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“What?”
“Did you not feel that?”
“The only connection I have to the shadow realm is that my brother and my future mate have shadow powers.” He smiled gently. “I can’t sense much. Hell, I can barely see.”
“Oh. The walls keeping me here wavered.”
“Ahh, princess, you are here.” The feminine voice was all too familiar.
I spun as quickly as my weird semi-shadowy state allowed. Effie stood there along with at least one of the shadow creatures. Glowing red eyes blinked slowly as they stared in my direction.
Clearly, not all the shadow people were of the same feeling about my fate. Of course, Effie would have needed help to get here in the first place, so clearly she was on reasonable terms with at least one of them.
“Get them,” Effie ordered. She lifted her cigarette on a stick to her mouth and took a puff, the other hand planted purposefully on an elegantly displayed hip as the evening gown she always wore clung to her curves.
I stepped in front of Baz and prepared to fight off the shadow creature. At the same time, I reached into the shadows, hoping they would respond in a way that would let me travel away from here and take Baz with me.
The creature dissipated, but I could still generally sense where it was at. It slithered along the ground toward us.
I shaped tentacles of shadow and grabbed at the creature. It easily evaded my awkward attempt to capture it, so I threw up a barrier between us. That was a little more effective, slowing it down long enough for me to call the shadows to me, grab Baz, and attempt escape.
The shadows wrapped around me and Baz, pushed through us, and ripped me apart just as the creature attacked.
“Think of some place safe for us to go,” I shouted, or tried too, as the shadow creature plowed into me.
I screamed as it pushed through me, melding with my own energy and trying to further tear me apart. Every part of me was fire and agony and all I could do was scream.
“Ember,” Baz’s voice echoed around me, or maybe it came from inside me as we were both caught up in the shadows I’d summoned to transport us. “Hold on to me.”
Whatever I did in response to Baz’s command worked. Moments later, I was laying on a patch of rocky ground staring at an oddly familiar swimming hole. It wavered in my vision, but when I focused on the cool-looking water and the rocky cliff I’d jumped off countless times as a child, when I acknowledged that I knew this place as well as I knew my childhood home, it solidified. I scrambled to my feet and turned just as the shadow creature we’d probably dragged with us lunged forward. Instead of hands, it had knives for fingers, and they were all aimed right for me.
I was disoriented, and not a fighter. All I could do was scramble backward on the sharp rocks and gritty sand until my hands splashed in water, watching my death streaking toward me.
A shadow flashed across the sky, then a mass of black feathers and a rush of air followed by a shriek of rage fell upon the creature.
It me a minute to sort out what was happening. Silver flashed and wings cracked through the air. A black Pegasus reared up and attacked the shadow until its silver hooves had torn the thing apart. I sensed it dissipate, and the wisps of shadow it left behind scattered from the wind of the horse’s wings beating in the air.
“Wow,” I breathed, pushing myself upright out of the water.
The horse’s hooves met the ground and for a moment it stood there, almost posing. Then, almost in slow motion, the beautiful Pegasus crumpled to the ground in a shower of feathers.
“Shit!” I raced forward, heedless of any potential danger. It had just saved me, and I had a suspicion that proved correct when I reached the creature’s side and instead found Baz amongst large black feathers. He lay there, seemingly unconscious, breathing labored, his skin ashen.
“Baz!” I fell to my knees at his side.
“Sorry, Ember,” he murmured. “Needed to save you.”
“Thank you.” I put my hand on his arm. “What do you need?”
“Not sure. Just, time to heal, maybe.”
I put my other hand on his arm as well and pushed some dream energy into him. His breathing eased, and he opened his eyes. “Thank you.”
“You saved me.” I grinned.
“You saved us first.” Baz winked. “Help me sit up?”
Now that the initial urgency had passed, I became keenly aware that I was kneeling on a sharp, pointy rock. I shifted my weight back and supported Baz’s arm while he got to his knees.
