I gave Emily an apologetic smile on behalf of my friend. “I know you’ve been through an ordeal, but could you tell us the information you gave the mage?”
The witch stood. “I am afraid I cannot offer much. I told him everything I knew, and it was far less than he was pleased with.” Emily took a deep breath. “You will need to find a man by the name of Lor.”
I ran the name through my mind, though of course it didn’t sound familiar. The wind blew sharply outside and brought with it the remembrance of how chilled I still felt. The tea in front of me swirled with steam, warm and inviting, despite the length it had been sitting untouched. I reached for it, but Kael leaned down to snatch my wrist.
Miffed, I threw him a look of exasperation, but his gaze was locked on Emily. He pulled me up to stand beside him before I could protest.
Kael didn’t release my wrist as he spoke to the witch. “What sort of being is this Lor?”
“A warlock.”
My partner scowled, and that look of detestation hurt me. How could he dislike all magical beings so much, when I was now one of them myself?
“Do you know anything of the key?” I asked, hoping to get answers before Kael did anything else rude. “Why would Vehrin want it?”
Emily shook her head. “I know nothing, only that if it were to fall in the wrong hands, it would be disastrous.” She frowned, guilt flashing over her sullen features. A deep breath rocked her frame, and I pitied her so much, I wanted to wrap my arms around her and hug her. Suddenly, she looked up. “Although…”
She trailed off and narrowed her eyes at the keys on my chest.
I pulled my wrist from Kael’s grip. “What is it?”
“If it isn’t too much trouble, may I have a closer look?” Emily offered a fraction of a smile. “Perhaps it could help me discern why the mage would want the third key.”
I nodded, and she walked around the edge of the coffee table to stand before me. For the longest moment, she stared, and I held my breath. When Emily finally spoke again, her words were not what I was expecting.
Her eyes lifted to mine, and the ice in them made my heart lurch. “He took something from me.”
Kael put an arm between myself and the witch and swept me back a few steps.
The atmosphere in the room had shifted. No longer did it feel like a cozy refuge from a winter storm. It felt like a trap. Like a prison.
I glanced at the tea cups, still steaming, still impossibly inviting. I wondered then if they were poisoned.
“What did he take?” My voice was calm, despite the unease unfurling in my gut.
Emily glanced over her shoulder. “My Baron.”
I followed her gaze to the corner of the room. A perch sat there that I hadn’t noticed before. It was clearly for a bird, and a few ebony feathers sat on the floor beneath it.
“Her familiar,” Kael said. His eyebrows were knit in concentration, golden-brown eyes sharp. His feet had drifted slightly apart, and I recognized the stance as one ready for attack.
Thankfully, my knowledge of the supernatural was well enough to understand what a familiar was, and meant, to witches. Usually in the form of animals, they were like domestic companions that often held their own magic and served as spies and helpers to the witch with whom they were bonded.
“I am so sorry.” I wasn’t really certain what else to say.
Emily seemed not to have heard me. She was staring at the keys again. She pointed. “There is power in that key.”
I pulled in a deep breath. She was pointing at the first key, the one I had plucked from the Amazon. The one bound to my soul.
“It holds the same power as you, and more.” Emily’s cold gaze bore into mine. “There is something dark and dangerous there. Something that you now have, as well. You are soul-bound to it.”
A plank on the wooden floor creaked slightly as Kael inched a bit more in front of me.
Emily’s nostrils flared. “With that magic, I would never be defeated again. I can take back what the mage stole from me. I could bring Baron home again.”
“Why would Vehrin take your bird in the first place?” Kael asked.
The witch’s fingers twitched at her side. “He said there would be those following him, searching for him. He said he would give Baron back if…if...”
My pulse began to quicken. “If what?”
Kael nudged me back a bit. “Olivia.”
The witch’s lips quirked. I couldn’t tell if she were holding back from crying or sneering.
“If I killed you.”
The fire snuffed out, and the cabin grew so cold it was as if every shred of warmth had suddenly been sucked out. The walls groaned, and the ceiling shuddered. Kael reached for the pistol on his side, but as soon as he held it up, frost quickly crawled over it. He dropped it with a hiss, and I noticed red on his hand, as if he had been suddenly frostbitten.
“Now, Olivia.”
Now what? I glanced at him, and he jerked his head toward her.
Understanding broke through to me as the cabin continued to shudder around us. My magic. I could attack her, kill her before she killed us. It uncoiled inside of me, that power. Eager, ready for blood.
I held my hand up and stared at Emily’s face.
Her forehead was creased and jaw tight with clenched teeth, but tears ran down her cheeks. I hesitated.
“Olivia!”
I tried to force myself to unleash my magic on her. I had to. We could be killed. Instead, I just stood there and wondered at her tears of loss.
“Damn it, Olivia, now!”
I pulled in a shuddering breath, and it blew back out into a scream. Something rushed forward from the witch and punched me in the stomach. I stumbled back so hard, I slammed into the closed door. Kael was suddenly there. He wrenched it open and tugged me through it. I could hardly catch up to what was going on as he pulled the door closed with one hand and shoved me toward the snow with the other.
“Don’t just stand there,” he barked. “Run!”
I started through the snow and back toward the forest in what I hoped was the direction we had come. I had only gone several steps when I halted, Kael nearly bowling me over in the process. Several loud and broken howls pierced through the trees ahead. The sound traced a chill down my neck.
Wolves stepped from the trees, all white and shimmery, as if they had been pulled from the very snow they walked through. Their eyes were the same ice as the crows had been. These were no shifters. These were from the witch.
“This way.” I swiveled. I grabbed a hold of Kael’s arm and urged him through the blanket of white.
Running through the deep snow was difficult. A hurried peek over my shoulder showed the wolves were gaining on us quickly. I had no idea where Emily had gone, but as we darted past her cabin, I was certain I saw her silhouette in the window.
Howls pierced through the frigid air again. The wolves, all cold and winter fury, pursued us with unbridled vengeance. I couldn’t help but feel like a fox dashing for her life from the blood-thirsty hounds.
I had assumed the forest continued behind the witch’s cabin, and we could at least attempt to break up the wolves’ pursuit. We rushed as quickly as we could into the forest, but after several steps, the trees fell away to reveal a deep slope of the mountainside.
There was so much snow clinging to the surface, it was difficult to tell where there may be sudden drop-offs or sharp rocks to break our bones.
Emily’s wolves had reached the trees. It was either risk the climb down, or be torn apart.
A shredding noise beside me alerted me that Kael had torn through the fabric of his clothing. His jaguar now stood in the snow.
No matter how many times I had seen this form, I could never get over the beauty and raw power of it. His sides heaved with deep breaths, the pattern of dark spots across his golden-yellow fur shifting with the movement.
Kael let out a vicious snarl. If I had been one of those wolves, I would have halted at the ferocious and heart-hammerin
g sound, but they didn’t falter a step.
My partner backed toward the slope, keeping his eye on the oncoming attackers, and I started picking my way down as quickly as I could without breaking an ankle. My hand clenched onto the fur of his shoulder as I turned to find the wolves had reached the top.
A gasp flew up my throat as something gave way beneath me, and I slipped. Kael turned toward me as I tried to keep my footing, but I pitched forward and tumbled through the snow.
The mountain rolled me down her face, beating me from every side. Finally, I managed to halt my momentum. I whirled around and caught sight of Kael as the wolves descended on him.
One lurched into his side, and his pained snarl split the air. Another latched onto a hind leg, tugging, pulling him down. They were going to tear him apart.
Anger burned hot through me. The cold snow around my feet and the unforgiving mountain face fell away as magic seared up through my veins. I flung a powerful attack at the wolves and hit my mark. The one on Kael’s leg yelped, twitched violently, then fell to its side, but the other wolves didn’t stop. If anything, they tore at Kael with more fervor.
“Kael!” I struggled up through the snow, ready to launch another attack.
A massive rumbling reached me. My gaze lifted from Kael, upward.
It took me a moment to realize it wasn’t a cloud rolling toward us.
It was an avalanche.
There was no time to warn him, to call out his name again. I hardly drew a breath when he was overtaken. I turned, some frenzied part of my mind telling me that I could outrun it.
A wall slammed into me, pushing out every breath of air from my lungs, and I pitched forward into darkness.
Chapter 6
A strained gasp sucked in past my lips, and my eyes flew open. There was nothing but darkness. I tried to get up and see where I was, but I couldn’t move.
My heart raced. Where was I? Why couldn’t I move? It was difficult to string my thoughts together, but eventually everything clicked together in my jumbled mind.
The avalanche.
I was buried under who knew how many feet of snow.
It was difficult, but I was able to wiggle just a bit to tilt my head in an attempt to look around. There was no way of telling which way was up. Even if I could eventually start digging, I could very well end up tunneling in the wrong direction.
I huffed out a sigh and shifted my weight around to try and shove some of the heavy snow farther away and give myself room. The air was already beginning to grow thin. If I didn’t hurry, I could suffocate.
Just as I was able to make enough room to start clawing at the snow with my fingers, I heard something.
I paused. It was muffled, and difficult to judge the distance, but it was a crunching noise. Footsteps.
Kael was looking for me.
I yelled for him as loud as I could. The footsteps quickened. I could make out the sound of snow being pushed away. Slowly, the darkness receded and the light around me grew grayer.
Finally, I squinted as snow fell on my face and the sky broke open before me. My eyes grew wide. Kael wasn’t my rescuer.
Renathe?
I blinked a few times to assure myself he wasn’t an illusion. I had forgotten how unearthly beautiful he was until that moment. What was the owner of the Pinnacle nightclub doing here, on a mountainside in Colorado? How did he find me? Why had he been searching me out?
“I feel like a popsicle.” That wasn’t what I’d meant to say. My brain still felt as if it were churning.
Ren let out a soft laugh from where he was crouched beside me. “A popsicle?”
“Yeah. Stiff. Cold.”
“Lickable?” A devilish grin spread across Ren’s face, and the shots of silver in his unusual teal eyes seemed to sparkle.
Even as the embodiment of a frozen treat, I could scowl.
Ren chuckled again and started scooping aside handfuls of snow. “Let’s get you out of there.” I groaned as I wiggled free. I was going to be sore for a while, but I didn’t think anything was broken.
“Apologies, Olivia. I hadn’t meant for it to be quite that effective.”
Brushing snow from myself, I said, “What do you mean?”
The fae man gestured around to the snow as if it were obvious.
It took me a moment before it clicked. “You caused the avalanche? Why?”
“To help you, of course. Those wolves were already tearing into your shifter and―”
I gasped and whipped my head to peer farther up the mountainside. Kael!
There he was, already free of the snow and bounding toward me. It didn’t take him long to reach us. He snarled and swiped sharp claws at Renathe, who looked annoyed but scooted back a few feet.
Kael stared at Ren for a few seconds longer with his lips pulled up to reveal his teeth before he turned to me.
“You’re okay,” I said, my voice trembling.
Give or take a few scratches and bites that stained his spotted fur red, he didn’t seem too injured considering he’d been fighting off a pack of magic-wrought wolves.
He let out a soft huff and closed his eyes. He bumped his head against mine. At first, I was shocked at his closeness, but then relief lifted my arms. I ran my hands down the side of his neck, then wrapped my arms around him. He curled his neck around mine and hung his head over my shoulder, as if he were returning the embrace.
“Oh God, Kael. You’re so warm.”
How could he be so warm after being covered in snow? I wanted to cling to his fur forever, but he pulled back. Though he was in his jaguar form, I could see the concern in his golden eyes.
“I’m fine.” I pulled my bag around, thinking it was a miracle I still had it across my shoulder, and pulled out a spare set of clothes for him.
While he shifted back and changed, I turned to Ren. “What are you doing here?”
He had settled cross-legged, watching me with amusement and looking perfectly at ease in the snow and sharp wind. “I was curious as to why you were suddenly running off to Colorado.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I didn’t tell you where I was going.” Ren could be a bit invasive at times, mostly, I think, because he saw me as some sort of magical mystery to figure out. At the moment, he was giving me stalker vibes. “How did you know where I was?”
As an answer, he reached down and took my hand. He pushed my sleeve back a bit to reveal a bracelet. A small, crystal charm in the shape of a snowflake dangled from it. He had given me the charm on the date he had gotten out of me on our bargain. Ren touched the charm with a sly grin.
Connecting the dots came quickly. “You—” I had to fight to get the words out, I was so angry “―you’re tracking me? What the hell, Ren!”
Oh, I was definitely getting major stalker vibes. Who did he think he was?
“I have my reasons.” He was so calm and blasé. It was irritating.
Kael was suddenly at my shoulder, clothed and in his human form again. “You had no right.” His voice was so rough it was nearly a growl.
Ren’s face went hard, and his eyes narrowed. “I have every right. The mage is not only a threat to you, but to my kind, as well. Already his presence is beginning to affect us. Olivia is the only one who will be able to find and stop him. Of course I am keeping track of her. And it’s a good thing I was, or you’d both be dead!”
His words were harsh and made me feel a bit like a bloodhound sent to chase out rabbits, but I understood. He was worried about his fellow fae, just as I wanted to save all of humanity from the mage.
I stood. “Well, you still could have told me instead of being sneaky about it.”
Ren laughed and pointed at his chest. “Fae, remember?”
I rolled my eyes. “How did you get here so fast, anyway?”
“Private jet.”
Private jet. Giving gifts of crystal charms. Collecting rare vehicles. There was no way Ren made that much money from his night club. He had to have some family money, or was a lottery wi
nner or something.
I glanced up the mountain, half-expecting another attack of wolves or crows to come bearing down on us. Had the witch given up? I certainly hoped so. “We should get out of here.”
“I agree,” Kael said. “But where do we go?”
I thought back to our conversation with Emily in the cabin. She had said to find a man by the name of Lor, and not just any man. A warlock.
“We have to find Lor.”
Ren brushed snow from his pants, then peered at me. “The warlock?”
My eyes widened. “You know him?”
“I make it my business to know of all powerful, magical beings.”
This all seemed too convenient to me. What were the chances that he knew the man the mage was going after next? How had Ren found me so quickly? Either he was more invested in stopping the mage than I had first believed, or he was on the wrong side.
I would wait, though. The idea that Ren, who I considered a friend, may just be working with the mage, made me a bit too uneasy to accept as truth without evidence.
Ren straightened his jacket as the silence stretched on. I really hoped he wasn’t going to ask for another bargain for this information. Finally, he dug into his pocket and pulled out a phone. He quickly tapped a message, and my cell buzzed inside my bag.
“His location,” Ren said.
I pulled out my phone and clicked the text.
Chicago?
My team member and friend, Sarah, was from Chicago. While we all worked for Elizabeth Andrews at Yale, we didn’t all live in the area. Our dig team was from all over the world, but sometimes we met up outside of digs, too. I’d visited Sarah in her hometown a couple of times, and I didn’t hear the word Chicago without immediately thinking of her.
But now, thinking of her also made me think of the dig she was on in India, and a wistful sigh escaped me.
“Thinking of some deep-dish pizza?” Kael asked.
The mention of food made my stomach growl. I didn’t want to let on that I was moping about not being on an archaeological dig, so I just nodded.
Making our way down the mountain was difficult, especially since Ren had blanketed the rocky outcrops and cliffs in deep snow. The fae went first, with all the ease of a man taking a Sunday afternoon stroll through the park. Kael went next, telling me it was safer that way in case Ren missed a drop or jagged rock.
The Hunted Soul Page 4