Page 52 of Shannon in Sombra
Please, please, please let this work.
I watch the white eyes in the shadows. To my surprise, I see a flash of green eyes, just like Daniel Benoit said, and then…nothing.
One.
Two.
Three.
It would probably be more accurate to call the rush of wind that explodes from the wall of shadows a tornado. It bursts out powerfully, slamming into all of us. My hair flies around my face, the ash eddying up into my eyes, my nose, my mouth. Mal rushes over, trying to shield me. I cling to him, and only hope that everyone else is clutching their own seven-foot-tall demon.
When the wind dies, I blink as much ash out of my eyes as possible before checking to see if my friends are okay. It’s easy to do that because, suddenly, the shadows disperse. All of them. The wall, the heavy, weighted blackness around us… it’s still dark in here, but closer to what the shadows gathering around the back of Nuit look like rather than the nearly impenetrable ones that serve as a border to the edge of Sombra.
I can see in front of me—and what I notice first, as though a tug inside of me yanked me in the direction to look, is something left behind from when the shadows—-Yelios—disappeared.
Over the stunned silence left in the gale’s wake, another voice calls out that name: “Alana!”
This time, it’s mine.
Because there, sitting on the ash, her golden eyes bright, her chubby cheeks pink, her fangs peeking out from her wide, contented smile, and a single glowing butterfly flapping its wings over her head isourAlana.
CHAPTER20
HAPPILY-EVER-AFTER
SHANNON
Ihave my baby back.
A quick once-over reveals that she’s exactly the same as she was when I saw her last. True, that means she needs a diaper change and plenty of milk—and I can finally acknowledge that, damn, my titshurtfrom not being able to feed her or pump—but apart from that a little ash on her nose, she’s my sweet, happy, baby and I will never, ever let her out of my sight again.
As soon as I pronounced her perfect, Mal swooped both of us up in his arms. I pepper kisses to his face next because, damn it, I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love these two.
Kennedy tiptoes forward, giving Alana a relieved pat. “Welcome back, sweetheart.”
We’re not back yet. We’re a good three or four-hour walk from Nuit, but I don’t care about that. I have my baby. The threat to her is gone and?—
“The rain has stopped,” Lucian announces. His purple eyes shine in the hazy, reddish light surrounding us. “The fires in Sombra still burn. The child… by being the catalyst to release Yelios from his purgatory and make the shadows of Sombra safe again… she has saved us all.”
I squeeze her to me. “Not bad for a four-month-old.”
“That is not all that the spawn has done,” adds Haures, drawing our attention to him. Then, to the shock of every single one of us gathered, the solid pale-skinned duke does something I don’t think he ever could: he shifts completely to shadow, the blue eyes shining from his dark face the only clue that heisHaures.
With a crook of his claw, he gestures for Susanna to come to him. Moving slowly, a small smile speaking on her face, she does. Haures gathers her up in his shadows and, without another word, he lifts her up into the sky, then zips away.
In an instant, they’re gone, and I know I’m not the only one whose mouth drops open to see them go.
“We just made him even more powerful,” I announce to no one in particular.
Somewhere behind me, Billie sighs. “Yup.”
Ah, well. Sombra is my home now. Maybe having a terrifying demon in charge of this realm will only help keep my daughter safe.
As long as he stays in the capital that is. I’ll stick to Nuit, thank you very much. That’s where I belong.
Anywhere my mate, that’s where I’ll always be…
I snuggle against him. Sammael and Loki are murmuring to each other. So are Tandy and Lucian. Amy looks like she wants to leave her father behind and head over to Nox, but that she feels bad abandoning him. Dan is curled up in the fetal position, probably feeling the aftereffects of Yelios leaving Sombra, so… yeah. Totally get that.
