Page 29 of Taken to the Shadow Realm

“Did Yien spawn you?”

A laugh burst from her.

“Yien?” she managed to say through bouts of laughter. “No, Yien hates interaction. If she had any way to control the process, I wouldn’t be here.”

I hummed and gave her a stiff smile. I wasn’t sure what to make of all this information.

“Have you seen them?” I asked. “The souls’ memories?”

“The souls?” Her expression turned serious. “Yien never let me near them, and even when I tried when she wasn’t here, the shadows pushed me back. She lets you?”

“Not really,” I said, feeling heat spread up my neck. “I kinda just do it. But each time, I’m only hit with memories of them doing the nasty. Yien has a different reaction when she sees them.”

Xira was silent for a long while.

“What?” I asked, a panicked laugh spilling from my lips. “Is that bad or something?”

Xira opened her mouth to speak but stopped abruptly, her eyes fixed behind me.

“What are you doing?”

Yien

Panic.

It was the first thing I felt when I came back to my realm and realized that Xira was there.

I let the shadows engulf me, taking me directly to her.

When I saw Xira and Iris together, my heart stopped and rage filled me.

“What are you doing?” I asked, unable to stop the venom from filling my voice.

Xira had come from the same shadows I had. I had known her all her life and most of mine. I knew she had impeccable bloodlust control when it came to humans. I had seen her exercise it time and time again. I had no reason to worry about her… but still, as soon as I saw them together, my mind went into overdrive.

All I could think of was wrapping my shadows around Iris and pulling her to me and as far away from the demon as I could.

I stopped just short of that, commanding my shadows to wrap around Iris’s ankles and waist, ready to pull her back as soon as I needed, but paused when Iris looked back at me, her smile wide.

No one had ever looked at me like that. No one had ever been excited to see me, their entire body radiating with joy at just the sight of me. But there she was, right as I was ready to pounce on my sibling from the shadows, smiling at me.

Images of her on the bed yesterday flooded my mind. It was breathtaking, the way she reacted to my shadows, and refreshing to meet someone who could feel them and see them the way I could.

Xira was ignorant of the fact that I had my little human wrapped tightly and was ready to protect her, but she didn't need to see the shadows to understand the look on my face and know how much I wanted to end her.

“I came because I have news,” she said. Her eyes shifted to Iris. “Human, you may want to leave for this.”

“She stays,” I spat before Iris could speak. “She's my companion. She can hear whatever it is you have to say.”

Xira’s face changed in that moment. It dropped and allowed her true emotions to filter across her face. I knew what she had come to say before she said it.

I took a step back, the realization hitting me like a slap to the face.

Allura. The youngest of us. The one whose spirit was the most kind, the most playful… somehow, she had been the one to leave us first.

No. Something hard hit my chest. An emotion I barely had time to process.

Why her? Hadn’t there been enough deaths from the Shadow Realm?

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