“The sun…” I whispered, seeing the sun sink further still, I beckoned the shadows to me. Eerily they rippled over the lands. “The sun needs darkness.” Then with all the power I had inside of me, I lifted them from their rest. Leagues of shadows answered my call and molded forward into a dark tidal wave that I sent careening towards the panther. He roared with light and bursted through it with just the slightest bit of dimming to his blinding power. Gritting my teeth, I tried again. The shadows became thicker, taller, sotall that it rivaled Shen’s wall and even the Red Caps themselves. “For it cannot exist without it.”
Emon was my sun, but Ethereal…Ethereal was a supernova star ready to burst, and I was both the darkness and the void that could absorb it all.
Baring my teeth, I bent the wall of shadows forcefully into the panther again. The darkness rippled across his body turning him black and for a brief moment, extinguished his light, slowing him to a stop. Heaving more shadows inwards I sent them crashing repeatedly into Ethereal before his light could break through entirely.
It was a terrifying tsunami of shadows versus a breaker of worlds.
More. I needed more.
Vigorously, I pulled the shadows from long outward distances, the smallest blade of grasses, and even from within the mountains, feeding it into the crashing wave that suffocated the panther's light into a huge planetary-like orb within the valley.
Crouching low, with the wind roaring around me, I patted Drey’s great eagle head affectionately. “Thank you Drey, but this is where you and I part ways, my friend. Turn back to spare yourself this darkness.”
Then I jumped. Straight down into the shadows where I would either burn from Ethereal’s light or live under Emon’s sun.
The griffin cried out, unable to stop me as I plunged through the orb of darkness, weaving them closed.
I smiled when I heard Emon’s voice, now stronger in my mind.
“And what about the darkness? What does it need?”Emon’s voice whispered back, stronger and clearer in my head.
I spread out my arms to slow my descent, using the shadows to brace my fall.“The darkness…the darkness does not need the light, it is infinite. But finds it cannot live without the light just the same. To be infinite is to be alone. It does not want to be alone anymore.”
Then I felt him. Strong arms latched onto me, cradling me in his loving embrace. I stifled a cry, burying my head into his chest, inhaling his chocolate spice scent, trembling with relief.
Emon kissed the top of my head and breathed harshly into my hair. “You did it. You stopped him. The moment you weakened his light I was able to take back control.”
I hummed, focusing on the steady thrum of his heart and the purring in his chest when he spoke.
“You jumped off a goddess damn griffin and fell through the sky, little umbra.” He sounded breathless.
I smiled into him. “Yes.”
He chuckled. “So we are back to one word answers again are we?”
I sniffed. “Yes.”
“Finally, now I have a story I can write from my own point of view in theThe Unaccounted Life of the Last Shadow Fae.”
The excited awe in his tone had me drawing back to look at him with raised brows. “Are you serious, shifter? That’s what you care about right now?”
He grinned. “I got more than one word this time didn’t I?” Then his lips crashed into mine, muffling my snarky response, and kissing me desperately, his hands traveling over every inch of my body as if to check if I was still real.
“I thought, when the Sanguine…then the blood.” He choked, inhaling shakily against my lips. “I lost control, I gave into the power, Ethereal’s power, he blamed himself for your injuries, and then he couldn’t stop…I thought I would never see you again.” He whispered fearfully.
I shook my head. “In what universe did you think I would ever let that happen, shifter?”
Emon chuckled softly before taking another deep breath. “I don’t know how I will survive you, my little umbra.”
I snickered and grinned. “You’ve been through worse.”
He barked out a laugh, brushing my hair back from my face and twirling it around his fingers. “We do this together.”
I reached up and drew his hand to my lips, kissing it. “Always.”
“Never alone.” His steady gaze was so unwavering as he waited for my response.
I peered deep into his adoring golden gaze—eyes of gold that I loathed, then feared, then loved. “Never.” I promised.
