Shade (The Sanctuary)

One

Diego

The day I lost my sight was the best and worst day of my life.

Of all my regrets in life, losing my sight didn't even reach the top five.

I'd never been afraid of the dark, maybe because I knew real monsters could be anywhere and didn't need to hide in the shadows.

But mostly, mostly I liked the dark because of him . He'd always made the dark a safe, cozy space for me.

Side-stepping footsteps that had been on a collision course with me—seriously, sometimes seeing people acted blinder than I was—I continued down the sidewalk, enjoying the warmth of the sun against my skin.

I liked being in bright places, because at least then I could see where I was going, though all I actually saw was darker blobs moving all around me.

Sometimes, I got this feeling that I couldn't quite explain, like something was pulling at me, telling me to follow it so it could take me wherever it wanted to.

A few times, listening to it had saved me from falling, getting into an accident, or just getting injured, and I liked to think of it as my guardian angel.

Most days, the feeling was just a soft hum at the back of my consciousness, but recently, it'd gotten stronger, more insistent.

I'd been ignoring it for a few weeks now, but I woke up feeling particularly adventurous today, so I'd decided to find out where it was trying to take me.

It led me toward Sanctum of Geeks , a comic book store I visited frequently.

While I couldn't actually read the comics, I'd become good friends with the man who ran the place, Liam.

He was a sweet man, a bit of a gentle giant, and he always helped me purchase audiobooks on my phone because the app didn't work well with the voice commands.

I burned through them pretty quickly since I had a lot of free time, but he was always happy to help me buy more, even though it didn't benefit him in any way.

Liam had recently found a boyfriend, a man who seemed to adore him, and while I was delighted for my friend, I also felt just a little envious of him.

The tug I'd been following led me past the comic book store, and I wondered if Liam was inside, if he'd seen me. When I didn't hear him call out, I guessed he hadn't.

I'd walked for a few minutes longer before the awareness started pulling me backward, and I realized I'd walked past the place it was trying to take me .

This was crazy, wasn't it? I could be imagining the whole thing, and it was going to lead me to nowhere. Or worse yet, it might lead me somewhere I could get stuck or hurt. Not that it had ever done that before...

I knew people said that losing one sense made the others better, but this tug I felt, it was nothing like that.

It wasn't an instinct or some sixth sense.

It didn't feel like a part of me, but it still felt like it was mine.

I'd never told anyone about it, mostly because I'd assumed they'd think I was crazy.

I paused as the toe of my shoe hit something, and I realized there were stairs in front of me. I had to make a decision. Did I follow this strange feeling to wherever it was trying to lead me, or did I turn back around?

"A la mierda," I muttered to myself, then tapped my cane in front of me, checking the height and width of the stairs so I wouldn't trip. This area was shadowed, which meant I could see absolutely nothing.

I quickly climbed up the stairs, and I pressed my hands against the door since the porch wasn't too big.

They were wide, wooden double doors, and felt old, with carved designs in the front that I would need more time than I was willing to spend standing here to figure out.

There was also something else, a strange buzz that tingled between my skin and the wood, as if there was something there.

Shaking my head, I searched for the handle, and then pushed, blinking when the door opened far too easily for the heavy wood I'd thought it was. Maybe I was mistaken? It could be one of those fiber things that just felt like wood.

I stepped inside, and the buzz I'd felt before thickened considerably, pressing into me from all sides. But then I felt that thing, the feeling that had brought me here, and the buzz receded, as if it'd gotten whatever it was looking for .

There were no sounds around me except the clack-clack of my cane, my footsteps, and my own breathing. The world was rarely ever this silent, and even the door swinging shut behind me barely made a sound. What was this place?

The pull was still there, and I followed it down what felt like a hallway. There was some light here, but not enough for me to see.

I jerked to a halt when that feeling insisted, and reached out.

My fingers brushed against a flat surface, but it didn't feel like a wall.

I searched around, then found a plaque of some sorts.

It had raised letters on it, and I ran my finger over them, mumbling the letters to myself until I'd spelled the whole thing out. Darkness.

Curious, I searched for the doorknob and turned it, pushing the door open. The tug I'd followed here felt excited, pulling me insistently through the doorway.

Hoping I wasn't walking right into a serial killer's lair but too curious not to, I stepped inside, and the door slid shut behind me. Searching with my cane, I found another a few feet in front of me. My brows furrowed. Why were there two doors with nothing between them?

I opened the second door and stepped through, my confusion mounting. This place wasn't silent like the hallway had been. Instead, I could hear faint piano music coming from somewhere, and the scent of grass and flowers seemed to fill the air. Where exactly was I?

"Uh, hello. I don't think I've seen you around before," a warm, cheerful voice said as he approached me, and something about his voice sounded strangely familiar.

The tug I'd followed was gone, as if it'd accomplished what it'd been trying to do for days now. Was this where it'd been leading me? To this man ?

"Uh..."

"Are you a new resident?" he asked, then paused. I got the distinct feeling he was examining me. "You look human."

I sucked in a breath, and a wave of shock ran through me as I realized why that voice sounded so familiar. Only he could say the word human with such a strange mix of fondness and exasperation, as if humans were nothing but a bunch of troublemaking children and yet he couldn't help but love them.

It'd been around eighteen years since I last heard that voice, and yet I was sure. It had to be him.

Unable to hide the tremble in my voice, I stepped forward, closing some of the distance between us as I reached for him, my hand unsteady. "Shade?"

Shade

I blinked, surprised the human knew my name. The way he was behaving... how did he know me?

"Ah, yes? Have we met before?" I asked carefully, and his hand dropped, his eyes falling to the floor. There was something about his eyes, something that'd caught my attention. Not that he was blind, but something...familiar.

"Oh, you don't remember me," he murmured in a tone that implied it should've been obvious to him that I wouldn't.

I gave him a second look, taking in everything from his dark, wavy hair to his hazel eyes, his dark skin, his slim body. He had to be in his early twenties, if that, and he was beautiful. Like a fae prince.

The comparison reminded me of another person I'd once thought of as a prince, a child with dark, curly hair and the happiest brown-and-gold eyes .

"Diego?" I asked, the name blurting out of my mouth the moment I made the connection, and he smiled instantly, his head shooting up as his eyes landed on my chest.

"It's me. I can't believe it's really you! After all these years..." he said, then shook his head, and I stepped forward, reaching out to take his hand.

"What happened?" I asked, rubbing a thumb over his knuckles, and he shuddered under my touch, making me pull back.

He reached out, as if to grab me, then lowered his hand. "You know what happened. You were there," he murmured, and my stomach dropped.

Before I could say anything, I heard the outer door to my area open, and I reacted without a thought.

"Shhh, stay quiet, okay?" I murmured, moving Diego near a wall and then covering him with shadows so whoever was coming wouldn't see him.

The inner door opened, and Touya poked his head inside. He was also a human, and mated to one of the Sanctuary's residents, a half-troll named Silas.

While I'd moved to the Sanctuary—a pocket dimension that homed supes who couldn't live among the humans, created and run by a sorcerer named Zephyr Morrigan—around twenty years ago, Touya had moved here very recently, and worked as the headmaster's—the moniker everyone used to address Zephyr—assistant and manager of the whole Sanctuary.

"Hey, Shade. Can I come in for a moment?"

"Of course! Everything okay?"

Touya stepped fully into the room, closing it behind himself.

The door—and the short hallway between the outer and inner doors—kept any light from falling into my area.

I was a shadow being, and any form of light falling directly on me caused me unimaginable pain, which was why I lived in a place completely devoid of light.

The only way I could ever go out without getting hurt was traveling through shadows or in someone's shadow.

"Zephyr felt the door open, and his wards told him it was you passing through, so he wanted me to check in," Touya said, and my brow wrinkled. I hadn't left my area in days. Was his magic glitching again?

My eyes slid to Diego, and I pursed my lips. Could it have been him? But why would he feel like me? Unless...

"Oh, yeah. I thought I'd go out, so I went outside through the shadows, but then I changed my mind and came back."

Touya tilted his head, and I got the feeling he didn't believe me. I tried to look as earnest as possible, but it wasn't much use since he couldn't actually see me in the dark.

"Oh, okay. Zephyr was worried something was wrong, so that's good."

"It is," I agreed wholeheartedly, and hoped he would leave soon. I wanted to talk to Diego, and for some reason, I didn't want the others to know about him just yet.

It wasn't like I thought they'd kick him out or something.

Zephyr Morrigan, the "Headmaster" and creator of The Sanctuary, didn't strictly prohibit humans from the sanctuary.

After all, four of the residents already had human mates.

And now that I knew Diego was blind, I was pretty sure he was the man Liam had told me about, which meant I wasn't the only friend Diego had here.

Liam was a human who'd recently joined our family as a mate to one of the Forest residents, and he owned a comic book store that Diego frequented .

"Okay, well, I have to get back to work. I'll ask Zephyr to give the door a look anyway. Can't be too careful, right? I'll let you get back to...whatever you were doing."

"Reading," I promptly supplied, making him shake his head.

"Your eyesight must be something else to be able to read in the complete dark," he said with a shake of his head, and I chuckled.

Touya left, and I relaxed a little before walking over to Diego. I removed the shadows that covered him, and took his hand in mine, leading him to one of my many sitting areas.

"There's a couch right behind you, one step," I directed, and he nodded before taking a seat. I sat down right beside him, then took his hand in mine.

I wanted to ask him what he'd meant about me being there. The last time I'd seen him, he'd still had his sight. Then again, the very last time I saw him, he'd been unconscious. Had that blow to his head caused his blindness? Was I responsible for this?

But I had a more pressing question, and it was what came out when I opened my mouth. "How did you find me?"

Diego turned his head to face me, a small smile on his lips as he shrugged.

"I didn't, not exactly. Ever since I lost my sight, I've had this.

..feeling. It tells me where to step or when to stop, and it's saved my life more than once.

It's like a guide dog in some ways, but it's just a feeling, not anything physical.

But recently, it started pulling me somewhere.

I ignored it at first, but today I decided to follow it, and it led me to you. "

Was he saying he'd gotten some kind of supernatural sixth sense when he lost his eyesight? I thought that only happened in Liam's comics.

As I stared at him, I realized there was something there.

Peering deeper, I sucked in a breath when I saw my own shadows mixed in with his flesh and blood.

Had I somehow 'infected' him with them when I used my shadows to get him to the hospital that day years ago?

Or had I unconsciously given them to him in an attempt to keep him safe, like he said they had?

In all my years, I'd only ever done something like this once before, and that had been with a cat I'd saved. She'd gotten the ability to travel through shadows from me, but it'd been different for Diego. Different, but no less wonderful, because it'd led him back to me.