Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters #1) - Jaymin Eve Page 0,72

there was an actual legit smile on his face. “Haven’t climbed a tree in five hundred years. Forgot how fun it is.”

I just blinked and blinked, wondering if I’d hit my head. Or maybe the poison had managed to infiltrate my blood and I was hallucinating. Shadow looked almost… happy. I had no idea what to think about that.

Patting my face a few times, I gave myself a firm slap, trying to wake up from whatever dream this was. Hands landed on mine before I could try again. “No,” he said, serious again. “Don’t do that.”

With a twist of my head, I attempted to see his expression, but he’d already turned away, reaching out to grab the grey creature about to attack us. The sprecker covered Shadow almost completely in its poisonous and sticky substance, but that wasn’t enough to stop the beast from using his shadow magic to secure it in a small, convenient bundle.

“Your turn, Sunshine,” he told me, not looking my way.

Gone was the open expression he’d worn before, a blank nothingness on his face, hiding all his deeper emotions in the many layers that was Shadow Beast.

For a second, I’d had a little more of him to hold on to, but as always, it disappeared before I’d gotten more than a taste.

Scariest part was that this time, a taste was nowhere near enough.

32

Once Shadow had the sprecker secured in one of the white door prisons, I made him show me the abervoq. Who, thankfully, looked to be in perfect health. Pissed off at being caged, bellowing when it saw me, but was unharmed, from what I could see.

After that, Shadow took off and left me to my own devices and I started to wonder where he went all the times he disappeared on me. Did he have a lover somewhere? Or was he visiting his friends in their worlds?

I wanted to follow him, but he was always so fast—there one minute and gone the next, disappearing into smoky shadows, like he could use them to transport him. Which left me with no true idea of how to track him. Instead I focused on my second-favorite pastime: scouring the library to learn about the worlds.

Most of what I’d picked up in between sweeping was general information about the various lands and their inhabitants. I liked to combine that with real-life observations of the beings who frequented the library, and through both, I felt I had a reasonable grasp of the ten worlds.

Well, nine. No one knew shit about the Shadow Realm. Except Shadow himself, and he was not the share-with-the-class type.

“I really want to visit the worlds,” I told Gaster, following him around to help shelve books. “Like, each of them at least once so I can experience the differences.”

He tilted his head back, hands still moving as he placed books without looking. Somehow, he just knew where they went. “Most of them would more than welcome your exploration. A few are not so hospitable, but if you’d like me to compose a travel guide for you, I’d be happy to in my spare time.”

I hugged him, taking the poor guy completely by surprise. No one here randomly hugged—that was apparently an Earth tradition—so I kept startling these poor beings.

“Thank you, Gaster! And even though I know you have zero free time, if you can find some, I’d love a travel guide.”

There was no way I could sneak into the worlds without some help. I couldn’t speak the languages, could not blend, and had no idea of the many and varied dangers I was sure existed. But if Gaster got this guide to me… it would help so much.

“I know Honor Meadows is a lot like Earth,” I said. “And I loved visiting with Angel, but I really hope to see at least a few of the other worlds.”

Gaster nodded, eyes back on his books. “Honor Meadows would be familiar to you, except for the way they use magic in place of technology and science. They’re nature-based in many ways.”

I knew all of this from my research, but I always enjoyed hearing about the worlds. “They pass their magic through the family lines?” I asked to confirm.

“Oh, yes,” Gaster chirped. “The larger and stronger your family line is or was, the more magic and land you will control.”

That made me think of Angel, whom I was almost certain had no one left at all in her family. Was that why she was so powerful? Or had these