Page 15

CHAPTER 15

FREYA SAVES THE DAY

SHANNON

“N o.” It’s a whisper first before the next one rises in pitch again and again until I’m shouting as I run back to where everyone is still standing there, unsure what to do while my world falls apart again . “No, no, no, no, no !”

I throw a punch at the wall. Proving my point, I hit it, but as though it’s made of rubber, my hand comes flying back at me.

It’s no shadow. It’s a goddamn sideways trampoline!

“What the hell do we do now?” I don’t expect anyone to have the answer. Malphas is already moving in, ready to embrace me so that, when I shatter once more, I don’t end up among the bones in the ash. I need him, but I need someone to know what to do.

Because giving up? That isn’t an option.

“We go forward. This is the way.”

Doesn’t Lucian think that I would if I could? “How? Look!” I hit it again, my fist bouncing off once more. “It’s a wall.”

“It’s a block.”

I don’t have time for semantics. “There has to be a way?—”

He has to know. He has to have seen something else. I heard Tandy ask during one of the tense lulls when I thought I lost the butterfly earlier, and all he murmured to his mate was that we will all see the prophecy through to the end… whatever that meant.

But how? How can we do that is something is stopping us? And why, as I fist my hands, searching for something, anything, to give me an idea to move forward, do I get the feeling that it’s not just the shadows fucking with us?

That someone is helping the human steal Alana—or that the human is stealing her for someone else?

I don’t know, but suddenly my words cut short as I notice something that no one else does.

Moments ago, I had turned from the wall… block… thing . In my panic, I’m looking at everyone gathered, hoping that someone will have a better idea than Lucian. There are plenty of us—because Lucian said we all had to come as if that ’s helped at all—but the women give me apologetic looks. The demons all seem to think that Malphas should be doing something to calm me down.

How can he when, through our bond, I can tell he’s as close to freaking out as I am?

They don’t understand. We’re her parents, so of course this is affecting us. I have no illusions. Kennedy is here for me. Maybe even Billie since she swore she would never go back into the shadows again after that feral demon attacked her and Glaine, but she’s here. Sierra would’ve probably come because I needed Dagon, but everyone else? If Lucian hadn’t used his position as the doppelseer to have all of the human-demon mated pairs join us, there wouldn’t have been a reason for them to come.

Or is there?

I don’t know, but frustrated that our journey is already stalled, I’m staring at them all when I notice that one of the shadow creatures has grown bold enough to approach our group.

No, not just approach.

One of the creatures is running right toward two of them.

I see its eyes. Glowing white and barely a foot off of the ash, they move like a pair of headlights on a child’s toy car. For a moment, I’m distracted as I watch it, expecting it to veer off. When it doesn’t… when it becomes clear it’s targeting one of us, I call out her name.

“Kennedy! Watch out!”

The creature leaps. Flying higher than I ever would’ve expected it to be able to, it launches itself at Kennedy before landing perfectly on her shoulder.

Perfectly, like it’s made the same move a hundred times.

Perfectly, like she knows her mistress.

“Freya!” Kennedy nuzzles the ungez’s shadowy fur as the squirrel-cat chirps up at her. “You naughty girl… what are you doing? You know better than to follow us into the shadows. You could’ve been gobbled up!”

She’s not wrong. In Sombra, ungez are the most common prey animals. In fact, Kennedy told me that she kept Freya as a pet after Loki hunted the ungez, hoping to feed her to Kennedy. It’s way too dangerous for her to be in here.

So why is she?

I mean, I probably should’ve known. When neither Loki or Kennedy reacted until I shouted, I should’ve known it wasn’t just any white-eyed shadow creature tracking them.

But that doesn’t explain what Freya is doing here.

One more nuzzle and, suddenly, she’s leaping back to the ash. Her tail whips wildly. Her pointed nose sniffs. A moment later, she moves directly in front of the wall of impenetrable shadow.

She chitters, then waits.

What is she?—

She squeaks, more insistent this time, then waits again.

I can’t believe this?—

She rears back on her hind legs as another pair of glowing white eyes peek out at her from beneath the wall.

From beneath the wall.

No. It couldn’t be that easy, could it?

Freya touches noses with the other ungez. Because that’s what it is. As it shimmies its way out, it’s clear that I’m looking at Freya’s twin.

She looks back at Kennedy, preening a little.

“What a good girl,” she breathes out.

The other ungez squeaks, then turns and burrows its way back under the wall. Freya scampers over to Kennedy, rubbing her ankle before strolling over to the spot where her friend disappeared.

Then, a heartbeat later, Freya is also gone.

I don’t know how much room is down there but there must be enough for her to turn around, sticking her face out from under the gap. She chitters once more, eyes flashing. I get the vibe she’s telling us silly humans in ungez that we’re taking too long because she snaps her dainty fangs, turns around again, and vanishes.

“Freya!” calls Kennedy.

A faint squeak from a little further in the distance tells us that, wherever the ungez went, she’s done it. She’s found a way around the block.

Hope… the emotion, not the person... it’s a delicate, fragile thing. Part of me doesn’t want to believe that Kennedy’s pet followed us all the way through the shadows to help. It’s so damn fantastical… but I mated a monster. Before Sammael returned to his demon form, Hope was fated to a phantom. Billie was grabbed by a guard.

And Kennedy bonded to a beast in these same shadows that Freya once called home.

This is real life. Even when I look around, see the demons, and admit that I’ve stumbled into a fantasy romance with a kind, sexy demon lead, it’s real … but in my new, real life, why can’t a tiny black squirrel-cat with glowing white eyes save the day like Sombra’s version of freaking Lassie ?

“I’m going,” I announce to the stunned group. Freya is small, but the ash moves. It’s not packed together like dirt. If I dig a little and wiggle, I can follow her.

This is the way… that’s what Lucian said.

I look at the stone-faced seer, arching an eyebrow.

He nods.

Yes!

“We will all go,” he says. “One at a time. And if we are warded away again, now we will know how to get past it.”

“Because of Freya,” Kennedy beams.

“We will all go.” That’s my mate agreeing with Lucian. “And I will go first.”

What? No. I was going to go first.

My head swivels, searching for my mate’s golden eyes. “Mal?—”

Right there, he lays his hands on my shoulders. “I will always follow you, my flower. But, this once, I need you to be the one who comes second.”

When it came to me throwing myself down there, I didn’t care. But now that Mal wants to go…

“I don’t know. What if there’s some kind of monster waiting for us on the other side?”

His golden eyes gleam. “There was a time you thought I was a monster.”

He’s not wrong. I mean, in my defense, anyone would think the same when a seven-foot-tall shadow demon with glowing eyes, pointed ears, horns, and a freaking baseball club between their thighs popped out of an inter-dimensional portal into their apartment.

But my demon mate is so much more than that. He’s kind-hearted. Devoted. Loyal. The best lover I’ve ever had, the sweetest companion, and Alana’s father.

How can I stop him from going after our daughter and protecting his mate?

I don’t argue with him. And maybe everyone else expects me to, but there’s no time for that.

Squeezing his side, I send a pulse of pure love down our bond. “Be careful, okay? And I’ll be right behind you.”

“I’ll shout when it’s clear,” he promises.

He holds true to his word. After what feels like the longest three minutes of my life, eventually I hear Mal calling my name. Assuming that means it’s safe for me to follow him, I do.

I understand immediately what took so long. Malphas had to dig furrows into the ash to fit his body. As big, tall, and bulky as he is, he’s left a path that’s tight yet easy enough for me to take. In less than two, he’s taking my ash-covered hand in his, tugging me out of the hole and pulling me to my feet so that he can embrace me.

One by one, the rest of our group crawls on their bellies in the ash. Loki brings up the rear while Kennedy nibbles nervously on her dirty thumb. Her pregnant belly gave her a little bit of trouble, and only having her mate behind her, talking her through it, led to her finishing the crawl.

Freya waits for Loki to check over his mate before she joins her human.

Rearing back on her hind legs, she chatters up at Kennedy.

She exhales. “Okay. Fine. You can stay. But if you see any threats, I want you to run back home. I know you can do it. You’ve already done enough.”

Freya chitters, eyes flashing brighter than the orb that Loki conjured again, showing off that this side of the shadow block is exactly the damn same as the other.

Kennedy crouches down, meeting the ungez so that she can ruffle her shadows. “I’ll be alright. I have Loki.”

Freya makes what I can only describe as a disbelieving scoff.

Seriously.

Kennedy laughs softly. “Behave, Freya. You’re being a naughty girl now that you helped.”

“Okay. If no one else is going to say anything about this, I am. Kennedy, what the hell? You speak shadow rat?” Tandy asks, barely bothering to hide her amused yet incredulous tone.

“I’ve been trying to tell you guys all along,” Kennedy says, pausing so that Freya can scamper up her body and settle around her neck like a shawl. “Ungez are really, really smart. And she’s not a shadow rat, okay? She’s more like a mix of a cat and a squirrel, thank you very much.” Excitement suddenly creeps into her voice. “A squirrel-cat that just got us closer to finding Alana!” She points. “Look!”

A butterfly.

It’s another butterfly.

Is it the same? No clue, but if we’re supposed to follow the damn thing, it’s such a relief to see it flapping away on the other side of the tight channel we just wormed our way through.

I laugh. Part relief, part that stubborn hope I’m allowing myself to cling to… I laugh, and I’m just glad the unfamiliar sound doesn’t frighten the glowing butterfly away.

And then, after giving Freya a pat of gratitude of my own, I say, “Someone’s gotta tell Apollyon that we’re taking ungez off the menu. And Mal, baby? When we get Alana back, we’re getting her a Freya of her own.”

Because it’s not an if .

It’s a when.