Page 50 of Shannon in Sombra
“And he has my daughter?”
“He believes she is his queen.” That’s Dan again. Now that he’s spoken up, it’s like he thinks if he keeps going, if he helps, I might not reach for Glaine’s sword again. “He will keep her until she is old enough to bond with him. But he was afraid he’d lose Alana again… that’s why he had me take her.”
He did that because he’sinsane.
“There is no bond,” Haures repeats.
I really fucking hope the bondmaster is right.
“Of course there is,” comes Yelios’s thunderous reply. Because, yup, he’s still spying on us. “How else could I beckon the red moon?”
Hang on?—
Hedid that.
“Impossible,” snaps Haures. “You were never a mage. You were a soldier?—”
“It is my gift. To share the love I have for my mate with the rest of her people.”
This is insane. Like… I can’t be the only one thinking that this is insane.
“She’s ababy,” I howl.
Malphas knows me. Words are never just enough, and I’ve done everything I could to hold back while all of this was being dumped on us. But I can’t anymore. I don’t care that these shadowsareYelios. He has her somewhere, and if he opened up the wall to spit Daniel out, there’s go to be a way for me to get to Alana now.
I played nice.
I’m done playing.
I don’t know what the odds are that Glaine will be caught off-guard enough for me to snatch his sword again. I don’t know if it’s powerful enough to cut through shadows, or kill a king that his people thought died two thousand years ago. Glaine didn’t try to cut them before because, like any rational people, we thought the shadows were just freaking shadows.
But they’re not, and if he exists at all with a corporeal form—and he has to, right, if he could slip into the human world to steal Daniel—then I can stab him.
Right?
Won’t hurt to try. And, before anyone can stop me, I finally make a break for it.
I don’t make it two steps until Malphas is in front of me, one arm cradling my head, the other wrapped around my back, pulling me up against his shadowy chest as he stops me dead in my tracks.
Damn it. Malphasreallyknows me.
I wiggle. “Let me go, Mal. Our baby needs us.”
“I know, my Shannon. But think about this. The shadows feed on all who enter them. It’s not just the predators we have to fear. They take everything we are until all that’s left is despair. And then we’re gone. Lost. He pulls us into him. He hasn’t let that happen yet, but I have no doubt that he will.” Mal nuzzles the top of my head with his chin, warm breath fanning my hair. “I will not lose you, Shannon.”
“He has her, Mal. He has Alana.”
“I know.” He presses a kiss to my hair. “And if Haures won’t end this, I will.”
What?
“Nox?”
“Yes, Malphas?”
“Guard my Shannon for me.”
The air shifts. “Of course.”
