I felt better to know that someone would be keeping an eye on it. “Fine with me, as long as you don’t think we’ll need Inky in the Honor Meadows.”

Shadow shook his head. “If we run into a situation that you and I can’t get ourselves out of, there’s very little Inky could do to help. I can think of only one being with enough power to worry us, and it’s the one I call ‘Mother.’”

That was good news… if you tilted your head and squinted at it. I mean, I was all about silver linings these days, and the fact that I wasn’t currently in Torma with Torin meant everything from here on out was good news.

Inky faded up into the ceiling, and I imagined it spreading out through the mechanics of the library. “Stay safe, buddy,” I called after it, just as Shadow nudged me toward the still-open doorway.

The Honor Meadows felt the same as they had the last time I’d stepped through. Warm, inviting, and ancient in a way that I couldn’t fully describe. I just sensed it deep in my own magic.

“This world truly fascinates me,” I said when we were standing in the long field of gold, the only part of Angel’s land I’d been to. My wolf rose up at the memories, and I was relieved to feel her strong and content in my chest again. Back with our true, true mate, we were once again whole. My wolf might have been team Torin for a while, but after witnessing her melancholy the last time around him, it was clear who we’d both chosen.

Our beast.

“This is one of the more ancient of the lands,” Shadow told me, his steps silent as he moved through the ankle-length golden grass. “It’s definitely the basis for the human’s perception of Heaven, and I believe it’s most probably due to those who heard stories from their ‘guardian angels.’ I know Angel told you some of her family’s history and work on Earth. I was the one to nudge them in that direction, as an additional safeguard over humans and shifters.”

I was near speechless.

It wasn’t as if I was particularly religious, and certainly not about angels and gods and the devil as such, since I’d always worshipped the Shadow Beast—still did actually, just in a different way now. But I knew how strongly humans felt about their religions, and the reverences they held for their gods. I didn’t blame them, either, because the world was damn dark, and to have faith in something greater, even if it was mere flickers of hope filling that darkness, was worth a lot more than what was tangibly returned to them. Shadow had helped shape some of that hope, and I felt very insignificant in comparison.

“Do all the transcendents go to Earth?”