Page 43 of Gua rdian of Blood and Shadow

Bastian’s wings slowly retracted, his transformed features easing back into his human form, though his eyes remained golden. “Soph,” he said softly, his hand reaching for mine. He steadied me as I climbed down from the bed. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” I whispered, though power still hummed beneath my skin.

Ren knelt beside her captured brother, holding her hands over his head and murmuring words I couldn’t understand. A warm glow spread out from her hands and surrounded Reiji, and he went limp on the floor. Tenderly, she gathered his head onto her lap, brushing the hair from his forehead with gentle fingers. Her expression was an aching mixture of grief and relief.

“Thank you,” she said quietly, peering up at me. “For not destroying him when you had the chance.”

I nodded. “The Shadow King’s influence,” I said. “Can it be removed?”

Ren sighed. “That depends,” she said, measuring each word, “on how far the corruption has spread. And how much ofhimis left to save.” She looked at Javier. “He can’t travel through a portal bespelled like this. Is there a holding cell we can use? Something heavily warded against my kind, where he can be contained while I work to remove the shadow’s taint?”

“The dungeon,” Javier offered. “We have elemental cells.”

Ren nodded, her attention returning to me. “I’m sorry you got caught up in our little family drama,” she said wryly. “But you need to be careful. For whatever reason, the Shadow King is targeting you specifically. Reiji was right about one thing—you need to complete your harem as soon as possible. It’s the only way you’ll have even a hope of a chance against him.”

“Why—” I started, but floundered for words.

“Why did we lie?” Ren ventured. When I nodded, she said, “Our envoys guessed you’d welcome a courting prince more than a sword-wielding princess, and Reiji was eager to taste the throne. I let him—uncertain whether I even wanted it—and hiding in his shadow let me study you unguarded.”

“I’ll show you the way,” Javier said, holding an arm toward the doorway.

Ren stood, raising her brother off the floor with a flick of her wrist. He hovered behind her as she followed Javier.

I blew out a breath and flopped backward onto the bed.

Ren was the elemental heir. And her brother was working for the Shadow King.

What. A. Mess.

25

Morninglightfilteredthroughthe cracked stained-glass windows of my study, casting fractured jewel-toned patterns across the chaos of scattered books and fallen shelves. The previous night’s confrontation with Reiji had left its mark—scorched wood where his corrupted magic had struck bookcases, shattered glass from light fixtures, and, worst of all, hundreds of ancient texts strewn across the floor, many scarred with tears or char marks.

I knelt beside a stack of books, carefully checking each spine for damage before placing it in one of the growing piles around me. My librarian’s soul wept at the disorganized mess of such rare, priceless books.

“This classification system makes no sense,” I muttered, squinting at faded runes on a leather binding. “Why would you shelve a grimoire on classical elemental practice next to a history of vampire lineages?”

Micah glanced up from his laptop, where he was cataloging the salvaged books I’d already cleared for re-shelving into a makeshift spreadsheet. His fingers paused over the keyboard. “Maybe they were organized by author instead of subject?”

“Doubtful.” I sighed, pushing a stray strand of hair from my face. Many of the books didn’t even have named authors. “When we’re done, I’m implementing Library of Congress standards. At least then we might be able to find something when we need it.”

The normality of the task—organizing books, creating systems, applying order to chaos—provided a thin veneer of comfort over the turmoil beneath. My connection to Gavin had grown fainter overnight, wisps of sensation where there should have been a solid tether. Each time I reached for him through our bond, I felt only echoes of pain. That, paired with Reiji’s revelations and Ren’s warning—that the Shadow King wasn’t just after our world, but he was afterme, in particular—had my thoughts spinning around and around a single conclusion.

I needed Gavin here with me. I couldn’t wait another day. I had to go to the Sun Keep and free him. Now.

Buthow?

Micah set his laptop aside and picked up the next book from his current stack, carefully dusting debris from its embossed cover. Since Reiji’s attack, he’d thrown himself into helping me with a quiet determination. In place of the awkward freshman I’d tutored was a young man who understood far more about the immortal world than I’d ever wanted him to.

“I found something interesting,” he said, nodding toward the spreadsheet. “A bunch of these books deal with curses—specifically, the shifter curse. It’s like your mom researched it. A lot.”

I stood on my knees and carefully placed a cracked crystal moon paperweight back on the desk. “She must have been looking for a solution.” It was common knowledge that Veris had attacked the House of the Moon because my mom refused to even attempt to break the curse.

But what if that was only half the truth? If my mom knew the curse had been placed on the shifters to protect them from the shadow taint infecting their magic, then maybe she had refuseduntilshe could find a better alternative. What if she’d been looking for a way to cleanse the shadow taint from their magic altogether?Ormaybe she’d been looking for a way to curse them harder.

“Look at this,” Micah said, holding open a leather-bound volume filled with yellowed pages and spidery writing.

But before I could rise to take a closer look, the door to the study opened, revealing Ren. The elemental moved with fluid grace, stepping carefully over a fallen shelf. Without her brother’s shadow falling over her, she seemed somehow more substantial, the guarded mask giving way to something more authentic.

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