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My eyes soften, and when I give him a gentle smile, his anger literally melts out of his body, replaced by confusion.

Well, that makes two of us.

“You’re right,” I tell him, ignoring the way his eyes widen to saucers. “I actually wasn’t going to say any of the shit you’re imagining, but I don’t blame you for expecting otherwise. I’ve given you every reason to think I’d do exactly that. Besides, the truth is literally staring me right in the face,” I tell him with a wry smile, gaze flicking down to the illustration in the book.

To Idril.

The girl in the story. Her bloodline, her legacy, who and what she is—it’s all attached to these people. Whoever—whatever—they are.

She is the last hope written about in that book.

And I tried to ruin her. Break her.

‘For only one who has lived in the darkness will have the strength to face it.’

The words are right there on the page, taunting me. One who has lived in the darkness. And she has, hasn’t she? Not just before we found her, but after that, too. She was alone and scared, in a strange place with strange Alphas; her Mate was injured and hidden from her, while every word out of her mouth was denounced as a lie.

She still has no idea who she is. No idea what she’s capable of. How many times has something happened and she’s had no idea how or why?

I remember the sconces flaring down the hall when I yelled at her. The beams in the attic that exploded when Vae cut her down with cruel words.

The truth is right there, in the illustrations. Males and females with palms outstretched, summing fire and air, water and Earth.

“Do you need me to draw you a picture like a toddler so it sticks?” Gavran’s taunt from that first day rings in my ears.

I snort a laugh, but there’s no amusement in the sound. This isn’t something I can fix. It’s not something I can hack or search or test. I took a helpless Omega and made her life miserable when it was already a nightmare.

I tried to ruin someone who’s supposed to… what? If this book’s to be believed, she’s going to somehow stop a war that’ll be so catastrophic it might rip apart the very world itself.

“She has powers,” I admit, tasting the words as they roll from my tongue. “She has magic. Real magic. Magic she doesn’t understand or know how to use. Whoever these people were—she’s somehow related to them or… something.”

I search for the words to try and explain, but how the hell do you explain something you don’t understand? Who are these people? Why are there no records of them? Were they humans who could do elemental magic?

“Gods, it's almost painful at this point, watching you continue to realize all the ways you orchestrated your own downfall,” Riven sighs.

I shoot him a glare, and he smirks. “I think the first thing we need to do is get this information back to HQ,” he says. “I’m sure her Mates would love to know what you just figured out.”

I nod, exhaling in relief as we all start to pack up our bags. We work in silence, cleaning up and replacing everything the way we found it for our drive back to HQ—including the box and the sealed letter addressed to Idril.

Once I’m sure we’re ready to go, I follow Vae and Riven through the fronds and out from under the tree.

For the fourth time, I feel around the outside of my bag, making sure I have both books with me—Tolkien as well as the book Idril’s mother left for her.

The silence lasts the entire drive home, all three of us lost in our own thoughts. I’m sure a thousand questions, theories, and memories are running through Vae and Riven’s minds, just like they are through mine.

It’s not until we pull into HQ’s circular drive that I come up with what might be the most important question of all.

If Idril’s related to these beings that the book refers to as the Light…

Then who the fuck are the Shadow?

Chapter 34

Idril

The water laps at the edges of the cavern in an oddly meditative rhythm. If my anxiety weren’t dialed up to a thousand, it might even be enough to lull me to sleep.

Unfortunately, sleep has been difficult to come by, despite exhaustion weighing me down. After another hour of silent exploration, Branwen yawned and declared it time for bed. We did our best to create a semblance of a pallet from the outer layers of our clothing, but it didn’t last long.