Freed (Imprisoned by the Fae 3)

Okay, then. Time to change the subject.

“Anyway. I don’t really remember where her house is, but I know we’ve got to keep an eye out for a really big bunch of shadows. Like, a ton. She hides her cottage behind them.”

“That must be what I’m sensing. The darkness… I can feel it. What about you, Nine?”

He nods. “So can Riley. Whoever wove the shadows is very powerful.”

I don’t deny it. Morgan’s a whiz when it comes to building things out of shadows, just like Riley.

“But that’s a good thing, right?” I look from one of the fae males to the other. “We’ve got to be pretty close.”

We are. After we start walking again, it doesn’t take more than another half an hour before we walk up to a section of forest that is so black, it’s nearly impenetrable.

The shadow barrier is… different than I remember. And, okay, it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve been here last, but I’m absolutely positive this is right. I doubt I’d ever have stumbled upon it on my own, but now that Rys has led us to the wide, thick patch of black, I’m sure we’ve found Morgan’s hideaway.

It’s just way more foreboding than it once was. Seriously. If it looked like this the first time I saw it, I would’ve laughed at Grimly and run the other way.

It’s taller, for one thing. The shadows look like brambles and thorns, though, when I test them, they don’t hurt. It’s still a big ol’ warning for stray travelers to get the hell away.

“Come on.” I try to keep upbeat so that the others don’t know how thrown off I am. “Morgan won’t mind.”

Riley gives it a side-eye. “How sure are you?”

I don’t blame her for being suspicious.

Nine approaches the shadow, his hand outstretched. As soon as he makes it to the notable edge to the barrier—the line where it’s so much blacker than the shadows surrounding it—he presses the flat of his palm against it… and stops. He just can’t go any further.

That’s weird. I didn’t have any trouble last time, and when I tested the nearest thorn, my fingertip sunk right into it.

But maybe I didn’t push far enough to see if it resisted me.

Huh.

“Let me see.” I move past him, doing the same thing with my hand in case it really is as solid as it appears. As soon as my fingers slip a few inches inside the shadows, disappearing down past the first knuckle, I turn to look at him. “I can go through.”

Riley hesitates before extending her gloved hand. As if the shadows recognize her for who—and what—she is, they immediately welcome her inside of them. They swallow her arm up to her elbow. She turns back to look at Nine and shrugs. “I’m okay.”

That’s so weird. I can go in. Riley can. But Nine…

Wait a second.

“Are you going to hurt Morgan?”

Nine’s lips thinned. Crap. I’ve offended him. “Why would you think I would?”

“I don’t. But she told me once that I could only get through her barrier because the shadows knew I didn’t mean her any harm. So, maybe if you tell them that you’re not a threat to her, they’ll let you in.”

Because, if he says it out loud, it’s as good as a vow.

I can tell that Nine is going to refuse. He probably thinks I’m being ridiculous. That, or he doesn’t want to be held to such a promise. Which is crazy because why would he want to hurt a lonely Unseelie female he’s never met?

However, before he does something he can’t take back, Riley lays her hand on his arm. “Come on, Nine. You’re the Shadow Man. Talk to the shadows.”

He huffs. “Very well. I wish your mistress no harm. Now can I enter?”

His mate tugs him toward the barrier. “Try it.”

He does and, wouldn’t you know, it freaking works.