Flames sprang to life in his eyes, and I could see the battle he fought. One day my ability to bring him to the brink of losing control would bite me on the ass. Only time would tell if I liked it or not.

“Come on,” Angel snapped, reminding us that we truly did have somewhere to be.

The library was bright and open, bustling with beings from all different worlds. “You brought it back to perfection,” I said to Shadow, my voice thick. “It’s exactly as it was.”

“Nothing can ever be exactly as it was,” he said, looking around, “and it’s going to take some time for the library to find its true power again, but I’ve set it on the path. Sometimes that’s the best you can do.”

His words struck a chord within me, and it took me a minute to work out why. It was how he’d talked about the library… like it was his child. He’d created and nurtured this offspring the best he could, giving it all the skills needed to grow and flourish in the world. Now it was time for it to find its own way forward, with Shadow there in the background as a support system.

Kind of made me think that part of the reason I loved this particular library so much, outside of a lifetime obsession with books, was because of its ties to Shadow. My mate.

Before I could get too mushy over all things Shadow, Inky swirled down from the ceiling above, spreading out before us. “Inky!” I exclaimed. “Did you figure out what was wrong with the library?”

The mist twirled around Shadow, and I could tell they were talking. Angel and I waited patiently… Well, at least she did. I started bouncing on the spot in anticipation of bad news.

“It’s Midnight.”

I lurched forward at those words. My heart was pattering like crazy because until this moment, I’d thought my mist was still stuck in the realm. But to hear it was in the library, and had been the entire time… I wasn’t prepared.

“What do you mean it’s Midnight?” I said in a rush. Inky wrapped around me, offering comfort, which did not bode well for the information coming my way.

“Midnight is the kink in the library,” Shadow said. “It’s infiltrated itself into the creation energy I used to bring this system to life and is causing the disruption.”

My heart hurt, a giant squeeze that was legitimately more painful than what I’d felt over my mother’s death. No doubt I needed therapy or some shit, but I couldn’t help that my mist was already more important to me than my birth mother. “How do I… I mean, what can I do to fix this situation? How do I free Midnight?”