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HUNTER

I took Pandora away from the academy tonight.

We’d walked across the bridge at Odyssey Bluff and kept walking until we found the best spot to watch the stars. I heard distant howls of desert creatures, but we were safe here. The animals of the desert knew not to bother demons.

“ This is the perfect spot,” I told her, spreading the blanket I’d brought with us out on the sand and gesturing for her to sit down with me.

The desert at night was a vast expanse bathed in both moonlight and starlight. The sand was cool, and shadows draped around us. The sky was an endless canvas of stars that twinkled like scattered diamonds.

A gentle wind stirred the dunes, shifting the sand slightly.

She settled down on the blanket and scooted close to me. “I love it out here, Hunter,” she rasped. “I’ve never walked this far before.”

My heart damn-near combusted from her admiration of the nature around us. “I’m glad. I wanted to watch the stars with you.”

“The stars are so beautiful,” she murmured, leaning against me and inhaling my scent.

“ You’re beautiful.” I leaned back on the blanket.

She fell back on the blanket as well, moving so our heads were next to each other, and we gazed up at the twinkling stars above us.

I reached out, tracing imaginary constellations with my fingers. My other hand threaded through her long hair. “You see that one?” I pointed toward a particularly bright star.

“I do.”

“That’s you in my world. You are my starlight,” I told her. I didn’t care if it was cheesy.

It was the best comparison I could come up with for what she truly was for me.

She moved until we were side by side, and she pressed herself against me. The silvery glow of the sky reflected in her red eyes as she looked at me. “And what does that make you?”

I paused before chuckling softly. “Just a wanderer, lucky enough to be able to look at you on my darkest days.”

“Hunter,” she giggled, but the surge of love that flowed through the bond almost knocked the wind out of me.

“You’re so special to me, Pandora, and not just because you’re my mate.” I kissed her head, wanting to prove to her just how much she meant to me. “You’re a guiding force in my life. Just like the stars were to so many supernaturals before.”

“I love you so much.” She snuggled closer, and my heart soared with every single movement she made to get closer to me.

Fuck , I really loved her more than she could ever understand. The Fates truly blessed me with this matebond. My only regret was that I hadn’t found her sooner. If I had, I would’ve never allowed Penny Bones to hurt her the way she had.

“I love you too, and I’m so proud of you and how far you’ve come.”

“I am, too, Pandora,” Nebula called from her bag.

The sound of sand crunching came from our left as Dexter stepped out of the shadows and bent down to pick up Pandora’s bag. “This looks like it has potential to get spicy. I’m going to take you away.”

“Dex,” Pandora gasped as I chuckled.

“Please do,” Nebula begged. “But monitor her.”

“You know I will,” Dexter scoffed at him before melting back into the shadows.

Pandora and I laughed, and the raspy sound of hers made my heart beat faster. I found myself watching her instead of the stars above.

My gaze was locked on her and the way the moonlight splashed over her black hair, turning into a waterfall of ink. Her head was tilted back as she laughed, and her red lips parted, full and kissable, catching the soft glow of the night. Even her eyes were burning a deep red as they met mine.

Fates, I couldn’t look away from her even if I wanted to.

“I love your laugh more than anything,” I croaked.

“I thought we came here to stargaze,” she teased me, turning back to look at me with a bright smile.

“We did.” I smiled so hard my cheeks ached. “But I found something even better to gaze at.”

She giggled, shaking her head as she turned her face back toward the cosmos—but I didn’t. My starlight wasn’t light years away. She was right in front of me, smiling, burning just for me in this moment.

“I meant to ask you about Sabine’s daughter,” she asked suddenly, snuggling closer again. I inhaled her caramel scent greedily as she did. “Rune Bloodwyne, right?”

“Yes.” I nodded, trying to focus more on what she was asking. “I know little about her. She has a special power that has to do with venom and poison, and she’s rumored to be stronger than her mother. Her parents are very protective of her, but that’s really all I know. Why? Is there something wrong with her?”

“No. Nothing like that.” She shook her head. “Her soul is good, but it’s incomplete in a gaping kind of way.”

“Like she’s going to have fated mates?” I furrowed my brows.

“Yes, a few. It’s almost like her mates will calm her chaos a bit.” She shook her head with another giggle. “I liked her. She seemed really nice.”

“She’s got a reputation for being eccentric, from what I’ve heard, but I’m glad you like her.” I held her tighter as I heard footsteps in the distance. I turned, but there was nothing there. I wasn’t stupid enough to think it was nothing. “Do you think you’ll be okay with the next ritual sabotage?”

“Of course,” she promised, the thirst for vengeance burning through her at the mention of it.

“You’ll get your vengeance,” I promised, keeping my gaze out toward the desert.

She opened her mouth to say something else, but chaos magic rippled between us as Demo manifested, planting her paws into the sand and growling into the darkness.

Pandora’s hand struck out toward the area Demo was staring at, and her shadow slinked out and whipped the air with a resounding crack as if it had actually made contact with something.

“What was that?” I asked, helping her to her feet and putting myself between her and the area her shadow struck at.

Her entire body was frozen, and I could feel her panic leaking through our matebond. “The shadow had a mind of its own. I didn’t mean to use it.”

My mate was spiraling.

I scanned the desert. Demo continued barking, and my gaze caught on a bat that lay on the sand. The sound we’d heard was the shadow whipping it out of the air.

The bat got back up and flew away.

“It’s okay.” I turned back to her. “It was only a bat.”

“Fates! Is it okay?” She jerked her hand back as the shadow writhed around, not going back into Dexter’s mark. Her chest rose and fell too fast, and her eyes were wide and unfocused, like she was trying to figure out how to run away from the shadow that was connected to her.

“The bat’s fine.” I cupped her face and forced her to look at me. “Hey, starlight, look at me,” I murmured, thumbs brushing over her cheeks.

“Hunter,” she croaked.

She was hot, and her skin was damp. Her pulse raced under my fingertips. “You’re safe. You’re here with me. You’re not in the cellar, Pandora. She can’t hurt you anymore.”

She tensed before nodding slowly. “She’s dead.”

I nodded. “She’s gone. She has no power over you anymore. You killed her.”

“I killed her.” Tears welled in her eyes, spilling over her cheeks and my thumbs. Her breath was still erratic, and her body still shook.

I kept my hold on her face. “Breathe with me,” I coached, inhaling deeply so she could follow. “In for five.” I held my breath. “Hold for five.” I breathed out. “Out for five.”

She tried, but her breath stuttered, and the shadow continued wiggling around us.

I didn’t let go of her, though.

She kept my gaze. “Hunt?—”

“ Again , starlight. In for five…” I breathed in, and she followed my pace. “That’s it. Hold…” We held our breaths. “And out for five.” I exhaled with her. “Good. Keep going.”

The rhythm of her chest slowed, the tremble in her hands lessened as I guided her through it, each breath pulling her a little further from the edge.

Her eyes were still glassy, but there was something else now—recognition.

She was coming back to me.

I ran my thumbs over her cheeks again, wiping away the tears that clung to her skin. “You’re in control,” I reminded her softly. “Not her. Not the past. You . That shadow is yours.”

A shuddering exhale left her lips. Her free hand finally reached for me, gripping my wrist as if I was the only tether she had to solid ground, and I was more than happy to be that for her.

“I—” Her voice cracked.

I shook my head, brushing a damp strand of hair from her face. “You don’t have to say anything. Just stay with me, okay?”

She nodded, another shaky breath leaving her lungs, but this time, it was steadier.

“Trouble, I’m letting my shadow calm yours. Is that okay?” Dexter’s breath hit her ear as he stepped behind her, and she tensed only slightly.

She nodded, keeping her gaze locked on me. “Yes.”

Dexter’s shadow crept forward and curled around hers.

She let out a rushed breath of relief as his shadows touched hers.

“That’s it,” he praised her. “Breathe with us.”

I continued breathing with her, and Dexter’s chest was against her back as he followed my instructions on breathing.

His shadows slowly inched hers back into the mark.

“It feels good.” She kept her palm up as his shadow encircled her hand, wrapping around his mark in soothing strokes. “Dex...my shadow...it’s a part of you.”

“Yes, trouble,” he agreed with a soft smile on his lips. “It is a part of me. And I’m a part of you.”

The raw realization that dawned on her shot through our bonds, and I saw Dexter’s smile widen.

She was accepting her shadow right now because she just made the connection that it wasn’t her mother’s shadow magic. It was Dexter’s.

“You don’t have to fear the shadow in your palm any more than you have to fear yourself or Dexter,” I told her, leaning in and kissing her lips softly.

“Thank you.” Tears spilled down her cheeks again, and she turned to thank Dexter, but she met his lips instead.

He pulled back with a big grin. “Thank you for realizing that I would never hurt you with my shadows again.”

“Shadow magic may have caused me trauma, but it was Penny’s shadows specifically. Not yours and not the one I wield,” she said aloud, and I felt how much she believed it through our bond.

This was the moment she needed to accept the shadow magic that she was now capable of wielding.

Starlight wouldn’t shine as brightly without darkness, and she was officially accepting that part of her and Dexter.