made the connection, and he smiled instantly, his head shooting up as his eyes landed on my chest.
"It's me. I can't believe it's really you! After all these years..." he said, then shook his head, and I stepped forward, reaching out to take his hand.
"What happened?" I asked, rubbing a thumb over his knuckles, and he shuddered under my touch, making me pull back.
He reached out, as if to grab me, then lowered his hand. "You know what happened. You were there," he murmured, and my stomach dropped.
Before I could say anything, I heard the outer door to my area open, and I reacted without a thought.
"Shhh, stay quiet, okay?" I murmured, moving Diego near a wall and then covering him with shadows so whoever was coming wouldn't see him.
The inner door opened, and Touya poked his head inside. He was also a human, and mated to one of the Sanctuary's residents, a half-troll named Silas.
While I'd moved to the Sanctuary—a pocket dimension that homed supes who couldn't live among the humans, created and run by a sorcerer named Zephyr Morrigan—around twenty years ago, Touya had moved here very recently, and worked as the headmaster's—the moniker everyone used to address Zephyr—assistant and manager of the whole Sanctuary.
"Hey, Shade. Can I come in for a moment?"
"Of course! Everything okay?"
Touya stepped fully into the room, closing it behind himself. The door—and the short hallway between the outer and inner doors—kept any light from falling into my area. I wasa shadow being, and any form of light falling directly on me caused me unimaginable pain, which was why I lived in a place completely devoid of light. The only way I could ever go out without getting hurt was traveling through shadows or in someone's shadow.
"Zephyr felt the door open, and his wards told him it was you passing through, so he wanted me to check in," Touya said, and my brow wrinkled. I hadn't left my area in days. Was his magic glitching again?
My eyes slid to Diego, and I pursed my lips. Could it have been him? But why would he feel like me? Unless...
"Oh, yeah. I thought I'd go out, so I went outside through the shadows, but then I changed my mind and came back."
Touya tilted his head, and I got the feeling he didn't believe me. I tried to look as earnest as possible, but it wasn't much use since he couldn't actually see me in the dark.
"Oh, okay. Zephyr was worried something was wrong, so that's good."
"It is," I agreed wholeheartedly, and hoped he would leave soon. I wanted to talk to Diego, and for some reason, I didn't want the others to know about him just yet.
It wasn't like I thought they'd kick him out or something. Zephyr Morrigan, the "Headmaster" and creator of The Sanctuary, didn't strictly prohibit humans from the sanctuary. After all, four of the residents already had human mates. And now that I knew Diego was blind, I was pretty sure he was the man Liam had told me about, which meant I wasn't the only friend Diego had here. Liam was a human who'd recently joined our family as a mate to one of the Forest residents, and he owned a comic book store that Diego frequented.
"Okay, well, I have to get back to work. I'll ask Zephyr to give the door a look anyway. Can't be too careful, right? I'll let you get back to...whatever you were doing."
"Reading," I promptly supplied, making him shake his head.
