“That beast is like a cuddly Chihuahua with you,” Echo said, looking at the spot where the hellhound had vanished.
“He’s still perilous, a creature of the dark,” Jaden added softly.
Shadow glanced at the Oracle. The times when the woman had come to check on her, Shadow had been in her own dark place, not interested in waking up and talking to anyone. The way Jaden watched her, Shadow expelled a weary sigh. She didn’t want to hear whatever it was.
“Where’s Liam,” she asked instead, stalling.
“Hedori will fetch him from The Shelter in an hour.”
She nodded and rested her head against the backrest, shutting her eyes.
“Kira, Echo, would you give us a moment?” Jaden asked them.
“Of course,” Kira responded. The chairs dragged across the tiles, forcing Shadow to open her eyes again. “I’ll go get you something to eat. You must be hungry.” Kira headed indoors.
“And I have Lore coming for my lesson now, but I’ll see you later, okay?” Echo gave her a warm smile and followed Kira.
“How do you feel?” Jaden asked once they were alone.
At the compassion in her soft gaze, Shadow lashed out. “How do you think I feel? I lost the man I love. But he didn’t want me with him, he-he broke our bond.”
And suddenly, she was so angry at Nik for leaving her behind, leaving her alone, after his promise to her—
A strange warmth coasted through her, as if relentless in its pursuit to soothe her. Frowning, Shadow’s flat gaze fell on Jaden’s hand warm on her arm. She pulled free.
“I’m truly sorry, and I do understand what you’re going through,” Jaden said quietly. “The wounds never quite heal. However, you have something to live for.”
Shadow cast a listless look around her. She didn’t want to hear about time healing and all that crap, or about someone else appearing in her life. So, she remained silent.
“You have a part of him now.”
“I have nothing—”
Jaden gently laid her palm on Shadow’s stomach. “You carry a babe of your heart.”
Shadow blinked, her mind not connecting with what Jaden was saying.
“You’re pregnant, Shadow.”
She looked down at herself, then up at the Oracle…and then what she said crashed through her mind like a shattering bullet.
“No!” She jumped up, the covers falling to her feet. It was as if she’d been stabbed in the heart again.
Jaden rose. “Shadow—”
“No!” She pivoted and raced back indoors, bypassing a startled Kira.
“Shadow?” she called out.
Shadow shook her head and bolted up the back stairs to her room. Her lungs burning for air, she slammed the door shut and wrapped her arms around her waist. She looked around, searching for something, anything to anchor her, to help her understand why.
When she’d been ill with her defective heart, she never thought much about the future, let alone a family. After her attack and otherworldly blood transfusion, she’d changed, and she knew she would never have a normal life. Then Nik strode right in, crashing through her walls, and hope bloomed, only for her to be kicked in the gut and for Fate to snatch away her happiness—snatch the one person who was her very heartbeat.
And now this?
All that the Fates did was show her a glimpse of happiness then brutally rip it away.
A knock sounded.
Unable to face anyone, she hurried to the dressing room—and faltered to a stop. She usually avoided this place unless necessary because everything here reminded her of Nik. His smell, his clothes, the swords on the wall near his weapons closet.
The stacks of folded black t-shirts on the shelves drew her focus again. Then her feet were moving, and she picked up his shirt. His scent of stormy nights and cedar flooded her nose as she pressed her face into the fabric, and a harsh, racking sob broke free. She sank to the floor, knees raised, face buried in them.
Someone sat next to her, and arms came around her.
Shadow leaned her head on her friend’s shoulder and wept for a life she’d never have with the man she loved, and for the child she now carried who’d never know its father.
When the tears dried up, and only dry heaves wracked her chest, she met Kira’s wet eyes. “I…I’m pregnant.”
Chapter 34
Pale thread-like filaments wrapped around the body lying in stasis on the stone slab in the gloomy cavern.
Cobwebs? It sure looked like it.
Lit, stumpy white candles set in the wall, on the floor, and in the small alcoves on the rugged walls cast a dim light over the corpse.
Who was that down there? Where the hell was he?
Frowning, Nik coasted closer.
“You know who it is,” a soft, soothing, feminine voice murmured.
Nik hovered above the still form then coasted around the shrouded body. Too large to be a woman…
“Me?” he demanded of the female who spoke in an otherworldly voice. “How can that be? I’m here with you.”
“Your soul is. That’s your corporeal body.”
“Why?”
“You were mortally wounded. I brought you back.”
“You make no sense. I’m immortal. One would need to get hold of one the very few weapons in existence to end me,” he growled then frowned, something nagging at his mind. “Someone did.”
The ghostly form morphed to a tall, willowy female and hovered next to the corpse.
It seemed as if the sun shone from her—no, it was her hair that glowed so brightly. Like sunlight, it framed her dusky face, cascading down to her knees. Eyes like spring buds, soft and green, studied his physical body, the same leaf-green color forming tattooed vines around her brow and down her cheeks.
The ancient goddess.
He’d last seen this Being when he swore his fealty to her eons ago.
“My lady, Gaia.” He would have bowed if he had a body.
She inclined her head at his greeting, her hair flowing like sunbeams.
“How did I end up down here?” he asked.
“You are all tied to me by the very oaths you pledged as my Guardians, as are the weapons I bestowed you. Your corporeal form was in peril. Your sword alerted me. I brought both your soul and your body to me before they could wing their way to the afterlife in Elysium.”
He died?
Try as he might, Nik couldn’t quite grasp what had happened or see his death.
A soft brush against his mind startled him, then pixelated shots drew him into a bloody battle in the rain. Emotions swelled… desperation clawed at him to save someone…pain ripped his chest…an eerie, glowing black-edge silver sword struck him across his neck. Intense pain exploded…a smirking red-haired demon wielding the weapon—
“Nik!” a woman screamed.
At the sheer terror in her dark eyes, her immense agony his own, Nik rubbed his chest or tried to, but he had no body, had no way to ease the torment. He was a mere thought in the ether right now—or so it felt. And then the images flowed faster…
A burning sensation along his neck…knees caving…the sobbing woman holding him in her arms, tears streaming down her beautiful face.
“Hold on, Nik, hold on…don’t leave me.” Her anguish speared his heart.