Now that Midnight was relieved of guard duty, I was able to see the glowing cage. It was still, no sign that the any part of it was alive, but I knew Dannie would be fighting under that fortress. She was stubborn and strong in every form.

“It will only hold another few hours,” Shadow said. “She was stronger than we anticipated, having already taken steps toward becoming a Nexus, and if you hadn’t been here to reinforce the strength of the cage, it would never have contained her. No matter how well we weaved the fortress.”

“Is it really weakening her?” That had been the original goal, after all. The only goal, because if it wasn’t successful, we’d never get that stone from her.

Lucien let out a low laugh. “It feels like it is, but we haven’t been able to properly check with all the shadow creature guards.”

Oh, right. My creatures. The ones I yanked out of the prison rooms in my dying moments.

Come to me.

The call was effortless, breaking them from their formation as they strolled toward me on two and four and many more legs. None of them fought as the wild ones did; instead, they moved like a solid unit of trained soldiers.

Leading them from the clearing, I directed them toward a large open field, one that still contained pockets of forest. Untouched by an angry Danamain. A sanctuary until we could end the dangers in this world for them.

My protective instinct toward the creatures was stronger than ever, and I hoped that I’d find other survivors from the Grey Lands as well when we were done with Dannie.

I had to believe she wouldn’t have killed them all, even as corrupted as she was, and that meant they were out there waiting for me to find and save them. When that happened, they could join their brethren here.

Safe at last.

52

By the time I’d loved on my creatures and returned to the main group, the others had done a thorough investigation into Dannie and the fortress’s current effect on her.

“She’s weaker.” Shadow confirmed. “Much weaker if what we’re sensing from her is correct.”

“That’s great news,” I said in a rush.

Moving closer, I reached out, stopping myself just before I made contact with the gold, just in case I broke it somehow.

“You can touch it.” Reece chuckled. “The spell is locked on now until we release it or she breaks free.”

I returned his smile with a shrug. “Yeah, I don’t always follow the rules with that sort of shit, so best to be safe.”

There was no argument from anyone. Apparently, my run of interesting luck was the one thing we could all agree on. Lifting my hands, I ran them across her, tracing the humanoid shape of the golden cage.