Page 166 of Cursed Evermore

“No. I haven't.” Arielle shook her head.

“Nor I,” Garrick agreed.

“And we healed. We both healed.” Wolfe held up his hand. “That has to be something else.”

“Maybe it is something else. If the ring is on a different plane of existence, perhaps there's something more you need to do to breach the barriers to get there?” Garrick suggested.

His idea made sense, but Wolfe didn't seem to accept it.

“The dragon's parchment should have been able to breach any barrier,” Wolfe bit out.

Garrick fell silent and looked at Arielle, who was equally quiet. I took that to mean no one had any more ideas. Except Wolfe.

“We'll try again. And we won't stop trying until it works. The method works, so we have to push through whatever barrier is blocking us.” His eyes became feral, and he gazed heavenward, as though challenging some unseen malevolent force.

“Shields up, Garrick,” Arielle called out, raising her hands. A gust of wind instantly answered her call, lifting the ends of her hair around her.

Garrick went back in position, did his chant, and restored his light. Within seconds, he and Arielle had the wall up again.

Wolfe picked up his knife and met my anxious gaze. Before he could ask for my hand, I gave it to him.

He studied my face for a heartbeat before taking my hand and pressing the blade to my skin.

“It will be just like before. I'll block your pain so you shouldn't feel a thing.”

My heart stumbled. “You blocked my pain?” I stared deep into those dark depths and found that compassion I'd witnessed in him nights ago.

“I didn't want to... hurt you.”

His words and the too-tender look in his eyes left me breathless. My thoughts scattered, and for a moment, everything else faded. Then he looked away.

I composed my mind, feeling silly again. He wasn't being nice. Wolfe didn't do nice.

Back home, when Grandmother performed amputations, she didn't use mandrake poultice to numb her patients out of the goodness of her heart. She did it because it was part of the procedure. This was the same thing.

Wolfe sliced my palm, and at first, I felt nothing, but then pain shot through my arm fierce as a lightning bolt.

“Ouch!” I gasped, yanking my hand free. “What in the hells?”

Pain flowed up and down my arm, and my hand burned like fire had scorched my skin. I looked at my hand expecting to see blood pouring from my fresh wound, but the skin had healed up again.

“Elariya, what is it?” Wolfe took my hand and was about to say something more when he noticed I'd healed.

Seething, he released me and cut himself again, only for the same thing to happen. He healed, too. “What the fuck?”

Like a madman, Wolfe grabbed my hand and sliced my palm. Unlike last time, the pain came fast and hard with a force that knocked me to the ground.

I screamed from the agony, grabbing my hand. Wolfe moved toward me, but it was Garrick who got to me first. He'd broken the shield he'd made with Arielle and rushed to my side.

Holding my hand up to the light, he checked I was okay. “Are you hurt?” He continued inspecting me. “What is?—”

Garrick didn't get to finish his question. A blast of power knocked him away from me, sending him reeling across the hall. He had to unleash his wings to stop himself from crashing into the wall.

I pushed to my feet, thinking one of the banished beings I was cautioned about earlier had escaped the dead planes and was attacking us. Instead, I found a furious-looking Wolfe towering over me, looking like the devil about to release fire from the hottest hell. My chest heaved. Not from the pain, but from him. From the way he looked at me, then at Garrick as though he wanted to incinerate him.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Garrick snapped, flying back to us. His wings disappeared the moment his feet touched the ground.

“I'm fairly certain I said don't break your focus.” The growl that tore from Wolfe's throat echoed around the room.