“Sunshine.” He groaned, and then he threw his head back and roared into the heavens. It was a long, rumbling lament of pain. My ears ached when he was done, and I could have sworn that I felt moisture that wasn’t my own against my skin, but when I looked up into his face, there was no sign of anything except pure, unadulterated fury.

Shadow’s face was a mask of death and destruction. The mask of a being who was about to destroy the world.

And I just might let him.

22

He held me for so long that time basically had no meaning. Days could have passed and yet neither of us moved. Maybe we were in competition for who could hold on the longest, and for once, it was a competition I hoped we both won.

“I’m going to need you to explain everything to me,” Shadow eventually rumbled from above. “My memory is still clouded with events that I believe have been falsely planted there to confuse me.”

It made sense that Dannie would have used different methods to mask our memories. We were all vastly unique individuals with differing powers. She was far too freaking smart, and that in and of itself was terrifying because it had only been the spell Shadow had already layered on me, and my own tenacious personality, that had kept her from fully succeeding.

“Dannie, your mother, has been corrupted by the sunburst stone,” I said, leaning back to see his face. I kind of never wanted to stop looking at his face now that it was in my life again. “She stole all of our memories to restore the balance. I was never supposed to be created, so she sent me back to Torma to be the alpha-mate—”

Shadow’s grip tightened as he slowly drew me up off my feet until we were near eye level. “To Torma? With no memories?”

I swallowed hard because his beast was so close to the surface.

His jaw tightened. “Did Torin touch you?” He said it slowly, without inflection, but the cold detachment was far scarier than shouting could have ever been.

I didn’t pretend to misunderstand what he was asking. “He never touched me sexually. I didn’t remember you, but I sure as fuck remembered what a piece of shit he was.”

There was a slight thawing in his gaze, and the grip lessened enough that feeling returned to my limbs. “Why would my mother allow you to keep those memories when she wanted this plan to succeed?”

I’d thought on this a lot during my endless cycle of overthinking last night. “I have two theories,” I said. “One, she still held some love for me, even with her transformation, and in that regard didn’t want me to be completely vulnerable against beings who had hurt me in the past.”

Shadow’s expression grew darker. “And two?”