Page 18

CHAPTER 18

KING YELIOS

SHANNON

I wish I could say it was as easy as darting around the slumbering—and massive —huigitz, picking up the human ‘nappers more frantic bootprints, and because he was flagging after keeping ahead of us for so long, we found him.

That’s not what happens. Oh, I get around the huigitz with Mal, sending a silent thank you back to the other girls for using their song to put it to sleep because, yeah, that fucker was huge . Once Dagon catches up, he finds a bootprint, then points us in the right direction.

With Loki’s orb guiding the way, we follow it, but there’s still no sign of him or Alana. I strain, listening for my daughter’s coos, hearing nothing but a few stray animal noises. The white pinpricks of watching eyes have become few and far between. Mainly because we’re so far into the shadows now, if we find one, it’ll be a big threat, like the huigitz.

I’m still determined. My adrenaline is long gone, and part of me wants to slump down to the ash, drop my head into my hands, and sob. Only knowing that Alana needs us—needs me —keeps me going. Without a word of complaint, everyone follows.

Just in case we are getting close, we’re all quiet. We don’t want him to know that, whatever’s been thrown at us, we’ve gotten past it. Though, I do wonder if my friends have figured out what it took me way too long to see.

As I glance behind me, I realize that Fate brought us all together for a reason.

I grin, my first one since the red moon.

Smart bitch.

Lucian, too. He saw that each of us would have a purpose to coming along on this search. Freya wouldn’t have braved the shadows if it wasn’t for Kennedy. Hope helped me find the ashbalm. Tandy, Sierra, and Billie were essential to getting past the huigitz.

The prophecy about whether to save Sombra or see its fires extinguished… it’s almost like, in a way, all of our destinies brought us to this point. Kennedy wouldn’t have been in the shadows, or given Freya if she hadn’t bonded with Loki. Hope wouldn’t have gone after the ashbalm flower if she wasn’t trying to save her bond with Sammael.

Dagon helped Sierra get over her bastard of a cheating ex. Glaine lets Billie take center stage—and helped her get through her own journey through the shadows. And Tandy… she finally found someone to love her, even if it happened to be two someones with the gift of sight.

And because each one of them found their happily-ever-after, they’re here with me, ensuring that mine and Mal’s gets to continue.

We just need our baby back, and as the air in the shadows starts to stir—the first gust of something that might be wind rushing past us—I can’t help but hope that this… this is it. We’ve done it.

Up ahead, there’s another block. I’ve become an expert at spotting them. As dark as it is, they wards are even darker. They are imposing. Threatening. They warn us from moving on, but when we find a way past them, they reluctantly let us go.

This one? It’s the largest one we’ve seen. It spreads as far as I can see, and I don’t have much hope of getting around it if this isn’t the sort of block that we can climb under. It reminds me of the final boss level in a video game. That we’ve done every challenge we have to, and if we can just confront who is hiding behind the shadows, I’ll finally find my daughter.

Only one problem.

Before I can even attempt to approach it, a white ball appears between us. It starts small, the size of a gold ball maybe, before it grows and it grows and, holy shit, it’s now bigger than a hula hoop.

It’s super bright, too. It doesn’t lose the white color, and as it gleams against the dark shadow background, it freaking glows so much, my eyes burn.

I know what it is, though. It might not be like any one I’ve ever seen—considering portals from Earth to Sombra look more like flames than an eclipse—but that?

That’s a portal.

I glance at Sammael. “I thought you can’t create a shadow portal in here?”

Sammael frowns. “I cannot. And that is my speciality. If I can’t do it, it cannot be done.”

Loki grunts softly. “It is taking all of my magic just to keep the orb spell running. The shadows suck it in faster than I can create it.”

“No need now,” says Billie pointedly. “Whatever’s happening, we’re all gonna sear our retinas by the time it’s done.”

She’s not wrong. At least for the human women, we’ve gotten used to the darkness inside of the shadows. Loki’s spell saved us from walking into the trees or tripping over the bones, but it’s still like walking around the woods at night with only the moon above to help us see.

That large, white circle? Whatever it is, it’s not a shadow portal. Not really. It’s not even anything like the summoning spell that yanked Mal out of Sombra and into my apartment.

And, even as I squint so that it doesn’t completely blind me, I can’t help but watch its glow get impossibly brighter.

Mal drapes his arm over my shoulder, tugging me close in an adorably protective manner. Like he’s prepared to battle whoever might pop out of that light…

A moment later, we’re about to find out because four notable silhouettes appear in the distance. They’re linked, holding hands as they zoom toward us, and it’s easy from the sizes to tell that the figures on the ends are demon males, with the two in the center definitely human women.

Together, they step out of the portal. The white light blinks out from behind them. It takes me a few seconds to make sure my eyes are still working right before I look up at them and see?—

“Your Grace,” breathes out Sammael, reverence in his tone. “I did not know that you possessed travel magic.”

Duke Haures is on the left. Holding his hand, I see a pretty brunette with a vaguely familiar face. She’s dressed in a gorgeous blue dress, her hair piled up on top of her head. Amy Benoit—my friend from Connecticut—is holding onto her, though she releases the other woman once the portal thing disappears. And, since Amy’s hear, the identity of the second male becomes obvious: Nox, Amy’s Sombra demon mate.

Duke Haures’s pale skin glows just as brightly as his portal did beneath the sliver of the Sombra moon. He shakes his head royally, the light from Loki’s orb spell winking off of his crystal crown.

“I do not need travel magic,” he tells his former mage haughtily. “I am Sombra’s ruler. More than that, I am a bondmaster. My essence belongs to my mate, but I share a bond with every one of my people. When Lucian summoned me to tell me it was time, the duchess and I have answered his call.”

Wow. All this time, I thought people were, like, sending him the Sombra version of a letter. Or a magical email. But he has bonds with all of his people?

Well, that’s terrifying.

And duchess… no wonder I thought the woman clinging to him looked vaguely familiar. She looks similar enough to Amy that they could be sisters—or an aunt and her niece.

Dagon nods a greeting to the brunette clutching Haures’s arm.

She smiles warmly at him. “It’s good to see you again, Dagon.”

Sierra grabs her demon’s arm. “Hello, Susanna. Remember me?”

Her laugh is soft and sweet. “Of course, Sierra. Congratulations on the baby. I’m so glad the time has come that we don’t have to be afraid of the gold moon. That Alana is only the first of a new generation of Sombrans.”

Alana … she knows about my baby. I mean, duh. Of course she knows about my baby. I tell Mal everything, and now that he knows better than to try to protect me again, he does the same for me. Why wouldn’t the duke go home and tell his mate about the half-human, half-demon child that might lead to the end of the world he rules?

As if she knows what I’m thinking, she turns to me. “Shannon. It’s so good to finally meet you. Don’t worry. I got us into this. I’m going to get us out.”

Uh… what?

Before I can ask, Amy catches my attention. “Hey. Don’t worry. We got this.”

She sounds so sure, I want to believe her. And then I think: why not?

Just like the rest of us, maybe Lucian saw something else. He’s the one who summoned Haures. If he needed the duke, I honestly believe that the duke would never take his mate out of the safety of the capital unless the doppelseer saw her with him. Amy, too. Nox is a fierce hunter even if he lives in the human world. He wouldn’t take a trip to Sombra, then join Amy and the others unless he had to.

Because Haures threatened him with another stint in the dungeons… fourteen years were enough for the scowly, red-eyed hunter, I’m sure, and other than nodding at the other demons, he stays quiet.

I scoff, more amazed than anything else at this moment.

Fucking Fate.

You know, I thought something was up when Sierra and Hope visited Nuit at the same time that Billie was home, Kennedy was always there, and even Tandy came along with her mates. I know Susanna is always in Mavro. That meant we were only missing Amy… but something tells me she was here, too.

Is that what the gods were waiting for? Did we all have to be in Sombra to watch as the prophecy that began with Alana’s birth began to unfold?

Again, I think about my earlier realization.

Kennedy knows about life in the shadows, plus she has a pet ungez that saved the freaking day by helping us find a way around the block. Sierra, Billie, and Tandy needed to use their three-part harmony to quiet a savage shadow beast. Hope was a huge help when it came to finding the ashbalm.

We’re all here for a reason.

What about Amy and Susanna?

I have no doubt in my mind that the gods needed them here. Add that to Susanna’s comment about her getting ‘us’ into this mess…

“Susanna?”

Okay. Maybe I put a little too much accusation into her name because Haures bares his tusks at me, his vibrant blue eyes flaring in warning.

Right. I gentle my tone. “What are you…” Hm. How do I put this nicely? I try again. “Why are you all here?”

Susanna doesn’t look offended, even if her mate does. However, she doesn’t get the chance to answer before Lucian does.

“Susanna is the only one who has ever faced Yelios. Five decades have passed. It is finally time that she ends what began so long ago… I’ve seen it. I didn’t know what it meant then, though I understand now. Alana is the child of prophecy, but it began with Susanna.”

Okay. First things first?—

The name sounds familiar, but… “Who the hell is Yelios?”

At the same time as Mal says, “the former king,” and Sammael tells us, “Queen Alana’s mate,” and Glaine says, “a fierce soldier,” Damien’s eyes brighten until they’re closer to lavender than dark purple.

It’s his voice that carries over all the others as gestures around him. “This is Yelios.”

“The shadows were the deposed king’s home,” adds Lucian.

King. Wait. I know this story. Mal told me about the bravest demon queen in their history, and the king who tried to avenge her for centuries before he walked into the shadows one day and Haures took his throne…

Tandy gasps, covering her mouth with her fingers. “But now he is the shadows.” She shakes her head, her voice returning to normal instead of taking on her mates’ prophesying tones. Oh, gross. We’ve spent hours crawling around inside of some ancient, crazed king.”

Oh, I hope she’s wrong. I really, really do because, suddenly, I have a sinking feeling in my stomach about why we had to journey as much as we did to get to this point and we still haven’t seen a sign of my daughter.

The sinking suspicion only drops lower when Haures says, “Apollyon tells me that it was a human male who stole the spawn. I suspected this might happen one day, and Lucian’s recent visions only confirmed it. But, fear not, Malphas. Shannon. It’s not the human who sought your child. He only took her to deliver her to Yelios. And Yelios will never harm her which means that the human won’t either.”

To be fair, that does make me feel the teensiest bit better. As much as I fucking hate the idea that somebody broke into my house, kidnapped my baby, and decided to hide her in the shadows, I have the tiniest amount of relief that she’s at least safe.

But it’s only a small amount because it just doesn’t make sense to me.

“Why would he want her? I mean, what kind of monster kidnaps a baby?”

Nox clears his throat. “My mate was a spawn of only eight human years when I first recognized that Amy was meant to be mine.”

Though I already knew the story of their mating, I’m not surprised that Amy tugs on his arm before saying, “Not helping, hon.”

He shrugs, unrepentant. “I waited until you were a mature female,” he reminds her. “No honorable Sombran would ever claim a child.”

Hang on?—

“Alana is not his mate,” I argue. “She’s a baby, remember?” When no one rushes to tell me that I’m right, not even Malphas, I turn to Lucian. “Okay.” So the human guy didn’t take Alana for himself. He took him for Yelios. That’s still a hell , no. “Tell me that my baby isn’t fated to be mated to that monster.”

“No,” says Lucian. “Your Alana has a far greater destiny. If we can save Sombra, she will go on to save Noctavara.”

Save what ?

“Her path is to save Sombra, but never stay, her fate tied to the one with a shadow for a heart, a gilded touch, and the wrong way,” intones Damien. “For her broken wings will only end the curse when her own heart stops.”

This is not the time for another one of his prophecies, even if it suggests that Alana will survive today. Today. Because the rest of what Damien said…

Heart stops.

Stops?

Stops ?

“But Alana is immortal.”

“She has human blood.” Haures. God damn it, why does the duke have to sound so smarmy right now? “It will be a whole lot easier for her to be killed.”

I fist my hands. “Do you think you might not tell me how fragile my daughter is when some insane demon king has her?” I shake my head. “And why would he take her in the first place? He had a mate. Queen?—”

Oh, fuck .

Malphas is right there, supporting me as I start to fall. “No. It’s just a name. Mal wanted to name her after a strong demoness. She’s not the real Alana. She’s our Alana.”

“I did. To honor the fallen queen, and to show that she could grow to be a fierce warrior,” my my mate agrees.

“You couldn’t have known,” cuts in Susanna. “You couldn’t have known that Yelios has spent ages waiting for his mate to return to him.”

Come again?

Suddenly, the air crackles. It sounds like something’s being rent apart, torn, broken. It rips, echoes, and though nothing looks different at all, the wind rushes past again, sending my hair flying around my face.

Kennedy stumbles. Loki catches her.

Malphas crouches down at my side, hands folding over to protect the ashbalm flower in his hold.

Amy turns into Nox’s chest. He goes from a solid demon like Haures to shadows like the others, though I know it’s not on purpose. Nox lost control of his shadows long ago when he sacrificed most of his essence to escape the dungeon Haures put him in so he could save Amy from her human ex in the mortal world. The wind must have triggered his switch, though that does nothing to stop him from shielding Amy from the wind.

But Susanna… she stands tall and proud as she shifts on her heels, facing the wind.

“Yelios. Can you hear me? I know you can. And I know what you’ve done.”

In response, a voice that sounds like it belongs to someone who’s lived for two thousand years and smoked a pack a day for each and every one of them calls out, so loudly I feel the rasp all the way down to my bones.

Holy shit. Tandy wasn’t kidding. The voice comes from all around us, and there is no doubt in my mind that it’s coming from the shadows.

Coming from King Yelios.

“Ah… so at last you return to me, Susanna. You did not bring the child to me as you vowed, but I am a merciful king. I have my mate. I consider our bargain complete. I have that which is important to me. And now… I return to you what I took.”

He spoke in Sombran. His voice is so aged, it takes me a second to understand what he—Yelios—said to the duke’s mate.

A second is all it takes from the large block in front of us to crack open enough to spit out a body before it crumples on the ash.

A human male-sized body that groans before flopping to his back.