Page 14 of Shannon in Sombra

What if she is the reason it rains?

I immediately regret my fleeting suspicion. The looming prophecy has weighed down on me. It’s led to a fight with my beloved mate, and my daughter’s first tears. But whether or not it is because of the prophecy… it doesn’t matter. I’m the only one to blame for upsetting both Shannon and Alana.

“I won’t let anything hurt her,” I vow.

Shannon calms, though she stays on the porch. “I know, baby. I know. But I don’t want anything to hurt you, either. Come over here. You want to talk to Apollyon? Either he comes here or you can wait. But, please, don’t walk away from us, Malphas.”

I wouldnever.

I surge forward, slipping on the slick ash with my first step. In my solid form, I can control my body better. In my shadows, I could float—but it doesn’t even occur to me. I just want to get to my family, and running toward them is instinctive.

I don’t fall. Recovering my balance, I bound up the stairs. Once there, I surround them again.

“Never,” I say aloud, cementing my vow. “You never have to fear me leaving your side, my mate.”

Shannon leans into my embrace. “Thanks, baby. I just… it’s been rough.”

And I didn’t make it any easier by hiding the truth behind why some of the villagers would treat her as though she didn’t belong. It’s no wonder she began to think it had everything to do with her being a human. On Earth, so many people hate others for trivial differences. The color of their skin. Who they love. Whether they are male or female or neither.

Sombra demons welcome all. My whole existence, mortal females were legendary. I am the envy of many of my fellow Sombrans because the gods granted me Shannon as my mate. Sheismy mate; that makes her a Sombran, too, now. Just like when a Sombra demon finds his mate in a Soleil demoness, or one from Brille Rouge. Without finding our forevers in a different world, we might always be lonely.

So, no… it’s not because of who Alana’s mother is.

It’s how similar my child is to the fearsome Duke Haures—born in a shadow realm, with Sombran blood and the glow in her eyes, but no shadows at all—that has more than a few villagers in Nuit treating her poorly enough that it upset my Shannon. And what made it worse? Is that I suspected that would be my poor spawn’s fate from the moment she was born… and I never told Shannon.

I wanted to shield her. To protect her.

Instead I failed her.

Not again.

Never again.

“I am here. I will always be wherever you are.”

It may not be the mate’s promise, but it is my vow to my one true mate, and I mean every word of it.

Luckily, she does not doubt me. “I know, and— oh. Oh, Mal, thank fucking God.” Shannon clicks her tongue, rubbing the back of Alana’s head as relief washes over her. “She stopped crying. Oh, good, good girl. Mommy’s got you.”

As glad as I am to hear that she’s succeeded in soothing our spawn, something pulls my attention out to the village square. I blink, then I stare.

The rain has finally stopped, too.

CHAPTER7

THE NEXT MORNING

SHANNON

Five minutes. The whole freak rainstorm lasted maybe five minutes.

I don’t even know if anyone else in Nuit is aware it happened. It was the weirdest thing. For the first time since I’ve been in the village, no one else was around in the square. And, sure, Nuit isn’t anything like New York where the city never sleeps. It’s just that I expected to see someone,anyoneelse rushing outside to watch the rain fall.

It’s like rubbernecking. You can’t help yourself. You just have to stare. I’m telling you, if lava started falling from the sky back home, my nose would be plastered to the window. And when it stopped as suddenly as it started, I’d be one of the first ones out the door.

After Mrs. Winslow, of course. That old biddy might’ve risked getting petrified to be the first one to know what’s going on, but that’s my point. Human and demon nature aren’tthatdifferent. Even if most of the villagers have no idea that the prophecy about Alana involves a rain that puts out Sombra’s fires for once and for all, erasing its shadows at the same time, it’s gotta be something unusual to break up what has to be the monotony of immortality.

Nope. As though they all had a nice sleep and woke up having no clue what Mal and Alana and I witnessed last night, everyone is going about, business as usual today.

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