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ELEVEN

Snap

From the short while I’d gotten to enjoy the mortal realm, I had to say it was a spectacular place. Why did anyone return shadow-side when they could have all this? The bright colors and soft textures of the expansive room the incubus had gotten for us… The intoxicating mix of scents from the platters of items something called “room service” had delivered just moments ago… It was nothing short of its own sort of magic.

I’d admit the first experiences here I remembered, being shut away under brilliant lights with a prickle of poisonous metals all around, had been rather disturbing. But if I hadn’t endured that, I’d never have gotten to taste this miraculous object Thorn informed me was a breakfast sausage.

I chewed on the meaty bite, salt and savory juices mingling on my tongue, and my smile stretched wider. Yes, this world was a paradise for a devourer.

A cool quiver shot down my back at that thought, there and then gone so quickly I couldn’t have examined it even if I’d wanted to. Why should I bother with that discomfort, though? It didn’t feel as if the impression wanted to be prodded. And I had a great deal more breakfast to eat.

“And this?” I asked, tapping a heap of lumpy yellow stuff that smelled much more appealing than it looked.

Ruse glanced over and chuckled. “Scrambled eggs. I think you’ll like those too.”

The little imp we’d picked up before we’d left that last city bounded around the table. “Is there anything he doesn’t like? He’ll be having the table next!”

“And he may have it, if that’s what he’d like,” the incubus declared.

The mortal woman came over, still tugging at her red hair, which always drew my eye. It was more vibrant than even the furnishings in this extravagant room. She was tugging at it, I’d gathered, because she’d woken up to find the imp had woven it all into a mass of little braids while she’d slept.

Antic watched her work at untangling the strands with a huff. “ I thought it looked nice that way.”

“It’s just—not my style,” Sorsha said. I got the impression she was trying to spare the imp’s feelings, which she seemed to do rather often, although I wasn’t sure why. The two of them hadn’t appeared to know each other already. The mortal obviously had a certain kindness to her. I liked that—and I liked her hair down in its loose waves best too.

She let go of the strands long enough to paw through the offerings on the table. “Didn’t we get a fruit salad? There it is. You can’t skip this, Snap.”

She pushed the shiny bowl with its glistening rainbow of chunks toward me, an emotion coming into her eyes that I saw quite a bit when she fixed them on me. Something hesitant but also hopeful, as if she were waiting for something she didn’t actually expect to happen. I hadn’t figured out what, but it made her sad, and that didn’t seem right.

All of them wanted more from me than I’d been able to give. They knew me from a long while before this, and I hadn’t known them until they’d pulled me from that prison.

I furrowed my brow as if that might push the memories to the surface, but I had nothing. Nothing except the journey on the large, sparkly vehicle and before that, the harsh lights in the uncomfortable cage—and before that , the stretch of hazy gloom in the shadow realm that I’d wandered through not knowing all the delights I was missing.

There must have been more experiences that I simply couldn’t remember. Ruse and Thorn had shown and told me so many fascinating things I couldn’t have imagined but had apparently encountered before. I supposed I’d have to seek out those they couldn’t immediately supply all over again. That didn’t sound like a horrible burden.

I popped a piece of banana into my mouth and reveled at the soft sweetness of it, even better with the peel removed. Oh, yes, I was looking forward to rediscovering everything that had slipped my mind. Even if this physical body had its quirks. A tiny itch had woken up in my forearm again. I scratched at it absently and reached for a perfect grape.

A small green shape launched itself onto the table with a warble of ineffective wings and a scrabbling of little claws against the polished wood. “Pickle!” Sorsha cried, leaping at the little dragon. He snapped up a piece of bacon before she managed to grab him. “You’ve had plenty already. Leave some for the rest of us.”

The shadowkind creature gave a snort of disagreement and scuttled away under the table as soon as she’d set him down. That made her appear sad too. No, I didn’t like that look on her at all.

“Are you going to have some eggs?” I asked. I was never sure how much I should say to her, since it seemed to both cheer and dishearten her when I spoke. I thought she might have grabbed a morsel or two in the midst of her work on her hair, but I’d been too absorbed in my own meal most of that time to pay attention.

“Nah, I’m more of a sausage gal myself,” she said, spearing one of those with a fork, and shot a grin at Ruse. The incubus guffawed as if she’d said something funny, which didn’t make much sense to me.

“I prefer the sausages too,” I offered, and suddenly Ruse was laughing so hard his breath sputtered, and Sorsha swiped her hand across her mouth as if she were holding back a snicker as well.

I turned my gaze to Thorn, who shrugged with a resigned shake of his head. I couldn’t tell whether that meant he didn’t understand the joke either or he simply didn’t approve of it. There appeared to be a fairly large number of things the large shadowkind didn’t approve of, from what I’d seen so far.

“Sausages, sausages!” the imp started to sing in her chirpy voice, and the dragon let out a sort of bugling noise from under the table, and I could laugh at that.

Omen stalked into the room in the midst of the mirth and surveyed us with his mouth flat. His aura of power and authority filled every space he entered. I quieted out of respect. I hadn’t determined yet what sort of a shifter he was, although I could tell he was one—it felt rude to outright ask—but whatever it was, there was clearly a reason the others looked to him as the leader.

And he had wanted me to join this team of his. I couldn’t say how I’d be of much use, but I hoped I’d figure that out. It must have been an honor to be chosen by a being so formidable.

“The sun’s rising,” he barked. “Let’s get a move on. You’ve lounged about long enough.”

“I don’t imagine Austin is going anywhere while we eat breakfast,” Ruse replied in a teasing tone, but I noticed he got up quickly all the same.

Sorsha sighed and grabbed her purse. She knelt down by the table, clucking her tongue to coax Pickle into it. Not wanting any of the precious refreshments to go to waste, I snatched up the bowl of fruit salad and tipped its contents into my mouth.

I was just gulping down the last of that riot of flavor when the door crashed open with an explosive bang .

A horde of figures in shiny helmets and vests charged into the room, tools glittering in their hands. The metals sent a wash of vibrations through the air that dug through my skin down to my bones. Pain prickled through the sensation.

I sprang to my feet with a jerk, some instinct in me rearing its head with a vicious shudder—and another impulse yanked me backward. A chill gripped me even more potent than the poisonous energies of those metals.

I flung myself into the nearest shadows and away—away from the clang and crackle of the battle, away from the beings who’d acted like my friends, away … Because deep down in some cold, dark place in the center of me lay the certainty that my presence would only mean a far greater pain for those around me.

They all were safer with me off in the distant darkness than they were if I stayed among them.