Where was the lie? Torin had told me he loved me more than once, and I knew for a fact that he didn’t love anyone except his power and reflection. And maybe Jaxson, because… bros, man.

“I don’t have a better word,” I said to Shadow, “but for what it’s worth, I do love you.”

His jaw was as tense as the rest of him, and normally, that expression would be worrisome, but I saw that this was shock. Shock that was soon replaced with fire as he cupped my face.

“You’re the match to my soul, Sunshine,” he rumbled through the power surrounding us. “You are my one. The only being I would destroy worlds for, and I’m afraid I did just that.”

I snorted. “Yeah, Gaster is not very happy with you. You’re going to have some cleaning up to do when you get out of here.”

My library could not be collateral damage in this war. It just couldn’t.

“I was no more than rage and cold, cruel intent,” Shadow admitted. “I would have killed everyone.”

My chest grew so tight. “Do you know what happened to Midnight, Angel, and Simone? And the rest of your crazy band of brothers? You… You didn’t kill them, right?”

Shadow’s brow furrowed, and I had a feeling he was sorting through memories, trying to figure out what was real and what had been falsely planted by Dannie. I relaxed a little when I saw no devastation on his face. “Simone is with Lucien,” he finally said, “on Valdor. And Angel is back in the Honor Meadows. I sent them to their lands, broke a lot of energy barriers through those lands, and then destroyed the Solaris system.”

“And Midnight?”

“I have no idea,” Shadow admitted, with reluctance. He really hated not knowing everything. “I can’t sense it anywhere close by, so maybe still in the realm?”

That had been my thought too. My hope. Because I refused to believe it was gone-gone.

“Can you get the Solaris System back?” I tentatively asked, not sure I wanted to hear the response if it was a no.

I felt zero reassurance when Shadow huffed. “It took me hundreds of years to establish it originally, but I can sense that the base of the power is still intact, and I’m a lot stronger than I was back then, so… I believe I can.” His eyes darkened into pits of golden lava. “But before we try that, there’s one thing I need first.”

My pussy spasmed because she knew what was going on.