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“Is that what I think it is?” Reagan asked, stopping short.
“Yup,” the witch answered after regaining her senses.
The tiny dog wiggled its way out of the shirt, showing off his pure black fur—as was to be expected of all shadow shifters. I stepped to Reagan’s side.
“He’s a corgi?” my mate said in disbelief, her voice rising in question.
“A what?” I asked, never having heard of one. Crossing a portal made by a primordial gave anyone the ability to speak that realm’s language, but that didn’t mean we understood all of it. If they came to Tartarus, it would be the same.
“A corgi. You know, the dog breed? I’ve never seen one in real life, but based on the pictures I’ve seen in books, those ears and legs are definitely all corgi.”
The dog started zooming circles around his sister, his head lifted to the sky as he let out yapping barks.
“For fuck’s sake, Nog!” Clara said, covering her ears. “Shut up and shift back before my ears start bleeding.”
The dog did no such thing, and he yelped louder in distress.
“What happened? Why can’t he shift back?” Reagan asked no one in particular, and Clara shrugged.
I watched him carefully. “I take it he’s never shifted before?”
Both Reagan and her cousin shook their heads while prompting him again. “C’mon, Nog. That’s enough. Shift back.”
“He’s a shadow shifter?” Styx whispered, looking at him while he ran around.
“It would appear so,” I answered quietly.
The boy continued to run in circles, incessantly barking at absolutely nothing. I was going to force the shift, if for no other reason than to end it when Reagan commanded him, the power in her voice radiating. “Shift.”
Mid-run, the dog collapsed. Bones popped as a gangly human teenager took form.
“I can shift,” he yelled. “You hear that Tío? Clara? Clara, did you see me? I CAN SHIFT!”
Reagan scrubbed a hand down her face. “Yes, Nog we all know you can shift now. Can you put your damn clothes on while we talk?”
He gave her a side-eye like she was being unreasonable, but he grabbed his clothes.
“And I thought he was insufferable before,” Clara muttered.
There was a murmur of agreement that went through the crowd as Nog shucked his pants up one leg, then the other. “Oh, fuck all of you!”
Ignoring him, Reagan turned to me. Once again, wariness colored her features, and I could honestly say I didn’t like it when she looked at me that way.
“What’s a shadow shifter?”
On a heavy sigh, I answered, knowing this wasn’t going to go well. “Tartarus’s version of a shifter. They’re very similar to your kind on Earth, except the shifting cycle coincides with our dual moons. When they’re both full, it will force a shift. I’m not sure how that will impact him here . . .”
“Is that all?” Reagan said tersely.
I ran my tongue over my teeth before speaking. “There are good odds he’ll inherit the savagery that all shadow creatures have. Tempers run short, and the desire to find one’s mate is maddening, or so I’m told. There seems to cause a decline in humanistic characteristics as the animal within drives them to find the only thing that can stop it. Their mate.”
Reagan pinched the bridge of her nose with her index finger and thumb, taking a deep breath before releasing it harshly.
“You mean to tell me, my cousin is going to go insane if he doesn’t find hisfatedmate? The one that is literally a single person in the entire world—assuming she’s even alive yet. There’s a chance she may not have been born, or worse, she already died. Dammit!” Her hands clenched in a show of emotion I wasn’t expecting. She was taking this even worse than I thought. So much for trying to soften the blow. “How is that even possible?”
"Probably when he touched the death magic,” Styx blurted out, and I turned to her with wide eyes. She lifted her shoulder. “What?”
“That’s death magic leaking out of the portal?” she asked, pointing to the inky tendrils reaching for me.
