by Leia Stone
She grinned. ‘That’s cool. I’ve never done that without being in wolf form.’
A smile pulled at my lips. ‘Welcome to the pack.’
Marmal was next. She extended her arm timidly; she didn’t know me as well as Sage did, and she sure as hell didn’t know wolf ways, yet still she trusted me. After drawing blood, I claimed her and her consciousness surged with mine. There was a frantic panic in her energy and her eyes widened.
She clutched her chest. “I feel you.”
I nodded. ‘I feel you too. You’re family now. Pack,’ I finished with a smile, slipping the cuff back on my wrist.
Her mouth opened and closed a few times, like a fish out of water, and then a single tear slipped from her eye. I shouldn’t have pressed her but I did; I pushed into her emotions just a tiny bit to see what was wrong, and then tears were lining my eyes as well.
She wasn’t alone anymore. Her sister had died in the farm fires last year, and she hadn’t realized how lonely she was until this moment that she felt our bond.
I reached out and pulled her in for a hug, in which Sage had to lean over and clutch on to Pearl and out of our way.
‘You’re with us now,’ I told her.
‘Happy to be so,’ she responded.
We all flew in reflective silence for the next twenty minutes when the cluster of buildings signaling downtown Magic City, the capital of Light Fey City, rose up into view.
It was stunning. A giant river ran right down the center of the city, spanned by a huge bridge so that cars could go to each side. The river was almost like a lake it was so wide. As we flew closer, I noticed there in the very center of the wide rushing river was the tallest building in the entire city.
Magic City Prison.
There was probably a hundred feet of water on either side of the island, with boat docks and canoes moored on the shores. The city bustled around the island prison as if it didn’t exist, cars zipping in and out of traffic, fey walking and laughing as they dressed in their finest suits. It was like a magical Manhattan.
‘Have her set down over there. We need to go over the gameplan,’ I told Marmal, pointing to the thick trees that butted up against the river’s edge. It looked like some type of parking or hiking trail. It was like they’d cut a city right out of the forest but kept as much nature as possible. I’d never seen so many fey in one place. There were very few in my time at Delphi and they kept to themselves. The way they walked, so lithe and graceful, was almost hypnotic.
Pearl lowered us onto a grassy patch deep within the park, and I dismounted as I stepped out of her invisible shield. We were alone for now, but I pulled the hood up high over my head to cover myself just in case, and then checked that my cuffs were securely on my wrists. Sage and Marmal met me in the grassy area as I paced tracks into the lush blades of green.
I’d made it. I was here. And I had no fucking idea what part of the plan to start next. But looking up at the huge building and knowing my mate was so close gave me hope. I needed to get Sage inside, but getting her arrested now seemed like a big and timely fanfare. There would be sentencing and all of that if it was anything like the jails in Spokane and the human world. My wolf felt on edge as she slithered restlessly inside of me. Were there vampires inside the prison right now? Maybe they lay in wait in these very bushes.
“Tell her to keep cloaked until I figure this out.” I pointed to the direction that I knew Pearl was, but instead of a dragon there was just a shimmering bubble not noticeable to the untrained eye.
Marmal nodded. “She will.”
“Okay…” I said, not slowing my pacing. “What time is it here?”
Sage pulled a cellphone out of her pocket and turned it on. Holy crap, I hadn’t seen one of those in over a year. My fingers itched to check my Instagram account as silly as that sounded.
“Eugene gave it to me,” Sage offered. “It’s two p.m. Light Fey time.”
Two hours. I had two hours to get Sage inside for a four p.m. jailbreak during Sawyer’s workout time, or I’d have to wait another day. I was not waiting another day to see my man.
“Okay. I have a plan.” I set down my pack and pulled out all the maps.
The workout room on the eightieth floor was directly across from the mess hall and next to the showers on the west side of the building.
“Sage, if you can merge with my wolf and get her inside, she can get up to the eightieth floor to save Sawyer and then come back for you,” I told my bestie, knowing it was such a huge ask. She’d be putting her life in danger. If I knew they wouldn’t recognize me right away, I’d do it myself. She had already agreed, but I wanted to give her one last chance to back out.
“You know I’m down, but how can I get arrested and sent to prison in two hours?” she asked.
I chewed my lip, an idea forming in my mind. “We’re going to test your acting skills.”
She frowned and I pointed to Marmal. “You’re my getaway car. We will keep Pearl hidden, and then when I direct you, I need you to drop me off at the top floor while we grab the guys, and then we’ll go pick up Sage before they transfer her to a psych ward.”
Sage sputtered, choking on her spit. “Psych ward!”
I nodded. “I need you to act batshit conspiracy theory crazy. Swim across the river, walk right in the front door and spout ridiculous things. Just enough to get my wolf inside.”
Sage shook her head, half smirking. “You and Sawyer owe me the nicest possible vacation ever after all this.”
I grinned. “Done.”
“Okay, I can do this.” A shadow crossed her face and she pulled her lower lip into her mouth to chew on it nervously.
“What?” I asked, stepping forward. It was normal to be nervous before something like this. “If I could go myself, I would. I—”
She shook her head. “I wonder what Walsh is like now…?”
Oh.
I’d been able to talk to Sawyer mentally. The last time she had spoken to Walsh, they had ended on a bad note, with him rejecting her for his duty.
“I’m sure they’re both different. Sawyer has befriended a vampire,” I growled.
Sage scrunched up her face like she smelled something awful. “Really? Gross.”
I nodded. “But he’ll still be Walsh. Our Walsh. Don’t worry.” I gave her a side hug and she bobbed her head in agreement.
“Question…” Marmal held up a hand. “There are magical wards all over that place.” She pointed to the building. “We won’t be able to fly close enough unless we bring it down. And didn’t you say the boys are wearing cuffs that electrocute them if they step foot off the premises? How are you going to deal with all that? We don’t have a witch and I can’t bring them down.”
Fuck. She was right, and she’d also given me another clue into her magic. She could see wards. I should have brought Raven or Star, but maybe Marmal was good enough. I hadn’t known then all that would be involved, and I had wanted to protect them by leaving them behind.
I planned on stealing a key to get the boys’ cuffs off, but the other magical wards … I had no plan for. Were they like the cuffs? Because I’d gotten my cuffs off once … it took a fey blade and some blood but—
“Do light fey carry fey blades? Or is that only a dark fey thing?” I asked.
Marmal’s eyes widened a little. “All fey carry their birth blade. It’s a big deal to their culture.”
Okay … okay…
I paced harder. I had two hours. I would need my attention to be with my wolf and Sage, but maybe I could sneak away and steal a fey blade before—
“I’ll do it.” Marmal stepped forward and pulled a small dagger from behind her back. She gripped it in a tight fist and looked at me with determination.
“Do what?” I hadn’t said anything yet.
“You want a fey blade, right? But you need to stick with Sage since your wolf will be with her? I’ll get it and meet you back here before four p.m.” Marmal crossed a fist over her chest.
&nb
sp; Wow, how had I lucked out with such supportive women by my side?
“Thank you,” I croaked.
She nodded and looked back in the direction of Pearl, probably communicating mentally.
‘I’ll keep in touch.’ She tapped her head and pushed the words into my mind. I gave her a halfcocked grin.
Marmal was pack, and I felt so right with that decision. After our troll pack member slunk away into the hiking trail to rob some unsuspecting fey of their blade, I turned to Sage.
Placing one hand on either of her shoulders, I looked her right in the eyes and took a deep breath.
“Are you ready for my wolf to … join you?”
She swallowed hard. “Nope. Totally freaked out, have already imagined the worst, like she gets stuck, or I throw up, or go insane … but let’s do this.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, girl, I love you.”
She grinned. “Just don’t get stuck. I like having only one soul in my body.”
I gave her a curt nod, as if I knew what I was doing when in fact I was scared myself. I didn’t want half of my soul stuck in another person’s body either! My wolf was ready, perched just at the edge of my skin, blocked only by the magic of the cuffs Sawyer had custom-made for me.
Reaching out, I pulled them off but kept them in my hands, ready to put them back on the second my wolf came out. Sending my scent, or whatever, out into Light Fey City, was not something I wanted to do right now.
The moment my wolf leapt from my body and onto the grass before me, I snapped the cuffs back on. My wolf was still spectral, not yet solidifying her body as she looked from Sage to me.
‘It’s going to be weird, I know,’ I told her. ‘But we gotta do it to get Sawyer.’
Sage made fists and braced herself like she was preparing to be hit, then her eyes flashed yellow.
‘Her wolf doesn’t like it,’ my wolf said.
I shrugged. ‘Tough shit. She’ll get over it.’ I was in alpha mode now and I was bringing my baby daddy home today no matter what.
My wolf nodded, and then leapt.
It was like time stopped. My wolf arced through the air as Sage flinched, closing her eyes and holding her breath. I held mine too, and so did my wolf. No one breathed, the wind didn’t blow, it was like the world stopped for a moment just to witness half of my soul merging with another person. Then she disappeared. She leapt right into Sage’s chest and … she was gone. A shock ripped through me, like electricity zapping up my spine. I cried out at the same time Sage did, our tandem screams ripping through the forest.
It hurt, like my skin was on fire, but only for a second before it was gone. ‘What the fuck was that?’ I asked my wolf.
‘Her wolf fought me for a second before relenting,’ she told me.
Sage panted, holding her chest and looking over at me with wide eyes. “This is the weirdest feeling of my life and I want it to stop as soon as possible.”
I winced, feeling Sage’s discomfort through our bond. It was bad for me too, but not as much as her.
“Sorry. Let’s do this quickly then.” I called her over to the edge of the river. We walked around the shimmering transparent bubble that was Pearl’s cloak and I knelt down at the edge of the water. Reaching into the thick wet mud, I picked up two handfuls and moved to rub them in Sage’s hair.
She stepped away from me. “What the heck?”
I rolled my eyes. “You have to look insane. Right now you look like a sexy, redheaded Lara Croft Tomb Raider.”
Sage frowned. “Who?”
I shook my head. “We are overdue for a movie night, my friend.”
She closed her eyes, relenting, and stepped closer to me as I rubbed the mud onto her face, then in her hair and on her clothes.
“I actually hate you right now, and Sawyer owes me so big. I want a red Range Rover with white leather seats when I get home,” Sage growled.
I grinned as I started to tease her hair into knots and clumps, making it look wild. “You got it, babe. And a house with a view. Whatever you want.”
We both knew we were half kidding. Who knew when that type of life would come back into normalcy. But if it didn’t, I’d get her a white horse and cottage on Paladin land, whatever she wanted that I was capable of giving.
“Alright, let’s do a practice. You have to seem mentally unstable and non-threatening.”
She popped her eyes open, widening them, then peeled her lips back to bare her teeth at me. “I heard you drink wolf blood here.” She hissed in my face. “I need a unicorn horn to produce miracles.”
I bit down on my lips to keep from bursting into laughter. “That’s perfect. Go cause a scene but be harmless, you don’t want them to magically cuff you before my wolf can get out.”
She nodded, looking at the water. Across the river, about a hundred-foot swim away, was the giant prison, all glass but tinted so dark I couldn’t see anything. A huge thirty-foot fence dotted the perimeter with glowing blue barbwire. It was definitely magic.
I’d cross that bridge when I got to it.
“Be safe, okay? I want Sawyer back, but not at the expense of losing you. If shit goes sideways, get out,” I told her.
She nodded, but we both knew that was easier said than done.
She moved to jump into the water and I rushed forward, pulling her into a hug. “I love you, Sage Hudson. Like big huge love. You’re my sister no matter that our DNA says different.” My voice cracked and I wanted to kick myself for getting all emotional, but if anything happened to this woman, I needed her to know how much she meant to me.
Pulling back, she wiped her teary eyes, smearing mud deeper into her cheeks. “I love you too. That’s why I’ll go to the grave with the knowledge that when you delivered Creek, you pooped all over my hand.” She grinned.
My mouth popped open at that declaration. “Shut the fuck up. That’s not true.”
She just raised one eyebrow and then waltzed into the water.
What the hell?
“Sage!” I whisper-screamed. “Is that true?” Because that was mortifying.
My bestie just chuckled before dropping into the water, taking a big breath and kicking off the rocks.
There was no way I pooped on her hand. Totally no way … right?
Pushing that revelation from my mind, I slunk into the bushes and watched as Sage waded across the river, her muddy red hair flowing around her like a messy mermaid. Anxiety ramped up inside of me as she inched her way across, going farther and farther away from me. As she neared the shore on the other side, she stood up out of the water and … started to walk like a chicken.
What the…? Okay, the acting had begun.
She tucked her arms into her chest and flapped her elbows, cranking her neck back and forth.
I shifted my perspective to my wolf and immediately wanted to recoil. It was … a tight fit being inside of Sage. Her wolf kept pushing against mine and it made it feel claustrophobic in a way that was hard to describe. Sage reached the sandbank and started to scratch at her arms.
“Baby killers!” she shouted up at a guard tower that sat high above the giant fence. “Marshmallow for breakfast is what you think!” she screamed nonsensically.
We were both totally going to hell for using mental illness as a cover to get inside this building. I silently sent up a prayer for forgiveness to anyone who actually suffered from such delusions.
“Stop right there!” someone bellowed, and a red laser beam from the scope of a gun appeared on Sage’s chest. She looked up at the giant fence and the fey now standing on top of it. He peered down at her with scrutiny, rifle raised.
“I know what you’re doing here!” Sage screamed. “Eating lemons and killing werewolf babies to make sunblock appear on silver gold leaf!”
Holy shit, she really was going to deserve an Oscar for this.
The fey man frowned, lowering his scope. “You’re trespassing. Violators are shot on sight.”
Sage reached up and clawed at her face
, dragging her nails down her cheeks. “The bugs made me!”
“Shit.” The dude looked over his shoulder and spoke to a second dude, barely visible from this angle. “Some crazy chick is losing her mind out here. Call medical and have them transport her back to the mainland.”
Sage screamed then and ran full speed at the brick fence, arms out as if she expected to walk right through it.
What the hell was she doing? The second her hands touched the fence, the male fey yelled, “Don’t!” But it was too late. Blue magic burst from the fence, knocking into Sage, and she crumpled to the ground, completely unconscious, knocking my wolf out with her.
The male fey screamed something I couldn’t hear from my hiding spot in the trees across the river, but I could see him and he looked alarmed.
My wolf stirred inside of Sage, becoming conscious before she did, and I could see from my spot across the river that the wall above her started to move. A stone gate was hidden in the wall so that you couldn’t see it until it was retracting to gain entry. The brick pattern was a cream speckled barrage of muted colors so that even the gate’s hinges were camouflaged.
Two guards waltzed out, guns raised at Sage as she lay huffing on the ground. I felt her consciousness stir, and immediately spoke into her mind. ‘Stay down. I think they are going to bring you inside the gates. The fence was spelled and electrocuted you.’
‘Everything hurts,’ she replied, but said nothing more as she just lay there unmoving.
The two guards looked down at her with pity, their pointy fey ears peeking out from the sides of their black baseball caps, and I moved closer inside of the bushes where I was hiding to get a better look. A hundred feet was far when you had to swim that length, but so close when you were hiding in a bush trying to avoid being seen.
One of them inhaled. “She’s a wolf? What the hell is a wolf doing all the way out here?” I was seeing through my human eyes but hearing what they were saying through my wolf who was conscious in Sage. It was a weird out-of-body sensation.
Four other guards came out now, aiming their guns into the trees across the riverbank, right at me, and I slunk backward fully so that I could no longer see them from my human body.