A blade appeared in her hand, shimmery and gold, with small spirals of smoke wafting from it even though nothing burned. Angel lowered the blade and sliced it into the ground. It parted the same way it had for Shadow, but there was one difference. For Angel, every layer appeared like pages in a book, allowing her to rifle through and select from them.

“Holy shit.” I gasped. “How many layers do you have?”

We’d crossed three to get to her, and I’d assumed that there weren’t many more than that, but from what I was seeing…

“Eight hundred and seventy-four,” she said succinctly. “Varying in worth and power.”

She reached out then, grasping on to a level of water that existed below her forest land. “This level is a good start,” Angel said, pulling that water page up toward her until there was a grating sound of her tearing the page free.

“What the fuckery?” I muttered, staring at the shimmering piece of “land” she held, no larger than a piece of printer paper.

Angel winked at me, and then she opened her mouth and… ate the freaking page.

I mean, sure, I expected a lot of humans and shifters had eaten some paper before, but this was taking “eating paper” to an entirely new level.

“What does it taste like?” I asked.

Was that a weird question? It felt like it might have been a weird question.

Angel paused in the process of ripping out the next shimmering layer of land, tilting her head to meet my gaze. “There’s only one way to find out.”

She tore a small corner from the glowing level and handed it to me. “We’re bonded, Mera. This won’t hurt you, and the best way to learn is by doing.”

Holy shit. Excitement shot me forward, and I didn’t hesitate to take the corner from her. When it hit my hand, it felt like I held a boiling stone. The texture was smooth, and it sizzled against my hands but didn’t hurt me. And the power… it filled me with heat, like that of my fire, but also different. Ancient and heady, it pushed and pulled at my essence, and I swallowed roughly in an attempt to pull myself together.

Shadow leaned closer, drawn in by my power, just as I always was with his. His eyes were flaming orbs, eating me up, and I ended up both weak at the knees and horny like no one’s fucking business. “Eat it, Sunshine,” he said in that deep rumble of his voice. “Swallow that power down.”

Motherfucker. His words were saying one thing, while his eyes reminded me of our last dance in the bedroom when he’d come in my mouth and I’d felt a burst of power from tasting him like that.