Reborn (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 3)

Angel held me with the same force Shadow had. The same desperation. The same sense that neither of them had expected to see me again. “I’m so sorry,” I said over and over. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

She wasn’t talking. She was just clutching me, her head buried near my neck as the simmering strength of her energy rocked into me. Our powers didn’t merge like Shadow’s and mine, but the bond between us was stronger than ever, energies frolicking like old friends.

After some time, she pulled away, her eyes haunted. “I can’t do it again,” she said, her voice barely heard. “I can’t lose another member of my family.”

I swallowed roughly, holding on to her biceps. “Well, I have some excellent news for you.” I looked at Shadow, who was just behind me. “For you both. I can’t really die. It appears those born of the Nexus can be reborn of it if they choose.”

Angel choked out a sob. “What if next time your soul is tired and decides that it’s time to truly rest?”

Shadow’s rumbles filled the air. “There’ll be no next time,” he snapped. “No more chances. We end this once and for all. Today.”

Angel stopped him with a shake of her head, her spectacular amber wings wrapping around her protectively. My own wings moved into a similar position without any real thought from me. “It might not be today,” she said. “We have to recharge our power, and there’s no better time than while the fortress is draining her.”

“Wait!” I said, whipping around to Shadow. “You said before that there was an issue with releasing the cage and removing the stone? What issue?”

“It’s best if you come see for yourself,” he told me, and now I was rocking some full-blown professional-level anxiety. Rebirth had clearly done nothing to help with that.

Coming back from the dead really should include a slight reprieve from the drama.

For five minutes at least.

Shadow took us through a pocket of energy, and when we stepped out on the other side, we were once again in a familiar, burned-to-a-cinder outlier island. I noticed a few new cracks in the ground to go with all the ash, but thankfully everything else appeared to be intact.

Including our friends.

“Look at you,” Len said, clapping his hands together, a true smile on his face. “Reborn into the fiercest of beings. Powerful and beautiful. Shadow has his hands full.”

None of them showed any sign of concern that they’d almost died via one raging beast. Instead, they hurried forward and hugged me tightly, their only visible heartache from the way I’d almost gotten myself killed.

“We failed you.” Reece’s voice was low as he dropped his head.

“No, you didn’t!” I said in a rush. “Not even a tiny bit. I had a choice to make, and I’m really sorry for hurting you all.”

“You achieved what we couldn’t,” he replied, finally meeting my eyes. “Dannie would have destroyed us all, so we should be the ones thanking you. Your sacrifice was what we needed to best her.”

“We didn’t take Shadow into account, though,” Lucien added with a laugh. “He just about achieved the impossible and dismantled a fucking world in his fury. Not that any of us were surprised; we were ready to ride out the storm and hope that whatever emerged from the destruction was salvageable.”

I didn’t like the sound of that, but unfortunately, I couldn’t make grown-ass gods promise not to take risks like that again. The bastards got to make their own decisions—bad management, if you asked me. And that was maybe a little hypocritical considering what had happened with my last solo decision.

Potato potahto.

“What changes did your rebirth bring?” Alistair circled me, my flaming wings bright in the near-night dark sky, catching his full attention. Wondering if I could tuck them away like I had my wolfie-phoenix side, I imagined them fading into my back, and with a small pop, they disappeared.

“Whoa,” I said, not even remotely answering Alistair since we were all discovering my new abilities in real time. “Wings,” I murmured, and with the thought of needing wings again, they were once again on my back.

“Utterly fascinating,” Alistair whispered, shaking his head, my fire reflecting off the blue-green pigments in his curls. “You’re part phoenix.”

My smirk was instant. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

I called up the full force of my new power, which shot my height up over six feet, my skin rippling out into red and gold as my feathered, flaming wings grew larger than ever. I then topped it all off with my wolf-human face.

The shock was instant and complete and… I liked it.

There was no name for me. No previous knowledge of one who was a wolf phoenix, but here I was, and I would not be apologizing for my newfound state.

Shadow, who so far hadn’t allowed me to stray far from his side, cupped my wolf-human face. “Perfection,” he growled. “My true match and mate.”

He shifted in an instant, and then he was Anubis, towering over me. My power went nuts, our bond near visible as energy strummed between us. It was neither the time nor the place to lose ourselves in that, so we had to pull away and focus on the others.

Our pack continued to stare at us, shaking their heads as another Egyptian “god” popped into existence, and they weren’t the only ones as the locals crept out of wherever they’d been hiding.

Shadow and I wore our flames differently—mine were mostly trailing along my wings while his ran across his arms, but we were clearly imbued with the fiery power of the Nexus. When the locals bowed down before us, as if we were literal gods, I felt a twinge of unease in my chest.

This sort of blind worship didn’t sit well with me, but I knew it was the only way for them to comprehend the truth of what we were. To slot us into a category so they could understand and not fear us.

“Please stand,” I said, my voice deeper and stronger than in my other form. “You don’t need to bow. Not when you were brave enough to help us against the Danamain. We appreciate your help.”

They didn’t straighten immediately, but they did eventually resume their upright positions, the closest ones finally meeting my gaze. They held it for a beat before giving me a single nod, then turning to leave the clearing. A hushed sort of chatter followed, and I heard enough to know that they were marveling at what they’d just witnessed.

A great sense of imposter syndrome hit me, but I decided not to have a midlife crisis yet. I’d save that for after we dealt with one power-hungry goddess.

Shadow and I released our power to return to our human forms, and he turned his back on the others, blocking me from sight so I could dress again. At this rate, I was going to drain his magic just by needing new pants every ten minutes. I made a note to try to learn how to create clothing myself.

When I was dressed, I turned to look for Dannie, experiencing a brief moment of panic at not immediately seeing a visible golden fortress. It wasn’t until I moved further into the clearing, following her energy, that I found her… surrounded by an army of shadow creatures? Snarling and braying, they formed a veritable barricade between us and the goddess, who was also hidden by a dark mass—

“Midnight!”

My call broke Midnight free from its position around the gold prison, and through our bond, I felt the repair of all those tattered ends. The cool mist washed over my skin, solidifying us strongly.

Mera.

I missed you, I said at the same time.

We both let out a low hum of contentment, relishing in the bond for a few precious moments. I didn’t remember, Midnight finally said, sparks flying across its dark misty form. I forgot our bond, and then I was part of the power of the library, unable to break free until you called me.

This was the issue that Shadow had wanted me to see. The issue I’d left in the wake of my death. When I’d pulled on my bonds in my dying moments, I’d dragged all the beings connected to those bonds into the realm. More specifically the outlier island.

Our bond was always stronger than yours to the library, I told Midnight. The library could not hold you, no matter how deep you were entrenched in its magic.

So very true, Midnight said, before it suddenly swelled up, sparking and shooting harder than ever. At first, I thought we were under attack, but then I saw Inky had moved closer, startling my mist. The pair swirled around each other, hesitant at first, and then… holy fuck me, I was going to cry.

They hugged.

A misty hug, with jiggling and sparking, and obvious signs they were happy to see each other again. Shadow let out a low chuckle, moving in to wipe my tears away. “Still my Mera,” he murmured. “Your rebirth is the greatest gift I’ve been given, and I would take any form of you in my life, but to know that you’re still your true self brings me a sense of relief.”

“You are still Mera,” Angel confirmed, pressing into my other side. “I feel the exact same pull toward you that I felt the very first day you collapsed into the dining room chair near me.”

A snort of laughter escaped me. “Sweeping is hard. I really hated sweeping.”

Shadow smiled, my torture clearly a fond memory for him. The bastard. “I couldn’t have made a better choice in breaking you.”

“You wish, asshole.”

At this point, our bickering was foreplay, but again, no time for that fun.

“How long will the cage hold her?” I asked, gesturing to Dannie.

Now that Midnight was relieved of guard duty, I was able to see the glowing cage. It was still, no sign that the any part of it was alive, but I knew Dannie would be fighting under that fortress. She was stubborn and strong in every form.

“It will only hold another few hours,” Shadow said. “She was stronger than we anticipated, having already taken steps toward becoming a Nexus, and if you hadn’t been here to reinforce the strength of the cage, it would never have contained her. No matter how well we weaved the fortress.”

“Is it really weakening her?” That had been the original goal, after all. The only goal, because if it wasn’t successful, we’d never get that stone from her.

Lucien let out a low laugh. “It feels like it is, but we haven’t been able to properly check with all the shadow creature guards.”

Oh, right. My creatures. The ones I yanked out of the prison rooms in my dying moments.

Come to me.

The call was effortless, breaking them from their formation as they strolled toward me on two and four and many more legs. None of them fought as the wild ones did; instead, they moved like a solid unit of trained soldiers.

Leading them from the clearing, I directed them toward a large open field, one that still contained pockets of forest. Untouched by an angry Danamain. A sanctuary until we could end the dangers in this world for them.

My protective instinct toward the creatures was stronger than ever, and I hoped that I’d find other survivors from the Grey Lands as well when we were done with Dannie.

I had to believe she wouldn’t have killed them all, even as corrupted as she was, and that meant they were out there waiting for me to find and save them. When that happened, they could join their brethren here.

Safe at last.