It wrapped around me, and I hugged it as close as I could. There was no real substance, but it felt like we made contact. “Inky, buddy.” I sobbed. “Oh, gods, how did I forget you? Do you remember everything? Spark once if you do.”

Pulling away from me, it swelled up larger and sparked twice.

“Okay, dammit.” Even the mists were affected. Freaking Dannie and her overachieving. “But you clearly knew I wasn’t a threat because you let me through the doorway.”

He sparked once.

It was starting to make sense now. “Inky and Midnight are connected to Shadow and me, so they were lost in the spell, just the same as we were.”

I’d been feeling a sense of dread since I’d woken up in Torin’s bed, and while some of it had to do with that slimy bastard, so much more of it was because of Dannie. Because of what she had done to me and all of my pack.

“I have to find Shadow.”

It was a need filling me up until I might burst from it.

Gaster shook his head. “That’s not a good idea, Mera. He destroyed the library and all of the doors from here. The master is a true beast, and… what if you’re also destroyed in his anger?”

These were the parts of my story Gaster didn’t know because he hadn’t been there.

“Shadow will not destroy me,” I said with confidence. “Firstly, I’m stronger than you think. I was born of the Nexus… a similar being to Dannie. I’m a match for Shadow.”

In more ways than one. Every touch and kiss—our first kiss—burned like a bright light of memory in my mind. Every single moment that had been stolen from me.

“And secondly, I believe he left the hallway to Earth unbroken for a very specific reason, whether he realized it or not. I am the one being who can bring him back.”

Gaster held my gaze, but he didn’t argue. He nodded, like it all made sense.

“You are the key,” he said. “Thank the gods you didn’t fall into life back in Torma.”

That was when the real truth of what had happened hit me hard. I had all the context now, the memories, the history. “How could Dannie do this?” I whispered, trying to hold tears back. “She knew what my pack did to me. She fucking knew. And she sent me back to them. Back to Torin. If I hadn’t trusted my instincts…”

I trailed off at the horror of what might have happened to me if I’d listened to Jaxson and all the others. I would have fallen into bed with the alpha and never known what had been stolen from me.