When no one moved, I turned and grabbed at the first clothing my hand touched, pulling on some cotton sweats, a grey shirt, and socks. Fuck knew why the magic closet had given me socks and not underwear, but I wasn’t about to argue. I noticed as I pulled the shirt down that the mark on my chest was gone now, shifter healing having kicked in.
But the damage was already done with Shadow and his temper. Mine too, if I was being honest.
The hissing was loud when I sidled back along the wall, Shadow’s eyes snapping straight to me. Igorna turned as well, and there was no way I could tell what it was thinking with such foreign features.
“What is it saying?” I asked Shadow, unable to stand the suspense any longer. “Did I pull it here from the Shadow Realm? Or did I just open a doorway and it walked through?”
Shadow didn’t answer, too busy hissing at the creature, and I was about a second from losing my shit when he finally answered me. “Igorna doesn’t know what happened. He was out hunting when he felt your presence. Following the energy resulted in him stepping through to our world. The prince is not happy about finding himself locked out of the Shadow Realm.”
“Is the library shadow door still locked?” I asked, wondering if I’d done more than just dream walk my way into the Shadow Realm. “Maybe I unlocked it while I was there.”
Like I’d summoned it with that question, Inky seeped into my room, twirling its way around Shadow. “The door remains unchanged. You bypassed it as usual.”
“So what can we do about our new guest?” I asked. “And did I release anything else this time?”
Shadow’s jaw could cut glass, it was so tense, his lips pursed as he let out a breath. “I haven’t had time to investigate if there are any others, and Igorna is going to be a bit of an issue because the power this beast wields is close to my own. Especially while I am in this form.”
In this form?“You have another form?”
My mind went wild trying to imagine him shifting into another form. Did he mean that fiery wolf thing he did? Or was there a complete other side to Shadow? Was it like Igorna’s? Or was it something else entirely?
Maybe he’d fashioned shifters in his image?
“You need to leave the room now, Mera,” he said, his tone brooking no argument.
Starting toward the door, I found myself hesitating, swinging back to stare at him. “Will you be okay, Shadow?”
“Fine!” he snarled. “The two of us just need to have a little chat.”
Igorna hissed his loudest hiss so far, and I didn’t like the sound of it. But this was no place for me, in a battle between shadow beasts. I just had to hope Shadow would once again prove the rumors true and be the scariest one of all.
44
Rushing from my room, I headed straight for the Library of Knowledge. The urge to run back to Shadow was strong, but there was nothing I could do to help him except get in the middle and die. He was the scariest, most badass being I’d ever met, and I had to have faith he could hold his own. Not to mention the bastard had locked me away for days, so really, would I mourn if he died?
When I entered the library, I couldn’t get over how normal it all was. Bright and airy, filled with beings milling around, doing their research. Like none of them knew about the days I’d been locked away. Or the new shadowy dangers I’d brought into our midst.
Marching through the shelves, I ignored the confused looks. Hadn’t they seen a chick on a mission for food before?
“Ms. Mera!” A cheery voice caught my ear. “You’ve finally finished your research project! We missed you.”
I paused, turning to find Gaster and his genuine smile behind me. Swallowing down my fury, I forced my own smile to appear. When I’d been stuck in the room, I’d felt very betrayed by him… by everyone. Thinking they’d all known I was imprisoned, and no one had even slipped some food under the door. Logically, I knew it was stupid to expect anyone to go up against Shadow, but it had still hurt.
“Research project?”
He nodded enthusiastically. “Oh, yes. Shadow said you were helping him out and wanted to remain undisturbed.”
He did, did he?I returned his smile. “Shadow is a fucking liar. I was locked in my room, a prisoner, without food or entertainment. So if you’ll excuse me…”
I marched off, but not before seeing his face fall. Yeah, that was mean and bitchy of me toward someone who didn’t deserve it, but I was hungry and stressed, and that was never a good time to corner me with stupid happiness.
When I reached the dining hall, my first glance was to look for Angel, but her spot was empty. Typical. I finally get out of my prison and my one friend was MIA. She clearly had a life that didn’t involve me and the needy bitch that I was didn’t like that. Hopefully, she at least noticed I was missing and asked someone about me. I had to believe that there was one supernatural creature here who gave a fuck about me. Since Shadow clearly didn’t.
Inky popped up out of nowhere, wrapping around me, like it wanted to remind me that it cared. “You don’t care,” I said, shooing it away. “You’re just Shadow’s sycophant, and that means I can’t trust you.”
Inky swelled and it had been a while since I’d seen it do that, so I stared, mesmerized by the beauty of its sparking synapses. For a minute, before I forced myself to turn away. It was time to start distancing myself from Shadow and anything connected to his world.
The small metal servers ducked around then—I’d grown very used to the robotic-type beings, having learned they originated in the land of Faerie. Normally, I didn’t like being waited on, but from what I knew, they didn’t mind the tasks they’d been given. After all, they had been created by the fae with the sole purpose to serve. The square, metal “face” didn’t have eyes or a mouth, so there was no way to tell if they were happy, but I somehow doubted they even felt emotions such as those.
