skin was better than having blemished skin. Although she was heartbroken,
her pride prohibited her from exposing his cruelty. Instead, she resolved to
cloak herself in shadows to save him from embarrassment. Thus, the first
Shadow was born.
I didn’t know if I believed such a fable. My father had a tendency to spin
his stories like a spider spun a web. His own father was a terrific storyteller.
In return, he felt the need to be an even better one.
I thought that all as I met Lupe’s penetrating stare.
“I’m not certain,” I said, though those words felt like a lie. I had known
the second I had felt her essence, a touch as soft as a moth’s wing, that she
was my mate. She was made to be mine just as I was made to be hers. They
told me that it was fate, our mates, like two threads twined together. The
bond was inseparable. Irresistible.
And yet…
And yet she had resisted.
There had even been fear in her eyes when she had regarded me.
Fear...and something almost haunting. Despite her youthful face, her eyes
were ancient.
Why would she fear me, her mate? It didn’t seem like something that
would be possible.
All supernatural creatures had one fated mate. I pitied the humans in that
respect. Wandering the world without the other half of your soul seemed to
be its own form of torture.
“I’m probably mistaken,” I said, chewing on my lip. “Never mind. It was
stupid.”
I immediately began to wheel myself towards the door. It was stupid to
have came here in the first place. What had been my reasoning? For
knowledge?
Or to brag?
“Wait,” Lupe said, and I paused, turning my head to see the large man
sitting up straighter. “I found her too. My mate, that is. I found her.”
His expression took on a wistful, dream-like quality. A small smile made
his harsh features appear softer.
“You have?” I asked in disbelief - not because I didn’t think Lupe was
capable or even worthy of having a mate, but because I knew how his father
would react if he were to discover such information. A mate would be used as
leverage against Lupe, a tool dangled precariously in front of his face, just
out of reach.
As you could probably imagine, our dads got along well.
“What’s she like?” I spun my chair to face him fully.
God, I felt like a teenager again. Girls may have believed that they were
the only ones who engaged in gossip, but they were sorely mistaken. Us
guys? Ten times worse.
“She’s beautiful.” Lupe’s eyes glazed over, no doubt envisioning her in
his mind. “It’s almost as if she is a beacon of light in the middle of a storm.
With her, I know I have a way home. She’s my guide, my home, my hope.
The way she looked at me...she didn’t see me as a mistake or even a Shifter.
She saw me as a person. The world can burn to ashes for all the shits I give,
just as long as she escapes the flames.”
Lupe always had a way with words. If he wasn’t a prince, wasn’t a
Shifter, he no doubt would be a writer or even an artist. He did not fit the
stereotypical mold that all Shifters seemed to fall into. He wasn’t a brute
driven by his rage, and he wasn’t cruel. If anything, he was the kindest man I
had ever met.
“She sounds amazing,” I said, basking in our shared happiness.
“I don’t know her that well. I don’t even know her name, though I’m sure
someone said it at one point.” He chuckled. “I was a little distracted.”
“Tell me about it.” That girl made me into a drooling, googly-eyed fool.
It had only be a minute, and she already had me wrapped around her
diminutive finger.
“And yours? What is she like?” Lupe pressed.
How to answer such a question. The answer to some might have came
easily. Kind, perhaps. Pretty. Fierce. But my girl?
I didn’t know how to even start.
I opened my mouth to confess that she was a competitor for The Damning
but quickly snapped it shut. It wasn’t as if I didn’t trust Lupe with such
important information - I trusted him with my life - but I didn’t know what
There were trained assassins and murderers roaming these halls. Our
words weren’t our own with them here.
“She’s interesting,” I admitted at last.
And I don’t know what she looks like. Nor do I know anything about her.
Yeah. There’s that.
“Was it that girl I saw you talking to?” a quiet voice asked from the
shadows, and I flinched. Lupe jumped from his bed, hands raised
threateningly. The newcomer chuckled darkly.
“Damn it Ryland. Wear a bell or something next time,” I snapped. The
Shadow that was Ryland appeared at the foot of the bed. His features were
indistinct due to the darkness obscuring him from view. He was almost
always clothed in shadows.
“Did you hear the rumors?” he asked. The silhouette disappeared from
the bed only to materialize on the windowsill.
“What rumors?” Lupe asked. “And how long have you been here?”
“Long enough,” Ryland said slyly. He paused, allowing that to sink in.
Damn Shadows. “But you’re not the only princes who have found your
mates.”
“What?” I asked. “Who?”
I wondered if it was Bash and snorted softly at how preposterous that
would be. His mate had something else coming if she expected sunshine and
rainbows. Bash was afraid of getting hurt which wasn’t so much a
justification as it was an excuse. The walls he built up around himself
stemmed from years and years of neglect, abuse, and pain. He would not
settle down easily nor would he let a girl tame him. But when he did end up
falling, he would fall hard. Bash never did anything half-assed, and I
imagined his love would be just as fierce.
“Jax,” Ryland said simply, responding to the question I had nearly
forgotten I had asked.
“Jax?” Lupe and I asked in unison. Jax? Jax, of all people, had found his
mate? I didn’t know if that was comical or sad. I supposed it depended on
whether or not he could become whole again. After the incident with Sasha…
That had fucked Jax up. Maybe his mate would finally be able to piece
his broken shards back together again. When people said rock-bottom, they
weren’t kidding. You completely shattered once you hit the ground. After
that initial fall, you had two choices. Try to climb back up but leave a little bit
of yourself behind in the process or wait until you were saved. Jax? He chose
neither. He tethered on the edge, halfway up the hole but with no real
destination in mind.
“Remember? He said that his blood was tingling…” Ryland trailed off,
voice traveling from the window to somewhere behind me.
“I didn’t even think about it,” Lupe muttered. When I glanced at him with
a raised eyebrow, he elaborated. “A Vampire’s body begins to tingle when
they are near their mate. It’s like an itch that is only soothed when you come
into contact with your other half. To be frank...your b
lood begins to tingle.”
“Shit,” I cursed, half in awe and half in shock.
“And don’t forget about Kill,” added Ryland.
“Kill? He found his mate too?”
Both Lupe and Ryland began to chuckle. I couldn’t help but laugh as
well. Killian, no doubt, was terrified on how to handle that...situation. I may
have been slightly inexperienced when it came to sex, but I might as well had
been a prostitute compared to him.
“I heard him talking to it like a dog,” Ryland mused. The “it” referred to
Killian’s dick. “He asked if he could pet it.”
Typical Killian.
“What’s next?” Lupe asked. “Asking it if it would like to go on a walk?”
“I think it would have a life of its own if it gets set free. Like a compass,
it will propel him towards his mate.”
We all laughed at Killian’s expense. Just as quickly, my laughter
subsided. There was somewhere I had to be before I could crawl back into
my ocean cave, away from pitying eyes and a mate that had ran from me.
“I’m going to the library,” I lied easily. My brothers barely blinked at my
declaration. They were used to my nocturnal tendencies. Sleep during the
day; live during the night.
If you could call my pathetic existence living.
“Don’t turn into Lupe,” Ryland quipped, and Lupe chucked a book at the
Shadow’s head. Of course, he missed. It was nearly impossible to catch a
Shadow unless the Shadow wanted to be caught.
Smiling at my brothers’ antics, I wheeled out of Lupe’s bedroom and
down the dark hallway. None of the lights were on, plunging the building into
an inky darkness. This was only broken apart by splotches of starlight from
the small windows. There was no moon tonight, a fact that made me
moderately uncomfortable. Mermaids always preferred the full moon.
My thoughts drifted to what I knew was about to transpire, as it had
occurred every day for years. Why did I put myself through this? Why did I
endure it time and time again? The answer came to me easily as I envisioned
my mother’s kind face. I dealt with it so she wouldn’t have to.
I rolled myself inside of a room nearly identical to Lupe’s in appearance.
Four figures stood beside the bed.
“You’re late,” my oldest brother, Tavvy, snapped. I always hated that
term. Brother. He wasn’t my brother, despite our blood declaring us
otherwise. The bonds authentically made between two individuals somehow
went deeper than flimsy familial ties. He was my brother by birth and blood,
not by choice.
My father’s teeth gleamed in the dim lighting as he smiled at me. I merely
glowered in response.
“Let’s get this over with. Tavvy. Father.” I nodded at my big brother and
father before turning towards the two other men in the room, my younger
brothers. “Idol and Manchester.”
They nodded in greeting, identical apathetic expressions on their faces.
Without waiting for instruction, I pulled myself out of my chair and onto
the bed. Once I was firmly on the mattress, I turned towards my father
expectantly.
He silently handed me a glass vial, and I tipped the contents back, barely
wincing at the bitter taste.
“Delicious,” I murmured dryly.
Immediately, my body began to tingle, as it always did. Warmth emitted
low in my stomach, spreading to my thighs. I bit my lip to keep from crying
out as my body grew. That was the only word I could use to describe it. My
legs lengthened, becoming whole once again.
I became a whole.
It was a powerful spell that could only be created by the blood of the
King Mage and the King Mermaid. A reformative spell, one that people
would pay billions to possess.
I wiggled my toes, as I always did after downing the potion. If only for a
moment, I could pretend to be a walking, capable man. A man that might’ve
even been worthy of having a mate.
Just as quickly, the dream shattered around me like a ball being thrown at
a mirror.
My father grabbed a keen machete, his preferred weapon, and my
brothers all grabbed knives and daggers from their waistbands.
I learned not to scream when they came at me, slashing at my skin. I
learned that the pain only amplified when I outright cried. After all, pain was
a manifestation of my imagination. If I didn’t allow it to consume me, it
wouldn’t.
So as my family - my blood relatives - cut through skin and tendons and
bone to remove the legs I had just grown, I drifted away.
It was safer that way.
FIFTEEN
Z
Iwoke up feeling more rested than I had in months, if not years. I found
this especially shocking given my circumstances. What type of assassin
did it make me that I was able to sleep like the dead throughout the
night?
A pretty shitty one, if you asked me.
I stretched my taut muscles, pulling my arms above my head and listening
to the satisfying crack. I hadn’t even realized how tired I was, how heavy and
leaden my body felt after a grueling day. Falling to your potential death and
getting sexually frustrated to the point of unbearable pain most definitely
counted as grueling.
And I had the strangest dream…
I snapped my head towards the empty bed beside me, nearly laughing at
how ridiculous I was for believing he would actually be there. Did I really
think that a guy had climbed into bed with me? Had cuddled with me? My
libido must’ve been in overdrive due to my confrontation with Devlin and
then the handsome Mermaid. Even the Shifter had affected me more than I
cared to admit. All of those delicious muscles on display. The swoop of his
dark hair.
And now this new guy, this figment of my imagination.
I envisioned him in my mind. His hair had been a light brown and wildly
disheveled, as if he had ran his hands through it one too many times. His lips
had been plush and kissable. Cupid bow lips. And his body had perfect dips
and crevices leading towards a delectable...penis.
Wait a minute…
Why had I imagined a naked man coming into my room? What the hell
was wrong with me? A lot, apparently.
Almost involuntarily, my hand crept towards the empty space beside me.
The bedspread was warm as if someone had been there recently.
My brow furrowed.
For starters, there was no reason that someone would have snuck into my
room to do anything other than kill me. Secondly, I sure as hell wouldn’t
have invited someone in willingly, right?
Right?
My head throbbed, but I managed to push aside my blankets and amble to
the living room. Diego had set up wards around my suite when we had first
arrived. Anyone with ill intentions would be unable to enter. Even then, the
wards kept a record of when, and if, they were broken. It was surprisingly
basic magic - at least according to Diego - and combined both a Mage’s
natural skill and technology. The rectangular device resting on the wall
beside the door sparkled with the telltale sign of Diego’s magic. It was a light
&n
bsp; sheen, an emerald green that somehow varied from the monotonous greens of
all the other Mages. A color as unique as the Mage himself.
Using my thumbprint, I logged myself into the database. I didn’t know
whether I felt silly or frightened or...and this was the worst... aroused. I kept
picturing the strange, beautiful man, and instead of fear, I felt my stomach
churn with desire. That was most definitely not a normal reaction one should
experience when dealing with an absolute stranger.
My breath left my lungs when I saw the red dot on the screen blinking
erratically. It almost seemed to taunt me, that pinprick dot.
At 1:33 AM, someone had broken into my room.
I didn’t know how I felt about that. Obviously, the person hadn’t intended
to do me harm. I had been half asleep, and he hadn’t so much as touched me
inappropriately save the cuddles. And I had been the one to instigate such
contact, the greedy bitch I was. He had felt so warm, so right, that I couldn’t
resist the need to get closer. I wanted to disappear inside of his soft embrace
and drown in his musky scent. His hard, sculpted features had hinted at him
being a Vampire, yet I felt no fear when I was with him.
Was it because I had been half asleep?
Had I been drugged?
What had been the fucking point of him entering my room in the first
place?
I jumped, reaching for the dagger I always kept tucked beneath my
clothes, when a knock sounded on the door.
“Knock! Knock!” an annoyingly chipper voice said. I groaned, turning
off the alarm and opening my bedroom door. Mali stood in the entryway, face
flushed. Her right hand rubbed sporadically at her neck while her left hand
crawled underneath her blouse to scratch at her stomach.
“You alright?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. She huffed.
“Just a little itchy.” As she spoke, she rubbed her body against my
doorframe. Sensual moans escaped her mouth, and I resisted the urge to slam
the door in her face. That was the last thing I wanted to deal with this fucking
early in the morning.
“Stop. Please,” I deadpanned. She glared at me, as if angry I had
interrupted her itching pleasure, before pushing past me to enter my room.
“And come in,” I added to her retreating back. She threw herself onto the
bed, once again scratching at her arms.
“What’s the plan today? Plan? We need a plan? P as in princess. Why did