Page 14

CHAPTER 14

IN THE SHADOWS

SHANNON

I don’t know what the hell that’s supposed to mean. Honestly? It doesn’t matter. All it takes is one of the creepy psychic twins confirming that we’re supposed to follow the butterfly into the shadows before I’m dipping into the darkness.

Join me if you want. Lucian says we’re all supposed to go together? Sure. Let’s go.

Just like I figured, Mal is right behind me, hovering near me, though he’s instinctively shifted to his shadow form again to match my step without accidentally bumping into me or knocking me over. Sometimes I forget that my mate is more than seven feet tall, with the muscular bulk to match such a build. He’s always so careful with me, but the way we’re running blind into the pitch black shadows, if I fall under his foot, he could really hurt me.

It wouldn’t be on purpose. Mal loses his ever-loving mind if I so much as stub my toe in his presence. All the more reason for him to fade to his transparent shadow form so that he can keep up with my pace without the threat of his big body knocking into me.

I can’t tell if it’s easier for him to navigate just how fucking dark it is in here. It’s cooler, too, which is saying something when we live in a demon realm made of fire, lava, and ash. Cooler means it’s a balmy seventy instead of a dry ninety-five degrees Fahrenheit, but after getting used to the heat of Nuit, I shiver as the shadows envelope me.

There are bones beneath the ash under my feet. It’s dark, but I can kinda see where I’m going, and the bleached white femurs and who-knows-what-else poking through are definitely hard to miss. I mean, I thought the horned skulls were bad. Crunching on something I can’t exactly see… nope. This is worse. So much worse.

Only one moon rises high in the black sky, providing some light. Normally, I’d say that the reddish, shadow-filled world turns their main moon the same color. Now that I’ve seen what a blood-red moon looks like? It’s more a pale orange than anything our first few steps before it takes on the shadows. It’s still bright, still giving us enough light that I’m not completely blind, but the moon’s a foreboding dark color that’s outlined against the sky the same way those butterflies gleam against the shadows.

Mal’s shadowy hand ghosts over my arm, brushing against my sunflower tattoo. I jolt, his emotions—fear and worry and a determination to get our baby back—echoing mine as we touch. Our bond sings out as I assure Mal that I’m here, that we’re in this together, even with our friends joining in on the chase.

We left the drizzle outside of the shadows. That’s the one good thing about willingly entering the dark. As though the shadows themselves are a living, breathing thing, we’re consumed by them. A sliver of moonlight high over our heads is the only illumination we have. It’s enough to make out vague shapes; otherwise, all I can see are the glowing eyes that belong to the other Sombra demons.

Gold. Red. Purple. Green.

One of the purple-eyed demons does something. He shifts his body, and when he’s done, an orb about the size of a baseball is hovering over one of his palms. A faint white light emanates from the orb, providing enough of a glow that I recognize its holder as Loki.

Kennedy is holding tightly to his bicep. I’m sure he conjured the light so that his heavily freaking pregnant mate can see where she’s going, but I don’t give a shit. It helps the rest of us, too, and since we’re a (hopefully) lucky thirteen, I’ll take it.

The last thing I want is for one of my friends and their demon mates to find trouble in the shadows while helping me search for my daughter. Well, no… the last thing I want is to get lost in the dark and never see Alana again, but I’ll feel guilty as hell if anyone else gets hurt.

Loki is at home in the shadows; after all, he spent a hundred years inside of them as a demonic beast. Even Kennedy spent her first few months in Sombra in here because that’s where Loki brought her to his demon world with him. Of course, Kennedy’s also told me about the giant black shadow bear that nearly ate her so… I’d like to avoid one of those if we can.

And then there’s Billie. Before she arrived in Nuit with Glaine, the two of them journeyed from the capital in Mavro, halfway across Sombra until the creepy, psychic twins picked them up and basically gave them a ride closer to our village. Part of their trip took them into the shadows along the edge of Sombra where a different fully demonic Sombran decided he was going to take Billie away from her grumpy soldier mate.

Glaine wasn’t a big fan of the idea. That’s how I found out the guard I’ve loathed ever since he threatened Mal outside of Turn the Page carries an enchanted sword that can kill immortal demons.

Luckily for us, he’s on our side. If anything in these shadows targets Billie, they’ll be dead before we know it. Glaine already has his sword pulled out of the shadow pocket where he usually keeps it stored. I catch glimmers of it out of the corner of my eye whenever Loki’s orb glances off of it.

Another plus? The light does a good job warning some of the white-eyed shadow critters back. Dagon assures us that all of the white pinpricks peering out at us from the pitch-black darkness are prey beasts. The kind of slow, skittish shadow animals that make up all of the questionable meat that we eat in Sombra. I like to think they’re, like, shadow chicken and shadow beef, but considering one of the delicacies is ungez like Kennedy’s pet, Freya… I’d rather not see what I’m chowing down on as the ‘before’.

I already refuse to eat ungez out of solidarity with the adorable squirrel-cat. If I discover that bronwyll is a cute raccoon-beaver or something, I might go veggie after all…

The predators claim the territory deeper into the shadows. If the butterfly leads us that far, that’s something else to worry about. Part of me hopes that one of those arkoda-bear things finds that prick who thought he could take Alana. But when I realize that means my baby would be at the mercy of a mindless shadow beast, I don’t know what’s worse: being in the clutches of her abductor or a wild animal.

Either way, my sweet, innocent baby would be stuck with a monster.

She’s in here. Dagon followed the human male’s tracks into the shadows. Even Lucian and Damien are convinced we have to go this way to find her. We just have to follow the butterflies—which would’ve been so much fucking easier if the butterfly leading the way didn’t suddenly disappear on us.

Even worse, I may be shit when it comes to directions, but I know I saw half of a thigh bone sticking out of the ash, perched against one of the burnt trees that hide in the shadows. When I see it again about ten minutes later, the same angle, the same divots dug out of the bone as though a pair of violent claws went at it, I kick it.

Losing the butterfly was bad enough. It winked out right before I noticed the bone. That’s probably why I was so pissed that I kicked it in the first place, but fuck it felt good to get out some of my aggression.

It’s only mildly better than dealing with the shame that I allowed my baby to be taken.

So the red moon basically roofied us. So Nuit was supposed to be safe, just like there shouldn’t have been any human guys in here. As far as I can tell, there’s only been one: Connor, Amy’s abusive douchebag of an ex. And since Amy confided in me that Nox brought Connor to the shadows to keep him away from his mate and, you know, kill him, I highly doubt he was around to nab my baby.

Besides, Connor’s abandonment in Sombra was almost twenty years ago. I’ve been in the shadows for a half an hour, tops, and I feel like I’m losing my mind. Connor couldn’t survive, right?

Does it matter?

When Alana needs me… needs Mal… does it matter who fucking took her?

I want my baby back!

I thrust my fingers through my hair, shoving it out of my face as the thigh bone soars into the dark reaches of the shadows, landing with a muffled thump against the dry ash. “We followed the stupid butterfly. We’ve gone in fucking circles. What are we supposed to do now?”

Dagon crouches down to the ash in front of him.

Sierra scoots closer to him, her calf bumping his knee. “What are you looking for?”

“Tracks,” he says, answering his mate. “I’ve been using Loki’s spell to search for the same bootprint. The human male came this way, but I don’t see any more prints.”

“Where was the last one you saw?” That’s Glaine. The soldier twists his wrist, keeping himself—and his sword—ready. “If the faripoz has gone, we might have to backtrack and find the way the human has went with the spawn.”

“The faripoz has done its purpose,” confirms Lucian.

“For now,” adds Damien. “Until the wicked wind whips it along a different path, the innocent calling out for its familiar.”

What?

Another prophecy? Or some more gibberish that makes sense to him and no one else?

I bite down, trying not to lose my ever-loving shit. Taking out my frustrations on the riddle-speaking doppelseer next would be a bad idea, I know that, but when he says shit like that… when he’s not helpful, at all… it’s not that easy.

Good thing I have my mate. Mal brushes up against me, his touch tethering me. He’s so sure that I can do this. That I, too, can do anything. That together we can find Alana… and no way in hell am I going to disappoint him.

Through my gritted teeth, I say, “Please, Dagon. Do you remember?”

He nods. “This way.”

Loki makes sure that Kennedy is tucked next to Sammael and Hope before he surges forward, lending more light to the hunter.

We just have to retrace our footsteps and figure out where we lost the kidnapping print. He can’t just disappear, right? Humans don’t fly. Portals don’t work in the restless dark that marks the edge of this demon world. Sammael proved that when he tried to move further ahead, hoping to catch the unknown human guy before he got too far. He couldn’t even summon one. It’s up to us to track him?—

—but it’s im-fucking- possible .

He shouldn’t have been able to disappear. He shouldn’t . But when Dagon goes back and finds the last bootprint he saw, he wasn’t wrong. It’s the last bootprint. In between one step and the next, the guy has vanished.

Worse, there’s a… a wall there. Loki’s light shows a patch of black that is so impossibly dark, it’s not a shadow. You can’t see through it. If there’s something on the other side, I can’t tell. Wherever the kidnapper’s taken her, I can’t follow him. I try. I run to the ends of it, where Loki’s light illuminates the ash and the burnt trees. I see more of the same behind the wall, but I know… I just know … that I would be wasting my time going around it.

I have to go through it—and I can’t.

And that means I can’t go after Alana.