Page 12 of Hitched to the Shadow Creature (Monster Matchmaking #3)

A ya

I never thought I'd break into Magnus Terra's central DNA repository, but here I was, dressed in black from head to toe, my heart pounding against my ribs like it wanted to escape.

Varkolak's shadow abilities had transformed me, us, into something neither fully human nor fully shadow.

The power hummed beneath my skin, unfamiliar but intoxicating.

"Ready?" Varkolak whispered, his breath warm against my ear.

I nodded, trying to ignore how his proximity made my pulse skip. "As I'll ever be."

With a gentle tug, he pulled me into the shadows, and the world shifted. Colors faded to gray scale, sounds muffled, and my body felt weightless. Moving through solid objects was the strangest sensation, like walking through thick fog that offered just enough resistance to remind you it was there.

We slipped through the concrete wall of the repository as if it were nothing. Inside, the massive facility stretched before us, rows upon rows of servers housing the DNA profiles of every human from the colonies and every shadow being from the East.

"We need to find the main database," I whispered, though I wasn't sure why. No one could hear us in this shadowy half-state. "The restricted access terminals should be on the top floor."

Varkolaks hand remained firmly clasped with mine, our fingers intertwined. "Stay close. The longer we stay in shadow form, the more energy it drains."

We drifted upward, floor by floor, passing through security checkpoints without triggering a single alarm. Guards walked their routes, oblivious to our presence, their faces bored and unaware.

When we reached the top floor, Varkolak pulled us back into solid form behind a large server bank. The sudden weight of my body almost made me stumble, but he caught me, strong hands steadying my waist.

"You okay?" His silver eyes searched mine, concern etched across his face.

"Fine," I said, though my legs felt wobbly. "Just need a second."

The restricted section was behind a glass door with a biometric scanner. Two armed guards stood outside, their posture rigid and alert.

Varkolak studied the setup. "I can get us through, but we'll need a distraction for the guards."

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small device Lena had given us. "This should overload the electrical systems for about ninety seconds."

"That's not much time."

"It's all we've got."

His fingers brushed mine as he took the device. "Always surprising me, aren't you, Fletcher?"

I couldn't help the smile that tugged at my lips. "You haven't seen anything yet."

He activated the device and tossed it toward the opposite end of the room. Within seconds, the lights flickered and alarms blared throughout the facility. The guards' radios crackled with urgent voices, and they exchanged concerned looks before hurrying toward the commotion.

"Now," Varkolak said, pulling me back into the shadows.

We slipped through the glass door and materialized in front of the main terminal. My fingers flew over the keyboard, bypassing security protocols using the codes Mei had provided.

"How long do we have?" Varkolak asked, keeping watch by the door.

"Maybe ten minutes before they realize this is a distraction." I accessed the main database, scrolling through files until I found what we were looking for. "Here, the matching algorithms."

What I saw made my blood run cold.

"Varkolak, look at this."

He moved behind me, his chest pressing against my back as he leaned in to see the screen. "What am I looking at?"

"These are override codes. Someone's been manually adjusting match results." I pointed to a series of entries. "These are all political figures, corporate leaders, they're manipulating who gets matched with whom."

I dug deeper, downloading files onto the secure drive we'd brought. The more I uncovered, the sicker I felt.

"They're preventing certain combinations altogether," I said, my voice tight with anger. "Look at these genetic markers specifically filtering out shadow-human matches with potential for certain abilities."

Varkolak's jaw clenched. "They're afraid of what we could become together."

I opened another file and gasped. "This goes back generations. There's correspondence here between the Umbra Council and human officials dating back sixty years."

"What does it say?"

"They agreed to prevent shadow-human matches that might result in shared abilities. They were afraid of creating people like..." I swallowed hard. "Like what we've become."

Varkolak's expression darkened. "The Umbra Council has always preached separation of our kinds. I never thought they'd go this far."

I found my name in the database, saw how they'd flagged my DNA. "They knew," I whispered. "They knew what could happen if I was matched with you, and they tried to prevent it."

"But they failed." Varkolak's hand found mine, squeezing gently. "We happened anyway."

The sound of boots against the floor outside snapped us back to reality.

"Someone's coming," Varkolak warned.

I grabbed the drive, now full of damning evidence. "We've got what we need."

Before we could move back into the shadows, the door burst open. Four armed guards rushed in, weapons raised.

"Freeze!" one shouted. "Hands where we can see them!"

Varkolak pulled me behind him, his body a shield between me and their guns. "We're leaving," he said, his voice deadly calm. "Don't try to stop us."

The lead guard stepped forward. "Shadow scum. How did you get in here?"

I felt the familiar anger rising in my chest. Always the slurs, always the hatred. I'd had enough.

"Like this," I said, stepping out from behind Varkolak.

I closed my eyes and reached for the shadows inside me, the gift Varkolak had shared. The power rushed through my veins like liquid night, and I felt my body change. My skin rippled, darkness spreading across it like spilled ink.

The guards' eyes widened in horror. One of them fired, but the bullet passed harmlessly through my now-shadowy form.

"She's one of them!" he shouted. "She's a hybrid!"

I extended my hand, and shadows leapt from my fingertips, wrapping around their weapons and pulling them away. The guards backed up, fear replacing their confidence.

"I'm both," I said, my voice echoing strangely in my transformed state. "Human and shadow. And I'm not the only one."

Varkolak moved beside me, his own form shifting between solid and shadow. "We need to go, Aya. Now."

Alarms blared throughout the building as we fled, racing through corridors filled with frightened staff and confused security personnel. We burst through the front doors into the plaza outside, right into the middle of the evening rush hour.

Hundreds of people stopped and stared as we emerged, my body still flickering between human and shadow. Varkolak grabbed my hand, pulling me toward an alley.

"Aya! Look out!"

I turned to see a security officer taking aim. Without thinking, I thrust my hand forward, shadows extending to create a wall between us and the bullet. The shot hit my shadow shield and dissipated.

Gasps rippled through the crowd. People were recording with their devices, capturing the impossible sight before them.

"She's a hybrid!"

"How is that possible?"

"I thought mixed breeding was impossible!"

Among the crowd, I noticed something unexpected, looks of hope on some faces. A woman stepped forward, her eyes meeting mine with understanding. Slowly, her hand transformed, darkness spreading across her skin.

"I'm like you," she said. "We've been hiding for years."

Beside her, a man, clearly human, took her hand. "There are more of us than they want to admit."

Another couple stepped forward, then another. Shadow-human pairs who had found each other despite the system's attempts to keep them apart.

"What is this?" Varkolak whispered.

"Revolution," I answered.

The security forces were closing in, pushing through the growing crowd. But for each officer who approached, more shadow-human couples revealed themselves, creating a protective barrier around us.

An older woman with silver-streaked hair approached me, her eyes sharp with determination. "We heard rumors about a human girl who could wield shadow abilities. We've been waiting for someone to show us it's possible."

"How many of you are there?" I asked, amazed.

"Hundreds in this city alone," she replied. "Thousands across the colonies. We found each other despite their manipulations."

The crowd was growing, both in size and in volume. Chants rose:

"No more secrets!"

"Love without limits!"

Varkolak squeezed my hand. "Aya, we need to keep moving. Once they regroup, they'll come at us with everything they have."

I nodded, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the scene unfolding around us, shadow beings and humans standing together, some revealing abilities they'd kept hidden their entire lives.

"Where will we go?" I asked.

A tall shadow man with striking blue eyes approached us. "I'm Kell. I run an underground network for people like us. Come with me, we have safe houses throughout the city."

Sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder.

"They're coming," someone in the crowd warned.

"Everyone scatter!" Kell commanded. "Meet at the safe points. Spread the word—tonight, we stop hiding."

The crowd dispersed in organized chaos, shadow-human couples disappearing down alleys and into buildings. Kell led us toward a service entrance of a nearby building.

"What you did today," he said as we hurried through the back corridors, "you've just changed everything. The evidence you stole and your public display—they can't put this genie back in the bottle."

"We didn't mean to start an uprising," I said, breathless as we climbed a service stairwell.

Kell laughed. "The best revolutions are the ones that happen by accident."

When we reached the roof, I looked out over Magnus Terra—the gleaming city that had built its foundation on lies and fear. In the streets below, I could see people gathering, shadow and human alike. The news was spreading faster than the authorities could contain it.

"What happens now?" I asked, turning to Varkolak.

His silver eyes reflected the city lights as he pulled me close. "Now we show them what we can become when we stop letting fear dictate our futures."

I thought about the life I'd lived before. The lonely orphan from the human colony, dreaming of belonging. I'd found that belonging not just with Varkolak, but with a movement larger than myself.

As more sirens wailed in the distance, I knew our fight was just beginning. But for the first time, we weren't fighting alone.