“Yes, but only in our natural form. You will understand it much better that way.”
I didn’t need to think. I transformed just as Shadow did. The sun crested the horizon as Shadow sent images of her life as a young child.
Our father, the son of a bitch, had fathered her with another woman while married to my mother. I had been conceived one day later. Shadow and I were born on the same night, just seconds apart. Of course, Shadow had been born first.
“In most of our past lives, we’ve been twins, but you were destroyed in the last three reincarnations, so I assume that’s why the gods must’ve given us two different mothers.”
“And our dad?”I asked in my head, using words instead of images.
“Total asshole. Best to avoid him, but our grandmother is pretty awesome,”she responded.
She showed me images of our father’s parents and how they had loved her. They were from a long line of magical beings, not quite witches, although that’s who they usually married or hung out with.
Our father’s mother had suspected Shadow was different, and when our grandfather passed, she began to test Shadow’sgifts, pulling the Karkadann to the forefront earlier than it might’ve occurred naturally.
Luckily for me, that’s what’d happened, otherwise, she wouldn’t have been knowledgeable enough to save us from Balthazar.
We galloped along the prairie through empty corn fields and over a multitude of fences when, finally, I transformed into my human avatar and sat down on the porch at a vacant house. Shadow transformed as well and sat next to me.
“Can I visit her?” I asked, meaning our grandmother. I hadn’t known my mother’s mom. But I’d loved my grandfather with everything I had in me. He was more of a dad if I was being honest. Mom was annoying, but I knew she’d always loved me, unlike my dad, who had disappeared long ago.
“She’s very frail, but she’d love to meet you. I-I think she always wondered about you. Re’em are always male, and Karkadann always female. Grandma would’ve known you existed.”
“Why didn’t she try to find me?” I asked, feeling a bit put out by that new information.
Shadow leaned back against the old rotted post and sighed. “Listen, the dark never attacks Karkadann. For one thing, even the legends tell of how territorial we are.” She chuckled, but I think even I knew how powerful she was.
“When the Re’em is young, they are completely without powers. Even with my protection, you would’ve been injeopardy. Grandma couldn’t risk the forces that attacked you tonight finding you until you were ready.”
“Ready? How is it I was ready? I mean, I still don’t believe it, and I literally just changed back into a human.”
Shadow laughed. “Yeah, it’s going to take time. I’ve had an entire lifetime, and it still sometimes shocks me.”
I shook my head as Shadow continued.
“Listen, I have no idea how it works for the Re’em. I had my powers from the moment I was born. They’ve just become more powerful as I’ve grown older. I suspect when you moved to Seattle, and yes, before you ask, I’ve done a lot of research on you since we met that night in my bar.”
“Your bar?” I asked, causing her to chuckle.
“My bar. I own it, and several other establishments in Seattle.”
“Wait. There’s some bad juju there, Damian told me…”
“Yeah, and they are all dead now. Listen, there’s so much to unpack about what happened tonight, what’s been happening. Balthazar confronted me after I went out with the leader of the stupid vipers. He threatened Molly if I didn’t help him find my light equivalent, in other words, you. At first, he didn’t believe me when I told him I didn’t know you. I wasn’t powerful enough, not until we were joined, to defeat him, but I bided my time. Unfortunately, the son of a bitch was there that night you came in. He recognized you before I did. I thought maybe I could hire you as my attorney, then… it didn’t work out as I’d hoped. When I refused to help him killyou, he kidnapped Molly, and I had to come up with a strategy to defeat him. All I can say is, luckily, Damian stepped in when he did with that ridiculous golem and got her released from Balthazar’s grip.”
“Wait—the golem. That’s what got him in so much trouble?”
Shadow smiled sadly. “Yeah, it’s a Hebrew thing. It’s a clay figure you can bring to life. Unfortunately, I didn’t even think about him using his own blood.” She shook her head. “If Balthazar wasn’t the exhibitionist he was, he could’ve done a lot more damage with that than just holding him and your witch friends captive.”
Images rolled through my mind of how Damian’s blood could’ve been honed into a weapon to use against the light. “Yeah,” I said as the images began to subside. “He’d best keep his blood to himself from now on.”
Shadow chuckled beside me.
I thought about Molly, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. “Wait, you…you and Molly?” I asked.
Shadow sighed. “You’re coming into your powers. That’s going to be a bit disconcerting, especially since they’ll be coming on you fast now. You’ll want to find somewhere you can lie low. Of course, you’re welcome to stay here. Nothing would dare come into the Karkadann territory, not even humans, although they wouldn’t understand why not.”
I chuckled. “I have a feeling I’ll be safe with Damian.”
