Page 79 of Fractured Shadows

“Yes,” I reply, and then because I’m an asshole, I add, “Your Majesty.”

He scowls and leans around Nero to glare at me. “Keep it up, little human, and I’ll make you kneel before your king.”

I suck in a breath, both at the sensuality of his comment and the fact he admitted to the crown. It’s the first time he’s acknowledged it, and because my heart is full, I reach up and stroke his jaw.

“I will gladly kneel before you,” I murmur. “If only you return the favor.”

His eyes heat, and a smile pulls at his lips as he presses his forehead to mine. It’s such a tender gesture for the minotaur that it almost brings moisture to the corners of my eyes.

He moves back and takes up his place again.

Razcorr is staring at me, his eyes glancing between me and Grim.

“Is everything okay?” I ask, watching him carefully.

He nods. “It is all just so…familiar, and yet not.”

Smiling, I pat his chest. “You get used to it.”

In answer, he tucks his wing around me gently in a hug that warms me from the inside out before he moves into position beside Grim.

My monsters.

Each has stolen a piece of me and brought me joy I never knew I could feel. When I left the Shadow Lands, I assumed it would be to die, but instead, I’ve found the greatest life.

In a dark fey who teases first but will draw blood for me.

In a royal minotaur, gruff in nature but more tender than I ever imagined.

In a kraken who gives me the sea and takes me deep.

In a naga who wraps me up so tightly, I could never feel unloved.

In an orc king who sees me as a fearless warrior he’ll happily follow.

In a gargoyle destiny chose, and who I continue to choose after.

My heart is full, and for the first time in my life, I feel complete.

Because of them.

“Let’s go,” I announce, holding onto Nero, hugging him so he knows how much I love him.

Love. Because that’s what it is. I gave them my heart before I even knew I had one to give.

* * *

Razcorr is right—itonly takes a day to move through the tunnels, and at the end of it, as we wait for nightfall, we come together in a nest of limbs. In a huge cavern with leftover mining tools, deep underground under my old home, we meld together. There’s no way to know where each begins and ends, but that doesn’t matter. We’re no longer seven separate beings.

We’re a family, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

ChapterForty

Ifeel the night ease in like a silent lover slipping through the window for a secret coupling, despite being in the tunnel. The ease with which I can tell the exact hour should worry me. Instead, it feels like another strength. With that thought in mind, I stretch and coax my magic to my fingertips in an unconscious action that more or less reassures me it’s still there. My monsters watch the tiny sparks with wonder, as if I’m a magician.

The magicians on the streets of the Shadow Lands used to enthrall me. Now, I understand that real magic lives inside us.

We ease out of the tunnel, and I’m shocked to realize the tunnel opens up just on the edge of the wall. Part of the rock face I played on as a child gives way to reveal the world I grew up in. It’s both familiar and yet somehow foreign to my senses. It looks grimmer than I remember, as if the conditions have gotten worse since I left, but it’s only been a matter of weeks. It couldn’t have gotten so much worse. The only thing I can think of is that my perceptions of it all have changed.

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