He shook his head. “When she felt your surge of power and the exodus of mists and creatures that you called to Earth, she knew there was another Danamain out there who could be manipulated into completing her plan. So she dropped the spell.”

Disappointment rocked me hard, and I couldn’t hide my forlorn expression.

“What’s wrong?” Shadow asked, pausing in the middle of parting twenty fern-like plants.

I rubbed a hand over my face, trying to pull myself together. “I don’t know. I guess I liked being the one person who helped you get what you wanted and needed most. It was a nice feeling to be useful to someone as powerful as you. And now you’re telling me it was still that dumb bitch, and I never outsmarted her at all?”

I’d done nothing in that final fight. Shadow had fought Ixana, Dannie had swallowed the stone and stolen the power from her, and I’d… gotten myself kicked back into Torma with my memories wiped. That didn’t sit well with me because I was no damsel in distress.

I wanted to be on equal footing with Shadow.

“Sunshine,” he said huskily. “You have no idea what you’ve done for me. Trust me; it’s much more than opening a doorway that I wished was still closed. You fought through the memory spell, saving us all. I don’t think you need to worry about your worth.”

That was true. “We do make a great team, and I’m glad that we were both strong enough to reject the ‘perfection’ Dannie gave us. I could have been alpha-mate, and you could have stayed and ruled the realm.”

“I have rejected my position of Supreme Being,” Shadow said with no hesitation. “I’ve built a new world for myself, with you, and there’s no room in my life for the realm.”

Holy shit. That was… huge. He was rewriting his destiny, and he made no apologies about that. “The libraries are mine,” I said huskily. “I will straight-up fight you for them.”

His lips quirked as he wrapped an arm around me, dragging me higher so our mouths could meet. Heat poured off both of us as my tongue slid out to trace across his. I couldn’t be more addicted to the taste of this guy if I tried.

“Let the battle begin,” Shadow said against my lips, and I knew then, with absolute certainty, that this most perfect of true mates was going to challenge me every step of our relationship.

Fuck, if I wasn’t beyond excited for our future.

Instead of grinding against him as I wanted, I just wrapped my arms and legs around him and hugged him tightly. “Sleep with one eye open, Beast,” I whispered into his ear, as if imparting sweet nothings. “Those libraries are mine.”