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

A ya

The Sacrarium loomed before me, towers of gleaming obsidian and pearl stretching toward the sky like grasping fingers. My heart hammered against my ribs as the escort guards ushered me up the hundred steps leading to the massive entrance.

"Keep moving," one of them muttered, not unkindly.

I'd never seen anything like this place. Back in our colony, buildings were practical things made of salvaged materials and weathered wood. Nothing like this. The sheer scale of it made me dizzy.

"Is this where the ceremony happens?" I asked, my voice embarrassingly small.

The guard nodded. "The Binding Room is in the central chamber."

Binding. The word sent a shiver through me. I was here to be bound to a creature I'd never met. All because my DNA sample matched whatever criteria they used for selecting mates for the shadow beings of the East.

The massive doors swung open without a sound. Inside, the ceiling soared so high I couldn't make out where it ended. Light poured through stained glass windows, casting jewel-toned reflections across the polished stone floor. My new shoes seemed to dirty the place just by touching it.

"This way." A tall woman in flowing white robes appeared beside me. Her face was stern, but not cruel. "The others are waiting."

Others. I swallowed hard. Including him. My husband-to-be.

I followed her through high-ceilinged corridors, where my footsteps echoed like tiny thunder claps.

With each step, my legs felt heavier. What was I doing here?

I'd agreed to this arrangement because what else did I have?

An overcrowded orphanage. Days spent fishing for crustations just to survive. No family, no future.

But now, surrounded by cold grandeur, I wondered if I'd made a terrible mistake.

We entered a circular chamber where twelve robed figures stood in a half-circle. Behind them, shadows seemed to move and breathe along the wall.

And then I saw him.

At first, I thought he was a trick of the light, a shadow cast by nothing. But as my eyes adjusted, I realized the darkness had form, had substance. Had eyes.

They glowed like embers in a face of living darkness. He was massive, easily a foot taller than me, broad-shouldered and imposing. Not exactly a man, but man-shaped, if men were made of the space between stars.

I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. Fear locked my joints in place.

"Approach, Aya Fletcher," one of the robed figures intoned.

I forced my trembling legs forward, feeling like a moth drawn to a flame that would consume me.

As I got closer, I could make out more details of him, this Varkolak I would bind myself to.

His darkness wasn't complete as there were currents within it, like smoke or ink in water.

And those eyes, they weren't just glowing. They were watching. Assessing.

When I stood before him, he inclined his head slightly. A greeting? A resignation? I couldn't tell.

"We begin the Binding," announced the central figure. "Join hands."

I raised my hand, surprised to find it steady despite my racing heart. Varkolak reached out with what appeared to be a hand of solid shadow. When our skin touched, I gasped. It wasn't cold as I'd expected, but warm, warmer than human skin, and somehow both solid and not.

The ceremony passed in a blur. Someone spoke words I didn't understand over us. A cord of silver light encircled our joined hands. I repeated vows when prompted, barely hearing myself speak.

"It is done," the robed figure finally said. "You are bound, soul to shadow, until the fading of this world."

That was it? I blinked, feeling oddly cheated. No celebration. No explanation. Just bound. Forever.

Varkolak's hand released mine, the warmth lingering like a phantom touch. Two attendants approached with a small chest.

"Your belongings have been loaded onto the transport," one told me. "The journey to the Eastern Mountains will take most of the day."

And just like that, they ushered us out, newly bound and complete strangers.

Outside the Sacrarium, a sleek black vehicle waited. Its design was unlike anything in the colony, with all smooth lines and gleaming surfaces. Varkolak moved toward it, his form seeming to glide rather than step. He opened the door and waited, those burning eyes fixed on me.

I climbed in, clutching my small bag of personal items, a faded photo of parents I didn't remember, a tattered book of ocean myths, a shell necklace I'd made years ago. The only pieces of my old life I could bring.

Varkolak settled beside me, his large form making the spacious interior suddenly feel cramped. The vehicle started moving without any visible driver, humming softly as it navigated away from the Sacrarium and toward the distant mountains that loomed on the horizon.

The silence between us stretched uncomfortably.

Say something, I commanded myself. This is your husband. Forever.

"Do you..." I began, then faltered. "Do you have a name beyond Varkolak? Is that your species or your...?"

"Both," he answered, his voice deep and resonant, with a strange echo quality. "I am Varkolak of the Navi shadows."

"Oh." I twisted the simple band they'd given me during the ceremony. "I'm Aya. But you probably know that already."

His head turned toward me, those ember eyes unblinking. "I know what they told me. A human female. Compatible energy signature. Colony-born."

"That's all?" I couldn't hide my surprise. "They didn't tell you anything else about me?"

"Should they have?"

I frowned. "Well, I'm a person, not just a compatible energy signature . Don't you want to know who you've just been bound to for life?"

The shadows of his face shifted, almost like an expression. "You are right. Tell me who Aya Fletcher is."

Put on the spot, I struggled to define myself. "I'm... I'm an orphan. My parents died when I was a baby. I grew up in the colony by the great sea. I helped with the crustation harvests." I sounded so boring, even to myself. "I like to read. And I'm good at fixing things."

"Fixing things," he repeated. "That is useful."

I waited for him to share something about himself, but he just turned to look out the window. The landscape was changing as we moved farther from the coast, less sand and scrub, more rocky foothills.

"What about you?" I finally prompted. "What should I know about you?"

"I guard the eastern boundary of the Navi territory. I have existed for twenty-eight of your years. I prefer silence to noise."

Well, that explained his conversational skills. Or lack thereof.

"What will I do there? In your home?" The word felt strange. Home had always been the crowded dormitory in the colony, the smell of salt and fish, the constant crash of waves.

"You will be my bound one. You will share my dwelling. Beyond that..." He made a movement that might have been a shrug. "You will find your place."

That was less than reassuring. "Do other humans live there? In the mountains?"

"A few. Bound ones, like you."

"Are they happy there?" My voice sounded small even to me.

Varkolak was quiet for so long I thought he might not answer. "Happiness is not something we measure," he finally said. "But they live. They adapt."

They adapt. Not exactly the romantic future I'd secretly hoped for when I agreed to this arrangement. In my private fantasies, I'd imagined someone who would want me, choose me, not just accept me because some test said we were compatible.

As the vehicle climbed higher into the foothills, the first real tendrils of panic twisted in my stomach. What had I done? I'd left everything I knew, meager as it was, for this creature of shadow who barely spoke, whose world was utterly alien to me.

"Will I ever go back? To visit the colony?" I asked, hating the tremor in my voice.

"The binding is permanent. The eastern territories are your home now."

"But that doesn't mean I can't visit my old?—"

"It is not safe for you there anymore," he cut in. "Your physiology changes with the binding. The sea air would become toxic to you over time."

I stared at him in horror. "What? No one told me that! What else happens with this binding?"

Varkolak shifted, the shadows of his form rippling. "It is different for each human. Some develop sensitivity to light. Others find they need less sleep. A few gain minor abilities to manipulate shadow."

"And no one thought I should know this before the ceremony?" Anger flared, hot and sudden. "You all just decided to change my body without asking?"

"You consented to the binding," he said, confusion clear in his tone.

"I consented to a marriage, not to having my body altered!" I turned away, blinking back tears of frustration. "I didn't know what I was agreeing to."

The silence returned, heavier this time. Outside, the foothills had given way to steeper slopes. Trees appeared as gnarled, ancient things with silvery leaves that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it. Nothing about this world was familiar.

"I did not know you were uninformed," Varkolak finally said. "That was wrong of those who arranged this."

The admission surprised me. I glanced at him, finding those ember eyes studying me with what might have been concern.

"Does it hurt?" I asked, my anger giving way to fear. "These changes?"

"I am told it does not. It is gradual." A pause. "I will ensure you have what you need during the transition."

It wasn't much comfort, but it was something. I wiped away a stray tear with the back of my hand. "What about you? Do you change too?"

"In small ways. The binding creates balance. As you gain affinity for shadow, I gain resistance to light."

I studied him, trying to see beyond the darkness of his form. "So we change each other."

"Yes."

Something about that felt significant, though I couldn't say why. The idea that we would literally transform one another seemed both terrifying and strangely intimate.

The vehicle rounded a bend, and suddenly the view opened up. Before us rose the Navi Mountains in their full glory, towering peaks of black stone veined with silver, wrapped in mist that seemed to move with purpose rather than at the whim of wind.

"The Shadow Realm," Varkolak said, a note of pride in his resonant voice.

My new home. My prison. My future. All three at once.

As we drew closer, the panic I'd been fighting bubbled up again, tightening my throat, making my hands shake.

This was real. This was forever. There was no going back to the colony, to the familiar crash of waves and smell of salt.

I was bound to this shadow creature, to this alien landscape, to a life I couldn't imagine.

"I can't breathe," I gasped, pressing a hand to my chest. "I can't, I made a mistake. I can't do this."

Varkolak's form shifted beside me. Hesitantly, he reached out, his shadow-hand hovering near mine but not touching.

"You feel fear," he said. It wasn't a question.

"Of course I feel fear! I've just been bound for life to a stranger, told my body is going to change, and that I can never go home again!" My voice cracked. "Wouldn't you be afraid?"

"Yes." The simple admission caught me off guard. "Fear is natural when facing the unknown."

He didn't dismiss my feelings or tell me everything would be fine. There was something honest in his response that cut through my panic.

"What happens now?" I asked, forcing myself to take deep breaths.

"We reach my dwelling before nightfall. You rest. Tomorrow is new."

Tomorrow is new. Such a simple phrase, yet it resonated with unexpected hope. Tomorrow would be new. And the day after. And each day would be a step away from this moment of terror and toward something else. Something unknown, but not necessarily terrible.

As the vehicle continued its climb into the mountains, I stared at my reflection in the window glass, a scared young woman with wind-tangled brown hair and eyes wide with uncertainty. Beside me, the reflection of my shadow husband, his ember eyes watching me watching him.

Bound together. Changing each other. For better or worse.