“Give me a minute.” I raked the hair out of my eyes. “He’s about to get so pissed he can’t see straight. You can make your break then.”
“Don’t get yourself killed.” His fingers brushed mine, warm and soft. He had released his magic and his grip on his stone façade since brute force was getting us nowhere.
“Same goes for you,” I grumbled. “Cam would slay me if you got murdered.”
Losing Isaac meant dealing with this kid blind, which was not my favorite way to conduct business by a long shot.
“Why did you do it?” I indicated the house and the pasture. “Why leave Faerie for this?”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.” I folded my arms across my chest. “Did your family not approve of your choice in girlfriend?”
“Leave her out of this,” he hissed.
“She wasn’t good enough for the Seelie prince, was she? She’s nobody, and you could be king of Faerie one day.” Sooner rather than later if his family had any say in the matter. “You had to know they wouldn’t let you two skip off into the sunset together.”
“We escaped. I carried her through the portal to safety. We were building a life here. A new life, free of the houses and away from the courts.”
“They let you go.” My heart broke for him. “They wanted you to sow your wild oats, but things got too serious. Right? You’re bonding to your girlfriend. They won’t let that happen.”
“She’s a better woman than I deserve.” The strength of his conviction pounded against my eardrums.
“Your aunt doesn’t seem to think so.” I hated poking the kid, but I had no choice. “She wants the relationship to end. Like yesterday.”
“No.”
Warmth trickled down my neck, one eardrum blown from the force of that one word. My fingers came away crimson when I dabbed at my throat. “You’re royalty. You don’t get a say. You were born into this.”
“What do you know of life in Faerie, dog?” he snarled. “Your world is free. Your people are free. You lack imagination sufficient enough to render Faerie in all her clarion glory in your worst nightmares. You will never understand what it is to be born common and raised to great heights. I was not born for this. I was made into this.”
“I understand better than you might believe.” Not so long ago, I was just another wolf in the pack. Now I had a title, power, and all the burdens that went with them. “Okay, so you were elevated in the ranks. That means you had to have fought for your position. You must have wanted it. You had to have understood what would be required of you.”
“I thought gaining power meant earning the right to make my own decisions.” His voice went soft, a single note of agony that shredded my soul. “I was wrong, and she will pay the price for it if you don’t allow me to remain by her side.”
A woman’s high shriek rent the air, jagged lightning forking across the sky in a furious blast, and the glamour burst like a bubble, exposing the stone house and the half bird, half man perched on the roof. The circling wolves froze midstep to gawk up at him.
From the waist down, Tiberius resembled a golden eagle, complete with feathers covering his muscular haunches and vicious talons capping the ends of his wide, scaled feet. He was man from the navel up, all rippling abs and rock-hard pecs, but he sported great brown wings threaded with gold instead of arms, and each appendage was longer than I was tall.
“Leandra,” he breathed and launched into the sky.
“Isaac has the girlfriend,” I told the pack. “This is about to get ugly fast. Do not attack without provocation.”
I set off at a run through the grass, wolves on my heels. I shoved the brush aside and stumbled into the forest onto a scene that dropped my gut down into my toes.
Gone was Isaac’s human face. In its place, a granite likeness stared down the prince with flat eyes that gave away no emotion. One gray hand wrapped around the girl’s throat. He could crush her neck with a flex of his fingers, and Tiberius’s utter stillness confirmed his fear Isaac might twitch.
I gestured the pack back into the pasture to keep tensions from rising any higher.
“Release her,” Tiberius pleaded. “I will do anything, grant you any boon. Don’t harm her.”
The monolith’s expression softened as much as it was able. “A drop of your blood. Give me that, and I will release her.”
“Done.” Tiberius wet his lips, gaze darting to Leandra, then went to greet Isaac with his arm extended. “Take all you need.”
Gemini, being long gone from Faerie, weren’t a thing the prince should be familiar with. He must have thought Isaac was a gargoyle or other shifter with a stone heart. But he was wrong. And I think he realized that too late to stop Isaac from extending his spur and piercing the meat of the prince’s palm. The scent of bright pennies teased my nose as Isaac released both the girl and his monolith aspect in tandem.
Leandra flung herself into the prince’s winged embrace, and he cradled her against his chest as though she were the most precious thing in the entire world—both of them.
“You have to go home,” I told him gently. “My job is to prevent war between Earth and Faerie, and that means sending you back where you came from.”
“You can’t stop what’s coming.” He spoke against Leandra’s hair. “No one can.”
“I kind of figured. That won’t stop me from attempting to hold back the tide. I’m sorry.”
The girl turned sad eyes on me. “So are we.”
The not-so-happy couple vanished right before my eyes. Gone in a blink. Damn it. Dirt and leaves churned on the forest floor as the prince blasted—invisible—through the canopy.
Over our heads, thunder rolled in what sounded like deep-throated amusement.
That was not natural.
“I don’t get paid enough for this.” Isaac grunted. “Stand back.”
I whirled on him and gaped at his transformation. Wings in place of arms. Talons in place of feet. Feathers covered him from the waist down, raising all sorts of interesting questions I would never ask out loud.
Air churned by his wings blasted debris into my eyes and sent my hair flying as Isaac leapt for the sky. I brought my fist to my mouth and bit down until I tasted blood to keep from calling him back. Fear had me tasting bile. How easy it would be for that turbulent storm to strike him down for good. How quickly I could lose him again. For good this time.
“How long can he keep that up?” Zed leaned his weight against my thigh.
“I don’t know.” Isaac was famous for his stunning recalls, the details he drew from the blood of his donors, but borrowed magic only lasted a short while, and he had already held the monolith’s form too long for this to be wise on his part. “We have to be ready if…”
If he fell.
Forcing my body to shift hurt like hell, and I blacked out for my trouble.
I don’t know how long I was unconscious, but Zed stood watch over me until I could stand on shaky legs.
“You’re an idiot.” He bared his teeth. “You’re going to get yourself killed being stupid one day.”
“I love you too.” I bumped my head under his chin then turned toward the pack. “Nathalie and Aisha, keep an eye on that house. Don’t let anyone in or out, no matter how rosy their cheeks.” I glanced at the others. “Job and Moore, you’re with us.” I locked gazes with Abram. “Head home. Fast. Get the exam room prepped, ’cause we’re gonna need it.”
The wolf pressed down on me, shutting me up and taking over with tracking instincts sharper than I could ever hope to possess. We ran in the direction Isaac had gone until the breath sawed from my lungs, and a pain in my side made each stride a challenge. There was no scent trail to follow, and they had a head start. I couldn’t see them. I’m not sure how the wolf knew where to go, but I didn’t question her. I didn’t have any better ideas anyway.
Miles glided past under my paws, and I kept pushing despite my heart’s efforts to beat out of my chest. I didn’t spot th
e quarreling alkonosts until after I heard their piercing duet. Meaning at some point the aerial skirmish gaining amplification had short-circuited the prince’s glamour.
The most beautiful, terrible music echoed through the low valley as the prince’s clarion voice rang out in contest against Isaac’s strident notes.
Tiberius’s extra cargo left him on equal footing with Isaac’s inexperience with flight. Tiberius had been flying children to safety during our standoff in the woods. His strength was flagging, and it showed in the slower beats of his wings and the grimace etching lines into his youthful face.
The wolf stopped in Isaac’s shadow, as if she meant to catch him if his wings gave. There was nothing more we could do.
The vocal battle raged overhead for so long I caught a second wind. I wasn’t tired anymore. I was wired. Bouncing on my paws. Heart a bass drum in my ears. Cranked up and twitchy. Point me in a direction, and let me go.
Yeah, that was the burnout talking. I always burned brightest before a total collapse.
A lyrical screech stunned me into stillness, and my head tipped back.
Isaac hung low in the sky, getting lower. Too far, too fast. He was falling in slow motion.
Tiberius was a wingbeat above him, Leandra’s weight dragging him down in increments.
The pack gathered around me, and we attempted to gauge Isaac’s landing. Crash landing on us would break our bones, but we could mend faster than him. Broken was better than dead any day of the week.
Absorbed in watching Isaac, I failed to notice the moment Tiberius circled nearer to him so the final note in the battle song they had sung blasted Isaac square in the face.
A finishing move. Okay, I got that. But this was Isaac. My Isaac.
That feathery bastard had taken this one step too far. When Isaac’s chin tipped back and his mouth opened on a pure note that pierced the clouds and sent Tiberius reeling, I was ready. I took a running start and leapt for all I was worth. Wargs are heavy, and momentum was on my side. My teeth closed over one scaly toe, but it was enough. I brought the prince and his girlfriend crashing down beside me.
Pity had run dry in me, and I didn’t wait for them to recover before I nosed the girl—broken and bleeding—onto her back. I opened my jaw and rested the tips of my teeth against her tender skin, letting my saliva bathe her neck. If Isaac died… If I lost him…
I crushed my eyes closed for a moment, the woman and the wolf warring in my middle over who ought to be in control, over what we ought to do.
“I’ve got her.” Moore’s human voice rang out from behind me. “You need to go.” He gritted his jaw. “Isaac…”
The urge to snap my jaws closed was so strong I might as well have been fighting open the tines of a bear trap using only my pinky fingers. Releasing the girl unharmed was a small miracle. Now I just had to hope two could happen in one day.
Muscles quivering, I covered the ground between me and the fallen. The other wolves stepped aside to give me room. Zed lay in a sprawl, barely breathing. Blood coated his fur, and at least one bone protruded from his skin. Isaac was worse. So much worse. And there were no feathers to camouflage the damage now.
“Zed?” I bumped my nose against his.
“Save your asshole mate,” he growled. “I didn’t play bouncy castle for him just so you could pal around with me and let him die.”
There was only one solution. I knew what I had to do, and human hands were required to make it happen.
Adrenaline fueled my change. It wasn’t pretty. It never is. But this time, I got stuck in the middle, and panic was all that saved me. The sharp jab of terror that my bones would set this way, that Isaac would die next to that monstrosity, spurred me over the edge back into humanity.
Quivering from the change, jittery from the horror of what had almost happened, I hauled myself flush against Isaac’s side. I took his hand in mine and stroked the spur under his fingernail until the stimulation activated the wicked black hook. I jabbed it into the fleshy part of my hand, waited until the spur was smothered in crimson, then bit down on my palm to open a fresh wound. I pried opened his mouth and squeezed more blood down his throat.
Cord had healed Cam this way more than once. Geminis absorbed the strongest traits of their donors, and supernatural healing ran deep in ours.
This would work. It had to work.
This was all I had to give. It would be enough.
The heady cocktail of despair and blood loss triggered a spasm in my limbs, the wolf attempting to seize control and failing as we both slid into the dark.
Chapter 22
Awareness returned to me with all the enthusiasm of a shambling zombie facing a fresh brain shortage. Sleep clung to the corners of my mind, the broom of my thoughts sweeping back and forth without making progress.
“Dell.”
Last night I had the strangest dream. Isaac sprouted these massive golden-brown wings and orange sticklike legs that ended in claws. And he flew. Like Superman or a comic book hero…or a damn big bird. Then…he fell.
He.
Fell.
“Dell.”
My eyes snapped open, and I breathed his name. “Isaac.”
A firm hand pinned me to the ground. Abram. “Isaac is busted up but stable. Thanks to you.” His fingers dug into my flesh when I struggled. “No shifting, Dell. You’re done. Forty-eight hours at least. You need to replenish your magic. Try to keep the blood you have left inside your body, all right?”
Shoving upright, I moaned as my stomach attempted to invert itself. “Zed?”
Abram pointed over his shoulder then got out of the way.
“Now she remembers me.” Bony fingers brushed my ankle. “I see how it is.”
Hot tears rolled down my cheeks as I crawled to his side. “You risked your life for him. Impact from that height could have killed you.”
“Yeah, well.” A muscle twitched in his shoulder as he tried to shrug. “My best friend likes him for reasons I…really don’t want to know. Ever. I figured she’d miss him if I let him pancake.”
“You’re the best.” I rubbed my knuckle down his cheek, soothing his wolf. “You know that, right?”
“That’s what I hear.” He cracked a grin and let his eyes close. “Go see him. You won’t trust he’s alive until you do.”
I bent down and kissed his forehead before sucking in a deep breath and searching the area for Isaac. I found him several yards away. Abram had knelt beside him, making his patient rounds. Their soft conversation carried, but I couldn’t make out the words.
I joined them in the grass and sat beside Isaac, vision too blurry to see his injuries clearly. Maybe that was for the best. “Hey.”
Eyes the color of summer skies met mine. “Hi.”
“You’re a bonehead.” I brushed the hairs off his forehead. “I just thought you should know.”
“I fought the bad guy and got the girl.” He chuckled hoarsely. “I’m a hero.”
“I got the girl.” I could still taste her skin on my tongue. Isaac raised one blood-crusted eyebrow. “Oh.” A flush spread over my cheeks. “You weren’t talking about Leandra.”
“Sixteen-year-olds don’t much appeal to me.” His fingers uncurled. “What’s with that face?”
“I’m debating if I should tell you now that you didn’t get the girl, or if I should let you down easy after you recover.”
“Ouch.” He clutched his chest with his other hand. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you to give dying men hope?”
“You’re not dying.” A tremor rocked my voice when I recalled how close he’d skirted that line.
“Thanks to you.” He twitched his fingers until I relented and held his hand. “You saved my life.”
“Cam would—” I started.
“I know.” One half of his mouth kicked up at the corner. “‘She’d skin me alive if I let her favorite cousin die,’” he mocked in his best impersonation of me.
“Yes.” I rubbed my thumb over his rough knuckles.
“That.”
“Can we pretend you did it for me?” His gaze dipped to where our hands met. “Just until I get back on my feet?”
“I don’t like make-believe.” I squeezed him one last time and then let go. “It allows for false expectations, and people get hurt. Honesty is the best policy in my book.”
“Actions speak louder than words,” he recited to me. “That’s my policy.”
A grimace twisted my mouth. “I don’t know if I buy that. I’ve got a healthy set of lungs on me.”
Laughter shook his frame. “That you do.”
A hard flush rocketed over my skin and pushed me to my feet. I wasn’t going to pretend I didn’t understand how he knew that about me—what was the point?—but I couldn’t make eye contact with him either. Not without remembering how his breaths sounded at my ear, my name on his lips…
Eager for a distraction, I turned to Abram. “Abram, not that I’m not thrilled you’re here… But why are you here?” I squinted against the sun. “Is that a cell phone?”
“Yes, it is. I got it for ninety-nine cents with a two-year contract.” He flashed the screen at me. “I downloaded the eBay app. I figured as much time as I’ve been spending in the exam room, it was a worthy investment.”
Note to self: Chat with Job at earliest convenience.
Our bargain hunting had created a monster.
“I need to check in with the others.” I wobbled a bit but caught my balance. “Status update, Moore.”
“We have the prince and his girlfriend on lockdown at the cabin. We had no choice but to bring them back here. Kids started pouring out of the woods bawling, and that stirred up the ones still inside. It was a hot mess, so we reunited them.” He hesitated. “You okay?”
The edge of earnestness in his voice gave me a jolt of surprise. Helping out at the exam room, picking up extra patrols and now this—an honest show of concern for someone other than himself? Maybe I wasn’t the only one affected by the change in regime. Maybe getting out from under Bessemer was mellowing Moore out too. That…bore some consideration.
We weren’t square. We might never be. But we could be better. Mending our fences would make the pack stronger.
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