Page 19 of Shifters Reckoning

“Lead the way, Multimorph.” We didn’t bother with clothes. What was the point? “Oh, what were you going to say about Marcus?”

She frowned, and her mouth turned down. “He’s blind.”

I blinked. “He’s blind? Ville Platte Cats won’t take that well.”

She shrugged. “I think it happened when his sister nearly killed him.”

My mouth dried. Marcus’s sister was the same woman I’d wanted to save, back before I had destroyed those shifter souls in the woods. “How?”

“Not sure. When we were at the creek, she linked with him somehow, and she was in his head the whole time we were off getting the linking relic. It nearly killed him.”

And I nearly killed her… She’d lost her mind. Maybe she was too polluted by Acheron, too far gone to come back from it.

“His sister might be my birth mom,” she murmured. “That’s the secret I’ve been keeping from you.”

“Acheron told me.”

She whirled to face me. “Acheron told you?” Her voice went up several octaves. “When? Over tea and crumpets?”

My mouth pinched as I considered her for a long moment. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever had crumpets.”

“Oh, okay,” she snapped. “Focus on that part of what I said.”

“Well, Acheron is an asshole, and he did the whole asshole bit. If I know Marcus’s sister might be your mother, I’m less likely to… to…” My words died in my throat.

“Less likely to what?”

“To end her life.”

Her gaze hardened. “Did you?”

“I don’t think so, but I attacked Acheron when he threatened you, and he had her and her son in the building I assume I brought down.”

“Is that when you pulled all that energy from me?”

I didn’t answer right away. Instead, I studied her profile and wished I didn’t have to clear the air, but it was time to tell her what I’d done. Admitting it might dim her respect.

“Yeah. I ripped some shadow mages apart, reassembled their souls, and sent them back to Acheron’s lair with all the hate I could muster. Based on the boom, there’s probably not much left of the building they’d been in.”

She crossed her arms over her middle and stared at the area rug on the floor of our bedroom. “That’s why it was so much energy from me.” Her gaze jumped to meet mine. “It always takes more power to pervert a shifter’s soul. That’s why Acheron never has enough.”

I said nothing.

She placed her hand on my arm. “That’s why you’re different now. Destroying them destroyed a piece of you.”

Coughing barely covered the shuddering breath I sucked in. “Yeah, maybe.”

She considered me, nodded, and then withdrew her hand. “We all must do what we don’t want to. We’ll be lucky if we’re the same people at the end.”

“No. There’s no chance.” I shook my head sadly. “Whoever’s left alive after the final battle won’t be who they were when it started.”

Without speaking, we made our way out of the bedroom.

In my estimation, the best we could hope for was that maybe we wouldn’t all be left with twisted, wounded, mangled, grotesque souls after we sent Acheron back to hell.

CHAPTER SIX

emma