Shadow threw his head back and roared, his expression a combination of fury and fear. I’d never seen that look on his face before, and as much as I hated to see it now because it meant I was dying, there was something about seeing the man you loved lose his shit like this.
I’d have been turned on if I wasn’t actively dying.
Wasn’t that always the way.
45
Shadow held me tightly, and with my avenging Angel above, her weapons out as she flapped those powerful wings, we were racing across the land. Just the three of us and our mists.
Dannie had to stay with the Nexus, keeping it powered as long as possible. Once again, we would be on our own, trying to save the damn world.
“Mera!” Shadow snapped, attempting to keep me conscious.
At some point, it registered that I was actively dying. After all of the years expecting it, this was the moment it happened, and I found… I was not ready to go. Not when I’d finally discovered my true purpose. I also needed more orgasms with this sexy beast of a god.
“I have to save my creatures,” I managed to choke out.
They were already hurting them. There was no other explanation, and it was slowly killing me. That was the risk when one bonded a few thousand beings to their energy.
“Stay with me, Sunshine,” Shadow growled. “And I promise we’ll save your pets.”
“Shadowshine,” I slurred, my head cloudy as the exhaustion pressed down on me like a cloying material designed to snuff my life out. “Told you we’d have a couple…” I coughed a few times, my lungs seizing. “Name.”
“Quiet. You are ordered to keep breathing and nothing else.”
When we arrived at the ice city, it was to find it completely empty. Not just empty, but as dead and desolate as the rest of the land.
“Illusion,” Shadow raged. “That was always her specialty.”
“That bitch had it all planned,” Angel spat out, and she was as furious as the rest of us. “We have to catch her.”
“We will,” Shadow rumbled.
He was moving again, knowing exactly where Ixana was heading. Using his powers, he jumped all of us in a burst of misty smoke, straight into The Concordes.
The time for stealth was apparently long gone.
We ended up over Trinity, and from here, Midnight and Inky carried us toward the royal compound. My bond to the mist was basically the only thing keeping me alive. Well that and the way Shadow was losing his shit, shouting orders at me tokeep fucking breathing.
As we closed in on my creatures, a small surge of my energy returned, allowing me to lift my head. “They’re here, but how did she move them all so fast?” I asked in a breathless whisper.
Shadow’s flaming face, a very Anubis-looking face, twisted toward me. Now that I’d seen his beast side, he appeared to be much more relaxed about letting it free.
“I have no idea,” he bit out, “but it’s clear her plan all along was to usurp the creatures from us. Whether it’s to join forces with Cristell, or to try to best her so that Ixana is the next queen, I don’t know.”
My anger bloomed as more of my strength returned. “I think she’s working with her. That’s why she had the staff and stone. And my creatures…” My chest tightened. “She’s destroying them. We have to hurry.”
I was just managing to function, but as my creatures were killed off, I would be too. The smart thing would be to release them, but I honestly didn’t know how to.
And even if I did know, it was my duty to save them; I had promises to keep.
As we crossed above Trinity, the mists concealed our position. From this bird’s eye view, I could see how widespread the lava fields were, not to mention the lava chasm that nearly divided the land in half.
“We’re almost to the royal compound,” Shadow said, his hand grasping mine. “And I expect you to be alive and functioning when we get there, or Iwillrelease the lava and let it wash this world clean.”
He’d do it too; the truth was written across his face.
“You’d burn The Concordes down for me?” I swallowed roughly.
