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My heart broke at the fear and acceptance in her voice. Reaching back, I grabbed her free hand. “I love you, too.”
When it was twenty feet away, the revenant rushed at us, hissing in rage. My own bellowing roar echoed back toward him. If he wanted to kill us, then he better come the fuck on and try it.
The scythe, glinting in a ray of sun shimmering down through the canopy, swung forward, ready to part my head from my body the way it had cut Tate in half.
We were saved so fast, I almost didn’t realize what was happening. A flash of shadow, a burst of air, and a woman’s lithe body stood before us, facing the revenant. She grabbed the blade of the scythe like it was nothing more than a plastic toy.
“I believe you have been warned about encroaching on my domain,” the Shadowkeeper said to the revenant.
The creature thrashed and yowled, trying to pull the blade free, but even its otherworldly powers were no match for the Shadowkeeper’s strength.
She lowered her voice to a dangerous whisper. “You’ve been warned once. That is more than many receive. I believe it’s time you departed this plane.”
With her free hand, the Shadowkeeper snapped her fingers. Kira and I flinched as the surrounding darkness of the forest coalesced and descended on the revenant, moving like liquid snakes. The shadows enveloped the creature, and it continued to spit and hiss its rage as the smoke-like tentacles suffocated it. In seconds, all I could see was a mass of writhing blackness where it had once stood. Then, in a single rush and with a sound like ripping fabric, the shadows pulled away.
The revenant split apart, torn asunder by the Shadowkeeper. Instead of blood or gore, only dust and black clumps of sludge exploded from the body.
The tendrils of darkness rushed back to their original hiding places while the remains of the revenant lay steaming on the forest floor. The Shadowkeeper tossed the scythe down, the blade already turning to dust. She turned her dark and uncaring eyes upon us, taking a breath as though smelling fresh air again.
“Ah, much better. That little nuisance has been here for almost fifty years. I never did like him.”
Chapter 9
Kira
I couldn’t help but flinch away from her. The intimidating power she exuded was almost palpable.
The Shadowkeeper lifted an eyebrow. “You two again? Hmph, strange. You should really be in hiding, my dears. The mad one is out and about.” She gave a disgusted sniff. “Stirring up trouble in his search for the hidden ones.”
“The hidden ones?” Wyatt repeated.
“The little enclave.” She slid a finger across my shoulder. “I’m sure you know. You have the smell of the place all over you.”
“You’re talking about Simon Shingleman? The ‘mad one?’”
“Hmm, is that what the hybrid calls himself? Very well.”
As I looked at her, my mind whirred with everything I knew about the being standing before me. She’d always been a huge question mark on the show—only appearing at random intervals, sometimes years apart, always bestowing gifts or power and favors. There had even been a course in TO training—Unknown Beings and Their Histories—that had two full chapters devoted to her. From what I’d seen her do, she reminded me of some type of wraith. But wraiths had no scent, and no wraith could have taken down a revenant.
My gut told me what she was, but the thought was too crazy to seem real. They were allknown. None were hidden. Were they? Could she possibly be what I thought she was? And if so, how did no one know?
“Are you a goddess?” I blurted.
Wyatt glanced at me like I’d said the craziest thing ever.
The Shadowkeeper, for her part, only gazed at me with an introspective look on her face. Then her stoic expression burst into a surprised smile. She thrust her shoulders back and raised her chin. A look of excitement that I’d guessed her deepest secret glittered in her eyes.
“My, you are a clever one. Correct. I am Lucina. Younger sister to Heline. Goddess of darkness, shadows, and night.”
Wyatt’s mouth fell open, and he croaked, “What?”
Ignoring him, Lucina continued talking to me. “In ancient times, I was much more well-known. A goddess worshiped by the ancients. Especially those creatures and beings who hide in the night and shun the daylight. Vampires and shifters were counted among my greatest followers. But”—her forehead wrinkled—“gods fall from favor and can be forgotten. My time came to an end. When worship wanes, so does a god’s power.”
“Why are you here, though?” I asked. It made no sense for something as powerful as a god to remain in a backwater place like Bloodstone Island.
“I chose this place as my isolation. As my followers dwindled, so did my powers. Rather than live in a world that had forgotten me, I came here.” She lifted her arms and gestured to the surrounding jungle. “Many creatures here still revere me.” She glanced down in disgust at the remains of the revenant. “Minus those created by my lesser siblings and cousins. I have chosen not to meddle in the lives of mortals for many centuries, choosing instead to remain here in a small kingdom of my own.”
“But we need help. Simon—”
