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I have to do something. Anything. It’s time for me to save myself.

Maybe I could morph into an animal and get rid of whatever was wrong with me. What could see well at night? Fox… A big cat. Maybe a cougar? I drew at my powers and tried to drag them into me, but there was no gust of wind and no rush of magic poured through me.

If I couldn’t shift and Logan wasn’t with me anymore, had Acheron stolen my powers? Was this what it was like after he consumed a shifter?

I refused to believe I would exist in a state of nothing, trapped in a dark place after Acheron consumed me. I’d rather be dead and buried than live in limbo.

What had happened to my mate?

Logan is dead.

The unwelcome thought slammed into me, knocking the breath from my body.No, he’s not. I would know.

How would you know?

He’s my mate, so I would know.

But he’s not there.

My scowl scrunched my face. If Logan wasn’t there anymore, who was I arguing with? Was this the first step of losing myself in madness? Panic sliced through my chest, and I gasped when I ran my hands over my naked body. Bare skin shouldn’t have been shocking for a shifter. Nevertheless, a violent tremor made my teeth chatter.

Get it together. Get it together.

I couldn’t see, I couldn’t shift, and I’d been trapped in a concrete room… by Acheron. It was the only answer, and his name wounded me like a right hook to the stomach.

He had to be who I was arguing with in my head.

He was in my head…

I shuddered and leaned to the side for a wretched, watery vomit. It must have been hours since I’d eaten anything at all. I wiped the spit from the corners of my mouth and smeared the vomit moisture on my thigh.Fuck this shit.

If I’d been put into a box, there had to be a way out of the box.

And I’d find it.

“Hello?” My voice sounded raspy, pressed through the dryness in my throat. “Is anyone there?”

No one answered, and the darkness didn’t dissipate, so I sat up, my bare ass pressed into a hard, cold concrete floor. At least I assumed I was sitting up. Gravity still pulled down, but without my vision to help orient mespatially, I couldn’t be sure, and the black space spun around me. I reached out far enough my fingers grazed the edges of my container, sending the sensation of flames burning up my arms.

“Hello?” I coughed out, biting back another rush of puke.

“Ah, ha. There you are,” a creaky voice echoed out of the shadowy murk. “I wondered how long it would be before we could have a proper introduction.”

“Who are you?” I asked, already knowing but wanting to hear him say it anyway.

“Oh, we’ve met before,” he said, his voice almost familiar.

“We have? Then who are you?”

To my knowledge, I hadn’t met Acheron, so I wasn’t sure how it could be true.

He snapped his fingers, and about ten lanterns burst into flame around the walls of the cavernous space, partially illuminating the expansive concrete bunker I was in and a shadowed figure nearby.

A transparent box surrounded my spot on the hard floor, giving me a six-foot-by-six-foot square to exist in. Since the walls burned me, I assumed it was a warded cage. I couldn’t tell what was at the far end of the bunker, but a small bucket rested in a corner, and I shot the shadowed figure a dark look.

“You see? Here I am.”

The most gorgeous man I’d ever seen stepped into view. Dark hair fell over his forehead, and intense blue eyes stared warmly at me. Wide shoulders tapered to atrim waist, and the corner of his mouth pinched as though he knew the punchline to a joke I hadn’t heard yet.