Page 135 of Shadow Blind

Wolf grabbed the back of a chair, as if he needed stability, as if he’d suddenly gone weak. “Cycles? He’s seen them for many cycles?”

“What?” Aiden asked, the question breathless, like he’d taken a double tap to the chest. “When?”

Although he knew…elongated limbs, white, screaming faces.

“Your dreams.” The old shaman confirmed Aiden’s suspicion.

Fuck that.

His body one big charley horse, Aiden squared off against the old man. “How the hell do you know about my dreams?”

The knowledge of his dreams hadn’t come because of Kalikoia gods, or the Shadow Realm. It couldn’t have. There had to be a simpler answer to how Benioko knew.

He’d told no one but Demi about the damn things. And she wouldn’t have told anyone. Then it hit him. His quarters must be bugged. That would explain how Benioko knew about the damn dreams.

The old man drew himself up until he sat tall and stiff in his chair. “I am the Taounaha, the earthside eyes and ears of the Shadow Warrior. I have seen him summon you while you sleep. Soon he will summon you during your waking.” He suddenly cocked his head, his eyes losing focus. Stillness claimed his frail form. His face went taut. “It begins.”

Aiden hadn’t yet processed Benioko’s first statement when the old man uttered the ominous warning.

“What begins?” Christ, when had what become his favorite question?

“The beginning to the end.”

Wolf’s phone rang.

The timing of the call felt menacing, like an exclamation point to the shaman’s dire warning.

“Go,” Benioko said, before Wolf even accepted the call.

His brother glanced at Aiden as he lifted the phone to his ear. Whatever news came down the line was bad enough it shifted Wolf’s expression from shell-shocked to grim.

“On my way,” Wolf said after a few seconds of listening.

“What’s going on?” Aiden asked before Wolf even lowered the phone. Not that he wanted to know. He’d barely recovered from Benioko’s first proclamation, not that he believed it. Not that he believed any of it.

There was no fucking way he was the next Taounaha.

Wolf shook himself. Pivoting, he strode toward the kitchen entrance, where Aiden waited. With each step, his face hardened. “That was the lab—Faith. She says the nanobots we retrieved from Kuznetsov are vibrating.”

Chapter fifty-three

Day 24

Denali, Alaska

Wolf avoided Aiden’s eyes as he brushed past him and headed for the front door with long, urgent strides. Aiden followed. The nanobot update had certainly put a damper on Benioko’s summons.

He waited until the door closed behind him before asking the obvious question. “Vibrating? What the hell does that mean?”

There he went, asking what again. Wolf, he noticed, was pretending he didn’t exist. No glances in his direction, no adjustments in his strides to accommodate Aiden’s pace, no response to his question. He’d never seen his big bro so passive aggressively determined to avoid something that obviously bugged the shit out of him. Benioko’s Taounaha nonsense had sure shoved a bug up his brother’s ass.

“Come on, bro.” Aiden raised his voice and increased his speed to keep up. “You can’t actually believe all that bullshit back there. I’m not the mouthpiece of your gods.”

“Not yet,” Wolf agreed, except he sounded grimmer than ever.

“Not ever.”

Wolf slowed and flicked an intent glance at Aiden’s face. “Yet you dream of them.”

---