Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters #1) - Jaymin Eve Page 0,52

nothing more than a scorched stump at the end of my arm.

There was not a mark on me, though. “What…” I spluttered. “What the fuck was that?”

He’d touched me when he carried me to this shithole, and I had felt no pain.

Shadow’s giant, giant height returned to just one “giant” as he stepped closer, not looking as pissed off as I’d expected. “No one touches me.”

That was it, his entire explanation. “So you tried to burn me from the inside out?”

He shook his head, curls moving gently with the movement, and I had the most insane urge to reach up and run my hands through them. Like, the fucker had almost broken me a second ago when I’d touched him, but apparently, I was a sucker for pain.

“That’s my power,” he said just as shortly. “If you can’t handle it, don’t step into the fire.”

I snorted. “Right. Gotcha.”

Asshole.

23

Once I was suited up in jeans, a thick jacket, gloves, and a wool hat—ninety percent certain those clothes had not been in my closet earlier—I walked through the library with Shadow. Inky was close to us again, slinking around its master, but I kind of felt good that it was there. Like an extra backup against these shadow creatures. Just the name itself invoked fear, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to see them and not freak out.

“How does it all work?” I asked as a distraction when we were nearing the hallway to Earth.

“The way you throw out random words and think they form sentences is appalling,” Shadow said, his accent a little stronger than usual.

I shrugged. “Maybe you’re just not smart enough to keep up with me.”

He shook his head but was stopped from replying when someone from Karn stepped closer—not touching him, as was apparently his preference—and whispered to him.

The water beings were still some of the most unusual I’d seen, and that was saying something, considering the demi-fey and Brolder inhabitants. But still, the almost translucent nature of their bodies and how they appeared boneless as they slipped through the smallest of spaces was absolutely fascinating.

“What did they say?” I asked.

Shadow tilted his head in my direction, and since he was back to being eight feet tall, I craned my neck to keep him in my line of sight.

“What makes you think that’s any of your business?” he asked. No growls or grumbles, though, so I was counting that as a win.

I shrugged. “It’s not, I’m sure. But you’re keeping me prisoner, and I’m curious about this place, so I’m going to ask questions.”

His lips actually twitched minutely and for a beat, it appeared he was amused by me. “Learn to ask the right questions, pup, and you just might survive.”

Oh, great. Very reassuring.

He took off then, long-ass legs sending him through the shimmery veil directory and into the Earth hallway. It looked the exact same as last time, a white expanse of hall littered with multiple doors.

“Do these lead to other worlds as well?”

He’d told me something about them the first time, but for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what it was. Fear no doubt had me blocking out those hours.

“No. The true worlds are all off the library,” he said, surprising me by being forthcoming with information. “These doors lead to other areas.”

And the information had dried up.

There was no more time for questions; he was moving so fast, I basically had to sprint to keep up with him. I hadn’t caught the way he’d entered this hall the first time, when we’d left Earth for here, and it became obvious why when the white walls just tapered off and then we were standing in a forest. A very thick, snow-covered forest, the early evening air temp dropping dramatically in a split second.

As an icy breeze cut through me, I shivered, thankful that I at least had as much clothing on as I did. Wolf shifters didn’t feel the cold like humans, but when temps were this low, we still suffered without protection.

Shadow paused his overachiever walking pace, lifting his head and closing his eyes as he breathed deeply.

“L-Lost it al-already?” I chattered, my body taking longer than expected to adjust to the rapid temperature change.

He shot me a dark look, and in the exceptionally low light, the fire in his eyes glowed like a million fireflies. “Creatures from the Shadow Realm are not easy to track or contain, but if they’re left to roam free, they’ll raze the Earth, along with its