Page 54

I nodded. "Mostly. She has powers. She can see and speak to the dead. And she's... she's meant for us. For me, and for Rowen, and for another. She's our mate."

"A shared mate?" Lianna's eyebrows rose slightly. "That's unusual, even for demons."

"She's unusual." I couldn't help the slight smile that tugged at my lips when I thought of Sierra. Her silver hair, her fierce determination, the way she'd looked at me with trust when absolutely nothing in my history had earned it. "She's brave, and stubborn, and completely maddening. And she's in danger."

Lianna leaned forward, her wings shifting behind her. "What kind of danger?"

I took a deep breath. "Something's hunting her. Something ancient and dark. We call it the Shadow Beast because we don't know what else to call it." I described the creature as Sierra had described it to me. The suffocating darkness, the sense of ancient malice, the way it seemed able to track her through her dreams. "It attacked her while she slept, tried to claim her. We've been searching Rowen's library for information, but have found nothing that exactly matches what she describes."

My mother had gone very still, her tea forgotten in her hands. "A being of pure shadow? That can enter dreams and leaves no physical mark?"

"Yes.” Hope flared to life in my chest at her reaction. "You know what it is?"

She set her cup down carefully. "I feared this day would come again. It's been millennia since it last appeared." She rose from her chair. "Wait here."

I watched her disappear into the cottage, my mind racing. Again? She knew what this was?

When she returned, she carried an ancient tome, its binding gleaming with a faint, otherworldly light. It wasn't a book made by mortal hands, that much was immediately clear. The cover seemed to shift between silver and gold depending on how the light hit it, and strange symbols danced across its surface. It was bound in some kind of hide, making it a book of dual natures that baffled me.

"This is a heavenly text." She placed it on the table between us. "One of the few things I brought with me when I fell." Her fingers caressed the cover reverently. "It contains knowledge that has been forgotten by most living beings. Knowledge of the First Dark."

"The First Dark?"

She nodded, opening the book. The pages within seemed to be made of something between paper and light, translucent and yet substantial. "Before creation, there was darkness. Not evil, not yet, simply the absence of light. But when light was created, a portion of that original darkness became... resentful. It gained awareness, purpose. It became the Shadow Beast, as you call it. Though that is not its true name."

"What is its true name?" I asked, leaning forward to study the strange text. To my surprise, the symbols rearranged themselves as I looked at them, forming words in a language I could understand. This must be the angelic language.

"No one knows. Or rather, no one who knows has ever lived to speak it." Lianna turned several pages, revealing what looked like ancient drawings. "It has been defeated before, but never destroyed. Only pushed back into the spaces between worlds, where it waits and watches for an opportunity to return."

"And it's chosen Sierra as that opportunity," I said absently, understanding dawning. "But why her?"

Lianna gave me a measured look. "Because she is powerful, Archer. More powerful than she knows. Her ability to communicate with the dead is just the beginning. She stands at a crossroads between life and death, between light and dark. She is exactly the kind of vessel the Shadow Beast seeks."

My hand tightened on my cup, threatening to shatter it. "It wants to possess her?"

"It wants to use her to fully enter this world," Lianna corrected. "To absorb her power and use it as an anchor to manifest completely."

Cold dread pooled in my stomach. "How do we stop it?"

She turned more pages until she came to what looked like a battle scene. Figures wielding light against a formless darkness. "The last time it was defeated, it was by a being of dual nature. Someone who carried both darkness and light within them."

I stared at her, the implication clear. "Someone like me. Half demon, half angel."

She nodded, her eyes meeting mine. "Your angelic heritage gives you access to light magic. Powers of healing and banishment. Powers you've barely explored because using them makes you vulnerable to detection by other angels. Something to be used against you in your life in the demon realm.”

I'd used my healing abilities only a handful of times in my long existence, always as a last resort. The last time had been when I healed Sierra. I had to or she would have died. I had to hide deep in Hell for months following that, scared that an angel would sense the light I used and find me and hunt me down.

"You're saying I need to use my light to fight this thing?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"I'm saying you may be the only one who can," Lianna replied softly. She turned to another page, showing what looked like a ritual. "This text details how to channel angelic light into a weapon of banishment. It won't destroy the Shadow Beast—nothing can truly destroy it—but it will force it back into the between-spaces for another age."

I studied the ritual, committing it to memory. It was complex but not impossible. It would require preparation, power, and perfect timing. And it would require me to embrace a side of myself I'd spent centuries ignoring.

"I don't know if I can," I admitted, the words painful to speak aloud. "I've denied that part of me for so long."

Lianna's hand reached across the table to cover mine. Her touch was warm, warmer than any human's, a hint of her true nature shining through. "You can. The light is still in you, Archer. It's always been there, waiting."

I looked up at her, at the face so like and unlike my own. "How can you be sure?"