Page 55 of Shannon in Sombra

Hey. It happened once before. Thinking back to the women who helped me save Alana, it’s more like it happenedeighttimes.

But this one ismystory, even though I’m sure there will be plenty of adventures to come during our forever. I have my monster mate, and even if I realize now that we might argue, and the villagers might give me odd looks, and Sombra isn’t some fantastical fairy world without dangers of its own… fuck, it.

I’m happy.

Ever.

After.

EPILOGUE

ALANA

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER

The butterflies find me everywhere.

For as long as I can remember, the gentle, peaceful creatures enjoy fluttering around my head. When I’m in a playful mood, I bat my hand at them, knowing that they find it a game to dodge my fingers so they can perch on the tiny nub of one of my horns.

I always hoped my dainty horns would grow into something more pointed and as powerful as my father’s. Even the demonesses in our village—most of them born in Soleil and moved to Sombra—have long, delicate horns that make them fiercely beautiful.

And then there’s me. With my mom’s colorless skin, her pale yellow hair, and inch-long black nubs that make it obvious that I’m way more human than demon…

Today, two of the three butterflies that came to keep me company hover over my head, shadowy wings sending my hair wafting in their slight breeze as usual. The third settles on the skirt of my dress, antenna twitching as though asking me how I am.

Been better, I muse, holding out my hand.

The butterfly leaps from my thigh to my outstretched finger. Its glow makes my pale skin gleam beneath its shadows.

I sigh.

I’m delaying the obvious. I know I am. It’s only a matter of time before I’ll have to confront my parents again. I’m not worried about Dad’s reaction. He’s always been happy to let Mom take the lead where I’m concerned, both as a kid and now as a grown half-demoness. And though I’m already a quarter of a century into my immortal life, she still treats me like I’m a child.

Like the butterflies being my constant companions, Mom’s overprotective side is just something that’s always been. I’m used to it, and considering I was abducted as an infant, I understand it—but that doesn’t mean Ilikeit.

I’m a shadow traveler. I can’t help that any more than my mom can help her desire to keep me coddled and safe. While not all demons in Sombra have a magical gift—unless, well, you’re a mage—something about having one human parent and one demon parent has meant that me, Stevie, Rafe, and Clara all do.

Stevie takes after her human mother. With a voice like an angel, and a persuasive lilt to the sound that makes her a siren, she can talk you into anything with a few sung words.

Rafe was born with a mage’s purple eyes, just like his demon dad. He’s not the greatest when it comes to spells, though he can intuitively create a protective barrier made of shadows that protects anyone inside of it—and blocks anyone on the outside from breaking in.

Clara is younger than the rest of us. Barely a decade, we weren’t sure if the daughter of the head of the duke’s guard had a gift until she disappeared into her shadow form so completely, not even her mother could find her.

I wish I hadthatgift. I don’t even have a true shadow form, not like the others with Sombra demon blood. They can go from their solid forms to their black shadows before fading away, leaving only a shimmer to indicate they’re there. I can turn to mist sometimes, but that’s just when I’m around people who don’t believe in demons.

If you know I might be there, you’ll see me. If you’re sure I can’t exist, I’m never there.

I think that’s why my mist only works on my infrequent travels to my mother’s home world, Earth. Duke Haures’s first law says that the mortals from that plane aren’t allowed to know about Sombra unless they, like Mom, are fated to belong to a Sombran. I’ve lived my whole life in this realm. Iama Sombran, and I know better than to let some human be the reason I’m sent away in chains to stay in the duke’s dungeons.

But that’s the problem. I don’t have a shadow form, but my gift? I can make shadows work for me. I don’t need to be a mage to create portals out of magic. As a shadow traveler, a shadowwalker, I can move through the darkest patches and end up in a whole other world.

I’ve discovered three previously hidden neighboring realms over the last few years simply because I was curious, and, truthfully, because Rafe gets his kicks egging me on.

He did today, and we ended up lingering longer than I meant to in Brille Rouge. My mom spends most of her afternoons at the library with the clan mother. As long as I grab Rafe by his collar and drag him back to Sombra, I won’t worry her too much with my excursions.

I’ll worry her, of course, but nottoomuch… unless I return home hours after we should’ve and, instead of facing my parents, I’m sitting on a lump of burnt wood a few homes down from where Rafe still lives with his parents.

His mother, Kennedy, is just as protective of Rafe, something that’s only gotten worse since she realized that Lokiknocked her upagain.

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