Page 28 of Magic & Secrets (Twisted Magic #1)

Chasing after Roque, I found him walking slower as we moved deeper into Pandorium Forest. He no doubt sensed my presence. Even as he fled from me, our mate bond pulled me closer.

Roque didn’t shift into an animal form and run. As a beast, he could quickly separate us. However, he simply stalked through the woods in human form, allowing me to easily keep pace.

We traveled in this way, separate yet on the same path, for hours. Toward late afternoon, the air grew colder. The trees were different here, whiter and chillier to the touch. A gray mist rolled in, nipping at my knees.

“Roque,” I whispered, finding my breath hanging in the air like smoke.

Suddenly at my side, he growled, “Why are you following me?”

“What else should I do?”

Roque studied me as if I were an oddity. His blue eyes flashed silver, fearing what magic flowed through me. I tried to remember the warmth we shared last evening at the pub. Instead, my mind only felt the cold.

Curling his upper lip in disgust, he asked, “Did the ancient one tell you how to bewitch me?”

“I wish I had the power to make you my slave.”

Our words turned to smoke in the chilly air. Roque seemed oblivious to the cold as he studied me like a predator playing with its food.

Reaching for his hand, I whispered, “We have walked into a cursed place.”

Sidestepping my touch, he muttered, “It’s just cold.”

“No, we’ve gone north.”

“Bane Shifters don’t get lost. We’re moving west.”

Reaching for his hand again, I shivered. “I fear we’ve found ourselves in the Widows Forest.”

Roque stepped away again before I could touch him. “I know where we are.”

“You’re wrong. The forest is tricking us, drawing us deeper. We need to leave.”

Roque lifted his nose to the air and inhaled sharply. “There are no enemies here,” he said before snarling, “Besides you.”

His distrust cut me deeply, yet I had no choice except to remain close. Our mate bond left me paralyzed against my self-interest. I couldn’t even abandon him to find my bevy. I was helpless against this need.

Roque felt the same desire. If not, he would have killed me back when I revealed my magic. His programming ran too deeply within him to forget his hatred toward my kind. The Armgard would always be his enemy.

Yet, he remained weak against our bond. I chose to use his feelings to save us by turning around and walking in a different direction.

“You’re traveling the wrong way,” Roque immediately insisted.

“No, we’ve been traveling the wrong way for hours. Your instincts are clouded by the forest’s power.”

“More lies,” he muttered, refusing to follow.

I kept walking, hurrying my retreat as the cold air made breathing more difficult. Roque couldn’t help following me. He showed no signs of struggle despite the growing chill. Was the cold air a trick of the mind?

“What is the Widows Forest?” Roque called out.

“Eighty years ago, Wolf Shifters led by a Sorceress named Noeme killed the men and children in a nearby outpost. They brought the women to this forest to slaughter as part of a ritual.”

“Your masters filled your head with stories.”

“Do you want to know what they told us about your kind?” I asked, glancing back at him over my shoulder.

Roque snarled in response before shrugging. “Share.”

“They insisted Bane Shifters were cuddly and obedient,” I replied and walked faster. “That’s why you’ll follow me out of his forest before we’re lost here forever.”

“Horseshit,” he muttered. “There is no curse. I’m not lost. I can feel exactly where I am in the world. Didn’t your masters inform you of a Bane Shifter’s internal compass?”

“The forest clouds your instincts to keep you trapped here, where the curse can feed off your power.”

Roque grabbed my arm to stop me. He quickly tugged his hand back as if I had shocked him. The hair on my forearms prickled from his growing agitation.

“What?”

“You feel strange to me.”

“It’s because you know what I am.”

“No,” Roque said and backed away as his gaze scanned the heavy foliage above us. “I touched your throat. I’ve felt your skin before. It wasn’t like this.”

“It’s the forest, Roque. You can’t trust your instincts,” I insisted and began to walk. “We need to exit this place.”

“What makes you think we can?”

His words smacked into me like a fist, nearly sending me to the ground. I stopped and looked around. How long had we been walking? I only started to feel the chill and unease minutes ago, yet we might have been in this place since the beginning. Were the Warlocks and Serpent Shifters even real?

“The forest is playing with our minds,” I told Roque and grabbed hold of him. “We need to stay focused on each other. We’re real. Before the forest wrapped around us, we knew each other. Anything else might be a trick.”

“You’re not to be trusted,” Roque said, brushing away my hand around his wrist. “You’re my enemy. That is real.”

“I am Calla,” I replied softly and stared into his eyes. “I have never hurt you. I put myself at risk by helping you.”

“I had that situation handled.”

“I felt your suffering. I couldn’t let them continue.”

“Your kind had no trouble making me suffer during the Von Ehlinger war.”

“I wasn’t even alive then.”

“How can you know the Gathering isn’t Von Ehlinger with a new name?” Roque asked, circling me. “You don’t because you only know what they tell you.”

“The Gathering never considered that our kind could share a mate bond. They don’t know everything.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“I am not a threat to you.”

“But what about my pack? The Bane Shifters destroyed your entire species.”

“That was a different time. You were the Murade’s weapon. I didn’t even exist.”

Roque shook his head and pointed his finger at me. “I think you caused us to be separated from the others. Your Armgard magic is meant to bewitch me. I believe your sisters are using the same tricks on my packmates. The Bane Shifters were your destroyers. Now, you hope to make us your pets.”

His words hit me hard, but I couldn’t be certain if they belonged to him. Widows Forest held a potent curse.

“For decades, travelers have been lost in this place,” I said, backing away from Roque and scanning the oppressively cold woodlands.

“One of the women sacrificed here was a Witch. With her dying breath, she called out to Pan-Dissurath to curse those who took her life and the land where it happened. This place is clouding our thoughts. Pan-Dissurath wants us to remain lost.”

“This place isn’t why I dropped into a different Territory with you.”

“The spell thrown at us during the battle came from Ivitithi. Ancient magic is deadly against most magic folk. But your kind and mine are also from ancient magic. Rather than kill us, our magic reacted to it. That’s why we were transported.”

“Why just you and me?”

“You know the answer.”

“I know you’re a liar. I know your kind is evil. I know nothing else.”

“Roque,” I said in a pained voice. “Why can’t you see what’s right in front of you?”

Roque’s expression shifted. I felt him breaking through his old programming to what he knew in his heart. The last several days were real. He felt a change in himself since we met. He knew the truth.

His expression hardened before he scurried away from me as if spooked. I looked around, hoping to see what he did.

Whatever frightened him sent Roque into the forest. I rushed after him, trying to follow. He shifted into one form after another, moving around, over, and under the growth, slowing me down.

No matter how fast I ran to keep pace, I soon found myself alone and heartbroken. My mate had abandoned me to the evil spreading over my flesh.

The cold wrapped me tight, stealing my breath and separating me from my training. I couldn’t see past the chill tearing through my every nerve.

My mind tried to call out to my ancient one, yet I couldn’t recall her name. Was she ever real?

Switching gears as I dropped to the ground, I imagined Roque. If the darkness was bound to swallow me whole, I wanted my mate to be my last thought.