I blinked at her. “I’m sorry. What did you just say?”
A creature born of the Nexus.
She continued on like she hadn’t just dropped a fucking bomb on my head. “It took me near two thousand Earth years to figure out how to do it; I had to come close enough to death that the Nexus believed it needed to create another mother. You appeared right when I was giving up hope.” She smiled at me. “You can call yourself Mother Junior of the Creatures. You and I are born of pure creation.”
I was on my feet, and I wanted to scream. I wanted to tear my skin off, turn into a firebird and leave, never to have to see these beings who were ripping at the foundation of who I was.
“How?” Shadow bit out. “How did Mera come to be on Earth then? In my shifters?”
This distracted me from the volcano of emotion about to explode from me because I needed that question answered.
Dannie sighed. “There’s no easy way to say this, but… I kind of destroyed her first form, which freed her from the confines of having to stay at the Nexus. I sent the remaining energy into the shifters, through my connection to you, Darkor. It’s complex, but basically my bond to you and your bond to the shifters allowed me to bypass the spell on the door, and then I could place Mera where I needed her. She was always going to be the one who would open the Shadow Realm door, since her energy was destined to return home. This Nexus would call her until she returned.”
“Did you make Shadow and me have feelings for each other?” I choked out. Nothing I hated more than being manipulated, and it appeared she had done it with every part of who I was.
Ixana lost it at that point and tried to push me into the river. “I knew you were trying to steal my mate,” she screamed, only to be stopped by Shadow’s huge-ass hand shoving her away.
“Do not touch Mera,” he warned the ice bitch.
Dannie got between us, her half-smile reminding me of her knowing look I’d seen a hundred times. “I did not manipulate any emotions. You and Shadow are both powerful beings, with the mists of creation in your veins. It makes sense that if they didn’t kill each other, you’d do something else…”
Ixana stormed off in the direction of the gate, and for a brief moment I thought I caught sight of a smile on her face, but I must have been mistaken.
Shadow didn’t bother to follow, his focus on Dannie. “How did you get to Earth then?” he snapped. “Since Mera had to bypass the spelled door in energy form.”
“Mera called me the day her father died,” she said softly. “She allowed me to leave this world, and in our absence from the Nexus and mists, the land perished to what you see now.”
I’d called her…?
“Not literally of course,” Dannie assured me, “but your pain was so strong that I believe it was the first doorway you opened between the worlds. I took advantage and stepped through.” She eyed me closely. “Thankfully, because you needed someone on your side in the years that followed.”
“I am still part shifter, then?”
She nodded. “Of course. That’s the reason you have a shifter mate and can turn into a wolf. The reason you can be without the Nexus and not fade, like I would eventually. I’d been growing weaker on Earth, hence why your pack mates were able to hurt me. You have a true dual soul, and one day these two sides will collide in a spectacular manner. You’ll be reborn into the Supreme Being with the power to rule both worlds.”
Her words were too much for me to truly comprehend. I would need a few hundred years, and some serious alcoholic beverages, before I could touch that statement.
She paused briefly. “I am truly sorry I destroyed the first vessel, Mera, but I promise, your energy is still as pure and beautiful as the first time I held it in my hands.”
This was a lot. It was more than a lot, it was near unbelievable, but it also made sense. It explained away all my stupid shit, and the reason I could call and control the creatures. I was apparently a Mother of Creatures, like this spectacular woman before me, and I supposed I knew now why my hair was the color it was.Like a sunset.Exactly like Dannie’s phoenix, and my fire touched wolf.
Like the mists.
Midnight drifted down and wrapped around me, comforting.Do not fear your power. We are creation, but we are also more than that. Sentient in a way the pure mists are not. You have nothing to fear.
“This is why the mists bonded to Shadow and me,” I said softly. “Both of us are partly the same as they are.”
Dannie beamed. “You always were clever, my girl. It’s also why Shadow could create shifters. Because he’s born of my energy. We are all connected, but not related,” she added with a sharp smile at me.
It was a fine line, I was honest enough to admit that, but hopefully Dannie was right. There was no literal blood or direct energy connection between Shadow and me. Therefore, no need to scrape all the sex we’d had from my brain, and that actually made me feel a lot better.
It also explained why Shadow and I fit together. We were a match, an even bigger match than the one I had with Torin, and that gave me this stupid sense of hope I had no right to have.
Was there actually a future where Shadow and I could truly be together?
44
Ihad to look away or I was going to jump the beast, and now was not the time. Not after being near-floored by all the truth bombs dropped on me today.
