Page 12 of Shadows Ascend (Remnant Archives #2)

I hadn’t lost control of my emotions since Remnant stalked into my life with her cloak of darkness and kiss of shadows, but today it was as if my reprieve of my nightmare hadn’t been days, but hours.

The news of losing Ethereal left me bereft and lonely…

something I hadn’t felt since my mother was murdered and I exiled my father, and now here I was, relying on my already shattered soulmate to patch me back together.

That wasn’t her job, it was mine…I fisted the pink unicorn shirt in a ball, growling.

Remnant’s voice was soft within the room of our tower, soothing like the twilight that surrounded us. “Riella will be sad if you shred that shirt, Emon.”

I grunted and looked up to see our little cub dancing on the balcony collecting stardust, still feeling her fear and gentle touch on my face when I lost control.

This could not happen again.

Forcing my hands to uncurl, I smoothed out the pink fabric and began meticulously folding it, so that the unicorns would show for her to see and admire.

“Are you sure you want to go to this dinner?” Remnant sighed, moving towards me from where she had been leaning against the glass wall, watching our daughter play.

“We need more answers,” I said, setting the shirt on the counter of the large kitchen that occupied half the room of this tower, realizing it was the perfect surface for kneading dough. Drey would have loved it.“What we learned earlier today has just left us with more questions than answers.”

Her hand reached up and turned my face towards hers and I fucking wished I could erase the worry that now was a permanent part of those emerald depths. “You need your rest, Emon. What you have experienced today…most wouldn’t even be standing.”

I turned my lips into her hand, “you would be, my little umbra.” Stepping into her, I pulled her flush to my body, kissing her sweet sinful lips like they were my salvation.

When she melted into me, I purred with satisfaction realizing quickly that she was all I ever needed to feel whole, her and Riella.

Delving deeper into our kiss, I gorged myself on the strength of our new love. The shock of today’s events disappeared and instead was replaced with the taste of her, the touch of her, the smell of her—she was my cure, every part of her.

Pulling away, I grinned at her unsteady breathing and the sound of the thundering race of her heart.

“Do not worry over me, Remnant. Worry more about what will happen after this fucking dinner, when I am eager for dessert.” Pecking her lips one last time, I left her standing imprisoned in her own desire and my seduction.

Her worry eradicated.

For now.

I grinned, burying my own deep inside me, just like I used to with the cat, locking it all in a fucking box before calling Riella to come back inside.

It was time for another show down with my in-laws, and this time I would be fucking ready and I would get the answers my family needed.

** *

Dinner was a fucking affair that I would have expected for an entire court, not for our party of six.

I glanced at it with mild disgust, never a fan of such finery.

To say that Eve had outdone herself was an understatement.

The table upon which I wanted to feast on my soulmate was surrounded by cloud chairs that floated above a balcony extending into the cosmos, providing the sweetest, softest mood lighting within this twilight world.

Even the stardust was somehow directed to arch around us by an invisible barrier, and encased us in a sparkling curtain that was simply impressive.

None of it compared, however, to my soulmate sitting next to me.

Remnant’s not so discreet gaze roamed over my bare skin, and I shifted in my seat beside her.

Her wandering emerald eyes were like an exquisite fire—a hot sear that did not burn but whispered promises of sweet seductive pleasure that you could barely hold back from.

Ever since I had kissed her in the tower and left her needing, her looks of longing had only intensified. The urge to snatch her from the delicate cloud she sat upon and devour her the way her eyes were begging me to was so fucking strong my arms strained at holding back.

I leaned into my soulmate, my nostrils flaring as I fell into a cloud of her unique scent of lilies and night, purring huskily, "Eye fucking me isn't going to get us the answers we seek, little umbra, but just say the word and I will whisk you back to our tower where you can do more than just look. "

Licking her bottom lip, I watched the blush form across her fine porcelain skin. The fact that she even paused had me to the point of breaking, fuck this dinner shit.

"If you remember correctly, shifter, I didn’t even want to come here tonight but you thought it to be a good idea .” Her eyes sparkled, “Alas, I'll just have to make do with looking," she murmured softly.

A slow smile spread across my face, before I leaned back, lengthening my large frame and stretching my legs in front of me, her roaming gaze setting my body on fire again—pure male satisfaction had me purring in my seat. "Whatever my little soulmate needs, my little soulmate will get."

"Gross. My ears may not be like a shifters but some things I do still hear," Remnant's brother gagged from across the table.

Smirking back, I watched as Kade fell into the dutiful role of uncle.

The moment we arrived here had been…tension-filled to put it lightly but Riella’s bright enthusiasm for the vast array of new foods laid out before us was more than enough to set our differences aside—for now.

Besides, it seemed Kade was enjoying his new role.

"What is that called?" Riella pointed at the large centerpiece of chocolate cake decorated with mouth watering raspberries that I had been covertly eyeing since we sat down myself. It was the only thing here that I even remotely came close to wanting to eat if it wasn’t going to be my soulmate.

"That is called chocolate cake, it is sweet and slightly bitter, with hints of spice, and the fruit on top is also sweet but tart," Kade explained to her while slicing a small piece to put on her plate.

She looked up at him eagerly. "Do you think I will like it?"

Kade laughed and tapped Riella's nose, smiling wide. "Judging by the way you eat stardust my niece, I think you will like it well enough."

I chuckled silently. Watching my daughter had become my second favorite pastime.

The first was so easily denied recently by my soulmate that I had to make do with seconds.

I gave the fitted black shorts Remnant wore a longing side glance—knowing she picked them in retaliation for leaving her full of desire in the tower.

Swallowing down a torturous groan, I refocused on Riella, leaning forward, eager to watch her take her first bite of chocolate cake. She had already proven to have a sweet tooth with her most recent stardust addiction, and she was our daughter after all.

Rotating the plate one way then back, she assessed the best attack for this newfound food. Then throwing all hesitancies straight off the very balcony we sat upon, she scooped up the chocolate cake and shoved the entire piece into her mouth.

I grinned. Definitely our daughter.

Her eyes grew wide and her mouth opened with awe, displaying the half eaten piece of cake for everyone. "Can I have another?!"

Kade roared with laughter.

My soulmate laughed alongside him and I relished the sound, fully loving the way my daughter's cheeks puffed widely out to the side when she closed her mouth to voraciously chew and swallow.

Leaning sideways, I mouthed from the corner of my smiling lips to Remnant, "This looks familiar."

"Indeed." Eve replied, materializing from the darkness beside us with a bottle of ambrosia in hand.

Stepping between my soulmate and I, she glanced down at me before she poured the pink drink into the fine crystal glasses.

"That was exactly how Remnant was at Riella's age, always stuffing her face full of treats.

" Pouring her daughter’s glass, her eyes softened, “I am thankful you decided to come, my little chickadee. I know it was not easy and that you have many questions,” she glanced at me, “I will do my best to answer them.”

“Thank you, Eve.” I nodded to her and she gave me a small smile back before moving away from us to sit at the head of the table, where a second cloud-chair sat unoccupied.

I could no longer hold back the burning question escaping my lips, staring at my soulmate’s profile.

"Is this where your obsession with chocolate comes from then, little umbra.

Because, I haven't forgotten, you never did answer me that day in the garden.

" That moment would stay with me forever, it was the first time she had voluntarily been vulnerable with me, sharing her demons as I shared mine, something we did again today.

Her emerald gaze turned on me, her long dark hair falling over her shoulder as she rested her chin in her hands with her elbows propped on the table, her scrolling tattoos beckoning me.

Fuck.

"Tell me your majesty, are shifters aware of their own scent?" she teased.

I frowned, I never even thought about my own scent aside from when I needed to bathe blood from my body.

Turning my nose down I inhaled deeply, confusion whirling inside my mind.

I could practically hear Ethereal’s laughter but I shoved that thought aside, I would not dwell on it until I had all the information at my disposal.

"Is this your way of telling me I stink, little umbra?" I said, my face wrinkled with amusement and confusion.

She smirked and her voice was a whispered caress inside of me. "Of course you stink, shifter. You reek actually…reek of delicious spiced chocolate…you are my new sweet obsession, just as I am yours. Nothing else will ever taste as good as you again."

Without any thought, I moved with my shifter speed, pulling her into my arms and devouring her lips with mine, that kiss earlier wasn’t fucking enough and I cared not who saw.

I craved her, I wanted to strip her down till there was nothing but her soul to intertwine with mine, where there was no fate of the world on our shoulders, there was just us and our love.

Pulling away and breathing heavily, I rested my forehead against hers, growling. "That's shit I'm supposed to say, little umbra." Brushing my lips along her now swollen ones, I added with a smirk, "I can't wait to see what else of me rubs off on you."

I brushed her hair back over her shoulder. She had changed it, instead of waves it was straight silky strands of black and blue and I loved how it fell like a curtain from my fingertips. Glancing back at her, I saw the shadows of fear flickering in her eyes, and I knew just where her mind had gone.

"Don't think of it now, " I whispered gently through our connection. "Lets try to enjoy this night with Riella and the new world she is exploring. We are sitting in the fucking stars. You're a fucking goddess and you are even more beautiful in this world than the first time I saw you. "

Her hand rested on my chest, spreading wide over where my heart beat fiercely for her. " My world isn't a place, shifter. It's you and Riella. It is all I will ever need. Not a title, not power…just you both. I cannot lose you. "

I picked up her hand and kissed it tenderly. " There you go again, little umbra. Saying shit that I would. Fuck, you're stealing my game, soulmate. "

Worry formed a tiny crease between her eyes. "Emon."

Smoothing the frown with my fingertips, I trailed them down the softness of her cheek, the flawless skin of her neck where her pulse beat wildly, and then brushed it softly against her collar bone careful with the words I chose.

"Remnant, I am fine, I feel fine…" glancing over her shoulder, I smirked at her father, the death god who had made his silent entrance at the same time I had devoured his daughter's mouth with mine, payback was a fucking bitch.

He would pay for the shit he pulled today.

I would make sure of it. "For now that is, the death god looks like he might murder me again. "

Remnant shot me a stern look before her face took on the neutral mask she wore so well…and just like in The Under, I marveled at her performance. Turning to her father and sliding from my lap she addressed her father, "Shea," she said formally.

Still smirking, I shot an assessing quick look at my daughter, finding Kade had been occupying her strategically with another slice of cake, this time teaching her how to use a fork properly to eat it.

The water fae had no use for such things, using their clawed webbed hands and needled teeth to eat.

Edging my cloud closer to my soulmate, I threw a possessive arm over her shoulders and leaned back in my seat. "Nice of you to finally join us. Now start talking, death god."

If he thought I’d allow myself to be ashamed for breaking in front of him then he was sorely mistaken. When I broke, I only rose up stronger than before, it was the only way for me to live.

The death god snorted, sitting beside Eve. "Would it kill you to keep a shirt on, shifter?"

I scrubbed my hair back, puffing out my chest just to piss him off more, and smiled down the table at him. "You tell me Shea, you are the God of death after all."

The death god growled and flourished his hand. Immediately, I was confined in a heavily furred rainbow sweater.

I bared my teeth at him in a silent snarl. I much preferred the hideous unicorns over this shit.

The death god tilted his head in response, watching me tug on the damn thing to loosen it from my body with both satisfaction and disappointment. "A pity," he sighed. "It would seem clothing does not kill you."

Eve shot him a look of disapproval.

"Just a bit of fun love." I heard him mutter the excuse towards his mate, her eyes burning with fury.

I was fucking glad I wasn’t around for that showdown, the tension between them more palpable than the one between him and I.

“Fun?” Eve hissed. “You promised Shea, you promised you would apologize and I am still waiting for those words to leave your mouth.”