Rejected (Shadow Beast Shifters #1) - Jaymin Eve Page 0,86

hand over the top, getting a feel for the energy. I could almost taste the cold, metallic spell on my tongue, and with it came a triggering memory of being locked in the throes of darkness, unable to break free.

“Heard you had a little adventure.”

I recognized Reece’s rumbly voice and raspy accent.

Not bothering to turn, I growled. “If you’re not here to have sex with me so I can win the bet with Shadow, then fuck off.” Not that I was particularly attracted to Reece, outside of admiring his pretty lashes, but at this point I’d take almost anyone to beat Shadow.

A deep chuckle sounded behind me. “It all makes sense now,” he remarked. “So much sense.”

Pulling my hand from the darkness, I waved it at him. “You aren’t making a lick of sense. Please just go away. I don’t need the distraction.”

He didn’t move. I could feel his powerful presence in the same way I felt Shadow’s, like I was standing too close to a power plant, surges of energy traipsing across my skin.

“What if I told you about the spell that holds this world hostage from us?” he said casually.

My curiosity was too great to ignore any possible information, so I spun, reaching out to grab at him before remembering it was a super bad idea to touch these guys without their permission. It was too late, though, as my hands landed on his chest, but thankfully, unlike Shadow, I felt nothing from Reece except an exceptionally firm pec muscle, and a whiff of something dry and earthy.

He looked down at my hands, not saying a word, and despite the laugh I’d thought I heard, his gorgeous face was once again stoic. Yanking my hands away, I swallowed roughly. “Please, I need to understand.”

He nodded. “You will understand as much as I can give you, but I don’t have all the answers. Shadow’s secrets are his alone. I can only tell you about this spell.”

Disappointment almost dropped me to my ass until I remembered that the spell itself was still pretty damn important.

“This spell is a living entity,” he said, those dark blue eyes turned toward the shadowed door. “It’s powered by an unknown source that we believe is in the Shadow Realm.” His voice lowered, caressing my senses. There was an innate sensuality about the one they called a desert deity.

Shadow the second.

“The spell is incredibly intelligent,” Reece continued. “It adapts. Every single time we figure out a way to cut through its hold, we’ll be mere seconds from opening the door, and it’ll regroup and reform, shooting us back to the very beginning of our investigation. Worse than the beginning, because whatever means we used to best it will now be rendered useless. It counters everything. It adapts and learns.”

Great. A precocious, genius-level spell built of eternal darkness. Just what we all needed in our lives.

“Has it ever done to another what it did to me?”

Neither of us pretended he didn’t know about my dance with the darkness. Shadow had clearly gone straight to his friends for advice, and I didn’t blame him—I would have followed that exact same path. “Never. And from what I can tell, it didn’t adapt to you or your energy.” Reece eyed me closely. “If anything, you did some damage bringing it to view like this…” He waved at the swirls of smoke. “It’s unable to hide any longer and that’s a good sign.”

I made a growly sound. “But is it? As far as I can tell, we’re no closer to breaking through. I can’t touch it without my soul going all goth, so what’s the next step?”

He patted me on the shoulder, and I was surprised by that reassuring sort of gesture. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. Change is a good sign, even if we don’t know why yet. One thing is for certain: having you around is certainly going to make life very interesting.”

Closing my eyes briefly, I tried to calm my frantic mind. “I still don’t understand why I’m the one. Why is this happening to me when I’ve been insignificant my entire life?”

Reece’s face was expressionless, but his eyes were warmer than I’d ever seen, those incredible lashes framing them like twin portraits into his soul. Reaching out, he pushed a strand of my hair back. “There is nothing insignificant about you, Mera Callahan. From the first moment you stepped into the room, wearing Shadow’s signature color, I knew you were going to turn my friend’s