Untamed Fate (Magic Side: Wolf Bound Book 2)

by Veronica Douglas

  extinguished candles a thousand times before. Though the pain wasn’t all

  gone, my mind flickered with a momentary sliver of clarity, and my vision

  cleared.

  Fuck.

  Kahanov was almost on top of me—creeping silently forward with the

  knife out, guided by my moans and by the pull of my blood. But why sneak?

  It hit me like a flash.

  He doesn’t know I can see in the dark. He thought I was just hiding with

  my magic.

  That was an opening. Hope pounding in my chest, I let my cries of pain

  lure him in like a siren’s song.

  Looming over my whimpering body, he raised his hand and rammed the

  Soul Knife down. His fist slammed into my chest…but it was empty because

  I’d summoned the blade to mine.

  With a swift stroke, I drove the Soul Knife home, and Kahanov let out a

  blood-curdling shriek. I jerked it back to strike again, but the blade caught—

  not on flesh or bone, but on something deeper. Something primal.

  Kahanov’s soul.

  I twisted the blade and pulled with all my strength. His flesh cut easily,

  but his soul didn’t.

  As he screamed, I instinctively poured my magic into the knife. The

  shadows drained from the room and flowed as billowing tendrils of black

  smoke poured into the blade itself. My arm went deathly cold, and the

  sorcerer howled.

  And then his cry was cut short as his soul was severed, and the knife

  swung free.

  I rolled away and tried to stand, but before I found my footing, a spectral

  shockwave rammed me back against the wall. My vision blurred, and the

  vibrations shook my head. Then an unearthly wail ripped through my mind.

  The twisted form of a screaming face rushed toward me and dissipated

  into mist.

  I’d seen that face before, but where?

  The specter’s wail lingered in my mind like an echo in a canyon,

  repeating five words over and over: I will have my vengeance!

  My skin crawled with dread. What the hell was that? And what did it

  mean?

  Nothing good, my wolf said. Also, I don’t think we’re done here.

  Kahanov rolled over and gasped. “You bitch!”

  His voice was somehow different with traces of an accent that hadn’t

  been there before. Blood covered his chest and trickled from his mouth, and

  he began to crawl toward me like a deranged animal.

  I backpedaled and leveled the knife at the creep. “You should be dead. I

  cut out your soul!”

  “Not mine. Dragan’s. And now, thanks to you, I’m free of him and

  bleeding to death.”

  Dragan? Dragan. The twisted, screaming face. I had seen it before…in

  my aunt’s old clippings.

  But Dragan was dead.

  My mind reeled. I pulled my knife back, preparing to strike the moment

  he came near. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “The bastard’s ghost possessed me. Ironically, he was the one who

  needed you alive. I don’t.”

  None of this made any goddammed sense. “But…I just freed you!”

  “What would you have me do, then? Let you drag me back to Bentham?”

  He chuckled in the darkness. “Thank you, Savannah. You’ve been useful.

  And now, the only thing I need you to do is die.”

  With a freakish burst of speed, Kahanov—the real Kahanov—summoned

  the blade and charged toward the sound of my voice, lashing out recklessly

  like a rabid animal. Before I could call it back, the Soul Knife sank deep into

  my leg, and I gasped with pain. But at least it wasn’t the soul-wrenching

  agony from earlier.

  With a snarl, I twisted away, wrenching the hilt from his hand. Then I

  spun and rammed my elbow into his face and sent him flying back.

  Blood gushed from the wound in my thigh. Oh, shit.

  Kahanov staggered unsteadily on his feet and grinned with maniacal glee.

  He raised his hand. “Now this ends.”

  The blood still pouring from the knife wounds in my back and leg began

  to burn my skin. I looked down, and to my horror, the flowing rivulets began

  to writhe and take shape, bubbling and expanding until they had shifted from

  trickles of blood into a pair of crimson serpents.

  I yelped and staggered back as the two blood snakes wrapped around me.

  Panic clouding my thoughts, I tried to tear them away, but the serpents

  reared back and lashed out. One sank its fangs into my breast and the other

  into my back. Agony racked my body, and I stumbled into the wall.

  I seized the one on my chest. It wrapped around my hand, and then it

  struck my face with unbelievable speed. Pain shot through my right eye, and

  half my vision turned red.

  I stumbled to the ground in agony. My mind swam, and I couldn’t think.

  Embrace the pain, my wolf said as she suddenly seized control.

  She didn’t ease the transition but rather shifted in a single fell swoop.

  Fur sprang from my skin, and my back twisted. My jeans and sweater

  tore, and my face lengthened into a muzzle as my fangs erupted.

  Unimaginable anguish ripped through my body, and in the span of two

  breaths, I’d transformed from girl to monster.

  The snakes had lost their hold during the transformation. With lighting

  reflexes, my wolf clamped the larger serpent in our jaws and bit down. The

  snake’s head was severed, and its body exploded in a spray of red.

  Before the other snake could bite, my wolf dashed through the darkness.

  Even limping, she moved with utter silence.

  Kahanov spun around slowly, listening and searching the darkness of the

  cavern.

  As we crouched down, a pebble scrapped beneath our foot.

  The sorcerer’s head whipped toward us, and he unleashed a torrent of

  flame.

  But my wolf didn’t dodge it. With a howl of pain, we leapt through the

  inferno. Fur burning, we hurtled through the air and rammed our paws into

  Kahanov’s chest, slamming him down onto his back.

  He sank the Soul Knife into our belly, but my wolf ignored the pain. With

  a savage movement, she bit down on his throat.

  And tore.

  The metallic tang of blood coated our mouth, and I gagged as Kahanov’s

  body twitched and then went deathly still.

  My wolf rose, and we leaned against the wall, panting. It’s done. I can’t

  climb. Can’t take the knife. We need to shift.

  The horror of the moment was replaced by a new fear. Shifting will kill

  us! We’re bleeding out. We need to wait to heal, I said.

  My wolf weakly shook our head. We’re too hurt to heal. Have to risk it.

  Must find Jaxson, our mate. He can heal us.

  Our what?

  She didn’t wait to argue with me.

  Agony tore through me as the shift began. My back arched and popped,

  and I howled as every wound we had taken cried out in agony. My forelegs

  lengthened into arms and hands, and my bloodstained fur withdrew into my

  skin.

  Soon, I was human again, trembling and naked on my hands and knees. I

  had deep knife wounds in my gut and thigh and shoulder, but I still had my

  soul.

  The world spun, and I hauled myself to my feet with a root and looked at

  the body of the sorcerer. Kahanov…or Dragan. Both. The
y had died as they

  had lived—stained with blood.

  “Thank you,” I whispered to my wolf as hope and sorrow overwhelmed

  me.

  She whimpered. Find Jaxson. Nothing else matters.

  For a second, doubt chilled my skin, but I shoved it away. Jaxson was still

  alive. He had to be. I knew it somehow in my soul.

  The room rumbled, and dirt trickled from the ceiling. The place looked

  like it was going to cave in.

  I looked up at the dense cluster of roots at the top of the chamber—the

  way I’d fallen in. “How the hell do I get out of here?”

  You’re the monkey—climb, my wolf said weakly. Joy raced through my

  heart. She still had a little strength for snark.

  “Here goes nothing.” I grabbed hold of the roots, then began to haul

  myself up.

  I would never have been able to make the ascent without my claws and

  new werewolf strength. Even so, I was gravely wounded, and it took the last

  reserves of my strength to reach the top.

  Hundreds of thick roots blocked the way, so I summoned the knife and

  began to hack.

  Silent, unearthly screams echoed through my mind. The roots recoiled

  and slowly began to wither as I sliced through their flesh and souls.

  I buried my sudden guilt for the screaming roots and envisioned each as a

  blood-red snake. Teeth gritted against the pain and exhaustion, I hacked my

  way through with abandon, even as I felt the roots wrapping around my feet.

  We have to get to Jax.

  He was pulling me to him somehow, like I was tethered to him by an

  invisible thread wrapped around my chest.

  It was just the delirium of exhaustion, of course, but it gave me strength

  and dragged me onward all the same.

  47

  Jaxson

  “GIVE HER TO ME!” I roared as I ripped through root and stem.

  My battered, blood-slick hands could no longer grip, so I wrapped a long

  root around my forearm and pulled. My muscles strained as I braced against

  the rock wall, and then the thick root tore free as tendril after tendril ripped.

  I’d broken a passage through the roots where Savannah had disappeared,

  but the barricade of living roots kept shifting and growing back. We battled

  for every inch, each of us trying to tear the other apart—but I would be

  victorious.

  The mate bond pulled me downward like an anchor falling toward the

  ocean floor. She was so close. Weak, but alive. And she needed my help. I

  could feel it with every bone in my body.

  A tremor shook the cavern. It wasn’t the first, and I silently prayed to the

  gods that it wasn’t the last. The tremors were growing closer together, and the

  weak rock was unstable. I didn’t care. I had to reach her. Not because she

  was my mate, but because she was my responsibility—she’d trusted me, and

  I’d failed her.

  Lies.

  Desperation drove me forward with relentless fury, and I ripped and

  raged and tore until a patch of pale skin appeared between the roots.

  Savannah.

  She was bound and wrapped in roots, fully restrained and covered with

  blood with the Soul Knife clutched limply in her hand.

  The sight of her sent me into a frenzy. I seized the knife and began

  chopping away, but as soon as I severed some of the roots, they shifted, and

  she started to sink again.

  I grabbed her arm before she slipped out of sight, and her eyes shot open.

  “Jaxson…they’re pulling me back!” Her voice was weak and strained with

  pain.

  My chest rumbled, and I slashed through the great root that had wound

  itself around her waist. The tension on her body eased, and another tremor

  shook the cave. With one hand around her, I carefully sliced the remaining

  roots that had entangled her body and pulled her, cold and naked, from the

  knot.

  “You have the knife,” she murmured. Then she waved her hand, and it

  vanished from my grip. “No one should have that knife.” She wrapped her

  arms around my neck. “I almost made it to you.”

  “You did,” I growled as I lifted her up.

  The root-infested tunnel shook, and more rocks clattered down around us.

  Time to go.

  I turned and climbed up the tunnel with Savannah in my arms. My legs

  were exhausted, but the faint beat of her heart against my chest drove me

  forward, giving me strength.

  “I killed him,” she whispered, her words fading into almost nothing.

  “Your pack is safe…”

  “You did well,” I said softly as I pushed my way back up the tunnel.

  Tendrils and roots snaked around my arms and ankles as I lumbered up the

  slanted shaft, but I tore through. She was in my arms, and no force could stop

  me.

  At last, I burst forth into the dim cavern with the pond. “Jaxson!” Sam

  shouted from below a tree. “Time to go!”

  “Have you finished? Are they all free?” I braced myself as another

  earthquake shuddered the cave.

  “Yes!” Sam yelled. “Let’s get the fuck out of here!”

  With Savannah unconscious, I charged toward the exit as the chamber

  quaked and roots began to writhe along the walls.

  Sam pointed to the grimoire floating above the pond. “The book!”

  “No time, leave it!” I shouted over my shoulder. The only thing that

  mattered was getting Savannah and Sam out of there.

  We ran through the trembling tunnels as the roar of falling rubble echoed

  up the passageway from behind.

  I ran with all the strength I had.

  Neve found us in the first chamber of sleepers. “This cave won’t last

  long. I’ll planes-walk us out of here!”

  “No! The shift will kill Savannah. She’s too wounded. I need to heal her.

  Get Sam out!”

  “We’re not leaving you!” Sam shouted. “The entrance isn’t far!”

  We ran together through the crumbling paths as stone and sand rained

  down around us. Neve summoned a whirlwind ahead, keeping the debris off

  our heads and out of our way.

  At last, I saw the glimmer of daylight. I charged headlong out of the

  quaking tunnel and down the pebble-covered beach.

  The tunnel roared as the sound of collapsing earth followed me out.

  I dropped to my knees in the ocean and laid Savannah’s body in the

  shallows. Plumes of red clouded the water. She had so many wounds—cuts,

  lacerations, fang marks. She was a new wolf, and her healing powers weren’t

  yet as they needed to be. But she was as strong as she needed to be, and still

  hanging on by a thread.

  My stomach quaked and my arms trembled as I summoned the power of

  our mate bond. I was drained, but the touch of her skin gave me strength.

  I poured all I had left into her.

  48

  Savannah

  Ecstasy coursed through my body like a wave breaking against the shore.

  It was fire in my veins and ice burning my skin. It was pain and pleasure and

  absolutely unrelenting.

  I gasped and arched my back as Jaxson’s magic surged along my spine,

  and my eyes sprang wide.

  The world was radiant.

  Every color was new and more than my eyes could handle. I could feel

  the infinite blue
of the sky and taste the golden sunlight beating down on my

  bare skin.

  I was in his arms.

  Where his flesh began and mine ended, I didn’t know. But I felt every

  one of his heartbeats thundering through the world around me.

  “You’re alive,” Jaxson’s voice rumbled, and my blood surged.

  I reached up and brought my fingers along the edge of his jaw, his beard

  prickling my fingertips. “More than ever.”

  I slid my arms around his shoulders and pulled myself to his lips. We

  flowed together like the rolling waves, and when his fingers caressed my bare

  skin, it felt like a rising dawn. His taste, his kiss, and his passion were

  everything, and my body was blind to any sensation that wasn’t him.

  I’d never been more alive.

  But amid the bliss, a moment of clarity cut through my mind, followed by

  a flood of memories and fear. I sat up straight. “Where am I?”

  “Safe. On the beach.”

  The ocean stretched infinitely into the distance and rolled softly along the

  shallow shore. Clouds raced through the sky high above, though the wind

  along the coast was nearly still.

  I was naked in Jaxson’s arms, but I didn’t care. We’d just shared

  something that went beyond bodies. Something deeper, something magical.

  I pulled myself closer and kissed him again, then twisted so that I could

  see behind us.

  The entrance to the Dreamlands beneath the strange tree was gone,

  replaced by only a collapsed, dead-end cave.

  I bit my lips. “The sorcerer…”

  “You killed him.”

  Had I? It was hard to believe, and doubt gnawed at me. What about

  Dragan? The image of his ghostly face haunted me. I’d have to tell Jaxson

  what had happened, but exhaustion weighed me down. I turned my eyes to

  Jaxson’s. “And the sleepers?”

  He brushed my hair. “We freed them. They’re all safe, thanks to you.”

  My heartbeat slowly began to accelerate. Memories surfaced, and my

  breath caught. “But you weren’t going to save them—you were going to save

  me. Kahanov…he said you didn’t have a choice. That you’d let them die to

  protect me. Had to. What did he mean?”

  Jaxson looked out over the ocean, and I felt his trepidation.

  I grabbed a handful of his tattered shirt. “What did he mean, Jaxson?

  There’s something you’re not telling me.”