It had burned.
At some point, that changed, and now when the rumble of my nickname left his lips, caressing my ears with his deep baritones, the burning I felt was of a completely different nature.
My eyes closed, and then I remembered I was about to see a new world and forced them open again. The darkness slithered away in a similar manner to the first time I’d seen Shadow in Torma. His mere presence had caused all light to fade into misty energy, until Shadow had sucked that darkness back into himself.
It felt like something similar happened here as a whirlwind whipped around us, gathering up the shadows of this world, and then we were in the light.
The “sunshine,” so much brighter than I’d expected after such an eternal night, was blinding and warm. For a brief second, I felt my bond with Midnight, my love for Simone and Angel, and the burning ache Shadow caused inside of me.
All the good things in my world burst to life in a single, brilliant drop of light. The scent made sense then, even as it faded once we were here. A scent of home and love.
“Don’t let it fool you,” Shadow whispered, his voice rebooting my senses into their normal semi-cynical setting. “The darkness of the realm exist above and below the light. In some way, this entire world is an illusion.”
I looked to where Inky was drifting along beside us. “Our mists are not the same,” he added. “Being bonded changes them. They absorb what makes us exist, and they feel when we do. The leicher and ether mists feel nothing and act only as a pure power. They will not consider your circumstances or hear your pleas. They will take and destroy if that suits their purpose.”
Okay then. Only slightly terrifying. Especially considering we were apparently walking across a blanket of these mists and another blanket covered us from above. It reminded me of the disembodied voice that I’d heard when I sent that wall of darkness from Earth. If the mists didn’t have a presence like that of Inky and Midnight, then what had that voice been?
Maybe Shadow didn’t truly know what the mists were capable of? A fact that might spell our downfall.
Before I could get too worked up, Angel appeared at our side, having found the way through the dark path, all without touching Shadow. I had zero idea how she’d followed, but once again, her kickass power was impressive. To say the very least.
“What part of the realm are we in right now?” I asked them.
We’d arrived on a rocky outcrop, facing what looked like a mass of water. I noted that it was a bright green compared to Earth’s bluer oceans—possibly due to the minty vibe of the sky here—and there was no sign of waves or disturbance across the waterline.
The glassy, unbroken surface was almost eerie. And the weather here was very moderate, so I wondered if they had seasons such as we did back home. I’d thought so from Midnight’s vision, but there was no sign of any particular season where we stood.
“The Shadow Realm is smaller than Earth,” Shadow said, standing beside me as we stared out into the unnatural water. “It has three main landmasses and five outlier islands. The islands themselves are about the size of the current United Kingdom. I’ve brought us to the mainland: The Concordes. This is where the five families of royals exist, all with their own territory.”
Midnight had told me some of this, but I didn’t clue Shadow in on this knowledge. I wanted to know everything about this world that had, until this point, been completely off limits to me.
Shadow waved his hand to Inky, and when the mist swirled in front of us, I choked on my next breath as it turned into a map. The synapses inside were a roughly sketched, basic outline of the world. There was one large landmass in the center—The Concordes, clearly—with five much smaller islands scattered below it. The top right and top left corner had other landmasses, and I figured these were the other two of the three lands that made up this world.
“The Concordes,” Shadow pointed to the largest land as expected, “and we’re currently in the kingdom of Fraple. It’s the easternmost territory, which borders on Trinity. That is where my family resides.”
Trinity was the largest of the five kingdoms, situated near the center. It seemed to run from the top to the bottom of The Concordes, following a… trench maybe? It was hard to tell in the monochromatic Inky map, but it was clearly some sort of divide.
“The other royal territories aren’t of any concern,” Shadow added. “We won’t cross them on our journey. So for now, we just have to worry about Fraple and Trinity.”
I nodded. “What are the five outliers?”
Shadow crossed his arms. “They’re the lands that reject the royal way, trying to exist on their own without creatures or mist influence.” He pointed to each on the map. “Rodan, Green Isle, Dety, Samsan Grove, and the Isle of Rechest.”
I nodded. “The royals don’t try to force them back under their control?”
Angel laughed drily while keeping a vigilant watch on our backs, as if an attack were forthcoming. “They tried, but the beings there resisted, and eventually, the royals grew bored. The outliers have no true power without creatures, so the royals let them be.”
Shadow nodded. “Yes, but much could have changed in thousands of years. I put nothing past my sister.”
“Especially without the Supreme Being,” Angel added. “Who should have ruled them all and kept the balance in this world.”
Without Shadow.
He laughed, a dry, sardonic chuckle. “I was supposed to be crowned on my twenty-second year here, but that was the day I was betrayed.”
Twenty-two. That number had been significant to the Shadow Realm, and that was no doubt the reason he’d incorporated it into shifter law as well.
Finally had my answer.
