Page 32 of Ethereal Shifters

“Spying. What are you doing here?” I demand.

“Shadowing you, the usual, making sure you don’t get in trouble, or dead.” He reaches out to touch my hair. “You’ve been my mission for a very long time, and finally, it’s over. I get to take my reward and that is you.”

“You’re not real. So I’m just talking to myself and going mad again. I haven’t even told anyone about you because it’s just insane.” I shake my head. “Shadow man, disappear again.”

His laugh seems so real, so nice, and I stare into his gold eyes. “Never. This city is going to fall, and my contract is over. You’re not falling with it, and they will make all the rangers go and fight.”

“What are you talking about?” I demand. Are my friends in trouble? “I’m not going anywhere with you, but you can explain that one better. What is going to happen to my city?”

“I’m sorry, Annie, but you have to come with me. I’ll explain everything in my home.” He comes a step closer. “I vow it to the Morrigan that I will not hurt you and you will be safe.”

I don’t even know what the Morrigan is. I swear I’ve heard it before, but I can’t think straight while he invades my senses. “I’m not going with you.”

He reaches for me and actually touches me. His skin is warm and soft and so real as he runs his hand up my arm and to the back of my neck. I arch my head to look up at him, wondering why this is intimate. “I’m sorry.” His touch changes in a blink, from warm and safe to cold and empty. I gasp at the cold invasion in my head, and the room spins, my legs giving out. He picks me up in his arms, pressing his lips to my forehead like an apology. It feels like dropping into shadows as the room disappears, and I struggle to stay awake. I cling to him, this complete stranger, and I don’t even get a moment to scream. “My name is Issan, and I am going to keep you safe.”

Chapter

Sixteen

Georgina is waiting for me in my room when I come back, and I pause in the doorway. How did she get in here alone? This is one way to ruin my day after having dinner with Rhodes. She’s sitting on my bed, one leg crossed over the other in a pretty pink sundress. “Do you know it’s the middle of winter?”

“I don’t get cold.” She taps her hand on her knee. “Can you shut the door? I want to talk.”

“What the hell are you doing in my room? If you want to talk, you could have just found me outside,” I ask, but I do close the door behind me from pure curiosity. It feels wrong to be in here alone with her, and a chilly feeling settles down my spine.

“I want us to talk, like I said. You’re not alone very often, and I was ordered not to interact directly with you unless needed.” Georgina stands. “But it’s nearly over, and I wanted to see something for myself.”

“Are you done pretending to be sweet and nice now?” I ask, taking my cloak off and hanging it on the door. “It was getting boring.”

“Yes, because my king is nearly here.” King? I freeze. Georgina doesn’t notice as she focuses on my room, looking ateverything and touching my things. “My work will be over, and I won’t have to see you again.”

“As much as never seeing you again sounds perfect to me…you’re working for the Vian. The king?” I make sure I wasn’t hearing things.

“Wasn’t that obvious? I thought you’d be smarter, but you’re not.” She laughs. “I will say, trying to make trouble between you and your mates was far more difficult than I was led to believe. I have a second power, it’s illusions. Both of the mind and in person. The connection I made between me and them was that—an illusion of the bond you have. I thought that they hated you and that it would be easy to get into their heads, and beds, but it wasn’t. They actually love you. Maybe not Hollis, but he does protect you like a mate, even with a fiance as nice as his.”

“You’re a dead bitch walking,” I snap. “You should leave before I let my Nexus take over?—”

“Let her take over?” She laughs as she interrupts me. “Are you still living under the pretence she is in control and you’re not? Oh Gwenieve, haven’t you realised you are the same being? We are different to the other weak Nexus beings…we are legends walking again. We are what the Gods fear, and you are acting like you are one of them! Your Nexus is just the heightened versions of your emotions, and you drown those emotions out so much that you’ve lost control of yourself.” She touches my window. “Did you know when a Nexus is ripped from our souls that they don’t actually leave and it’s what kills us in the end? Our Nexus claws into our souls, holds on with everything they have, and we don’t let go either. We are one being, and the sad truth is, we cannot be parted from each other.”

“I don’t want a lesson on Nexus from you. I’m telling everyone what you are, and you should leave this academy. Get the fuck away from here.” I don’t know why I’m giving her time to actually go. I should throw her to the wolves.

“I fully intend to do just that. Soon. The final part of what I’ve been tasked with doing is here, and I wanted to privately ask you something before he gets here. No one is watching us this time. The prince has been shadowing me since I got here; I think he was worried I would hurt you.” She stares at me in a creepy way. “But he should have known I’d never hurt you when my king commanded me not to.”

“The king raised you?” I flip the conversation. “You’re talking lovingly about the thousand-year-old monster king who killed hundreds of thousands.” She goes to the desk as she picks up the statue, the one with me and the tulip. “Put that down. My father made that.”

“Funny how we get attached to things the males in our life give us.” She puts it down. “What was your mother like?”

I cross my arms. “Why do you want to know that?”

“I don’t know who my parents were. What are mothers like?” she counters. “I’m curious.”

What the hell is wrong with her? “I don’t think mine is the one you should take any interest in knowing about. She was…” I pause. There are a lot of things I could say about my mother. “I only remember her when we were on the run and desperate, because it’s what I made her into by being her daughter. She had to be strong and cold-hearted to raise me. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be alive. Is that what you wanted to talk about? Maybe you should go to one of the other cities. You might be able to find someone there you’re actually related to.”

“My connection to your mates isn’t real.” She walks closer. It’s like a snake slithering across the ground. “You knew this and yet you’re still threatened by me, literally every minute of the day. Why?”

“Because you’re…you are everything I can’t be. You could have a normal life, and I will never be able to do that. For a moment…” I pause. “For a moment, I thought it was all I wanted,for people to look at me the way they do you. That I could have normality like everyone else, but I realised, fuck that, I don’t want to be normal. I like being what I am.” My Nexus listens. “I love knowing that my Nexus has my back, protects me, and that she hunts absolute dickheads down and kills them. I used to be scared of that, but I am starting to realise that maybe I should have been proud all along. She doesn’t hurt my mates because she knows they mean the world to me and to her. The Gods, the stars, whoever made us, we are here for a reason. Who would want to be normal when I can be me?” I step closer and I swear she flinches. “You don’t threaten me anymore, and get out of my room, Georgina, and go away. Go back to your king and tell him I’m only growing stronger. If he comes after me or my mates, I will burn this world down to end him.”

She leans in. “Who says that isn’t exactly what he wants you to do?”

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