Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 3)

Ninety percent of me had expected Dannie to move out of my reach, so I was somewhat shocked when I made contact, claws digging into her soft feathers. On a regular being, my claws would have torn through in an instant, but there was nothing regular about Dannie.

Her body felt soft, but beneath the façade of softness, the rest was stronger than any substance I’d ever come in contact with. Nothing would tear through her in this state, and I had a split-second freakout wondering how we could possibly steal the stone from her, until I remembered the fortress was designed to weaken her.

That had been the entire point of this dangerous spell in the first place. We could not get the stone from her without her energy being weakened, hence why I was acting as a distraction.

“Mera, my sweet Mera,” she trilled, her hands coming up to wrap around my wolf neck. “Why do you so recklessly throw your life away?”

I shifted back in an instant, surprising her when I chose to return to my physically weakest form. Her second surprise came when I shot a blast of power at her, and she loosened her hold enough for me to get away. I would have landed hard if Inky hadn’t caught me, the mist then raging up into a sparking barrier between us and the goddess, giving the others the last few seconds they needed to finish their cage.

On Shadow’s command, they gathered the cage in their hands, ready to attach it to the goddess. Dannie let out a loud chuckle; it was the oddest bird-human sound as she watched the golden coils swirl around them.

“You need to listen to us,” Shadow said, and for the first time, someone had all of her attention—the son she might still love deep down. “You can fix this. You can reject the stone from your energy and allow the true balance to be restored. The fae magic you use has no place in the Shadow Realm.”

She paused, tilting her head, a look of consideration creasing the corners of her eyes, obvious even on the bird face. “The power it holds is from the realm,” she chirped in her power-laden voice. “Power that was stolen from my creatures. Stolen from the mists. Power that I will be able to return when I am the only one who controls it. You must see that this is the best solution for the realm… and all of the worlds. What if another Ixana happens?”

She’d retained her logic, which hurt, because my Dannie was still in there. And the thought of trying to destroy the Dannie I’d known in Torma was breaking me.

Shadow didn’t seem to be burdened with the same worry, his previous statements nothing more than another distraction, giving Reece a chance to weave a tiny sliver of the fortress net around Dannie’s tail.

The long, stunning plume of her feathers was bright and ostentatious… and possibly her downfall. With a substance to grip on to, the fortress spell settled into place, and a burst of gold released the seven powerful beings who’d worked tirelessly to constrain her.

Dannie’s amused expression faded as she felt the power of their cage wrapping around her body. It was so fast that before she could lift her feathery red eyebrows, it was up to her neck. The strands tightened, cutting off her air, and when her head disappeared, I let out a breath, pulling myself to stand. My healing had already kicked in, and by the time I got dressed, any aches from my tiny battle with the goddess were gone.

“Did it work?” I asked, hurrying toward the others, surprised to see that Shadow still held one of golden strands.

“We just need to get the last link secured,” Reece grunted out. “She’s fighting harder than ever.”

Together, they pressed in with the final strands, and as it settled against Dannie, I had a brief moment of thinking we’d won. But the moment was over before we even had a chance to celebrate.

A sliver of red light escaped from the golden strands close to Dannie’s face, and before any of us could even react, she channeled her power so effectively that the fortress shattered, sending all of us flying. As I braced myself for impact, I ended up caged in strong arms that took the impact of the blow.

“You okay?” Shadow asked, his face close to mine.

I nodded. “Yeah, but fuck. It didn’t work! What do we do now? She’s too strong to take the stone from without weakening her first.”

He was on his feet in a heartbeat, holding me against him. “We try again,” he said quickly. “We learn where we went wrong and ensure it doesn’t happen twice.”

Angel huffed in closer, her wings springing free in an attempt to block us from Dannie’s view. “We’re bleeding energy, Shadow. I estimate we have one more shot in all of us.”

“That’s all we need,” Shadow said fiercely. “We’re fast learners.”

“One last time,” Lucien said.

“We’ve got this,” Len added, pulling more of his crystals free.

Galleli was on board as well. Let us begin.

With no time to waste, they formed a circle, preparing to weave another fortress. A stronger one.

Dannie, who was still floating nearby, seemingly none the worse for wear after exploding from her cage, tilted her head back and laughed. “My Darkor, you never used to be so stupid. You cannot best me.”

Her power rose up above her, and I knew she was going to destroy them before they had a chance to build a cage to fight her again. There was no way I could distract her for long enough to stop that.

Just as she sent her energy toward us, Shadow reached out and grasped on to my hand, tugging me into him. The world tilted out from under me, and then we were somewhere else. Shadow had moved our location, which had used power we probably couldn’t afford to lose, but at the same time, if he hadn’t moved us, we’d have been blasted to pieces by an angry goddess.

“Will she follow?” Angel gasped, her wings looking duller than they had been earlier, the gold of her skin all but gone.

Shadow didn’t answer, too busy zapping us through to another location, this one above the water somewhere.

“She’s clearly following,” Reece said dryly. “Maybe you should focus on using some of your family power to speed the process along versus asking inane questions.”

Angel’s body was vibrating, whatever gold power had been left in her briefly puffing off her skin before she got herself under control. Reece’s words were mean and unfair—we were all in a shitty situation—but Angel didn’t bite back.

Which bothered me. “You need to chill with that, Reece,” I said shortly. “These are unprecedented times, and we can’t all be expected to act how you think we should. Let’s just focus on staying ahead of Dannie and weaving the cage again.”

His eyes flashed, and as he opened his mouth to hit back at me, a raging beast appeared over my shoulder. Even though I couldn’t see Shadow’s face, I knew he was warning his friend to be very careful about what he said next.

This was the second time Shadow had stepped in when I really didn’t need him to. I appreciated the support, and the way he spoke love without saying the words, but we’d be having a chat about me fighting my own battles one day very soon.

If we made it out of the realm alive.

“You’re right, Mera,” Reece finally bit out, some of his rage fading. “It’s neither the time nor place, and it’s best to focu—”

His words were cut off as Shadow zipped us away again, and I was starting to worry that my mate was going to run out of energy soon. Through our joined hands, I sent as much of my power as I could into him, and Inky pressing into his other side was hopefully doing the same.

“I heard your words when you were in your wolf form,” Shadow murmured near my ear, his gaze on our joined hands. “And I feel the beat of our true mate bond in my chest. Stronger than ever.”

The sort of warmth that could only be described as near orgasmic flooded my body, and I sighed, wishing I could just wrap myself around him, kiss those decadent lips, and never come up for air. Before I lost myself any further into that fantasy, Shadow used the energy I’d shared and zapped us to another location. One with land.

“It’s the outlier islands,” he said shortly.

This had me looking around with more interest since I’d only ever seen them on a rough Inky map.

Shadow pulled us away from the edge of the sand and water, and farther into the mainland. Unlike the Concordes, there were no visible lava fields here; it was very jungle-like, with a thick and dense foliage, humidity sending moisture across my skin within seconds of walking.

“She’ll hopefully have some trouble tracking us here,” Shadow said, sounding strong and sure, but I felt his fatigue through our bond. “Inky, can you form a barrier around us as well? We need to finish this final cage. No mistakes.”

The mist rose up, bursting into a huge covering, which would hopefully block some of our energy from being traced. As soon as Inky was in place, Shadow released my hand, gesturing for the others to form a circle again.

“I’ll be the lookout,” I said softly, stepping away. “I’ll warn you the moment I feel her power closing in.”

“Don’t try to tap into her power, though,” Alistair warned me. “She’s bonded to you, through your Nexus origins, and she will feel it if you search for her.”

I nodded. “Don’t worry. I won’t do anything to jeopardize us.”

Behind me, their power settled into the land as they started to weave their second fortress. A quick glance was all it took to see that this time each strand was thicker and brighter. As Shadow had said, they’d learned from their mistakes, and if this was our last shot at stopping a war, they were giving it everything they had.

Taking my part of the whole process seriously, I strolled around the perimeter, tamping down my energy so that I didn’t inadvertently give us away. My senses were on high alert, and I felt the moment a foreign spark of power drifted closer to the circle.

I didn’t panic and neither did Inky, so it was clear we’d both felt the same thing. This power wasn’t the Nexus goddess; it was the locals of this outlier island. Their jab of energy was both curious and a touch hostile as they attempted to understand who had invaded their territory.

When they moved closer, I positioned myself so they’d have to go through me first. A flicker of unease thrummed along my bond from both Shadow and Angel, but there wasn’t much they could do except trust in me. In the power I contained.

Trust me to be a contributing member of this pack.

I’d been excluded from the fortress due to my youth and inexperience, and while that stung, I understood their reasons. But it didn’t mean I was helpless.

The locals were close now, hiding in the trees, and while I couldn’t see them, I felt their power. When one finally stepped into view, I understood why they’d been able to hide so well. They were camouflaged, and not just in the way that their clothing had been designed to blend into this landscape, but also their skin, hair, and other features.

The one before me had brown and green skin, the two colors almost splattered together to form a perfect jungle vibe. It allowed them to blend near seamlessly into the environment around them.

“Hello,” I said, the translation spell helping me to communicate with them. “We mean you no harm.”

They stepped closer, and I had no idea of their gender, of course, but the bare chest was male-like. For what that was worth.

“Why are you here?” Rumbly words holding more hostility. “With the Supreme Being?”

Before I could answer, there was a rustling near the local’s feet. I could see nothing there, not until the creature unfurled itself and rose to stand a few feet above me.

I blinked, confused. I was fairly sure it was a sprecker, only heavier-set and… scarier than any of the ones I’d seen before.

“I thought you didn’t keep creatures,” I asked, turning to the locals, feeling stupidly betrayed by them. “I thought you rejected the way of the royals.”

The local being and the creature looked at Shadow, and I could see them judging my judgement of them, since I was mated to the head royal. But we weren’t like the others in the Concordes.

Both Shadow and I agreed that the creatures were not vessels to be used for our gain.

“The shadow creatures are our friends, not our possessions.”

The local’s words rumbled in the winds, strong and sure. With it came a true burst of joy; I hadn’t misjudged them.

“I’m born of the Nexus,” I said, taking a chance that this was the way to get through to them. “The mother of shadow creatures, and I want to free them from the life they’ve led on the mainland. Shadow agrees with me, and since he’s the Supreme Being, there’s hope that we can change the course of the realm’s future.”

The being and his sprecker friend examined me closely, as the other locals crept forward. “How will you defeat the original mother?” the first one asked me, head tilted as if examining me for lies.

I waved to my pack and their half-done fortress. “That’s what we’re working on now. Sorry to bring it to your lands, but we needed to hide from the phoenix, and your energy is so strong here that it’ll hopefully be enough to confuse her pursuit of us.”

There was a beat of silence, and then they all sprang into action, ducking and diving back into the foliage. I blinked in shock, wondering what had spooked them.

“She approaches,” one hissed from nearby. “We must protect the barrier.”

I felt her then, a moment after they had. Dannie, moving on swift winds, was tracking us the old-fashioned way. By literally following the magic trail of Shadow’s jumps.

Spinning, I hurried to Shadow and the others, prepared to fight her if it gave them the time they needed to finish. I wasn’t on my own, though, Inky lowering to be at my side, puffing out as sparks flashed through its center. The locals hadn’t abandoned us, either, reappearing with silver stones in their hands, which they held above their heads and started to chant. Their words were loud and fast, and I felt the power they were calling.

A cloak of energy drifted down over all of us. I shot a quick glance at my pack and the fortress, and I blinked at what the locals had done. My friends were camouflaged, taking on the form and appearance of the foliage around us. A quick glance at my arm told me I was rocking the same forest-color palette.

Holy shit. They had hidden us using the magic that protected their island.

The locals were helping us stand against Dannie, and I sent out a quick prayer that we’d have enough time for the final strands of the fortress to be complete.

It was our only chance; Dannie wouldn’t allow us to escape again.