Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 3)

Since he’d been trapped under what remained of my library, Gaster really had no idea where Shadow had disappeared to. Tracking the beast was never going to be easy, and especially not with his recently re-acquired ability to use shadowy energy to move between worlds.

He could be anywhere. Any of the worlds. Worlds I could not get to because there were no doorways.

However, I did have a few clues when it came to his whereabouts, the first being Inky. Shadow and Inky were bonded, and where there was one, the other was close behind. Dannie hadn’t taken their memories of each other away, so it stood to reason, Shadow was still here.

With that in mind, I headed straight for the lair, all the while reaching through my bond for Midnight. From the moment my memories had begun unraveling from their cage, I’d searched for my mist, but there was nothing at the end of our bond except static electricity.

I could only guess that my mist was still in the Shadow Realm and out of my reach. Hopefully, once I found Shadow, he’d have all the final answers to the timeline that had begun after Dannie had swirled me back to Torma.

Inky, Sam, and Gaster stayed with me, right until we reached the lair portal. A portal that was still intact despite the complete destruction everywhere else. Hello, second clue.

“This is as far as you can go,” I said to Sam. “Shadow is very particular about who enters his lair, and he’s obviously a little out of control, so let’s not test him today.”

She nodded, nervously worrying at her bottom lip. “I understand. I’ll stay here and help Gaster ferret out more books that can be saved.”

A woman after my own heart. “We’ll make the Shadow Bastard fix my library, don’t worry.”

She didn’t laugh, and I didn’t blame her. This entire situation was the stuff midlife crises were made of.

Gaster stepped closer, and I read the worry in his orb-like eyes. “Be safe,” he finally said. “Don’t trust that this is the same being you knew. His power and anger destroyed a library and Solaris System that have been part of him for thousands of years. You have your work cut out for you, Mera Callahan.”

I hugged him.

At first, he was surprised, but within a few seconds, his body relaxed against mine. I finally remembered why none of the powerful creatures here liked to hug: because they feared their energy being stolen by another. Gaster, despite his diminutive stature, was a being of great power and intellect, and his reticence when it came to touching was no different to the others.

I was the only one they let into their personal space, and because of that, I gave them hugs as freely as I could. “Please don’t die,” Gaster said against my shoulder. “Your light makes the world much brighter for us all. I truly missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too,” I said, straightening. “More than I can say. It was like a part of my soul died when Dannie stole my memories, and I won’t get that part back until we fix it all.”

He nodded, taking a moment to compose himself before he stepped away from me. “Best of luck with your mission, Mera Callahan.”

I shot him a cheeky smile. “You got it, Gaster. Also, can you look after Sam for me? Maybe you can find a way to communicate with her?”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

When I repeated that to my new friend, she waved me off. “We’ll figure it out. Miming always works.”

Unable to resist the tugging in my center any longer, I finally followed my heart’s—and soul’s—desire and stepped toward the portal. I had no idea what I was about to find on the other side, but not even a million insane goddesses could have stopped me from walking through.

Inky, the only one permitted to enter with me, stayed right behind me as I reached out a hand. The moment my fingers touched the barrier, a zap knocked me back a few steps.

What in the hell?

Peering closer, I finally noticed that the portal was laced through with tiny specks of fire; Shadow had upped his barriers. Thankfully, my own powers were free now, and I knew exactly how to access my fire.

Without any effort, I drew the flames protectively around my skin, hearing a low gasp from behind me. Sam would no doubt have some questions for me when I returned. If I returned.

This time when I placed my hand into the barrier, the zap of electricity raced across my skin like an old friend. I had missed that zap so badly, relishing in the feel of it tingling over my skin and sliding through my body to settle between my legs, hot and heavy and aching.

Shadow.

With the whisper of his name in my head, I pushed harder against the portal’s security, until the resistance faded, and I was finally able to step through. Inky remained with me, and it was comforting to have my buddy there.

Especially when the lair came into view.

I’d been expecting the worst after seeing the Library of Knowledge, preparing myself for more destruction, but… that wasn’t the case in the lair. Taking a step into the darkness, my wolf rose up to help me see, and it still took me a moment to figure out what he’d done.

The lack of light in here was a combination of shadows and mists, layered over every surface by the Shadow Beast himself. He’d created a web of darkness, designed to trap and destroy any who entered its midst.

My fire, which had died down across my skin, flared again, giving me the ability to both see and cut through the web of shadows. The room was icy cold as I moved deeper into it, and I had the sense that if I were any normal human or shifter, the cold would have killed me.

Even as it was, with literal fire burning around me, my breath still puffed out in a visible cloud before me. Inky pressed closer as we both felt the beating heart of another deep in this cave of death.

Gaster hadn’t been wrong about Shadow.

He was no longer my beast. He was the true beast of shifter nightmares. The creature who stalked us in the night and destroyed any who crossed his path. And maybe a year ago that truth would have had me turning tail and running like a scared bitch, but after all I’d been through with Shadow, I’d never give up on him now.

I needed him.

Fuck, the worlds needed him.

Without Shadow, his mother would probably destroy us all in her manic need for order and control. I hadn’t forgotten what Gaster had said… The stone was only going to continue corrupting its host until there was no sign of the Dannie I knew and loved.

If anyone knew how to stop that from happening, it was Shadow. I just had to find him first.

The farther I crept into the room, the colder it got. How the fuck that was even possible, I had no idea, but apparently there was a new level of frozen nipples in Antarctica that Shadow had discovered.

“Shadow,” I called after creeping for way too long. “Come out of your damn labyrinth of a library and talk to me.”

A moment of silence. A moment before a roar blasted through the shelves, the force knocking me back; I would have landed on my ass if Inky hadn’t caught me from behind. Straightening, I shook off the lingering effects of beast magic, returning his roar with one of my own.

“Listen up, you cranky bastard. I’m not your enemy,” I bellowed, feeling him move closer. I stood my ground. “I get it, Shadow, I really do. I’m fairly pissed at Dannie as well, but your mom isn’t in her right mind, so I need you back in your right mind so we can help her.”

Despite what Dannie had done to me, I didn’t hate her. I was hurt, but I also understood that she’d been trying to save us when she’d swallowed that stone. She probably had saved me, since I’d been about to grab it, and who knew what that would have done to someone who was half-shifter.

The power corrupting her was not entirely her fault, and she deserved a chance to be saved.

His roars faded as I sensed him stalking closer. The connection I always felt to him burst to life as my fire grew larger, spreading out from me like it was reaching for the beast.

The fire was the only reason I knew when he was about to attack. It deflected the first slash of his power, and as I dove to the side, I slapped back at him with my own energy. As I scrambled to my feet, Inky got involved, swelling up into a large curtain between us. Shadow stepped into the light of my fire, his misty magic sliding away so I could see every naked inch of him.

He was at least ten feet tall. Or somewhere around that. I was shit at judging heights, as had been well documented, but I knew for a fact that his Anubis form stood well above his normal seven feet.

He was still in a humanoid body, with some structural changes so he was stronger and hairier than normal, both of which were totally fine by me.

Wolf shifter, right? Hair was kind of our thing.

The Anubis wolf head was the most foreign part of him, turning him into a being so god-like that it was hard not to just stare at him in awe. My eyes traced down his bare chest, his ink still visible even under the extra hair, not to mention the abs, and… holy dick gods in heaven. Someone needed to say a fucking prayer for that bounty.

“You shouldn’t be strolling around here with your weapon just flapping in the book breezes,” I managed to say, trying desperately not to let breathlessness creep into my voice.

This was a serious situation, with a beast ready to rip my head from my body. It was certainly not the time to be cockmerised, no matter how impressive the specimen in question, or how long I’d been without him.

Shadow tilted his head again, and the way he moved was so animalistic. Just as Gaster had told me… Shadow was more beast than anything else right now.

Inky drifted closer to me again, and I wondered if it was communicating with Shadow or not. Was the beast able to form coherent thoughts, or was it all rage and instinct?

“Any help would be greatly appreciated, buddy,” I said to Inky, my skin prickling as Shadow moved closer to me. His energy was electric, and I wasn’t so stupid that I didn’t recognize the grave danger I was in here. It wasn’t the first time I’d been near death around the Shadow Beast, but it was the first time he could not be communicated or reasoned with.

Right?

Was I making a mistake in assuming that just because his eyes were flaming pools of bloodlust and his claws were mini samurai swords that his brain was not still fully functional? Even when the wolf took over, a part of me remained Mera. Remained my human self.

Unless Dannie had done something else to affect him, the real Shadow was still there, just buried under a shit ton of anger and power.

“You probably don’t remember me right now,” I started in a soft whisper, “but we’re friends. Great friends. I’m most definitely in the top six beings you trust, and considering how long you’ve lived and how many beings you know, that is really quite the fucking achievement.”

Nerves had me babbling, but that had always been a way to get through to him in the past, so I went with it.

“You kidnapped me,” I continued, “which, by the way, you’re not allowed to do with any other shifter. I’m far too jealous and possessive for you to drag another in here by their hair. Nope. I might even beast out myself and put bleach in their shampoo at a high enough strength that their hair would fall out. Not all of it, just… like half of it. I’m not a total monster.”

He’d stopped moving, his head stilling as his depthless eyes devoured me. It was hard for me to believe I’d forgotten that intense stare.

“You don’t remember me, Shadow, but our souls matc—”

Before I could finish my sentence, he roared, a deafening sound that had true power behind it, sending me flying back into a nearby shelf. I hadn’t been ready for it, failing to brace myself and stop bones from breaking. Normally, it wouldn’t be a huge deal, but the few minutes it took me to heal was all the time the beast needed to attack again. Thankfully, my wolf saw the issue as well, forcing the change on us so we healed in an instant.

Without a glance back, we took off through the library, Shadow right on our tail.

Calling up the fire as soon as the portal came into sight, we dove through. Shadow didn’t follow me, but I felt him there, standing on the lair side of the portal.

Dammit, that had not gone as well as expected, but at least I knew what I was dealing with now. And I didn’t have to track Shadow down halfway across the worlds. He was here, and now I needed a plan of attack.