Page 68 of Shadows Lost (Remnant Archives #1)

A fter cleaning up from my training with Bane, I stumbled into an aroma filled kitchen with our friends finally back from scouting. They were sitting and chatting away at a large worn kitchen table while two shifter kings, wearing aprons, were cooking pasta…

Goddess damn pasta.

Su Filindeu to be exact.

A sophisticated dish with a light cream sauce that had me licking my fingers clean and setting fire ablaze in Emon’s eyes. Sitting there, I started to seriously doubt if Emon’s favorite food was even food at all. His eyes stared hungrily at my mouth with each delicate bite I made.

“What did she do next?” Penina said breathlessly.

I had been tuning out Xi’s wild tales about me at the dinner table, focusing on my food instead of her stories to save myself the embarrassment of my younger years. A time when I had a world to conquer, shit to prove, and a penchant for dangerous beasts.

I glanced at Emon. The latter I had yet to grow out of.

He had decidedly claimed the chair next to me, warning off any others while he draped his arm around me.

He still wore an apron over his naked chest and I eyed it appreciatively.

I wasn’t ever going to forget the way I had stumbled to a halt walking into the manor seeing his hair tousled over his brow while he bent over a large pot, stirring it in nothing but tight leather pants and that apron barely covering the rippling muscle of his chest.

All my anger and frustration at his secret keeping were quickly forgotten in that moment. If Asher hadn’t been there…

Emon caught my admiring look and grinned down at me.

Inhaling, I narrowed my eyes and quickly looked away. Heat spreading across my cheeks.

He chuckled darkly and shifted in his chair.

“General Dark decided that the best thing to do was to hitch a ride.” Xi’s uncovered eye rolled dramatically.

Tyr barked a laugh and he pinned me with a disbelieving stare across the table. “You rode a cù-sìth and didn’t die for it?”

I shrugged. “Obviously.”

Emon leaned in to whisper against the shell of my ear. “Im starting to realize most of your stories involve you riding beasts , little umbra.” I shuddered at the feel of his warm breath on my skin, and the deep timber of his purr.

Riley shook his head, green hair falling over hazel eyes glazed with memories. “There were fae that literally shit their pants when that beast strolled into our camp.”

Everyone laughed. Everyone except Bane, who sat in a shadowed corner sulking.

Emon’s father, Asher, sent me an approving look. “I will consider myself lucky that no cù-sìth was sent into my camps, General.”

“I was saving it for a later date.” I teased.

Asher winked. “I’ll be sure to save my dignity and not shit myself when that day comes.”

I snorted and noticed Penina and Tyr looking at me like I was a lunatic.

I spread my hands on the table. “Look, Xi is a great storyteller, but the truth is that I was terrified of having a cù-sìth owing me a debt for a couple decades. So I traded in my debt for a ride back to camp.” I sobered.

At the time, I didn’t want such a monstrous hound trailing behind me waiting for its debt to be paid but now I wished I had.

Maybe then I would not have had to bury her and her cub in the Balsam Plains.

Emon's arm reached around me, sensing my distress. “I will help you keep your vow even in their deaths, little umbra.”

Sighing, I tentatively leaned more into him, allowing my burden to be shared just this once.

“I am starting to feel even more sympathetic for your mother.” Bane called out from his darkened corner. “I only had to deal with you for a couple decades. She had a couple thousand.”

Emon’s arm stiffened around me and instantly I reached to calm him. Gripping his leg under the table to cut his growl short.

Realizing my mistake, I attempted to remove my hand from the new tension I had created but he grabbed it, keeping it pressed firmly to his thigh and swung his eyes to me.

My breath caught at the blazing intensity there…

the small moments where I could see everything he hadn’t said to me…

everything I hadn’t asked for but now hopelessly wanted.

Something had changed between us since coming here…

the shifter was no longer holding back his feelings from me and mine were growing.

Xi tapped the table and I tore my eyes away, watching her white hair fall forward as she leaned in to capture our attention. “The cù-sìth was nothing…wait till you hear about the nightmares.”

Emon pulled me even closer to him and his voice rumbled with curiosity.

“This is one I haven’t heard yet.” He turned to me.

“One of these days, little umbra, I’d like to hear these stories whispered from your own delectable mouth.

” He breathed. “You mentioned nightmares when we were fighting the wraiths. Right before your little elemental twin launched you like a fucking star into the sky.”

“My name is Riley.”

Emon snorted, ignoring him and I was captured by the way his hand stroked mine under the table. “What were you doing around nightmares, my vicious little umbra?”

It had been a long time since I last saw a nightmare…majestic black winged horses who fed on dreams. Flying in fae’s homes at night and feasting on all their wicked goodness and replacing it with fear .

“Doesn’t every girl dream of wanting a horse?” I said coyly.

My breath caught when a full grin crossed his face. His voice dropped low for only me to hear. “I knew you would want a pet beast for a courting gift over anything else.”

Riley interrupted with his own snort. “Only a delusional shadow fae would want a nightmare. Don’t let her fool you, she was trying to control the damn thing.”

Tyr frowned. “Why in the goddess’s tit would you want to control a nightmare?”

I barely saw Asher's hand smack the backside of the tiger shifter's head.

“Owe, what that fuck Asher?” Tyr complained.

Asher snarled softly. “Goddess I do believe I missed doing that…and you know exactly what the fuck Tyr.”

I pulled away from Emon. “Why don’t we save the stories about me for another time.”

Penina pouted, her bottom lip sticking out dramatically. “Awe, please tell us! I really, really, want to know why you wanted to catch a nightmare. It may be helpful…for future references.”

Xi laughed. “You don’t catch nightmares—no fae can, but you can control them for a short while. Remnant wanted one for her little gnome friends.”

I laughed with her. “Hey! That's not fair!” I turned to Penina to explain. “Gnomes are deathly afraid of nightmare hair and there was a gnome infestation in our camp. I was tired of listening to those two faelings over there complaining about them.”

Emon chuckled. “You love gnomes.” He said thoughtfully.

I jerked back. “I do not.”

“She does.” Both Xi and Riley said together.

I pointed an accusing finger at both of them. “You both are lucky you’re no longer under my command.” The death glare I sent them did nothing but make them both laugh harder. “Gnomes are incredibly useful.” I muttered over their outburst.

“Aye, for pollinating flowers with their own piss.” Emon grinned at me and everyone laughed.

“That’s enough at my expense.” I arched a brow at Emon. “When are you going to tell everyone what they are really here for? That we are going to the Sanguine?”

Emon ran his hand through his hair when the room filled with silence. “How did you know? ”

I snorted. “An assassin, two warrior kings, two powerful elementals, a tank of a shifter,” I eyed Tyr, who grinned smugly, “a weapons master that knows Sanguine lands, and me…an unknown player. Every fae here is someone you trust with your life. If that's not a hunting party I don’t know what is and the only place to hunt is through that damn gateway.” I shook my head.

“You want to bring the fight to her before the gateway opens.”

Asher winked at me. “And that is why I could never beat you.”

Emon sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “Yes, we leave tomorrow.”

I snorted and Bane quickly rose to his feet, his eyes flashing with electric bolts of fire. “Do you even understand what you’re doing? Stepping just one foot into those lands is sentencing every single fae in this room to death right alongside you. Are you willing to shoulder that weight?”

Emon’s hand tightened on mine, still pinned to his thigh. “This is not a task I can do alone. If I could, I would have done so by now.” He looked around the room. “I will not force any of you to come but the invitation is open.”

Penina shrugged. “Seems convenient for me. I’m in.”

Bane sputtered at her. “Convenient?” He sneered, then turned on Emon's father. “Asher you can’t seriously be considering this?”

The former shifter king waved his friend away. “There is no consideration. I have already decided to join my son on his hunt.”

“We are in.” Xi and Riley called out together.

An odd emotion flickered in Tyr’s eyes while he looked at the elemental twins. “You two running amok in the Sanguine without some supervision…I don't think so. Count me in too.”

Riley raised his green brows and Xi muttered curses under her breath.

Emon turned to me whispering. “And you, my clever little umbra? The unknown shadow fae." He smirked. "What will you decide?”

My other hand fisted in my lap and I bit at my bottom lip. There was so much more meaning in his simple question than the others realized. I felt my heart flutter with excitement as I peered deep into his patient gaze. “You. I choose to go with you. We will do it together. ”

Emon’s eyes widened and his hand tightened on mine. “Together.” He breathed, the awe in his voice sent shivers down my spine.

I swallowed and then nodded.

Asher tapped the table. “You're sure you will be able to get through the gateway before it fully opens Emon?”

Emon nodded confidently, dragging his eyes away from me. “It is weakened. We will be able to enter.”

I pursed my lips. “How do we get back out?”

Emon looked grim. “We will have exactly twelve days to find Deirdre, kill her, and make it back through the gateway before it closes for another one hundred years.”

I exhaled deeply. “What should we expect on the other side?”

Bane cursed, nevermind no one even questioned that he hadn’t vowed to come.

“Anything, nothing, everything.” He snarled at the table, banging his hand down on it and then glared at Asher who growled in warning.

“Don’t try me Asher, you know this is a foolish plan.

It’s been more than two thousand years since we set foot in those lands and there was a reason we left it and never went back.

There is no possible way of knowing what the Sanguine is now and very little on what it was like even when we were there last.”

“Unless you’re me!” Penina snarled.