"No more secrets!"
"Love without limits!"
Varkolak squeezed my hand. "Aya, we need to keep moving. Once they regroup, they'll come at us with everything they have."
I nodded, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the scene unfolding around us, shadow beings and humans standing together, some revealing abilities they'd kept hidden their entire lives.
"Where will we go?" I asked.
A tall shadow man with striking blue eyes approached us. "I'm Kell. I run an underground network for people like us. Come with me, we have safe houses throughout the city."
Sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder.
"They're coming," someone in the crowd warned.
"Everyone scatter!" Kell commanded. "Meet at the safe points. Spread the word—tonight, we stop hiding."
The crowd dispersed in organized chaos, shadow-human couples disappearing down alleys and into buildings. Kell led us toward a service entrance of a nearby building.
"What you did today," he said as we hurried through the back corridors, "you've just changed everything. The evidence you stole and your public display—they can't put this genie back in the bottle."
"We didn't mean to start an uprising," I said, breathless as we climbed a service stairwell.
Kell laughed. "The best revolutions are the ones that happen by accident."
When we reached the roof, I looked out over Magnus Terra—the gleaming city that had built its foundation on lies and fear. In the streets below, I could see people gathering, shadow and human alike. The news was spreading faster than the authorities could contain it.
"What happens now?" I asked, turning to Varkolak.
His silver eyes reflected the city lights as he pulled me close. "Now we show them what we can become when we stop letting fear dictate our futures."
I thought about the life I'd lived before. The lonely orphan from the human colony, dreaming of belonging. I'd found that belonging not just with Varkolak, but with a movement larger than myself.
As more sirens wailed in the distance, I knew our fight was just beginning. But for the first time, we weren't fighting alone.
CHAPTER 12
Varkolak
I paced the dark recesses of my chambers with the shadows swirling around me like anxious pets sensing their master's distress. Aya and I burned with the concrete evidence we had gathered against Umbra: forged documents, manipulated blood work results, and the names of countless beings separated from their true mates.
"They've been playing god," I muttered to the darkness, feeling it respond to my anger, tendrils of shadow reaching out from my fingertips.
Three days had passed since our discovery, and I'd barely slept. Aya occupied the guest quarters down the hall, her human warmth a constant presence in my awareness. Even separated by walls, I could sense her heartbeat, smell the salt of the sea that never quite left her skin.
I needed allies. Powerful ones.
The midnight gathering I'd called would begin soon. I'd sent word to the shadow faction elders and representatives from other monster tribes affected by the conspiracy. Many hadalready lost mates or had their bloodlines manipulated. Others simply feared they would be next.
A soft knock interrupted my thoughts.
"Come in, Aya."
She slipped through the door, her brown hair loose around her shoulders. The sight of her still hit me like a physical force.
"You're brooding again," she said, the corner of her mouth lifting. "I could feel it from down the hall."
"I'm preparing," I corrected, but couldn't help the slight smile that formed in response to hers.
