A wave of submission spreads like a black tide, until the entire courtyard is sinking to the ground before me.
Monsters—beings of shadow and nightmare, claws and horns and shining, cruel eyes—bow their heads in unison.
Holy fuck.
What is happening?
The Queen Comes Home
Idon’t understand what’s happening.
A moment ago, I’d been certain I was going to be torn limb from limb by these cold-faced humanoid monsters, and now they all bow before me like I’m... someone.
The black-eyed woman with curling horns is the first to rise. “Come,” she says, clapping her hands. The courtyard breaks into a flurry of movement and hushed conversation.
"I am Adena," she says, holding out a hand to me. Instead of nails, her white fingers elongate into long, straight talons that look as though they've been dipped in black oil. Uncertainty makes my insides slosh. Do I shake her hand? Do I kiss it? Something else entirely?
"Let Shadow go," I repeat instead. I stand straighter than before and hope she doesn't hear my voice shake. She blinks in an alien-like fashion, cocking her head to the side.
I point to Shadow, who is still a weakened slump in the electrified net. "Release him." I put as much imperious confidence in the words as I can.
It's just like playing the role of a black widow seductress, I tell myself. Except here, I have some kind of royal influence, and I plan to take advantage of it.
Adena's eyes flicker toward Shadow before softening with understanding. "Ah, you mean the Umbral."
Umbral? Is that Shadow's real name? Not the one I gave him? Or is that what he is?
I simply stare her down, waiting. That's what someone with real power would do. They wouldn't speak to just fill the empty space. No matter how much my tongue wants to flap to make myself comfortable or ask questions or explain myself. Which it is tense with the need to do all three, at once.
Her talons clack against each other in something that resembles a snap of the fingers. The Guard descends on Shadow like a pack of wild supernatural lions, obstructing him from my view. My heart jerks up into my throat, terrified she's decided to have them tear Shadow apart.
But when the Guard breaks away, Shadow is free. There's only the briefest of moments where his eyes meet mine with burning red fire. So much is communicated in that glare—his anger with me, his fear, but all his need to be with me, to protect me with a fierceness that still sends my heart into somersaulting fits.
Then he's there next to me, having moved faster than my eye could track. Shadowy tendrils roil and snap around me with agitation, but I recognize it as a protective stance. Gooseflesh prickles up along my arms and neck, as my body is both igniting and comforted by his proximity. But I have to extinguish the spreading warmth in my chest with the cold hard facts.
He lied to me.
Then again, in this strange place, having him near feels like home and safety.
Shadow always feels like home.
But I can’t live there anymore.
Adena fans her talons in a gesture I take to follow her. She glides rather than walks inside the castle doors where we step onto black obsidian marble floors.
"The court must meet," Adena says, looking over her shoulder even as she leads the way. "And then we will celebrate your arrival."
"Whoa," I finally say, stopping in the middle of the room, forcing Adena to stop. There were too many monster people around before, but with just this woman I need to slow things down. "I don't understand what's happening. And I won't go anywhere until you explain it."
"We must return the Nexus to the human world," Shadow says, tendrils snapping with barely restrained violence.
Adena's expression turns sharp. A glint of red sparks in her black eyes.
Shadow's head snaps back as his body distorts and seems to pull apart, holes in his shadowy body appearing as he cries out in pain.
Oh God, he looks as if he's fragmenting and rearranging. Can that even happen?
"Stop, stop," I cry out, jumping in to put myself in between Adena and Shadow though I'm not sure it makes any difference of protection. Adena's attention turns back to me and Shadow slumps over and groans in relief and pain.
