The murmurs were immediate, and I noted how bedraggled they all looked. Thin, dirty, and more than a little broken. Dannie hadn’t killed them yet, but she also hadn’t treated them like anything other than trash waiting to be tossed to the dump.
“We have to help them,” I whispered to Shadow, barely able to look at their poor faces, terrified but also resigned. They were preparing for the worst.
“Yes,” he snapped, seemingly unable to get more words out through his anger. At least until he said, “Are your creatures here as well?”
“I don’t actually know. I feel their energ—” I didn’t get to finish my sentence because that was the moment they crept into view. Maybe I’d somehow called them with those words, or maybe they’d just been slower to appear, but as the hundreds of shadow creatures made their presence known, my power exploded.
I hadn’t done anything to initiate the explosion, the power reacting of its own accord, in a similar way to how my wolf used to occasionally burst free from my skin. This time, it was the change, washing over me so I went from human-looking Mera to phoenix wolf Mera in a heartbeat, flaming wings and all.
Shadow’s chest rumbled, his energy reacting too, as he shifted into his Anubis form, flames still surrounding us both. Our clothing was destroyed again, the energy of our shift always leaving us naked, but in this form the extra hair covered us.
There was a beat of stunned silence, and then the royals rushed forward, bowing and chanting at us. They called us “Nexus gods” and offered up every sacrifice one could think of in worship. I had no idea what I was going to do with fourteen thousand barrels of “gre gre,” or what gre gre even was, but apparently, I was going to have more than enough of this unknown item coming my way soon.
As immensely uncomfortable as this entire situation made me, I didn’t belittle their actions or beliefs in any way, nodding and thanking them before focusing my attention on my creatures.
My wings spread out farther, the flames shooting into the air behind me as I stepped forward. Thankfully, everyone got out of my way so I didn’t have to stress about accidentally burning a royal.
Come to me.
I called the creatures, as I had so many other times. The ones who had been visible stepped forward… followed by so many others. The hundreds quickly turned into thousands, all of whom must have been squished in the very back of this deceptively huge courtyard.
I opened my arms, and even though there was absolutely no way for me to reach around the group, my power didn’t have the same limitations. It crashed over them all, like a wave, and as it touched their essence, my bonds to them clicked into place.
Like a mother with her children, I offered them love and comfort and the promise that while I was alive, I would do everything in my power to protect them. My creatures had not had that for a very long time. Dannie had lost her way years before I’d been born—probably around the time she’d broken the rules and fallen in love with a royal. For that, though, I could never be upset with her. She’d given me Shadow, and without him, there’d be no me.
I’d give her a pass on that falling in love part… the rest, though, she’d have to answer for. “I’m going to take you somewhere safe,” I told them in a whisper of power. The creatures brayed and called and bellowed out into the world, finally showing life and excitement and their animalistic nature.
“You’re taking them to the outlier island?” Shadow asked in his deep Anubis voice.
I nodded. “Yes, it is best to leave them there while we have to fight Dannie.”
Shadow moved forward as if to open a doorway, but I stopped him with a hand on his arm. “I don’t want you to expend any more energy,” I said quickly. “Do you think I can attempt to open it?”
My well of power inside was raging like a storm. Overflowing, overwhelming, especially in this current form I was rocking, as a giant wolf-bird. This version of me was so much stronger than I’d ever been. Torma would not have had it so easy beating the fuck out of me if I’d been able to access this form back then.
I had a thought. “Are my scars gone?” I asked Shadow. “Did you notice?”
“I notice everything about you,” he said shortly, “and yes, your skin is unmarked from your shifter life.”
An odd feeling filtered through with that knowledge. I wasn’t sure how I felt about my “clean slate.” My scars were part of who I was, memories of what I’d survived, and knowing they were gone now settled uneasily within me. It seemed rebirth always had consequences.
Shadow brushed a hand over my cheek, bringing me back to him. “Your strength will never fade. You don’t need the scars for everyone to know you survived—not just survived, but flourished.”
I let out a deep breath. “You’re right. I know my truth, and that’s all that really matters.”
Shadow looked like he wanted to drag me up his body and remind me that he also knew my truth, and every other part of me, but somehow, he refrained. “You can open the doorway, Sunshine,” he said, keeping that enigmatic gaze locked on me. “There’s nothing you can’t do.”
He had faith in me. Far more than I probably deserved, but it was the confidence boost I needed to close my eyes and reach for a doorway to the island we’d been on. I pictured it in my mind, threw some power at it in the hopes that would work, and when I opened my eyes again, there was a swirling portal. Well, fuck. It seemed my new energy was going to baby me through these early skills, filling in the blanks itself when I fell short on knowledge.
It was a nice change from my usual bumbling through life approach.
“I need to check with the locals first,” I said to Shadow, moving closer to my portal. He stayed right on my ass so we stepped through together.
The locals appeared in an instant, bowing down to us. “We need your help,” I said softly, having no time to sugarcoat it. “We have many creatures, royals and freilds. Not to mention other realm inhabitants who need somewhere safe to stay while we fight the final battle. Will you take them in?”
No one answered for a beat, and I wondered if they were going to refuse us. I wouldn’t blame them after the way the royals had treated them, but it would make the situation a touch harder.
A being with the greenest skin I’d seen so far stepped forward. “We will. We’ve never been their enemy, even if we chose to live a different way of life. If they can accept that way here, they are welcome to stay as long as they need.”
