Page 72 of Rebellious Royals

"Shadow," Jack said smugly.

And my shadow reached out toward Keir's. A pair of no-shadow holes opened like Shadow had lifted its lids, then its gaze bounced between me and Keir. Tentatively, its fingers touched Keir's shadow's shoulder area while all of us watched.

"Yeah, I feel that, Shadow," he told it.

"What does it feel like?" Aspen asked.

"Like someone is plucking your soul like a guitar," Keir said. "Sorry, but that's the best I have."

Shadow simply pointed to the hand touching Keir, then lifted its thumb up. After a pause, it turned the gesture downwards. I was confused for a second, and then figured out what it meant.

"It's asking permission!" I told Keir.

"Oh," he said. "Yeah, sure. I'll be the guinea pig, Shadow."

So Shadow grabbed a handful of Keir's darkness and ripped it off.

"Fuck!" Keir gasped, grabbing his own shoulder. "Ok, that's seriously weird."

But Shadow simply pulled the piece of Keir to its chest and cradled it there for a moment. I swore my shadow became darker, but after only a few seconds, Shadow lifted its hands, exposing they were empty.

"Cool?" Keir asked, looking over at me like he was confused.

"Yeah, I'm not sure what that was about either," I admitted.

"Court!" Jack said. "Jack-Shadow!" And he cawed loudly at the floor. Beside me, Keir jumped in place, and Jack cawed, "Court!"

"Fuck me," Keir breathed.

"What?" Wilder asked.

"It didn't grab you," Hawke said.

Aspen had leaned forward, looking at both me and Keir. "I don't think it had to. I think that's what it was doing."

"Is that right?" I asked Shadow.

So it made a production of touching itself. Well, more poking in the chest area, although it was hard to make out exactly where since it was facing us. Keir tensed again.

"Guys, I think we have our alert system," he said. "That is impossible to miss."

Torian was still watching my shadow. "So you can notify us when you need to, but how do you know what we need?" he asked. "I mean, if Rain knows, that makes sense. What happens if someone jumps Wilder and she doesn't know?"

My shadow turned and pointed right at Jack.

"Jack!" he announced.

"Nope, not following," I told him.

"Jack!" he said. "Jack, Jack. Jack-Rain. Jack-Shadow. Morrigan! Jack-Shadow-Court!"

"Shit," Hawke breathed. "Jack? Do you have the ability to predict what's going to happen?"

Jack slung his beak up and down. "Jack!" he said.

Aspen's mouth fell open. Keir's brows rose into his hairline. Wilder tilted to see my crow better. Hawke was blinking at that as if trying to force it to sink it. Then there was Torian. He smiled slyly at the bird.

"Let me guess, Jack. You can talk to Shadow, huh? Is it your court?"