Page 134 of Shadow Blind

Talk about ironic. He was being scolded by entities he didn’t believe in.

“Fine.” He expelled a relieved breath when his legs agreed to push his chair back from the table. “Even though I don’t believe in your elder gods.”

The Old One cackled. “They do not care.”

Aiden glanced at Wolf, who had the strangest look on his face. Half stunned, half horrified. What the hell was going on with his big bro? The realization he could turn his head distracted him. He lifted his arm, then stood up. His body was under his control again. Time to get the hell away from this not-so-toothless shaman.

Wolf slowly rose to his feet as Aiden skirted the table. That strange expression was still on his face, but it had gravitated more toward horrified than stunned.

“You said he was double-gifted.” Wolf shot Aiden a quick, searching look. He seemed to push the next question out, but in such a tense tone, he obviously didn’t want to know the answer. “What was he gifted secondly?”

Benioko broke contact with Wolf’s gaze and stared at the surface of the table for several seconds. When he looked up, he looked drained, and regretful. “You know this, Ho'cee.”

“No!” Wolf’s voice was so tight it vibrated in his throat. “He has not accepted our ways. He does not know our ways. He is not prepared. You cannot ask this of him.”

“I do not ask this of him. Just as Old Joseph did not ask it of me. We do not choose our gifts.” Benioko shook his head, fatigue darkening his filmy eyes. “Nor can we refuse them. You know this, Ho'cee. So it has always been.”

Aiden stopped at the kitchen door and turned to stare at the two men behind him. Benioko still sat at the table. But Wolf stood frozen beside the chair he’d vacated. Aiden couldn’t see his face, but his brother’s muscles were tense, his feet braced, his shoulders rigid and pulled back.

Something was wrong.

And Aiden suspected it had everything to do with him.

“This cannot happen. Another must be chosen.” Wolf’s voice hardened.

Aiden’s eyebrows rose. He’d never heard his brother speak so harshly to the shaman.

“It has already happened. He transitions now,” Benioko retorted.

Benioko turned his head toward Aiden. Pity folded the old man’s face. Even beneath the film in those ancient eyes, Aiden could see sympathy.

The shaman felt sorry for him?

What the hell?

His mind flashed to those weird-ass dreams—the foggy terrain with its otherworldly, twisted landscape, the strange beings with their elongated limbs and death mask faces. Ice crashed over Aiden’s head and pierced his gut.

The conversation suddenly felt ominous.

“What are you two yapping about?” Aiden asked, trying to ignore the overwhelming certainty that his life was about to go off the rails.

He thought about their earlier conversation. There had been something about him having a second gift, one Wolf was horrified by. Something about him not being prepared. Something about him transitioning.

Transitioning? Into what?

Those damn dreams shot into his mind again. He suddenly remembered something else the old man had said. How his second gift—the gift of the Taounaha—had not manifested until the mouthpiece prior to him had died.

The ice migrated from his gut to his chest, chilling his entire body.

Fuck, no. Benioko is not dead. That can’t be what they’re talking about.

Although, the Old One didn’t look well. His skin was close to gray, his body thin…his eyes vague…

Stretchy limbs…white faces…gaping mouths.

“What do your elder gods look like?” Aiden asked, his voice hoarse. The ice encased his entire body now and froze him from the inside out.

A sound broke from the old man; a cracked, dry husk of a sound. Resignation rode his eyes. “You know this. They have called to you for many cycles.”

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