“Who is your true mate, Sunshine?”

“You.” There was no hesitation in my voice. Shadow owned every part of me, and I would take whatever Dannie put us through just to have these moments with him.

“You are my true mate,” he confirmed as he kissed me, the slight copper of my blood between us. “You’re mine in all ways, and for that, Torin is dead when I have some time to waste. I’m already anticipating the day we never speak about that bastard again.”

“Yes,” I moaned, still riding the final swirls of my orgasm. “You possessive beast.”

He didn’t deny it, just slowly removed his fingers from inside me before he lifted them to his mouth and tasted each one. Swear to fuck I almost came again just seeing that.

“Come on,” Shadow said, his magic returning my clothing and cleaning me up in the process. “We can collect your creatures once we know there’s a need for them.”

I’d completely forgotten that was the reason we’d stopped in this hallway in the first place, but with that statement, Shadow brought us back to our reality.

He moved toward the library entrance, and it took me a moment to catch up since my legs were firing on half their normal cylinders. It was only the thought of Angel and Midnight that had me pulling myself together as fast as I could.

Interlude or not, it was time to focus on finding my friends and pulling our pack together. We’d need every member to have a chance at defeating Dannie in this final battle.

29

My legs remained wobbly and weak even after we entered the library. Seeing it all whole and unbroken was a great boost, though, restoring my equilibrium. Full shelves and the small army of goblins were a few of my favorite things, and I had to take a moment to appreciate it all.

“Mera?” Shadow called back, noticing my pause. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah—” My voice broke, and he narrowed his eyes, concern filling his face. I waved him off. “Seriously, I’m fine. Just really happy.”

The furrow in his brow smoothed. “Ah, I understand. I promise to look after your libraries,” he said, knowing now what had me a hot mess. “No matter what happens, they’ll be protected as long as I live.”

I threw myself at him, finally able to trust that he’d catch me. “Thank you,” I murmured, pulling away. “I’ll let you in on a secret, though. They’re in my top ten favorite things, but they’re not number one.”

He kissed me, like he couldn’t help himself, and I was kind of falling in love with these random bursts of affection. “It’s no secret,” he murmured.

Is that right? “What or who do you think is number one?”

I mean, no one was going to say themselves, right?

“Me.”

Okay, sure, no one other than an arrogant Shadow Bastard. And while he wasn’t wrong, he could at least fake some humility.

“You’re definitely in the top ten,” I said, forcing my voice to remain even. “Along with Simone, Angel, Midnight, Inky, the library, and the lair. All the shadow creatures as well, along with the five morons you call best friends. And Gaster. And Sam—”

He cut me off with a sardonic burst of laughter. “Math isn’t your strong suit, is it?”

I smiled sweetly. “Some of you occupy the same spot in the top ten, so my math is actually quite correct.”

He shook his head at me. “I’m not sure my math and your math are the same sort of math.”

I thought on this. “You’re probably right, but that doesn’t mean my math is wrong.”

I was fairly certain he muttered actually, that’s exactly what it means, but there was no time to confirm and chastise him because he had started to lead me through the library, stopping only when we reached Angel’s door.

“How will we find her?” I asked as he reached out to swing the door open. “And what happens if I need to pee?”

Because honestly, I’d drunk a lot of water at lunch, and my bladder was feeling decidedly uncomfortable. Shadow really should learn to check that no one needed the bathroom before we set off to another world.

“We’ll go to Angel’s family land first,” he said, somehow not managing to sound annoyed with me. “Thanks to your bond with her, it should allow you entry again. And if you hurry your ass up, you can use the bathroom right now before we leave.”

My smile could have lit up a dark room. “Thank you! Seriously, thank you.”

I sprinted off, heading toward the nearest facilities. It might have been weird to have bathrooms in a place like this, built of fantasy beings and other worlds, but the truth was, most of them needed to use a bathroom for varying reasons, most of which I did not want to know about.

When I was done, I returned to find Shadow in the same spot, all but guarding the open doorway into the Honor Meadows. “Everything okay?” I asked, noting how hard he was staring into the swirling white abyss that existed on the other side of the doorway.

At the sound of my voice, his focus returned to me. “All good,” he said with a nod. “I was just checking out the Solaris System since it’s still coming online from my reboot.”

Despite the many beings already making their way along his paths between worlds, there were clearly parts of the system not quite up and running yet.

“Did you find any issues?” I asked, not really expecting any because Shadow made no mistakes.

He hesitated, and I frowned at him. “There’s an issue?” I asked.

Now he was the one frowning. “There’s a foreign entity coating the surface of my magic,” he said slowly, like he wasn’t quite sure if he was reading it right. “It’s so light and thin that it’s barely noticeable, but it’s not mine. It doesn’t appear to be affecting the general function, but I will have to look into it when we return.”

He didn’t want to leave it be, but at the same time, there was no way in hell he’d let me head into the Honor Meadows on my own. “Will everyone here be safe until we return?”

“Yes.” This time, he was surer. “There’s no malevolence in the presence. It’s just foreign, and since this is built from Inky’s and my energy, it’s obvious only to me that there’s a foreign beat in the heart.”