When we exited onto a platform, the views were beyond spectacular. Or at least the initial view was, with Ixana’s snow-touched kingdom spanning out around us, white and wintery, with snowflake houses, furred beings milling in the streets, and what looked like a… garden in the center. It was huge, and the entire setup reminded me of the images I’d seen of Central Park in New York City.
“This is Landor,” she said, waving her hands around, and the icy breezes that had been buffeting us faded. Everything here obeyed her command, and I wondered if it was the power of Shadow’s stone that allowed that. He’d said it was fairly useless until it bonded to the Supreme Being, but somehow, she’d figured it out.
I hadn’t seen the stone again since that first time. She knew that keeping her leverage hidden away was her best chance of getting what she wanted. That in itself, was triggering all of my red-flag warnings about the queen, and her end game here.
“I have about five thousand of myClangorshere,” she said proudly. “The beings made of my creation. It has taken more than a thousand years, but they’re perfect now.”
I held a hand up, and everyone looked at me like I was a fucking bug. Ignoring this, I said, “I have a question.”
Shadow’s lips twitched, and he shook his head, like he’d been expecting that all along. “Uh, yes,” Ixana said.
“Is everyone in the Shadow Realm immortal?”
Why I’d waited so long to ask this, I had no idea. Maybe I’d just assumed because of Shadow that they were, but it had been well established he was a special snowflake—ha, ironic, considering what surrounded us—so it stood to reason that maybe there were those who died of old age here.
“It varies depending on the being,” Shadow said, the rumble of his voice doing downright sinful things to me. “Many of the creatures are, and they pass this on to the royals who bind them. But the freilds, fronds, and other races all age and die.”
Ixana nodded. “Oh, yes, the rest of the realm’s inhabitants have a lifespan of maybe five hundred cycles.”
“About five hundred years,” Shadow translated her translation.
“So, you’re immortal because of what?”
He met my gaze, and his eyes were actually sparkling in a way that told me he was amused as fuck. “Combination of Inky, the Solaris System, and… yeah, even shifters help boost my energy. Your power recharges my own.”
Torin had picked up on that weakness. Warning him that he knew how to best the beast. What had his plan been, though? Kill all the shifters?
Knowing that stupid fuck, I probably wasn’t far off.
“Okay, cool,” I said, nodding at Ixana. “Proceed.”
She blinked at me before turning back to her “perfect creation.”
“As I said, this land is mine and I control every aspect of it, from the weather to the protective fences that keep my residents safe from the outside.”
“Illusions,” Shadow muttered.
Her lips twitched, and she nodded. “It protects us. You can’t blame me for that.”
There was a history there, but neither of them delved any deeper.
We shifted our view from the white landscape, moving on to what lay beyond. Now the barrier itself was actually super impressive—until this moment, I hadn’t really seen the full effect of the snowflake fence. It was at least fifty feet high, with interlocked points on the flakes, the swirling patterns separating her land from the darker world beyond it.
A world we were about to step into.
“This is the birthplace of the shadow creatures in their purest form,” Ixana said, “and I will take you to the center point from which they emerge. The point the two mists converge. Once we reach that place, we will have gathered our army.
Shadow cleared his throat. “And how do you propose we make it to that point without being torn to shreds? Not even I can take on the wild lands alone.”
She grinned, a creepy sort of smile that made me think of a predator. “You can’t, butshecan…”
Her gaze turned to me, and when it did, so did everyone else’s.
“No,” I said. “No way in fucking hell. Why would I help you two take over the world here? I’m basically ready to head back to the Solaris System.”
Shadow didn’t look happy with my statement, but he wasn’t the first to argue.
Ixana stepped toward me. “You’re in my kingdom and will obey my rule.”
