Shadow was gone. If the fire had burned out, then did that mean his energy was no longer present to keep it going? Had he found a way to return to the Shadow Realm with Igorna? Or had the creature managed to destroy him?
The questions spun in my head, and even in my wolf form, with muted human emotions, we were afraid. Heading toward my room, we moved slowly, not wanting to be ambushed. Creeping through the stacks of books, I noted that nothing was disturbed, so other than the lack of fire, there was no way to tell anything was amiss. But deep in my soul, the place where I believed gut instinct arose, I felt the change.
And I didn’t like it.
When we reached my room, the door was ajar—it was never ajar. So now we had two disturbances to the status quo, and that was all I needed to know that we were completely and totally screwed. Creeping inside, I allowed my senses to roam free first.
There was nothing. No scent, heartbeat, power resonance, or physical presence. Pushing farther into the room, I was relieved to see it looking empty and untouched. No massive fight had happened here, that much was clear, and I wasted no more time shifting back and changing into new clothes.
Thankful that I’d had a chance to eat and my energy wasn’t completely depleted, even after a rapid shift, I threw a jacket over my tank and pulled my boots on. Hurrying from the room, my aim was to return to the Library of Knowledge, find Gaster, and force him to tell me everything about the Shadow Realm. No longer would I put up with his bullshit response ofthat’s not my business.
Yeah, sorry, bro, when two worlds started to collide, it was everyone’s business.
The library had regained some of its composure upon my return, the goblins righting anything that had been disturbed by the hunters. Those two had cut a path of destruction through the shelves in their journey toward Angel and me. And one of my biggest pending questions was why they had targeted us… me.
Unless it had been Angel who’d been the first point of elimination, as one of the few beings who could kick their asses. It felt narcissistic to keep thinking this shadow drama shit was all centered around me, but fuck, it just kept coming my way.
“Mera!”
I expected that call to come from Angel, but it was actually Len, the silver-cloaked and silver-tongued friend of Shadow.
“You need to come with me,” he said in a rush.
I shook my head. “No, I can’t. I have to find Gaster or Angel. I have so many questions that need answers…”
He reached out and placed a hand on my forehead, and almost immediately, darkness clouded my mind.
“You bastard,” I slurred before whatever he’d done took full effect, and I collapsed into his arms.
47
Iawoke fighting, snarls in my chest as my wolf’s howls rang free. For a few seconds of time, I was stuck between wolf and woman, thanks to the fae magic Len had used on me. I remembered all too clearly how his energy had started at the tips of my toes and worked its way up until my brain had been overwhelmed, and I’d passed out.
And now I was ready to kick some fucking fae ass.
Rolling off the soft surface, I dropped to the floor silently, half-crouched as I stared around. I was in a garden. No, actually,gardenwas too much of an understatement to be accurate.
I’d found myself in the epicenter of the most perfect piece of nature I had ever seen. Flowers ran for miles, in colors that didn’t exist in the earthly plane. Dotted between were trees, so magnificent and grand that the entire scene looked like it was a painted depiction of perfection.
And the smell.My god.As I took a step forward, an overwhelming crush of scents hit me. There was no way I was on Earth or in the library any longer, and considering it was Len who’d decided to hocus pocus my ass and bring me here, that left me with one logical conclusion.
I was in a land I’d been warned never to go to.
Faerie.
What they do to Earthlings who stumble into their world makes me look like a fucking saint.
That warning was extra terrifying today.
Shadow was a cold-blooded bastard who thought nothing of pushing me, punishing me, and possessing me like I was a piece of furniture that he owned, and he’d warned me off this place.
Yeah, I was fucked, and when I got my hands on Len, I was going to rip his pretty hair from his pretty head.
Not able to stay still when it felt like I was under attack—despite the complete lack of anything alarming in my vicinity—I crept forward through the swarths of flowers. I made a concerted effort not to touch anything, and half a dozen steps later, I passed a bunch of yellow daisy-like flowers. Daisies that were seven feet tall with thick, midnight purple thorns all the way up their stems. On the other side of them were shorter floral bunches, in a pink near blinding in its intensity.
Those flowers, above all the others, caught my eye. My steps faltered, and I found myself reaching out to run my fingertips along their velvety stems. They were almost too perfect, with not a single flaw in their greenery or variation in the flower petals.
The perfection made me uneasy. Nothing alive could look that flawless, and yet I felt its energy. All of nature had it, and these flowers were particularly strong. Pausing just before my fingertips made contact, I inhaled one final breath of their sweet scent before moving forward—
