Shadows Fall (Totem Book 7)

by Christine Rains

  “I do not know.” He shrugged.

  His confidence made her grit her teeth. Whatever they had to do to earn the totem wasn’t going to be easy. She never expected it to be, but she hated going into a situation blind. Everything she did was meticulously planned. Just like Thanksgiving.

  Oh God. That was tomorrow. She needed to be home prepping things.

  But at least they would have something to celebrate this year. Azarius was alive and they’d have another totem. Two, actually, since Azarius had the fox token.

  Her family would be in good spirits. There’d be no arguments at the table. Probably a lot of drinking, but her father and sisters were happy drunks. And it would be her first official holiday with Lucky. He already got along with her family, so that was no worry.

  A sudden jolt through her body snapped her out of her thoughts. There was another totem nearby. Trying to get a feel for it, she turned in a slow circle.

  “Shh.” Azarius held up a hand and cocked his head as he listened.

  Ametta frowned. She hadn’t been making any noise. But he must have felt it too. She had spent much of her time ignoring or pushing away the feeling of the other totems with Saskia and Ransom. She hadn’t honed her ability to focus in on one unless it was close.

  Azarius gestured to her to follow him as he wound his way between the trees. He moved with swift grace and with such silence, it made her feel like she was her father trying to walk in six inch heels.

  “Stay close,” he whispered as he leapt onto a log to a rock and back to the ground again.

  She would stay close if she had any skills in parkour, but she was running to keep up with him. The tug of the new totem grew stronger.

  The sound of water lapping against rock grew louder, and wind whistling through the branches added a chorus of creaks to her footsteps. So close. Her body tingled as she silently prayed the totem wouldn’t fly away.

  Azarius stopped, and she nearly ran into him. He stood motionless, staring at the section of forest in front of them.

  Ametta couldn’t see anything on her first glance, but doing another sweep, she spotted a bird nestled close to the trunk of a tree about thirty feet up. While it was dark, she could tell it was black. She didn’t even need to be able to see it to know it was a totem.

  A quick shifting of shadows near the base of the tree attracted her gaze. Then another to the right of it.

  She couldn’t see anything. All there was were… She pressed her lips hard together so she wouldn’t gasp out loud.

  Shadowmen.

  Drawn to the totem the same way she had been. Were they the same ones that she and her family fought in the parking garage earlier tonight? What was worse to think about was trying to guess how many of them were out in the woods. Shadows were everywhere, and the Shadowmen so easily hid within them.

  Ametta didn’t dare move. Her breaths came in shallow pants, afraid to even breathe.

  The raven didn’t fly away. It seemed to pay the Shadowmen no mind.

  Then she realized why. Darkness surrounded Azarius and her. If the creatures had visible eyes, she’d be able to see them boring into her. A few leaves kicked up as if with a breeze, but the quiet creeped her out. The temptation to scream just to make some noise was strong.

  She moved closer to Azarius. “What are we going to do?”

  He swung his head from side to side as the Shadowmen closed in on them.

  “We need to run. We need to get out of here!” Ametta had almost been taken by the Shadowmen once. She wasn’t going to let them have her again. She pulled on Azarius’ shoulder, trying to get some reaction out of him.

  What the fuck was he doing? Did he just want her as bait all along?

  Azarius flung his arms out to the sides, and the whole forest around them lit up as if it suddenly became day.

  She covered her eyes, blind for a few seconds. When she peeked out, squinting, she could see it was still night, but the tree were glowing like light bulbs. Not like the crappy ones her father bought, but the top of the line maximum wattage LED bulbs.

  The shadows around them were obliterated. Not all were gone. That would be impossible, but the area around the raven totem’s tree was as if a spotlight were shining down.

  “Oh my God. How did you do that?”

  Azarius snatched her wrist and pulled her along with him toward the totem’s tree. “The light won’t keep them away for more than a minute. Stay at the base of the tree while I fly up. Don’t move.”

  Yes, like she’d run off by herself into a forest full of Shadowmen. She spied several movements on the outside of the ring of light. More daring ones moved into the shadows closer. The silhouettes of their bodies so large, hulking like defense players on a football team.

  Pressing her back against the trunk, she glanced up as Azarius perched a few feet away from the raven. The powerful draw of the new totem had her wanting to climb up herself. Its presence pulsed through her chest, tremendous in its yearning. On a scale higher in intensity than the fox token.

  Raven was one of the original gods, wasn’t he? It would make sense the totem would be more powerful. And that bird made no indication it noticed Azarius.

  A blur out of the corner of her left eye made her jump. “Hurry up.”

  Wings flapped above her. She peered up to see the totem fly higher into the tree. Azarius followed.

  A black figure darted into the light and shot right at her. Ametta screamed and bolted around to the other side. Azarius dove down between the two of them and shifted, kicking the Shadowman in the chest hard enough to send him flying backward.

  Azarius swiftly turned to her and grabbed her arms. “Give me your token.”

  “What?” Her fingers dug into his forearms.

  “I need your token. If I had two, the raven will not be able to resist coming to me.”

  Several shadows swirled along the edge of light closest to them. The Shadowmen looked like they were gathering themselves for a bigger assault.

  What Azarius said made sense, but if the totem wanted to be taken, wouldn’t it have come to him already? And how did she give him her token? She had no idea how to remove her totem. And part of her didn’t want to. She was a token bearer. She’d been proven worthy.

  “Give me your token before it’s too late.” Azarius demanded through clenched teeth.

  “Mett!” A man shouted from her left, coming toward them at a fast trot.

  What the hell? It was her dad.

  Both Ametta and Azarius turned to see her dad sprinting around the trees toward them and into the light. His cheeks were flushed, and his chest heaved as if he’d run a long way.

  “Dad?” Was she imagining things?

  “Azarius?” Her father stopped a few feet away from them. Thick brows furrowed and his mouth was slightly open.

  Azarius went rigid beside her. “There is much to talk about, but not now. The raven totem sits waiting.” He looked back to Ametta. “Do as I ask.”

  “I’m not sure how. I didn’t even know it could come off.” Ametta released one of Azarius’ arms to reach for her father. “Dad, what are you doing here? How did you find us? The Shadowmen are all around and—”

  Azarius held her in place with his grip. “Kunik, help me convince your daughter to relinquish her token to me. I need it to fly up to the raven. It sits waiting to be reunited with the other totems.”

  Ametta yanked, but could not free herself of his hold. She swallowed a whimper as his grip became painful. Yes, she was as desperate as he to obtain the next totem, but she wasn’t going to run away. Besides, she’d run right into the waiting horde of Shadowmen.

  Her father tilted his head back to look up the tree. “What do you mean you need Mett’s token?” He lowered his chin and narrowed his eyes at Azarius’ necklace. “You have the fox.”

  The light started to fade from the trees farthest from them. The swarm of Shadowmen drew nearer as if biding their time.

  Ametta pulled her arm again. “We have t
o hurry.” She managed to reach and take her father’s hand with her free one. “I don’t know how to get the token off.”

  “Like summoning your clothes, except you’re shedding it,” Azarius instructed. His dark eyes shone with urgency.

  “You taught her how to summon clothes?” Her dad huffed. “Only Black Shamans—”

  “Ametta.” Azarius cut her father off.

  “Don’t. It isn’t how the totems work.” Her dad’s hands clenched, and suddenly he bellowed. “We’re over here!”

  The others were in the woods too? But how? Ametta removed her focus on the raven totem and Azarius’ fox, and there the other bearers were. Saskia and Ransom were nearby. That meant Lucky was here too. She’d been so intent on getting the new token she hadn’t paid any attention to the other totems.

  But no! “The Shadowmen!”

  “If they wanted us, they’d have gotten us already. This light trick only holds off the weaker ones. The Shadowmen are waiting for one of you to get the raven totem.” Her dad’s voice was even. He didn’t glance at Ametta. His jaw worked underneath his beard. Angry wasn’t a big enough word for when he did that. She only saw him do it once in her adult life, and it had been when she told him she was leaving Alaska and refused to be convinced otherwise.

  “Once I do get it, I can fly off.” Azarius made a fluttering gesture with his free hand.

  “You’d leave Mett to the mercy of the Shadowmen.” Her father’s lip curled up slightly, baring a glimpse of his teeth.

  What was going on? Azarius was helping them. He’d have to fly off to keep the tokens safe. If she gave over her token, then the Shadowmen would have no interest in her. She didn’t take them as the type to take hostages.

  “Dad, it’s okay. The Shadowmen won’t care about me if I don’t have what they want. Azarius has a safe place to protect the totems. He’s been helping us all along.”

  “Helping how?” Her father snorted. “By pretending he was dead? By leaving you for the enemy?”

  “He has his reasons.” Ametta wouldn’t back down from his anger. Her dad just didn’t know the full truth. More of the lighted trees dimmed. “And I’m sure he’ll tell all of us about it later, but right now, we need to get the raven totem.” It was time to focus. She had to believe the Shadowmen wouldn’t harm her if she didn’t have a token. They hadn’t hurt anyone else who wasn’t a bearer. She looked to Azarius. “So it’s like how you taught me to make clothes. Just imagine it, will it.”

  “Yes.” Azarius nodded.

  “No.” Her dad barked. “He taught you to make clothes, like a Black Shaman? He couldn’t. You can’t. You don’t have that sort of magic. He’s using you, Mett.”

  What was her father doing? Why was he acting this way? “Yes, I do. All shifters do. No one else could have made these clothes but me.”

  “He’s lying.” Her dad ripped her from Azarius’ hold and pushed her to the side partially behind him. She stumbled backward from the force of it.

  It happened in the matter of one breath. Her father shifted into his bear form and then was human again. Azarius stood with his legs braced and held a knife, which was buried in her father’s head from under his chin.

  A hundred years passed in the single moment. She could see the surprise in her father’s eyes, his hands reaching for Azarius but not quite far enough, and a puff of misty breath swirling out through his nostrils. Azarius with his lips pressed together, face hardened, and nothing in his dark eyes. No fury, regret, or sadness.

  Azarius whipped his arm back with the blade. Blood spurt out like in one of those horrible kung fu movies Lucky loved, and her father fell limp to the forest floor.

  Outside the circle of light somewhere, a bear roared. Another joined in. A strange musical bellow like wolves in mourning.

  Her dad…

  “Give me your token!” Azarius growled and snatched her by the front of her coat, shaking her.

  Ametta was vaguely aware he still held the knife. She couldn’t stop staring at the drops of blood splattered on his face. Her father’s blood.

  A bear’s roar shook the trees. Lucky?

  “I’m here to help you,” Azarius lowered his voice, softened it. “To help all shifters.”

  All shifters? He didn’t help her father. He killed him.

  Azarius murdered her dad.

  Ametta shifted and dove for his throat.

  Ametta had never trained to fight. It didn’t matter. Her heart would not allow Azarius to get away with killing her father.

  Her dad. Why didn’t she ever listen to him?

  Instead of meeting with a man brandishing a knife or even a large raven, she bashed heads with another polar bear. A bigger one. A male.

  Male polar bears were twice as big as their female counterparts, and oh God, this one was nearly three times her size. Never in her life had she been afraid of bears, but fear took a hold of her and clung tightly.

  Sedge? No. She’d know it if it was Bear.

  Ametta was thrown to the ground and pushed down with the weight of the beast. She could hardly breathe as he bellowed in her face and shook her. Spit splattered her fur, and she attempted to claw her way free. She trembled and flailed, panic stealing all sense.

  Where the hell did this bear come from? Where was Azarius?

  He whacked her in the head with a paw, and everything went fuzzy as pain flared in her skull. She kicked with her back legs, but he didn’t budge. She had to get away. No stopping. She’d fight until her last breath.

  With a growl, the bear raked his claws across her chest. He then drew his paw back and thrust it forward to dig into her. She cried out, writhing under him. Another attempt to bite him got her hit again.

  Whatever the bear was doing, he didn’t make a move to kill her. And he could do so, so very easily.

  She kicked again, and he sat his hindquarter down on her, fully pinning her.

  Hot blood flowed into her fur and trickled over her shoulder onto the ground. Was it her own she smelled or her father’s?

  She wouldn’t let him kill her. Fight no matter how many times he hit her.

  The ground rumbled as another bear roared and barreled toward them. Turning her head, she saw a huge mass of brown fur charge at the still bigger polar bear.

  Lucky!

  The weight of the other bear was gone from her, and her boyfriend crashed into the no longer glowing tree.

  Still on her back, her vision cleared to see a raven surging upwards. It flew above the tree and swooped down to the other bird still perched at the top. The totem. And the other was a totem too. No, Azarius.

  He was going to get away.

  The totem launched itself off the branch, and both birds circled each other. A perfect mirrored dance in the dark sky. Then they came together as if to embrace and merged. One absorbed the other, like an octopus squirting ink but in reverse.

  Lucky nudged her with his muzzle, urging her to get up.

  Two totems. One bird.

  Azarius had the raven token.

  But why would it do that? Why would it give itself to a murderer?

  “Mett!” Kinley’s call twitched in Ametta’s ears.

  Ametta rolled onto her side with the intent of getting up, but instead found herself staring at her dad’s body. His eyes stared upward at nothing, dark as the reflected night. Blood drenched his usually snowy white beard. She’d always hated the beard, but now, she’d give anything to wash that blood away, to have him alive and hugging her with those scratchy whiskers rubbing against her forehead.

  A sob wracked her body as she shifted back into a human. The last of the light vanished from the trees. Crawling on her hands and knees, she took one of his hands in hers and laid her head on her father’s chest. Fat tears spilled free as she screamed with her grief.

  A warm hand touched her back, and a muscled arm wrapped around her. Lucky didn’t pull her away, but knelt with her as she cried.

  “Mett!” Saskia hollered as she ran up. “Dad?”
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br />   A strangled noise came from her eldest sister as she fell to her knees on the other side of their father and nudged him, turning his head in her direction.

  Ametta held her breath, squeezing her eyes shut. Her dad had died protecting her. If she hadn’t argued with him, hadn’t sided with Azarius… She helped the man who killed her father.

  “Dad!” Saskia screeched and grabbed Ametta by the shoulders. “Who did this? Was it the Shadowmen? I’ll kill every fucking one of them!”

  The Shadowmen! Opening her eyes, Ametta’s gaze darted from left to right. Sedge came to stand behind Saskia, and Kinley hadn’t even made it to their dad’s body. She’d collapsed on the ground ten feet away and silently cried against Ransom. There was no one else. Nothing lurking in the shadows.

  “Who the fuck did this?” Saskia shook Ametta, aggressively enough that Lucky pulled Ametta away from her.

  Ametta hugged Lucky’s arm to her. Her voice grated as if she swallowed gravel. “Azarius. Azarius killed him.”

  Saskia lurched back as if the words burned her. “What the hell are you talking about? Don’t you dare—”

  “It was Azarius!” Ametta shouted with a sob. “He’s alive. The giant didn’t kill him. He rescued me from the Shadowmen, took me to a safe place, showed me he had the fox token. He said he needed me to help him, that the two of us could get the raven totem more safely out here.” She wiped at her eyes, but the tears wouldn’t stop. “Dad found us… Said Azarius was lying. And he was. Oh my fucking God, he was.”

  Lucky gently tugged her against him, surrounding her with his warmth. “He turned into a polar bear.” He shook his head. “I know how it sounds, but he went from a bear to a raven.”

  “And he got the totem.” Ametta spat out. It wasn’t right. It shouldn’t have gone to him.

  “No.” Saskia stood, holding her hands between her and Ametta, Lucky, and their father. “No, it wasn’t Azarius. Someone was pretending to be him. One of the hunters. They used skins like last time to change into different animals. Who says they can’t change into different people?”

  “It was Azarius.” Ametta repeated, the last thread of her sanity pulling tight.