“I don’t know how much longer she’ll stay in her cage,” I warned him.
Shadow staredinto my damn soul, as was his way. “We’ll deal with it when it happens, but I know you’re strong enough to lock her down now. Do it.”
My chest rumbled again, and I patted my right boob in a comforting gesture for my wolf. It was weird, but fuck, what part of my life wasn’t now?We will be free soon,I promised her.We will find out our truth.
If it was the last thing we did.
12
The cliff we’d arrived on had had white wildflowers scattered underfoot, contributing to the sweet scent that filled the wind, but the farther we got from the water, the more desolate the realm became.
The air still smelled clean, a slightly tangy taste on my tongue, but the flowers soon died off, making way for what resembled black tar. “Is this what all of The Concordes looks like?” I asked, grimacing as I lifted my boot to find dark sediment clinging to it.
Shadow, whose jaw was set, brow furrowed, looking down as well. “This is rocky leftover from a lava flow, but… when I was here, it was only around the chasm. I’ve never seen it so widespread.”
“Excellent,” I muttered. Shadow didn’t have the answers about what was going on in this world, not after being exiled for so long. We’d just have to discover it together.
“How does it feel being back here?” I asked when the endless expanse of the same parched land lost my interest. “I mean, you must have thought of this moment a million times over the years.”
My question even had Angel easing up on her warrior focus of the land around us, as she tilted her gaze toward Shadow.
“It’s odd,” he said slowly. “My energy is returning now that the shackles of my expulsion are fading, but my inherited power is still missing. I worry that without it, this battle against my family will be harder than anticipated.”
It was so odd to see him unsure about anything. His confidence basically followed him around like an entourage. Inky and Shadow’s ego were his constant companions. Being out of his element was going to take some getting used to, but I thought it was smart of him to be wary about what he was walking into.
Might keep all of us alive.
“You expected that once the spell on the door was broken, you’d be gifted the full range of your power again?” Angel asked.
Shadow’s chest rumbled, like the memories were swelling his anger. “Not all of it, since the ceremony bonding me to my position still has to be performed, but I was hoping for a good chunk. Right now, I’m probably at sixty percent of what I expected.”
In a flash, he faded out, smoky mists twirling around him. Then he was a few hundred yards away from us. Then he was back at our sides. “I have gained some new gifts.” He sounded energized, his voice vibrating with energy. “My ability to move through the shadows of worlds was a power lost. I can’t go too far or someone will feel our presence, but it’s nice to know it has returned.”
I blinked. “So, technically, you could zap into the library right now without a doorway?”
He shook his head. “The library is protected from this power, but I could go straight to Earth or Brolder. I no longer need the Solaris System pathways.”
Angel cleared her throat, her brow furrowed. “I finally understand why you created the portals of the Solaris System now. You wanted the ability to world jump again, and that was the closest you could get.”
He shot her a sardonic stare. “I shared the power, didn’t I? Be grateful.”
She wrinkled her nose at him but didn’t bother to comment on her “gratitude.”
“What other powers have returned?” I asked him.
He shrugged. “A few others, but mostly it’s my strength. I’ve been drawing from my shifters for years, as yourmatepointed out. But no longer do I need their energy to boost my own.”
The way he’d saidmatewas the same way I said fuck when I stubbed my toe. Shadow hated that alpha, and if I was Torin, I’d be sleeping uneasily at night, knowing there was a beast out there stalking my ass. If Shadow hadn’t been busy with his few-thousand-year-old revenge right now, Torin would be fucked.
“You definitely don’t have the power of a Supreme Being,” Angel said, examining him like she could feel his energy.
Shadow growled, a howling rumble that reminded me of my wolf. “Only the death of the one who usurped my position, and the ceremony, will give me my full power.”
“They should not have been able to utilize the power,” Angel said, shaking her head. “Only the one born to the position can play with the mists.”
Shadow’s flames appeared, and they were so much stronger than I’d ever seen or felt from him that I had to jump back or risk being barbequed. Inky swelled larger as well, seemingly absorbing the energy from its master.
He wasn’t kidding about sixty percent of his true strength reappearing here. His powers had been impressive before, but now… they were scary.
