Chapter 37 Danni
DANNI
I held myself tightly, rocking in place as sobs tore through my chest.
The cold was gone—the nightmarish woods, the monster, the horror—but I couldn’t stop shaking. My cheeks were soaked, my throat raw from crying. I didn’t even realize I was whispering his name over and over until I heard my voice break on a sob.
“Shadow, oh Shadow, please…”
And then, like a flare of light in the darkness, a thought struck me.
What if he’d gone back?
Not gone completely—just returned to where he came from. The place I’d first found him. The place he’d always been, watching and waiting and protecting me.
Under the bed.
The moment the idea hit me, I latched onto it like a drowning woman clutching a life preserver. It didn’t make sense—nothing made sense—but it felt possible. It felt right.
Maybe… just maybe…
I surged to my feet, nearly tripping on the hem of my long sweater. My legs were unsteady, but I didn’t care. I ran—stumbled, really—toward the cottage, the warm lights glowing in the windows like beacons of hope.
“Please be there, please be there,” I whispered, fumbling with the latch.
The front door creaked open…and slammed to a stop.
Something was blocking it.
I felt my way forward, squeezing in through the opening between the door and the jam, and saw boxes—so many boxes.
A mountain of packages, some stacked higher than my head, were teetering against the doorframe. I stared for a second, completely confused.
“What the…?”
There were dozens of them. All shapes and sizes—brown cardboard, cloth sacks, glittering bags tied with velvet ribbon—you name it, it was crammed into my little cottage.
The entire entryway had been transformed into a postal disaster zone, like some deranged magical driver had decided to dump every shipment for the next year right into my living room.
“Is this… from the Wishing Tree?” I gasped, remembering the list I’d read aloud.
Of course it was. Yarn, needles, looms, enchanted thread, crystal buttons, fairy scissors, shelving units, a little café espresso machine—every single thing I’d asked for had been delivered.
And I didn’t give a damn about any of it.
“Later,” I muttered, pushing my way through the chaos.
Boxes tumbled and thumped around me as I elbowed through them, weaving down the hallway.
Only one thing mattered now.
Only he mattered.
“Shadow?” I called, already running down the hallway toward the bedroom. “Shadow, are you here? Please be here.”
I burst through the doorway and skidded to a stop, my heart pounding in my ears.
The room was empty. The bed was made. Nothing was out of place.
I didn’t see him anywhere but even worse, I didn’t feel him—his warm, solid presence was nowhere to be found.
“No,” I whispered, my eyes already beginning to sting again.
I dropped to my knees and flung back the quilt, my hands trembling as I bent low, pressing my cheek to the floor and peering underneath.
“Shadow?” My voice cracked. “Are you there? Please—just say something. Show me your eyes, your claws—anything.”
But there was nothing—just dust bunnies and silence.
No glowing gold eyes. No massive dark shape with horns and velvet fur and that deep, soothing voice that made me feel so safe.
“Shadow!” I cried again, louder this time.
Still, there was no answer.
I shoved myself farther under the bed, ignoring the way my elbow scraped the wood floor, the way my knees ached from this angle. I called for him until my throat hurt.
But he wasn’t there…and he never would be again.
The truth hit me like a punch to the gut.
He was gone.
Gone—because he’d saved me. Gone because he’d loved me.
Gone because I hadn’t been strong enough to save him back.
Why hadn’t I tried some kind of magic? I didn’t know—I wasn’t even sure what I could have tried but the idea that it hadn’t even occurred to me to do anything but run, tore at my heart. What use was I as a witch if I couldn’t even save the one I loved?
A terrible, broken sound wrenched out of my chest and I collapsed fully onto the floor, curled halfway under the bed, sobbing so hard I thought my lungs might burst.
The monster under my bed—the one who had watched over me, protected me, and loved me was gone.
And I didn’t know how to live without him.