Gaster waved a finger in my direction. “And are you not, Ms. Shifter? You spent most of your waking hours in here sneaking books off the shelves, thinking none of us would notice.”

My smile turned into laughter. “Oh, Gaster. I knew you indulged me, and I was very careful to always place them back in the correct position. Respect the library and it will respect you.”

He was beaming, like an adorable little ray of sunlight. “You’re a true blessing, Mera Callahan. We have all benefited greatly from having you in our world.”

My chest went tighter as my eyes burned; it meant so much to hear him say that. I’d grown up a pack burden and outcast, so to now find myself respected and appreciated… It was an overload on my fragile emotions. I mouthed thank you to Gaster and he nodded, but then we all had to shut up because Shadow was stepping up his game.

His power wrapped around Gaster and Sam, locking them down in the same manner as I was. They both started to protest, but only until the next explosion of energy left Shadow. Flames burst free from his body in an impressive arc, coating everything in shades of red, gold, black, and amber. The colors of the Nexus. The colors of Dannie’s phoenix. The color of my wolf when she burst into flames.

Creation power.

His fire whipped through, clearing the old, followed by his shadows, rebuilding the new. Through my connection to Shadow I felt him tiring. A rare occurrence for one as strong as the Shadow Beast, but I wasn’t too worried. He knew his limits, and we were in no immediate danger today, so it was best to try restoring the Solaris System before we went to war.

26

It took Shadow half a day to bring the library back into working order, and when he was finally done, he was barely able to stand. I personally liked the beast on his knees, but this was neither the time nor the place to take advantage of that. Instead, I attempted to haul his heavy ass up, dragging him to the newly reestablished seating area so he could sink into one of the cushion chairs to recharge.

Sam stayed with me, but Gaster had already hurried off to check if everything was as it had been. From what I could see of my library, it looked just as I remembered pre-Dannie, so I spent my time focusing on Shadow.

“Are you okay?” I asked, kneeling beside the cushion he was sprawled across. He tried to move forward, but I pushed him back. “You basically just rebuilt an entire travel system, maybe give yourself a second.”