Shadow let out a rumble of annoyance, and I had to work hard not to smile. Riling him up was too easy, but I really had to stop mentioning Ixana. Mostly because it still hurt to think about that dumb bitch of an ice queen.

“What actually happened to Ixana?” Okay, yeah, maybe I’d stop after this question got answered, since the last time I’d asked, he’d deflected me rather cleverly.

“She was interrogated and disposed of.”

Oh… okay then. “Short, sweet, and to the point, I see.”

He shrugged. “Sweet might be a stretch, but in the end, her crimes were beyond redemption. And she held no remorse—not even as broken as she was after losing the stone she’d been bonded to for a thousand years. She said she would still do it all over again.”

“How did she even find the stone in the first place?” I asked as we started to move through the jungle.

He took a second to answer, focusing on widening the path as we walked. “During her last confession, she admitted that it was her bond with me.” His fury spilled out in his tone. “She kept tabs on me during my years exiled, knowing whom my friends were and what alliances she could manipulate. Apparently, I grew more powerful than she’d expected, and that was to be used to her advantage.” A few trees singed around us, but he managed not to burn the forest down. “I have full access into Len’s territory in Faerie; Ixana could tap into that through the bonds we had with each other from birth. Using my bloodstone as added backup, she figured out how to infiltrate and steal the sunburst stone during one of the Faerie festivals.”

Probably another sex festival because they were all-consuming when they hit Faerie.

“How is it that no fae was guarding the stone?” Even during a festival, an object that important had to have been secured.

Shadow paused, his face almost unreadable in the shade of nearby trees. “There were fae guarding the stone, but they disappeared when the stone did. Ixana wasn’t too coherent in the end, but the general vibe of her plan was seduction followed by betrayal. Len was relieved that she hadn’t taken the rest of his stones, but I knew she wouldn’t. She only needed one weapon and would not waste her time on anything else.”

He recognized the single-minded focus of his former chosen mate now.

“It’s hard to believe she had the brains and fortitude to do everything she did.”

No doubt there was more to the story that she hadn’t revealed, but it really didn’t matter. The end result was the same, and now we had to deal with the fallout.

He scoffed. “Her family helped her plan it in the early days, until she went rogue. She’s the entire reason we even made it back into the Realm. She released the spell and opened the doorway.”

I stumbled, since that was the first I’d heard that. “Seriously? I didn’t break through when I called the mists and creatures?”

He shook his head. “When she felt your surge of power and the exodus of mists and creatures that you called to Earth, she knew there was another Danamain out there who could be manipulated into completing her plan. So she dropped the spell.”

Disappointment rocked me hard, and I couldn’t hide my forlorn expression.

“What’s wrong?” Shadow asked, pausing in the middle of parting twenty fern-like plants.

I rubbed a hand over my face, trying to pull myself together. “I don’t know. I guess I liked being the one person who helped you get what you wanted and needed most. It was a nice feeling to be useful to someone as powerful as you. And now you’re telling me it was still that dumb bitch, and I never outsmarted her at all?”

I’d done nothing in that final fight. Shadow had fought Ixana, Dannie had swallowed the stone and stolen the power from her, and I’d… gotten myself kicked back into Torma with my memories wiped. That didn’t sit well with me because I was no damsel in distress.

I wanted to be on equal footing with Shadow.

“Sunshine,” he said huskily. “You have no idea what you’ve done for me. Trust me; it’s much more than opening a doorway that I wished was still closed. You fought through the memory spell, saving us all. I don’t think you need to worry about your worth.”

That was true. “We do make a great team, and I’m glad that we were both strong enough to reject the ‘perfection’ Dannie gave us. I could have been alpha-mate, and you could have stayed and ruled the realm.”

“I have rejected my position of Supreme Being,” Shadow said with no hesitation. “I’ve built a new world for myself, with you, and there’s no room in my life for the realm.”

Holy shit. That was… huge. He was rewriting his destiny, and he made no apologies about that. “The libraries are mine,” I said huskily. “I will straight-up fight you for them.”

His lips quirked as he wrapped an arm around me, dragging me higher so our mouths could meet. Heat poured off both of us as my tongue slid out to trace across his. I couldn’t be more addicted to the taste of this guy if I tried.

“Let the battle begin,” Shadow said against my lips, and I knew then, with absolute certainty, that this most perfect of true mates was going to challenge me every step of our relationship.

Fuck, if I wasn’t beyond excited for our future.

Instead of grinding against him as I wanted, I just wrapped my arms and legs around him and hugged him tightly. “Sleep with one eye open, Beast,” I whispered into his ear, as if imparting sweet nothings. “Those libraries are mine.”

His chest shook as he let out a deep chuckle, starting to walk again while I was still wrapped around him. With each step, my need to rub against him grew as tingles of pleasure swirled low. “I can smell your arousal,” he murmured.

I sighed. “Yep, that’s me, always horny around the Shadow Beast. But we seriously have to find Angel, so you better put me down.”

With reluctance, I released my hold on him, and he set me on my feet, both of us focused again on finding our pack mate. If there was anything our conversation had just shown us, it was that we had a lot of future to look forward to, and that meant we needed every power at our disposal to take Dannie down.

There was no other option.

31

The jungle was surprisingly quiet. I’d never been to the Amazon, or to any place with more forests than Torma, but even in the sparse sections of land back home, there had been a lot of wildlife.