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Dannika blinked. “But the sanctuary protects the children.”
“We had no sanctuary. No need to protect the children from our own clan members.”
“What happened to Mikail?” she whispered.
“The clan leader needed to know what happened to Mikail. He imprisoned him until he learned the truth. Mikail’s animal died when he killed the human and his shadow gifts became stronger, which is how he escaped.”
“How did he escape?” Dannika asked.
“Mikail’s shadow ability was the power of suggestion. He influenced a fledgling that wandered too close to his cell. He killed the youngling and escaped.”
Dannika glanced at Raine. “The power of suggestion. The same power you have.”
She tried to contain her fear, but the idea of a reaper with the power to control those around him was a nightmare beyond anything she had imagined.
“As a shadow, it’s one of the most coveted abilities, but if I turn reaper, it is a curse beyond any other. The clans would have no choice but to destroy me, regardless of the casualties. This power cannot fall into reaper hands.”
Her eyes widened. “Mikail used his power to influence shadows, making them turn reaper.”
Raine nodded. “The older the shadow, the less likely he succumbs to suggestion, but the young had no mates and were untrained in avoiding reaper lures. Mikail built an army of reapers. They were stronger and faster than us. Humans were being slaughtered at an alarming rate. That’s when the leaders realized the reapers weren’t aging. A new war had started, and the reapers were winning.”
She glanced between the men, the pain of recalling those dark days etched on their faces. “What happened?”
“The more the reapers fed, the stronger they became. They healed faster and didn’t die unless they were beheaded. Despite their smaller numbers, we racked up body counts while they increased their numbers. As more of us died, more shadows lost hope and turned reaper.”
Dannika shook her head. “A Catch-22 kind of thing.”
“Yes.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What did the shadows do? Obviously, they didn’t lose.”
Raine nodded. “The founders went to a resident priestess. A deal was struck, and a sacrifice made.”
“What kind of sacrifice?” she asked.
“We don’t know. The founders didn’t record it in the scrolls, and never passed on the information. We only know what happened afterward.”
Dannika snuggled against him, allowing the warmth of his body to infuse hers. “What happened afterward?”
“The priestess entered the underworld at great peril to herself. She retrieved a mineral from the demon home world. We call it blessed steel.”
Dannika ran her finger over the hilt of Raine’s reaper blade. He’d strapped the leather sheath to his belt, allowing the runes carved into the handle to act as an adornment, beautiful and deadly.
“The reaper blades. That’s what they’re made of.”
“Yes. While a weapons master can create the daggers, and regift existing blades when called to the next generation, only a specialist can infuse a new blade with blessed steel, an extension of the original artifact retrieved from the underworld.”
Dannika swallowed hard. “The priestess found something in their world that harms them and brought it back. What happened to her after?”
Raine took Dannika’s other hand, placing it over his heart. “There’s no record of what happened in the demon dimension, but she was never the same. Her husband had to care for her. Once she returned to her home, she continued to be a wife and mother, but she never left its walls again.”
Her fingers slipped from Raine’s reaper blade. “Where is the artifact now?”
“They split the mineral into three factions, one for each of the remaining shadow clans. The chalice that held the mineral was too dangerous to stay with any clan. The priestess kept it.”
“Why?”
Raine took a deep breath. “The priestess used the chalice to create the portal between the human and the demon world. She feared in the wrong hands, they could reopen it.”
