I swallowed roughly, my body going haywire at being this close to him. We’d had that one night together in Faerie, and since then, life had been a shitshow, and I’d had no chance to really think about what had happened. But my body remembered. The way he’d buried his head between my thighs, his talented tongue that had brought me to orgasm more times than I could have imagined…
Shadow leaned right down so he could run his nose along my neck—unsurprisingly, this dude had a lot of shifter tendencies. “You smell delicious, Sunshine.”
He could scent my arousal; I didn’t bother to get embarrassed about it. But I did need him to focus. “Are you sending me back to Earth now that you’ve achieved your goal of getting into the Shadow Realm?”
My words were clipped and brittle. Maybe it was the reality of leaving hitting me hard, but all of a sudden, I was desperate to stay. I wasn’t done; there was so much more here that I had to explore.
He reached out and brushed back a lock of my red hair, his hold on the strands almost possessive. “Answer my question, Sunshine.” The low voice vibrated through me, settling somewhere… quite low. “Do you want to leave?”
“No.” The absolute truth of that was slamming through me with the force of a bullet. “I have so much more to experience and learn; I’ve only just gotten started.”
The hand holding on to my hair shifted, sliding farther through the long, somewhat tangled strands so he could gently tug my head back. Our gazes met with a searing connection, energy almost visible in the air. He was so much taller than me that immediately my neck ached, but as his strong fingers caressed my scalp, the last thing I would do was complain.
“I need to know what you are, Sunshine,” he said softly, and it almost sounded like a threat. “You’re not going anywhere until the mystery is unraveled. The fact that you broke a near two-thousand-year-old spell on a door when no one else could, tells me it’s in my best interest to unravel your mystery.”
“So I’m staying?” I confirmed.
“Yes. You’re still mine. For now.”
Relief almost crushed me to my knees—not that I’d ever admit that to the beast before me.
“When are you heading into the Shadow Realm?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I’m not sure, but probably not today. I have some preparations to make first.”
“What do I do while you’re in the realm?”
A perfect smirk appeared on his face. “It’s cute that you think I’d leave you here unsupervised.” He shook his head. “Nope, Sunshine. You’re coming with me. We’re going to figure out your connection to my world if it’s the last thing we do.”
With those ominous words, he stepped aside, and I saw the Shadow Realm doorway for the first time. Gone was the black smoke, and in its place was a solid black door. The only black door in the library.
And apparently, I would soon be exploring this realm. A world that had not been visited by outsiders for thousands of years.
No problem.
5
Iwas done, exhausted to the point of delirium. Shadow saw me swaying on my feet and nudged me toward his lair. “Get some sleep. I need you fully functioning when we make our way into the realm.”
I just nodded or shook my head… I might have even been drooling as I mumbled something about Simone, and was assured she would be secured and brought to the library. Then, with the help of Angel, who half-carried me, I made my way to the barrier between the lair and library.
“I’m coming with you to the Shadow Realm,” she said shortly, her face set in hard, determined lines. “I don’t trust Shadow Beast to put your safety above his own agenda.”
Our eyes met, and the magenta in hers was the pinkest I’d ever seen. That color felt like it was penetrating into my damn soul, but in a good way. Warm and fuzzies. “I feel the same way,” I said softly. “He’s proven more than once that I’m only a means to an end. But I need to know who I am as well, so I’m not going to fight him.”
Angel nodded once. “You must discover your truth so that, moving forward, you will be at the strongest you can be.”
She pressed her hand to the spot above my breast, where she’d previously bonded us, and I could have sworn I felt her emotions for a brief second. A mix of worry and determination to get us both through this alive.
Following this was a definite boost to my energy that would give me enough juice to make it into the lair and my bed.
“Our bond grows stronger,” she said, sounding surprised. “What should take decades appears to be maturing much faster.”
I blinked at her but didn’t bother to ask why. No one knew what the heck to expect when it came to me and my energy. We were just going with it.
“Get some rest,” Angel said softly, a heavier accent slipping through before she tucked her true self away again. Angel was excellent at blending—quite the achievement for a near supermodel-goddess. Occasionally, though, I caught a glimpse of the being she’d been before her family had been lost to her. Before she was alone and broken.
I got a glimpse of the true heart of Angel. And it was so fucking pure.
