13

"There's not much information about it," Max said, flipping through pages like the answers were going to fall out in bold. "Everything I know, I've heard over the years. Word of mouth. Whispered stories. Nothing verified."

I ran a hand through my hair. My brain felt like a shaken snow globe, thoughts floating around with nowhere to land. "I don't even know what to say to any of this."

Max closed the book with a soft thump and looked up at me with that maddening little grin. "Try it again."

"Try what again?"

He gestured vaguely at the air, as if that explained anything. "The shadow thing. Erebus could travel, like, teleport, through the dark. Shadows were kind of his highway. Try doing it."

I stared at him. "Max, I don't know how to do shadow teleportation. That's not in my skillset. I barely passed P.E."

Max rolled his eyes and flopped into the nearest armchair like he was on a reality show judging my failure. "Well, I don't know either. I'm not an expert in this, okay? I'm just the hot vampire who found you."

"Oh my god," I muttered, rubbing my temples.

Still, the suggestion clung to me. Teleporting through shadows. Really? Was that even possible?

I looked over at the far end of the store, where the storeroom was cloaked in deep shadow, untouched by the flickering overhead lights. I took a breath and stepped closer to it, remembering the cold sensation from my room. The strange embrace. That feeling like something had opened up around me, accepted me.

"Okay," I said, mostly to myself. "Let's see how nuts this can get."

I closed my eyes and tried to think into the darkness. Like it was a place, not just an absence. I imagined my body unraveling into it, moving through it like smoke. Nothing happened.

Behind me, Max said helpfully, "Try pretending you're late for work and need to sneak out without being seen. That's how I teleport."

"Shut up, Max."

Ten minutes and three nosebleeds later, I still hadn't gone anywhere, but the shadows... they moved when I reached for them. Not just visually, I felt them shift. Like they were listening.

Maybe that was enough, for now.

Max tilted his head, watching me with open curiosity and something else I didn't want to name. "You know," he said slowly, "if Erebus really left something behind in you, we're not just poking at party tricks. We're messing with the blueprint of what darkness is. You might be more than just a spark of him, not as strong like him, like a literal God, but still powerful."

I glanced down at my hand again, wondering if it was still mine.

"Cool," I said faintly. "Love that for me."

Max smiled, and I hated how pretty he looked when he was smug. "You're doing great, darling. Soon you'll be teleporting, summoning shadow wolves, bending reality to your will."

"Wait, shadow wolves?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. I'm still translating this part."

Of course he was.

I don't know how long we kept trying. Max flipped through books like he was studying for a final he didn't care about, tossing me vague advice between page turns.

"Maybe try moving without thinking about moving," he said, lounging upside-down on the couch now. "Or imagine a version of you that's already where you want to go."

"Do you hear yourself?" I shot back. "That's not instruction, that's witchcraft Mad Libs."

But I tried. Again. And again.

I stood at the edge of the darkest corner in the store, by the broken lamp that never got fixed, and breathed deep. Everything in me was tense, pulled tight like string about to snap.

And then I let go.

I stopped forcing it. I stopped chasing it.

The cold rolled in again, and this time, I let it wrap around me.

There was a moment, just a second, where it felt like I blinked out of existence. Like my skin had turned to vapor. No sound, no sensation, just absence.

And then I was across the room.

Not ten feet away.

My heart dropped into my stomach.

"Max?" My voice came out thin, like I was underwater.

He sat up, his expression shifting from lazy amusement to stunned awe. "Holy shit, you actually did it."

"I—" I turned back toward where I'd been standing. "I didn't even feel myself move. I was just there... and then here."

Max stood, moving toward me, eyes scanning me like I might start glowing or burst into flames.

"That was shadowstep," he said. "Or something like it. That's not beginner-level, Stiles."

"I think I'm gonna puke."

"Yeah, that's fair."

But he was still smiling, and something about that made my skin crawl not because it was evil. Not because it was predatory.

Because it looked like pride.

Like he'd just watched a monster hatch from its egg, and he was so damn proud of it.

I staggered back a bit, suddenly too aware of the way the shadows in the corners of the room felt... closer. Like they were waiting for me to call them again.

"I didn't mean to do that," I whispered. "I wasn't even trying."

"That's what makes it scarier," Max said softly. "It means it's not just something you can do. It's something that wants to be done."

I turned away from him, staring at my hands, still tingling with cold.

"What am I?"

Max didn't answer right away. He stepped behind me, voice low and too close to my ear.

"Something new."