Page 77 of Shadow Bonds

Sighing to myself, I head back to the house and take advantage of the silence to read that book.

Sitting down at the table, I get comfortable and crack it open.‘Variant. A being with the ability to transform, shift, and even take control of other bodies. The inhabitant is usually killed, the Variant now having all memories from the stolen body. No abilities from the host are transferred, but the Variant will still contain its own.’

That doesn’t make sense. I don’t have Sena’s old memories. I’m also not a Variant. But I have a feeling one of them did this to me.

I just can’t figure out why.

Did the old Sena piss them off? But if that was the case, then why didn’t they just kill her off and end it there? Not switch her with me.

“What’s this?” Knox swipes the book from my hands and spins out of reach. I didn’t even hear him come in.

Shit.Knox’s smile quickly changes as he reads it, morphing into a frown.

He glances up at me, but before he gets a chance to ask me anything, I say the first thing that comes to mind. “It’s for a history assignment.”

His brows raise. “I suppose that’s a lot more interesting than what we were forced to learn.”

I edge closer to him and the book. “Do you know anything about them?”

“Variants?” he asks, and I nod.

“I heard they’re evil. Their power comes from the Hollow. It’s dark and unstable,” he says.

My heartbeat picks up speed, as fear claws at my chest. “And if you ever came across one of them or those involved with them, would you kill them?” I fist my hands behind my back, hiding the tremble in them.

“In a heartbeat,” he says before handing me the book back with a vicious smile and kiss on the cheek.

“We ready?” Malakai asks as he and the others filter in around the kitchen. “Everyone have everything they need?”

Knox bends down and grabs me, throwing me over his shoulder. He turns back to the guys while I get to stare at his ass.

I mean, it’s not a bad view.

“I heard that,”Knox whispers into my mind as his hand crawls up my thigh.

I smack it and wiggle to get down. He groans and lets me.

I glance around at the others, catching their small smiles. “Don’t I have to go through the portal with the other females?”

“Not this time,” Cyrus says. “You’re coming with us.”

I paste a smile on my face and try to feel some of the happiness I see around me. And not worry and spiral over the fact that if any one of them found out what happened to me, they might end up killing me.

CHAPTER 24

The War Camps are as horrible as I remember them. But at least I’m not getting glares from dozens of men who hate the fact that I’m female. Now they’re just looking at me in confusion.

We head inside the same tent we had last time, and I follow my mates to the back, walking towards my old bed. But I’m quickly diverted when Cyrus ushers me to the opposite side and to a bed in the middle of two others.

“This is yours,” Cyrus says and sets his stuff on the bed beside me. Knox takes the one on my left. Malakai takes my old bed with Theon beside him.

An older male, with short, black hair sprinkled with gray steps into the tent and narrows his eyes on everyone.

“All Shadows, including females, to meet in the green zone. Trials start early.” He turns without another word while I try to figure out where the green zone is.

I look to Knox. “Green zone?”

He smiles. “Safe territory just before the black zone.”

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