Just as she sent her energy toward us, Shadow reached out and grasped on to my hand, tugging me into him. The world tilted out from under me, and then we were somewhere else. Shadow had moved our location, which had used power we probably couldn’t afford to lose, but at the same time, if he hadn’t moved us, we’d have been blasted to pieces by an angry goddess.

“Will she follow?” Angel gasped, her wings looking duller than they had been earlier, the gold of her skin all but gone.

Shadow didn’t answer, too busy zapping us through to another location, this one above the water somewhere.

“She’s clearly following,” Reece said dryly. “Maybe you should focus on using some of your family power to speed the process along versus asking inane questions.”

Angel’s body was vibrating, whatever gold power had been left in her briefly puffing off her skin before she got herself under control. Reece’s words were mean and unfair—we were all in a shitty situation—but Angel didn’t bite back.

Which bothered me. “You need to chill with that, Reece,” I said shortly. “These are unprecedented times, and we can’t all be expected to act how you think we should. Let’s just focus on staying ahead of Dannie and weaving the cage again.”

His eyes flashed, and as he opened his mouth to hit back at me, a raging beast appeared over my shoulder. Even though I couldn’t see Shadow’s face, I knew he was warning his friend to be very careful about what he said next.

This was the second time Shadow had stepped in when I really didn’t need him to. I appreciated the support, and the way he spoke love without saying the words, but we’d be having a chat about me fighting my own battles one day very soon.

If we made it out of the realm alive.

“You’re right, Mera,” Reece finally bit out, some of his rage fading. “It’s neither the time nor place, and it’s best to focu—”

His words were cut off as Shadow zipped us away again, and I was starting to worry that my mate was going to run out of energy soon. Through our joined hands, I sent as much of my power as I could into him, and Inky pressing into his other side was hopefully doing the same.

“I heard your words when you were in your wolf form,” Shadow murmured near my ear, his gaze on our joined hands. “And I feel the beat of our true mate bond in my chest. Stronger than ever.”