second to understand what he was doing: wrapping up his spell. Shadow stepped back and the flames surged, encasing the creatures completely in a fireball. It was silent in the field now, their braying and roars cut off by the magic of this spell.
The ball rose in the air with the creatures on board, following as we started to walk. When we neared the edge of a rocky outcropping, the doorway to the library appeared, and I briefly caught movement out of the corner of my eye, but it was gone when I looked closer.
Probably a rabbit or fox—these forests were filled with animals, despite the presence of shifters in their midst. I briefly wished it had been a shifter so I could pass a message on to my friends. Once again, I was leaving without seeing them, and every time that happened, a little piece of my soul shriveled up. Even if it didn’t feel like it, it had been a year. A year without knowing they were okay.
“Shadow,” I said abruptly, stopping him in his tracks. “I can’t leave without checking on my friends. I know you said you’d take care of Dannie… Do you promise she’s okay?”
I was watching him closely, searching for the truth in his eyes. “She was gone when I paid Torma a visit,” he told me. “Rumors were flowing that she escaped, and I could not scent her nearby or feel her energy.” His eyes weren’t lying, but I also didn’t feel reassured by this information. Or lack thereof, really. “She’s a crafty one,” he added, like he knew her, “and something tells me they only held her in the first place because she allowed them to. She’ll be fine. You’ll see her again.”
I held his gaze, but he didn’t waver. Not that my stare was going to break Shadow, but I had to show how serious I was. He nodded like he respected the fact, and I wondered if this was another step forward in our relationship. The lines were blurring, and I didn’t know how to manage my emotions about that.
“Let’s get these creatures back to the library,” Shadow said, reminding me what we’d actually been here for.
“Yep,” I said, taking one last breath of familiar air, a mild longing for my pack sliding through me before I shed it as easily as I shed my wolf when we were done with a shift. Part of me couldn’t even remember being in Torma, but my wolf missed her pack, and truth be told, a tiny slice of me did, too.
As we stepped into the white hall, leaving behind the wintery lands of Earth, I followed Shadow, who didn’t waste any time. Fire filled the hall with light and heat until eventually we reached the next prison. Shadow released the creatures into an extra-large room, and after they tumbled from the fire, he sealed the door with his energy. Energy that looked a lot like Inky—a smoke cloud settling over the entrance. Shadow and Inky’s energy were the same, and that didn’t surprise me one bit. I’d already figured out that whatever Inky was, it was tied irrevocably to the Shadow Beast, and they could never be separated entirely.
“I’ll have dinner brought to the lair,” Shadow said once our task was complete.
I couldn’t help my chuckle. “What did you call all of your shit before you met me?”
He didn’t laugh, but his expression was amused. “It’s a human trait to want to label everything. Some things just are, without need of title or proper noun.”
That felt weird to me, but I didn’t argue because it probably was a human trait. When we entered the library of knowledge, it was business as usual. Various inhabitants from the worlds scattered about, researching everything and giving me a small glimpse into cultures I’d probably never get to see myself.
The familiarity was nice, though, like the shadow creature business might have finally been behind us, and we even had a solid game plan going forward.
Everything was looking up. For once.
53
Before we reached the lair, we were ambushed by Gaster. The goblin was overly enthusiastic by the news that the shadow problem was over for now, and that we had a plan to return them to the realm.
Shadow remained reserved with the goblin, giving short answers… if he answered at all. No one but me pushed the big brute, happy to accept that whatever he said was law. If the goblin knew that Shadow’s sole focus was