Page 76 of Catastrophe

We followed as best we could and thankfully, the journey wasn’t long. In a few short minutes, we could see a walled city in the distance. The ground still had large craters in it, there were abandoned homes and other relics along our path which proved how much the realm had declined after the Fall. Daithi and Savida made appreciative noises behind me, their eyes wide as they looked around.

When we reached the city, the large doors opened inward at our approach and there revealed shadow people and their gray stone homes and businesses. Some were shadows, black spots on the gray stone and ground as we passed. I wasn’t sure if that was out of fear or if it was normal for them.

The whispers began before we made it past the first row of buildings. “Akari? Faei? Daemon? I haven’t seen otherworlders since Before.”

“What are they doing here? We’re only just opened up.”

“Maybe they are guests of the king.”

“If they are envoys, there are no titans, shifters, or drakorians in their party. There must be a reason for that.”

“I hear the titans are all enslaved now. As they deserve. It was their war which caused our demise.”

I stopped dead and turned sharply to the shadow who said that. It was a female, solid, dressed in the thin, flexible bandages other shadows seemed to wear, but these looked nicer than some others. The edges weren’t frayed, and the gray seemed a shade lighter.

At my glare, her eyes widened and her image flickered as though she wanted to hide in the shadows but forced herself not to.

“Suffering does not heal more suffering,” I growled. “The titans were punished severely, considering only a fraction of those were warring in the human realm. They have suffered and continue to. Your plight has been ignored until now, but from the look of it, the realm is on its way to better health since the bond to the other interlinked dimensions has been restored. Perhaps your good fortune can allow you some charity towards others.”

I was not usually so diplomatic, preferring to use my fists to make a point, but my words were true. Fighting here would only cause more anger and resentment against other races, and there was too much of that already.

Perhaps the positive aspects of my soul mates are influencing me already.

“Spoken like a king.” My body froze for a moment as fear tried to leak into my bloodstream. But I wouldn’t allow it. He didn’t get to cause this reaction. I was not afraid of him and I would not be again. “Baelen, it’s been so long, I almost forgot the sound of your panicked mind.”

Like dumping water over my head, his words washed away all the fear and was replaced with fury.

I turned around and saw the shadow king, the crown on his head the color of bone, smirking at me. “Don’t look so angry, old friend. You came to see me, remember? I didn’t seek you out. Unless this is a revenge call. But if that were the case, I was expecting to see your soul pair and mate with you, not the friends.” His eyes flickered to Daithi and Savida before returning to me. “Why have you come?”

He wanted to do this publicly? “I want my ring back,” I growled. “I didn’t think a king would need to result in petty thievery.”

He laughed and my blood boiled as he turned his hand over to reveal the relic. The gold stood out like a star in the night sky against his dark skin and gray world. “You noticed it was gone, did you? You didn’t think of it the whole time I was in your body. I was beginning to think I’d taken something unimportant.”

The surrounding shadows seemed to mutter with their king’s admittance of the crime, but I couldn’t hear whether it was in opposition or approval. From the corner of my eye, I saw Daithi and Savida back into the crowd, probably to talk to them some more before we left and look around while I dealt with Kaatu, but I didn’t much appreciate being left.

“Why did you take it?” I asked as calmly as I could. He didn’t seem to know what it did, nor have any use for it, considering shadows could make themselves almost invisible, anyway.

“Leverage,” Kaatu shrugged and admired the ring on his hand. “And it is rather shiny.”

“What did you need leverage for? Everything worked out fine for you,” I growled.

“Not so for you, so it seems.” He pouted mockingly, and my gaze turned red as I restrained myself from knocking his lips off his smug face. “Tell King Kaatu what happened and I’ll see what I can do to assist. After a week of healing the realm, the people are in much lighter spirits, and we have you to thank for it.”

“All I want is my ring back,” I paused, “but if you are offering a favor too, then I will take it.”

Kaatu raised a brow. “But you don’t want to use it?”

“Not yet.”

He tapped his chin. “An open-ended favor from the king of the shadow realm is a big ask.”

“Not as big as healing your portal and saving your realm, I would think,” I retorted.

After a moment, he inclined his head in agreement. “Fine. A boon. When you ask it. And the ring? What does it do? Why do you need it?”

I would not give him the details of its power, but I hissed, “Because hunters took Zaide, as you well know, since you possessed my body at the time and my ring will help get him back.”

With my fists clenched and my fangs out, I threatened the king of the shadows in front of his people. “And if you don’t give it back to me, I will kill you and then I will take it from your corpse. I hope you have an heir to take over your newly revitalized realm.”

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