Shadow finally met her gaze, his stare as hard as hers. “You should consider yourself lucky that he ignored you for the last few millennia. You know how long his memory is. He rarely forgives and never forgets.”

She scoffed. “I did consider myself lucky. But what has changed? I was perfectly content with the ‘pretend we don’t know each other’ thing we had going on. He’s messing with the status quo.”

Shadow turned his gaze toward Reece, who was sitting at the farthest table from Angel. “It’s your power,” Shadow said. “It reminds him of long-ago events. Lives lost. Hearts shattered.”

Angel went super pale. Super, super pale, and I elbowed Shadow quickly so he would shut up and give her a break. Then I threw an arm around my best friend, maneuvering the hold so I didn’t crush the feathers of her wings. “Don’t worry about Reece,” I said. “If he wants to be a petty asshole about shit that happened millennia ago, that’s on him. You’re above that, especially while we have to focus on saving the damn world.”

“I can hear you, Mera Callahan,” Reece shot out, his voice hard and clipped. “And you should not speak about what you don’t know.”

Shadow slowly got to his feet, and the noise died off near instantly. My beast didn’t have to say a word because the flames that sprung to life, followed by the darkness in his expression, did all the talking for him.

Reece stood slowly as well, and for a moment, his fury faded into sadness. “Sorry, old friend,” he said formally. “I did not mean to speak in such a tone with your mate. It’s just…”

Shadow’s flames lessened. “I understand,” he said. “But understand or not, if you ever speak to Mera like that again, I’ll enjoy making you regret it.”

Reece gave a short, sharp nod. “As it should be.” He turned to me. “Apologies, Mera. I’m not myself today. I think I’ll seek some mental guidance before we depart tomorrow.”

Without a glance at Angel, he turned and walked off, never looking back once.

The room felt smaller and emptier without his large frame and even larger energy presence, but some of the tension eased at least, and that was worth the trade.

Angel even seemed happy, ordering food with me when the robot servers rushed by. Shadow didn’t order anything, but he did smile at the six dishes I requested.

“I wondered where all the salmon and beef were going,” he said with a low chuckle.

I shrugged. “Look, I’m not gonna lie, the food here is amazing. And a lot of it is similar to Earth food, so I feel right at home. My favorite is the stew, though. My god—”

His glare cut me off, and I shrugged. “It’s a turn of phrase, damn you,” I said. “Stop editing my words.”