Shifter Crown: Valley of Truth and Denial (The Shifter Crown Series Book 1)

by Desni Dantone

  He is gone, and I am fairly certain he disappeared inside the mirror.

  I walk down the stairs in a daze, still unsure of what I saw. I certainly can’t explain what I think happened.

  I find Dom outside, leaning against the Range Rover.

  “Well?” he wonders as I approach him.

  “He’s gone,” I murmur.

  “Gone as in . . .”

  “He vanished.” I pause to think about what I saw. “I think.”

  “He crossed realms,” Dom explains patiently. “The Kingdom will provide him with the magic he needs to heal.”

  I gape at Dom. “He walked into a mirror.”

  Dom nods like he knows exactly what I’m saying. “That’s their gateway.”

  “Gateway?”

  “To cross from one realm into another,” Dom says. “Every shifter that does so has to use a gateway. Mirrors are common, but some like to hide their gateways. I figured, being a Caspan, he would have a secret door somewhere. Maybe one of those revolving bookcases.”

  It’s not hard to hear the thinly veiled contempt in Dom’s tone. He isn’t thrilled to be here—that much is obvious. I now realize how much I asked of him tonight. He didn’t have to help, and I’m sure he didn’t want to, but he did.

  “Thank you,” I tell him. “For helping. I appreciate it, and I’m sure Luca does, too.”

  Dom snorts. “We’ll see.”

  “He’s going to be okay? Isn’t he?”

  Dom stares at me for a moment before he answers, “I’m sure he will be fine.”

  I look at the crimson stains on the front of Dom’s shirt, then my own hands. My eyes start to sting from an onslaught of unshed tears. “He lost a lot of blood.”

  Dom is quiet for a long time before he says, “I shouldn’t be here.”

  I look up with a distracted nod.

  “Are you going to be okay?” He waits for me to nod again before asking, “How are you going to get home?”

  “I, um . . .” I look at the Range Rover. “I’ll drive Luca’s car.”

  Dom’s eyes narrow. He doesn’t like that idea, but I don’t have any other options. Dom can shift and run home. I can’t.

  Because I am a shifter who doesn’t know how to shift.

  “Savannah?” Dom waits until I meet his gaze, albeit briefly. “What you heard earlier is the truth.”

  “Which part?”

  “All of it.” His lips thin. “What happened tonight is proof that Caspan is a danger to you.”

  “He protected me,” I argue.

  “You wouldn’t need protection if you were with me,” Dom counters. When I don’t immediately respond, he adds, “Think about it.”

  “You want me to join your pack?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “I have come to care for you, and you will be safe with us. You belong here, in the mortal realm. You do not belong in the Kingdom.”

  “This has nothing to do with the Kingdom,” I tell him.

  “Caspan is a royal, therefore tied to the Kingdom,” he argues. “Their archaic system is rotten at its core. They seek nothing but power, and it is only a matter of time before they drown in their own greed.”

  “That’s not Luca,” I insist. “You don’t know him.”

  “He’s a royal.” Dom smirks. “That’s all I need to know.”

  “You’re wrong about him,” I stress. “And I have come to care about him.”

  Dom’s eyes darken. He pushes away from the vehicle with a grunt, and I suspect he has nothing more to say to me. Perhaps never again. I think my words may have put the last nail in the coffin that holds our friendship.

  Then Dom levels his gaze on me. His parting message is cautionary and threatening, and not something I will soon forget. Even if I don’t yet understand what it means.

  “The Kingdom will fall,” he warns. “You do not want to be there when it crumbles.”

  Chapter 20

  In the following days, my job is the only thing that holds me together. While I feel a little silly catering to vacationing campers after everything that has happened in my personal life, I keep the routine. I stay busy and maintain my sanity. Barely.

  It has been nearly two days since I watched wolf-Luca walk into a mirror and vanish. I haven’t seen him since, and by the forty-fourth hour, my patience is wearing thin. I spend the majority of my shift waiting for the once-annoying goosebumps to alert me to Luca’s presence. I welcome them now. I want to feel them, and the butterflies in my stomach, but I get nothing.

  The DeGraw brothers have been around since the morning after the attack when they came to retrieve Luca’s Range Rover from the road in front of my house. I catch glimpses of them here and there but Luca is never with them.

  My shift ends with yet another no-show and I start to wonder if I will ever see him again. By the time I clock out and get in my car, I am on the verge of tears.

  I don’t even know if he is okay. Neither Ryse nor Ryder will let me get close enough to ask. Their continued presence lets me know that the threat hasn’t gone anywhere. I still need protection, and there must be a reason why Luca isn’t here to do it himself. I worry that the injuries he received while protecting me from the grizzly were too severe to overcome.

  What if magic wasn’t enough?

  The tears fall as I pull out of the parking lot and start the drive home on autopilot, numb to everything around me. One glance in the rearview mirror changes that.

  Someone is tailing me. In a black Range Rover.

  I slam on the brakes and whip the wheel to the side, forcing my stalker to do the same. The ass end of my car juts out onto the road, but I don’t care. I get out and march up to the driver’s side door of the Range Rover as the tinted window rolls down.

  I don’t expect it to be Luca. Regardless, a disappointed sigh slips past my lips when I see Ryse behind the wheel. He pushes his black shades down his nose, and peers at me with visible annoyance.

  He tips his head at my car. “Someone is going to hit you.”

  “Where is he?” I demand.

  Ryse sighs. When he starts to roll the window up, I lunge through the opening to jerk his hand off of the control. Gauging from the glare he directs at me, his loyalty to Luca is the only thing preventing him from ripping my arm off. I ease back, but only once I am sure he won’t ignore me again.

  “I just want to know if he’s okay,” I say.

  “He’s fine,” Ryse grits.

  “Then why isn’t he here?”

  “Because a grizzly nearly ripped out his spleen.”

  I realize I asked for it, but Ryse’s blunt answer is the last thing I expect to hear. The impact hits me in the gut. Tears cloud my vision, and my voice comes out squeaky. “But he’s going to be okay, right? He can heal with magic?”

  Ryse studies me for a long time. I give up trying to hide my emotions from him. So I care about Luca? Big shocker. I don’t expect Ryse to be the type of guy who softens at the sight of tears, but that’s exactly what happens.

  “It’s taking longer to heal because of the severity of his wounds, but he’s going to be fine,” Ryse assures me. Then he adds, “This time.”

  I wipe away the wetness on my cheek with a sniffle. “What do you mean?”

  “What I mean is that he will protect you at all costs. He is willing to die to keep you safe,” Ryse says stiffly.

  “I’ve tried to tell him—”

  “He won’t listen,” Ryse cuts in. “Not as long as you are in danger.”

  “What am I supposed to do?” I ask.

  Ryse looks out the windshield with a huff, unable or unwilling to answer.

  I grab his arm. Probably a mistake, but it gets his attention. “Tell me what I can do, and I will do it,” I plead. “I don’t want him to get hurt again.”

  Ryse’s gaze flicks to my fingers, curled around his arm, prompting me to let go. Then he answers, “If you want to help Luca, then you need to show him that you can protect
yourself. Take some of the burden off of his shoulders.”

  It takes me a moment to realize what he is saying. He’s not talking about bear spray, makeshift frying pan weapons, or even hinting that I learn how to use a gun. He’s referring to a built-in, ready at a moment’s notice, basic kind of self-defense. For shifters.

  I ease out of the window when it hits me. “I need to learn how to shift.”

  Ryse nods. “That would be a start.”

  “But I can’t. I never . . .” I trail off when an idea comes to me. “The necklace.”

  If it was in my house at one time, as Luca claimed, then it should still be there.

  I need to find it.

  Three hours after leaving Ryse on the side of the road, my bedroom is in shambles. When the necklace doesn’t turn up, I ransack Jill’s room. Then, to be thorough, I poke around Dad’s room. Unless Rhonda took it with her to Spokane for the week, it’s safe to say the necklace is gone. I am back to square one, and no closer to finding a way to shift.

  Dad calls while I’m cleaning up the mess I made. A car needs to be towed out of a ditch on the mountain so he’s going to be home late. Normally, I would offer to help out in the shop. This evening, I have plans. There is something I cannot get off my mind. Or rather, someone.

  My plan to learn how to shift, to help Luca, means nothing until I know he is okay. I need to see him with my own eyes.

  Ten minutes after I get off the phone with Dad, I park my car in front of the Caspan’s mansion. To my right is the lake. Other than a brief glance at the waning sun glistening on the smooth surface of the water, I pay no mind to it. I’m not here to admire the lake. What I am here for is inside the house.

  Again, it doesn’t appear that anyone is home. Nor do I see any sign of Ryse or Ryder. No one is here to stop me. As it was the other night, the door is unlocked.

  I let myself in.

  “Hello?” I stand in the foyer, waiting for a response.

  When no one answers, I climb the stairs. My shoes squeak on the hardwood floor the length of the hallway, all the way to the room with the mirror. The door is ajar and I push it the rest of the way open. Across the room, the mirror waits.

  I peer at the reflection as I approach it. If I didn’t know better, I would say it looks like a normal mirror. I touch the glass—it feels like a normal mirror. I run a hand along the black frame—no magic button or switch or anything.

  “How does this thing work?” I murmur under my breath.

  The words no sooner leave my mouth when the glass blurs. My reflection warps and bends until I am no longer there. The glass melts away to reveal another room inside the mirror. I recognize the posters on the wall. It is the same room the wolf disappeared into two nights ago.

  I have no idea where it leads, or if Luca is even there. All I know is that he isn’t here.

  I put my hand through the mirror and feel the energy hum over my skin. I push farther, inch by inch, until my entire arm is inside. It doesn’t hurt. It tingles, but in a way that feels kind of good. The fear of the unknown is the only thing that holds me back.

  “Just do it,” I mutter.

  I step into the mirror. Light flashes and energy buzzes in my ears, between my ears, and all around me. I feel a heavy weight in my gut like I swallowed a bowling ball. That’s quickly followed by a sense of weightlessness, and I envision myself as tiny molecules floating in the infinite space between realms, forever lost. There is a brief moment of ohmygod what have I done. Then it’s over.

  I look down at my shoes, make sure they’re on the right feet—and that my feet are attached to the correct legs. I lift my arms in front of me, wiggle my fingers, and touch my face. As far as I can tell, I’m intact.

  I look around the new room, taking in the details I didn’t notice before. The large canopy bed has a dozen pillows stacked on top of it, all of which match the navy blue sheets. Thanks to the rock posters and pinups of girls in bikinis on the walls, I suspect I am in a boy’s room. Likely, Luca’s.

  Sunlight filters through the wall of windows to my right. There is one small door in the wall across from me and one extra-wide door to my left. Both are closed, and I am alone.

  I step farther into the room to look out one of the windows. They’re not just windows; two of them are doors that lead to a wide granite balcony. To one side, steps descend into a courtyard. Across the courtyard is a two-story wall of stone lined with windows—dozens of them. To each side, two tall turrets reach for the sky, blanketing parts of the courtyard in shadows.

  “It’s an actual castle.” I laugh once, under my breath.

  I walk around the room, touching things to make sure they are real. A part of me is reluctant to accept that any of this is possible; the rest of me can’t help but be impressed.

  I stop at a mahogany desk the size of my car and look at a stack of papers lying neatly on top. They’re addressed to Luca, and the fancy letterhead lists Bain-Brook Academy as the sender. They wish him a fun summer break and anticipate his return for the commencement of classes in the fall. Details on his boarding arrangements are included in the packet, along with a list of suggested reading material to prepare for his senior year, which is sure to be the best yet. Signed by Headmaster Brook.

  This must be the academy for shifters that Luca tried to tell me about. Interesting.

  I keep moving, eyeing the expensive electronics and thick textbooks that cover the desk. I stop when I get to a cluster of photographs. Front and center is a family portrait—Luca, two adults I assume are his parents, and a dark-haired girl several years my junior. Tucked into the frame is a picture that sends a tingle down my spine.

  I pick it up to examine it closer.

  It’s me. And Luca. Together.

  I recognize the style of my hair in the photo. I cut it that way a few years ago—when I was fifteen. I even remember the particular shirt I was wearing. Though it’s a little small on me now, it’s still tucked away somewhere in my closet. What I notice above everything else is the easy smile on my face and the adoration in my eyes.

  I look happy. I look like a girl in love.

  I nearly drop the photo when there is a thud behind me. I set the frame down carefully as I turn toward the source of the noise. It didn’t come from the big door, nor from the mirror, but from behind the smaller door. The one closest to me.

  I walk toward it. My palm barely grazes the brass handle when it suddenly rips out of my grasp. I instinctively jump back as the door swings open. Panic rises up my throat.

  Then I gaze into a familiar pair of blue eyes—eyes I have been waiting days to see. Luca stares back at me, equally surprised. Neither of us speaks, or moves, for several seconds.

  I don’t think. I react.

  I throw myself at him. My arms wrap tightly around his neck, and my head nuzzles into the curve of his neck. His skin is damp and cool, and water drips from his hair. He smells incredible, and I don’t ever want to let go of him.

  I nearly forget why he is here, and why I was so worried about him. Until I hear him groan. He tries to hold it in, but it slips out regardless.

  I ease back with a sheepish grimace. “I’m sorry. I . . . wasn’t thinking.”

  “That’s okay.” He masks his pain with a grin. “You can do it again, now that I know it’s coming, if you want.”

  I can’t say no when he opens his arms in invitation, and I step into him for a gentler, softer hug—the type of hug a normal person would give. My heart pounds as my cheek nuzzles against the bare skin under his chin.

  His arms fold around me, holding me almost as tightly as I am holding him. It feels good, like I am where I belong. For a moment, I truly believe it can’t get any better than this.

  Then his lips graze my temple, instantly proving that I was wrong. It can get a lot better.

  “What are you doing here?” he whispers into my ear.

  “I was worried about you.” I ease back to look at him, but my arms stay where they are. “I had to make sure
you were okay.”

  “Ryse didn’t tell you?”

  “He did, eventually,” I admit. “I didn’t know if I could believe him.”

  Luca studies my face intently. I want to ask him what he’s looking for, and what he sees. The moment is heavy as the seconds tick by slowly, each one bringing more awareness to the fact that we are still locked in an embrace, and one of us is showing a considerable amount of skin.

  My gaze drifts to the upward curve of Luca’s lips, and the heaviness becomes suffocating. I scarcely breathe as I remember the last time we stood like this. It didn’t end well then, but I suspect this time would be different. If either of us ever get up the nerve to pull the trigger.

  He seems to be leaving it up to me, and after what he said to me the last time we spoke, I think I understand why. He wants my forgiveness first, before anything happens between us, though my loss of memory doesn’t permit me to give it. I can’t forgive something I don’t remember.

  Once again, we reach an impasse neither of us knows how to breach.

  I pull out of the embrace before the intensity morphs into awkwardness. “You promise that you’re okay? You’re not downplaying an injury?”

  “I’m fine.” He spreads his arms out as if to give me a better look at his healed body. “The fairies just cleared me. I was getting ready to come back today.”

  “Wait.” I hold up a hand. “Did you just say . . . fairies?”

  He pauses as if he didn’t notice the slip. Then he answers with a definitive nod. “Fairies supply us with the magic we need. They’re a significant part of this realm.”

  “Fairies . . .” I mull it over and decide it’s not ridiculous. Not considering everything else I’ve learned recently. “I have to admit, that’s not the weirdest thing you’ve told me.”

  “Probably won’t be the last,” he warns with a grin.

  “They heal you?”

  He nods.

  “And they . . . give you the magic to shift?”

  Another nod.

  I hook a finger under the chain dangling from his neck—the one holding the enchanted wolf fang. “They gave this to you?”