“Yeah, easier said than done.” I wipe my mouth with my arm and see crimson streaks my skin.
The fucker made me bleed.
Rage currents through my achy muscles as I push to my feet and run at Rune, who’s barely broken a sweat. Two seconds later, I’m slammed into the mat again, on my back, the wind getting knocked out of me. If I were human, some of my bones would’ve broken by now. Jules assured me that our bodies are way stronger, something I’m finding out firsthand.
“You need to stop running at me and start fighting with your instincts.” Rune’s face appears above me, his hands on his hips.
“I can’t remember my instincts, remember?” I bite out. I know I’m being a sore loser about this, but every part of my body hurts. And I’m exhausted. And humiliated.
“You may not remember them, but they’re still alive in here.” He leans over and taps my star-marked temple. “You just need to reconnect with them.”
“I’m trying.”
“Well, try harder.”
I work my jaw from side to side. Great advice there, Rune.
He cracks his knuckles as he straightens. “Now, let’s try it again.” He doesn’t even bother moving back, as if he’s so sure I won’t be able to touch him. And he has every right and reason to feel that way, but it pisses me off.
I growl, and my wolf mimics me.
Do it, she whispers. Take him out. Just like you used to.
How? And now I’m talking to her. She doesn’t answer, but instinct takes over.
Rolling onto my side, I stretch my leg out lightning fast and kick Rune’s legs out from under him. He hits the mat with a loud smack as I leap to my feet. He blinks up at me in a dazed stupor, and I sort of feel bad, but not enough to stop.
I climb on top of him, using my knees to pin down his arms, and line my arm with his throat, pressing my weight down on him. He gasps for air, his face turning red. When I ease up the pressure on his neck, he wheezes with laughter.
I glance at Jules, wondering if I broke Rune’s brain or something.
But Jules is chuckling, too.
“What’s so funny?” I ask, hopping off Rune.
“That was your move,” Liberty explains as she secures her hair into a ponytail. “That’s how you would kick Jules, Shade, and Rune’s asses when we were younger. It got them almost every time.”
“Oh.” A bit of confidence rises as I turn back to Rune. “Again?”
His laughter dies as he stands, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. “Now that you’ve found your wolf instincts, let’s see what you can do with them.”
Smiling, I lunge at him.
Hours later, I’m dripping in sweat and every part of my body feels bruised, yet I feel strangely content. While Rune kicked my ass most of the time, I did manage to knock him down a few more times and that gives me confidence that one day I’ll be able to fight like a true fighter. That maybe I won’t ever have to feel as vulnerable as I felt that day in the alley.
The sun has begun to descend behind the hills by the time Rune and I leave the training pit. Liberty and Kylan took off early to a meeting, and Jules left shortly after to check on Shade. While he never said when he’d return, his long absence has me concerned.
“If you’re okay with it, I’m going to swing into the shed so I can switch places with Shade, and then he can go home with you and Jules,” Rune says as he slings a bag over his shoulder. “You won’t have to go into the shed or anything. You can just wait outside. But if you’re not comfortable, I can take you home, and then return.”
“No, it’s fine. We can swing by there.” I pull my hair into a messy bun and secure it with an elastic Liberty gave me.
While I’m partially afraid of Slate, my wolf isn’t. And the other side of me doesn’t want to be.
He smiles and pats my shoulder. “You’re a brave girl, Lake. You really are.”
“I don’t feel very brave,” I admit as we start down the zigzagging path, venturing farther into the trees and in the direction of the shed, I’m assuming. “I’ve spent so much of my life being afraid of everything and everyone.”
He adjusts the handle of the bag higher onto his shoulders. “What was the Common Realm like?”
I shrug, massaging my tender shoulder. “Fast. Electric. Buzzing with too much energy. Almost everyone there is driven by the need to get more and be better. I’m okay with the being better part, but sometimes they stomped on others to get what they wanted instead of earning it.”
“Some wolves are like that here, too.”
“Like the king?”
His gaze glides to mine. “Did Jules tell you that?”
“No. I’ve picked up on a certain vibe that seems to arise every time anyone mentions the king.” I trail my fingers along the leaves as I walk. Like in my dreams, the leaves seem to magnetize toward my touch.
“You’re not wrong,” he utters, scanning the trees. “But you need to be careful saying stuff like that. If the wrong wolf hears you, it’ll get back to the king. And trust me; you don’t want that. He’s a punish first, never ask questions sort of wolf.”
I think of Philip’s family locked away in the kingdom somewhere. “Yeah, I picked up on that, too.”
“We should probably be quiet now,” he whispers. “There are pixies near and they’re the kind of creatures who love to cause mischief and spread rumors—”
Movement scurries through the trees, and I inch closer to Rune.
“They can’t hurt you,” he assures me. “We’re much stronger creatures.”
Easy for him to say. He didn’t just get his ass kicked repeatedly.
I stay on edge the rest of the journey to the shed, a small wooden building nestled in the trees near the far back hills.
“Wait right here,” Rune instructs as he cracks open the door. “I’ll send Jules right out.”
When I nod, he slips inside, the door banging shut behind him.
I face the trees in front of me, searching for signs of pixies in the leaves. All I can see is the swishing of branches followed by a lot of rustling. Then the giggling starts.
At first, the laughter is soft and teasing, but the noise eventually shifts into fitful cackling.
“Hey, you,” a feminine voice whispers. “Do you know if Shade’s in there?”
“Um …” I squint against the glow of the sunset. “Who’s asking?”
“I am.” She giggles.
“And who are you?” I tuck my hand behind me and fold my fingers around the door handle, preparing to run inside if I must.
“His lover,” she purrs, rising from the bushes across from me.
The what I’m assuming is a pixie has leathery purple skin, coal eyes, angled cheekbones, and a snake-like tongue. Her legs are long, yet muscular; her lips plump; and her blue hair bobs around her chin. She’s dressed in an outfit that screams kinky, the thin strips of leather barely covering her body.
“You’re Shade’s lover?” Holy crazy werewolves, is this the one-night stand he was talking about?
She perks up, her stance straightening. “He mentioned me?”
“Um, sort of.”
“What’d he say?”
Shit. What the hell do I tell her?
“That you’re … awesome?”
Her lip juts out. “What does that mean?”
There’s that translation problem again. “Um … That … Shit.”
“You know what, I think you’re insulting me.” She ambles across the field with her hand on her hip, her fingers folding around the silver handle of a sword. “And I think that’s because you’re sleeping with him. Is that it? Did he decide to downgrade from top-shelf quality?”
Wow. I feel so insulted. Not enough to insult her back, though.
“I’m not sleeping with Shade.” I crack open the door, debating whether being out here with her and her silver sword is worse than going into the shed with Slate. “He’s not even my type.”
“Ha! Now I know you’re lying. He’s every
creature’s type.” She draws her sword, and the pungent scent of silver assaults the air. “And now you must die.”
“For what?” I gape at her. “I didn’t do anything.”
“For lying and for sleeping with my wolf.” She stops in front of me with her legs spread, the sword poised in front of her. “Any last words, ugly, little wolf?”
“Yeah, take your snaky, leathery face and go slither off into the trees.” I kick her in the kneecap then whirl around and dive into the shed. “Holy nutjob pixies,” I breathe with my back pressed against the door.
“Lake? What are you doing in here?”
I jolt, turning to the side and finding Rune, Shade, and Jules all staring at me. Jules is shirtless, his chest drenched in sweat. Shade has the sleeves of his shirt rolled up and blood coats his knuckles. Slate is nowhere to be seen, but the place reeks of black roses, so he must be somewhere in the vicinity.
I point over my shoulder. “Shade’s crazy pixie lover is outside, and she wants to kill me because she thinks I’m sleeping with him.”
“Dammit, not again,” Shade curses as he swings around me and storms out of the shed, slamming the door behind him.
“You okay?” Jules frantically skims me over, searching for any injuries.
“I’m fine.” I force a smile. “I kicked her ass.”
He wipes a trail of sweat off his chest with his hand. “I bet you did.”
“I totally did.” And I totally want to lick the sweat off his chest, a desire I’m pretty positive I can blame on my wolf.
“Good. You can’t let pixies push you around. They’ll just push harder.” A droplet of sweat trickles down his chest, making a path down to the waistband of his pants.
“Why are you all sweaty?” I wonder, tearing my focus off the sweat bead.
He collects his T-shirt from off the ground. “I was … talking to Slate, which required me being in a room made entirely of silver.”
I remember how his skin blistered from wearing those silver rings. “Are you okay?”
He nods, tugging his shirt on. “I’m fine. I promise. It’s just a little hot in there.”
I glimpse around the shed. “Where is he, exactly?”
“Locked in a room upstairs.” He grazes his fingers along my cheek. “Don’t worry; the walls are covered with silver, including the inside door and the floor. There’s no way he can get out.”
“But if the room’s all silver, shouldn’t he be dead?”
“He’s suspended by a chain from the roof, so he’s not actually touching the silver. Although, being in a confined room with that much silver is weakening him.”
“Is he …?” I wipe my damp palms on the front of my legs, suddenly aware of how nervous I am. “Has he said anything about why he was in the Common Realm and why he attacked me?”
He ruffles his hair into place, his gaze shifting to the floor. “He snuck into the Common Realm a couple of times; that’s why he was there.”
“Why would he do that?” I ask, and he shrugs. “Are you sure you don’t know? Because you seem awfully fidgety.”
“I don’t want to lie to you,” he mumbles. “But I also don’t want to frighten you.”
“Not knowing the truth frightens me more than being in the dark.” And suddenly, I have my answer for whether or not I want my memories back.
Painful or not, scary or not, I don’t want the emptiness to haunt me every time I try to look back at the past.
He tears his gaze off the floor and swallows hard. “He was in the Common Realm looking for you because a wolf sent him there to find you.”
Chapter 24
I remain mostly silent as we leave the shed. The pixie is now gone, and Shade looks well past the breaking point of frustration. He gripes the entire way home about the nuisances that come with sleeping with a pixie. I nod every once in a while, but I barely listen, lost in my own thoughts.
After Jules dropped the bomb that Slate was sent after me, he told me that they haven’t gotten him to confess who sent him yet. I get the feeling, though, that Slate was supposed to kill me that day, not rape me. I’m sure death would’ve come afterward, but then Legend showed up.
“You’ve been awfully quiet,” Jules murmurs as we make our way up the stairs to his bedroom.
“I’m fine,” I lie. “I’m just tired and really sore. Today’s been an exhausting day.”
“I’m sure it has.” He pauses in front of his door, and I dither, unsure whether to go to the room I first slept in or his. All my clothes are in his room, but that doesn’t mean I need to take over his space. “Are you okay after what I told you in the shed?”
I scuff the tip of my boot against the floor. “I already sort of knew Slate would’ve killed me if Legend hadn’t shown up. None of that was news to me.”
“But you didn’t know someone had sent him?”
“No, I didn’t.”
A pause.
“Nothing is going to happen to you,” he swears to me passionately, cupping my face between his hands. “We’ll get the truth out of Slate. Then we’ll track down the wolf who sent him after you.”
“Maybe I’ll know who it is if I can remember. There has to be a connection between me ending up in the Common Realm and whoever sent Slate after me, right?”
“I’ve thought about that, too.” He skims his thumb underneath my eyes. “But Lake, I don’t want you doing anything dangerous to bring your memories back.”
“Why would it be dangerous?”
“I’m not saying it will be. But Ava might try to suggest some ways that aren’t necessarily safe.”
I rub my neck, my muscles groaning in protest. “I thought you said we could trust her.”
“We can, but witches are witches, and sometimes they think magic is the only answer, even if that magic is dangerous. So, we need to keep our guard up and not make any irrational decisions until we get all the information.”
“Got it.” I nod, glad for the distraction from my thoughts of Slate and who sent him after me. “How do I know when to distract her while we’re at her house, so you can look for her books? Because I’m pretty sure that flower thing in my dream also happened with some leaves while I was walking in the forest with Rune. It was like they were reaching for me.”
His brows bunch as he removes his hands from my face and unbuckles his waist holster. “That’s strange.”
“Not really. The same thing happened in my dream.”
“It’s not that.” The crease between his brows becomes more prominent. “It’s just that some of the guards stationed near the vines mentioned there was a growth reduction in the vines today.”
“That’s the opposite of what the flowers and leaves were doing. They looked like they were growing toward me. And I didn’t go near the vines, anyway.”
“I know.”
“So, what does that mean, then?” Because it seems like he thinks it means something.
“I have no idea.” But he looks worried.
Opening the door, he tosses his holster and knife onto his bedroom floor then nudges me inside. I enter, rubbing my shoulder, my arm, my leg. Every part of my body throbs, but not as much as my brain.
So many questions flood my mind. Why do plants and flowers suddenly seem to like me? Have I always been this way, but lost the ability when I went to the Common Realm? Probably not, or else Jules wouldn’t look so befuddled.
“We need to be at Ava’s by the time the moon is full.” Jules kicks his holster and weapons out of the way as he trudges farther into his room. “You can shower first, if you want.”
“Okay.” I make my way over to the pile of clothes Liberty left for me. “What does one wear to seduce a witch?”
“Probably something similar to what you were wearing at the club.” He opens a dresser drawer and starts rummaging through his clothes. “Nice, but not overly fancy. Maybe something that shows off those sexy legs of yours.”
I turn my back to him as my cheeks practically glow with heat.
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After I select a short black dress, a plaid overshirt, some fishnet socks, and my platforms, I limp toward the bathroom.
“Lake,” Jules says, bumping the drawer shut. “Do you want me to … to alleviate some of the pain in your muscles?”
I pause, glancing at him. “You can do that?”
He gives a wavering nod. “Remember how I told you I could make shifting less painful for you? It’s pretty much the same process.”
I sink my teeth into my lip. “How exactly do you do it?”
He pats the bed as he sits down. “Come here and I’ll show you.”
For some dumb reason, my cheeks flush as I sink down beside him. Once I get situated, he scoots behind me so I’m seated between his stretched-out legs. Then he sets his hands on my shoulders.
“It might feel a little … strange at first.” His voice is a mixture of amusement and coyness. “Just try to relax, okay?”
I bob my head up and down and close my eyes, melting back against him. I expect his fingers to start working massage magic on me. Instead, he slowly trails his fingers down my arms.
My stomach kickflips as warmth sprinkles across my skin. By the time his fingers arrive at my wrists, the warmth has burst into throbbing pulses. Over and over the sensation pours across my flesh, burrowing farther into my muscles and erasing the pain. My head bobbles back against his chest as a soft whimpering sigh leaves my lips.
“That feels … nice.” Nice doesn’t seem like a powerful enough word for what his touch is doing to my body. “How can you … do that?”
“Magic,” he whispers huskily. “Most royalty wolves have a special gift. Mine’s healing. Mild healing, anyway. There’s a point, though, where the injuries are too severe and my magic can’t heal.”
I think about his mom and the faceless shadow wolf cubs I saw my first day in the kingdom. Clearly, their injuries are past the fixing point of Jules’ magic.
“I tried to heal my mom a couple of times,” he whispers, as if in tune with my thoughts. “It didn’t work, but I keep trying. Every so often, I visit the castle and do what I can for her. It’s never enough, though.”