Page 307 of Awakened

“You forgot about it,” Dax finishes for me. “Fuck. Whatever this thing is, it’s screwing with our memories.”

Vae groans. “That’s so fucked up. How the hell do you fight a shadow that you can’t even remember exists?”

Just then, the mist shifts across the ceiling, darting purposefully from one beam to the next. We follow its trajectory, not one of us so much as blinking.

“It can change into a solid form,” I tell them, remembering the afternoon when it appeared and came after Idril. “When we were out back, it formed into a solid block around my legs, keeping me from running. Idril blasted it apart with a beam of light.”

The memory makes me shudder. How the fuck are we going to fight this thing?

Caelan crosses the room slowly and stands at my side. “What is it?”

Before I can answer, it moves.

Fast as lightning, the ball of shadow detaches from the eaves and zips through the air, stopping abruptly less than four feet from us. It hovers in the air in the middle of the room like some kind of fucked up black orb.

No one moves. I can feel the tension radiating from the other Alphas, making the air thick with unease. Shade shifts, muscles rippling across his back and the hair along his spine standing on end. His lips peel back, and he bares his unnaturally large incisors threateningly.

The shadow orb pulses and spins slowly. I get the sense it’s studying each of us, taking our measure.

“I feel like it's taunting me,” Vae mutters from the side of his mouth. His grip tightens on his dagger, and despite his flippancy, he’s the embodiment of a predator, waiting to strike at the slightest provocation.

He’s also not wrong. Taunting is the perfect word for what’s happening. Every sense I have is warning me that something’s watching. Either the shadow itself is sentient, or something else is using it to see through.

“Don’t provoke it,” Dax warns him. “I really will let it eat your face off.”

Despite a clear lack of facial features, the shadow turns to face Daxen, who bares his fangs in challenge. I’d laugh if this shit weren’t so fucking terrifying. Daxen baring his fangs at a fucking shadow is something I’m going to seriously enjoy telling Idril.

When it becomes obvious the shadow isn’t going to attack, Daxen relaxes just slightly. Something about it must really piss him off, though, because he steps toward it and unsheaths his dagger, swiping it through the sphere with precision.

“Fuck. Off.” He snarls, and I instantly get the impression that the shadow’s laughing at him. It’s no surprise that the blade doesn’t do any damage. The shadow splits, tendrils of mist curling around the edges before it instantly reforms.

“What—” Vae snaps his mouth shut as the shadow shoots forward straight at him. With a curse, he throws himself to the side, barely getting out of its way in time. We all stare with open mouths and wide eyes as it flies straight for the wall, not slowing down in the slightest.

It hits the wall, breaking apart into a thousand tendrils of smoke that curl and flicker before disappearing altogether.

For a long moment, no one moves, none of us willing to take its sudden departure at face value. Once we’re relatively sure it’s actually gone, the atmosphere lightens, and we visibly start to relax.

Vae slams his dagger back in its sheath, muttering what sounds like insults in Italian under his breath as he makes his way toward the whiskey cart. He picks up a glass, pours himself a generous drink, and throws it back in a single swallow.

Instead of pouring himself a refill, his gaze lands on a half-full glass on the cart; he reaches for it, hesitates for only a second, then shrugs and throws the rest of its contents back as well.

Caelan walks over, picks up the now-empty glass, and glares at Vae, who’s taken his seat on the couch. “That was my drink, asshole.”

Vae’s palms are pressed into his eye sockets, and at the sound of Caelan’s voice, he drops them and blinks up at him owlishly.

“What?”

“Forget it,” Caelan sighs, pouring himself another drink before offering me the decanter. I take it from him, forcing my limbs to move naturally.

A long, low moan comes from Vae’s throat, followed by an exaggerated shiver. “Does anyone have the bingo card? Because I think we can officially cross ‘sentient shadow’ off the list.”

Daxen, busy studying the wall where the shadow disappeared, snaps to attention, every limb pulling taut. He spins around, eyes wide and mouth open in shock.

“The Shadow.”

“Yeah, are we going to talk about how none of us remembered it before now?” Vae asks. “Because that is some seriously disturbing shit. No one should be able to mess with your memories. That should be off limits. There’s no way that’s legal.”

“Legal according to who?” I ask Caelan, being sure to keep my voice low so Vae can’t hear me.