“It’s okay, Louie.” I pause, then say it again, softer this time. “Lou.”
The name still feels like her. Still sounds right.
Even if the rest of the world feels like a lie.
“You must feel terrible right now, but I don’t blame you. If what you’re saying is true, you’ve kept me safe all this time. I love you so much. I heard you and Ezra talking about your hellfire and your memory. I’m sorry if my mother put a spell on you, too.”
With a fair amount of hesitation, I reach out to pet her, then pull my hand back.
“Heh. I don’t know if it’s okay to pet you anymore because, ya know, we can talk now.”
Louie leans into my shoulder and curls up by my side.
“It’s okay, Aurora. You can still pet me and treat me just like you always have. I’m technically still a dog.”
Louie’s voice is quiet, while her eyes stay glued to the god sitting in my shabby, overstuffed chair.
Idly stroking Louie’s fur, I glance at Ezra.
He’s different. I know that now; the shadows alone told me as much.
But do I want to know justhowdifferent?
“Ezra, what are you? Are you from the same place as Lou?” I swallow hard, my gaze flicking to the twitching shadows still clinging to my ankles. “I saw your … shadows the other night. And, uh, kinda hard to miss the ones trying to fuse themselves to my hip.” My voice cracks. “I know you’re not human. Is the pull I feel toward you part of that?”
A tremor moves through his shadows, shifting like a restless tide at my words, but he doesn’t acknowledge it.
Where the hell do I fit between the hellhound and this dark, shadowed man?
I’m still pissed about what he did, but he also saved my life, so I can grant him a small amount of grace until he inevitably fucks it up again.
“I don’t know what I am, Aurora. No name exists for me—or for what came before. I predate every god, every monster, everythingthat crawled out of the dark. I’m not made of flesh. I’m made of shadow. Of stardust. Of something older than time. I can move through walls. Vanish into places light can’t reach. I made the form you’re looking at myself. Something that could pass as human. I can become animals—creatures that don’t mind being borrowed. But I can’t wear other people. Souls weren’t built to be shared. They scream when you try. Like you’re pulling the skin off the universe.”
He pauses here. It’s not dramatic. Just … tired. “But that doesn’t make me knowable. It just makes me dangerous.”
As if proving his point, a shadow slinks toward me, barely brushing my ankle before snapping back. Ezra watches it retreat. Something unreadable flickers in his expression before turning those stormy grey eyes toward me.
“The pull you feel, I feel it too. I can’t … ignore it, Aurora. After we … Well, after you toured the shop, I could feel you calling to me from miles away. I could find you anywhere, little lupine. No distance could keep me from you. I would do anything to satisfy that pull.”
Ezra’s gaze turns ravenous, and despite everything, heat unfurls deep and hot in my stomach. The shadows stir, reacting to the slow, stupid thrum under my skin.
Louie huffs with annoyance. “Oi, I’m not gonna sit here and watch you two eye-fuck each other. Ezra! Fucking focus on what we need to do first. Jesus Christ.”
Ezra’s eyes darken, something dangerous flickering beneath.
A tendril of darkness slithers toward Louie’s paws, just a whisper of a threat. When she growls, it recoils with a steady, smug slither, like an inky little predator biding its time.
“Easy, little pup. Wouldn’t want you sent back to Hell so soon, would we?” Although Ezra’s voice is gentle, the threat is still there, lurking behind those soft words.
“Whatever, you old twat,” Louie mutters, curling up at my side as if she didn’t just call an ancient shadow-god an asshole.
My head swivels painfully back and forth while Ezra and Louie trade jabs.
Why does it feel like they already know each other?
“Yes, well, thank you, Louie. Elegant as always,” Ezra says with a snarl.
When his focus returns to me, his eyes soften, and his body relaxes. His intense stare is oddly comforting, like nothing can touch me while he’s watching over me.
