Page 52 of Shadows of Light
“Doesn’t age make you wiser?”
Banba snorted. “You have many eons to go, my queen. I’m sure many of them will entail foolish things.”
Lexi smiled. “I’m sure you’re right.”
“Gibborim and I shall swear fealty now. I hope you’ll accept it as coming from the rest of the giants too.”
“I will.”
While the giant queen and her brother swore to uphold Lexi as their queen and aid her in wars, more dragons landed to stand with Lexi’s growing guard. When they finished, Queen Banba and Gibborim both bowed to her.
“Would you like to have dinner with us?” Lexi inquired. “It’s a bit chilly, but the sun is warm, and it would be good to sit outside.”
“I think so too,” Queen Banba said, “and I would like to talk with you more.”
“So would I.”
CHAPTERFORTY-TWO
The dark fae was starving,and the wolf had become half mad with its need for its mate, but as they battled to break free, the shadows fought them. And they gave in to the shadows because they also knew the truth…
They couldn’t go to her. It wouldn’t be good for her if they did.
They couldneverstay with her again, and if they continued to return to fulfill their needs, they would repeatedly break her heart. The dark fae and lycan couldn’t allow such a thing to happen, but they yearned to see her again.
Though he remained deep beneath the earth, the shadows slithered around him. But wasn’t that impossible?
It must be because shadows couldn’t thrive in the dark; they required light to exist. He tried to reason this out, but there was little room for reasoning when they didn’t shut the fuck up!
They whispered incessantly as they demanded death and blood over and over again. However, they didn’t surround him; they couldn’t down here. They were inside him.
During moments of clarity, he recalled he’d been the one to welcome them, to draw them further into him, and give them control of his body. Which meant he should be able to fight them off.
He’d been so certain he could when he accepted so many inside him. He was the strongest dark fae ever to walk the realms, but the shadows refused to relinquish the tentacles they’d latched into him. Their hooks dug deeper into his flesh as they burrowed through his insides.
He wouldneverbe free of them.
His back bowed, and claws extended as knuckles popped and twisted. The lycan had stopped caring about anything other than getting to its mate.
His knees shifted into something more canine, but as the lycan sought to break free, the shadows whispered something new.
“There’s a threat,” the insidious things murmured.
Cole realized he’d spoken out loud, but it wasn’t his voice and seemed to come from a different part of him.
“It is out there, plotting against her. We can hear them,” the shadows murmured.
This calmed the wolf into ceasing its fight against the shadows, but didn’t suppress the lycan as his body shifted into a new shape. Loping across the rocky floor, he wound his way toward the surface.
As soon as he crossed into the light, the shadows rejoiced as more surged toward him. Laughter filled the air as they realized they’d be allowed to play.
They coalesced over and around him as they concealed him from any who might see him. When he raced past the guards, they never noticed as he slipped into a portal and moved on to the human realm.
Once there, he opened a portal to the outer realm the shadows whispered about. Their excited words were malevolent as they anticipated the coming fight and death they would unleash. As the wolf ran, Cole sent more shadows to watch over Lexi.
He emerged into the outer realm and a rocky outcropping facing a bar. He’d never seen it before, but there were an unknown number of realms. No one could see them all, but the shadows had seen this one.
His claws ticked against the rocks as he prowled out of the shadows. The lycan part of him had been denied its mate for too long and was spoiling for a fight. If it couldn’t claim her, at least it could kill.
