Page 17

Chapter 17

Evie

I woke up unpleasantly cold. Sunrise came too early and my personal man-blanket was gone. I cracked an eye open and stretched. Somehow, my body wasn’t as sore as last night and my head wasn’t pounding after drinking a mind-numbing amount of alcohol. There were benefits to being a shifter.

Declan yipped in his sleep, legs twitching like he ran through his dreams, giant tail thumping. Beyond him, Ward packed the horses. He must have set breakfast to simmer because the wheaty smell of porridge filled the air. Since I didn't get shot in the hand, maybe Ward would unbend his protective streak enough to let me feed myself this morning. I sighed at the thought… because I was a strong, independent woman who absolutely did not want to sit on his lap like last night.

I didn’t even have a pillow to groan into. Going back to sleep was the better option.

Declan barked himself awake, rolling closer and dragging a fur over himself as he shifted. I minded the shifter nakedness less and less, but it was probably a good idea. Ward looked more murdery than usual after I got shot with the arrow. I was feeling a little feral myself. Maybe near-death did that to you.

“Good dream?” I asked Declan.

“Always.” He smiled at me with sadness sheening his eyes.

I didn’t know if that was true, but Declan’s smiles were convincing. Maggie was positive in that aggressive way, so first-hand experience told me it usually hid something else. I wasn’t sure if we were close enough for me to dig up his ghosts.

“Ward’s already up with breakfast cooking,” I said.

Declan sighed. “That man. You mated one with house training and giant muscles.”

I did my best not to laugh and wake up the rest of the brood. “They came in handy when I plummeted out of the sky. Did you see him catch me?”

He patted my good leg. “I did, luckily, after Ward stopped me from bleeding out. If you don’t finish that mate bond with that man, I’m going to.”

I laughed, blushing. Declan meant it as a joke, but our misunderstandings nagged me this morning. Ward had asked me to trust him. Literally, falling into his arms should have sealed the deal. Instead, the best I came up with after he defended me was fear.

“Declan, I don’t know how to love someone. My sister and my ex broke that part of me.” I shook my head. That wasn’t good enough. Honestly, Ward and I both deserved much more. “What am I supposed to do? I’m hopeless at anything like that now.”

Declan’s look turned sly. “Well, I do know a few juicy bear mating secrets.”

I scooched a little closer to him. “Don’t be stingy.”

He smiled like he was presenting me with life’s greatest secret. “Well, I’ve heard salmon is a common gift.”

“Don’t listen to that moron.” Noora crawled up behind me and started braiding my hair. If today was anything like yesterday, I would need it out of my face. “Use your sexual wiles on him. Grab his face and demand he join you as one with his massive?—”

“Don’t spread your techniques around, woman,” Brightpaw said, laughing as he sat up in their blankets.

More than sex clearly needed to happen for the mate bond to finish, but I trusted they knew the shifter protocol better than I did. Perhaps that’s how it had to start. If our first round was any indication, it wouldn’t be a hardship. “I have the sexual wiles of a cup of mead. If I attempt any grabbing or wrestling, I might break more than a rib this time.”

All conversation stopped. Three pairs of eyes gazed back at me with varying levels of shock.

“You what?” Declan asked.

“Um…” There was no place to hide in our rumpled bed roll.

“Well, maybe you tone it down a little bit,” Noora amended. “You just say ‘I love you’.”

“I trust you,” Brightpaw supplied.

Declan cleared his throat. “Your love runs deep in my veins. I’ll take your darkness into my keeping along with your light. I could not live without the joy of my life and half of my soul.”

We all stared at Declan with open mouths.

“That. Go with that,” Noora said.

The hype was real, even if I didn’t think I could say the beautiful words Declan supplied. Noora tied off my braid and nudged me forward. Right. Now I had to do something about it.

Ward still had his back to me as I approached. His gigantic hands brushed out Greg’s mane.

“Ward, before we get to the next almost-dying bit. Is there anywhere we might… stop and… chat?” His hands stilled on Greg. Maybe I couldn’t wait to find a place to chat or I would never get this out. “I just wanted to say… to say…”

Time slowed down to molasses as he turned around.

“Abner?” My ex’s name spit out of my lips like a curse. I blinked hard. Wasn’t Ward just standing there?

“Huh? What were you stumbling over again, Evening?” Abner smirked.

I always hated that nickname. It didn’t even make sense. He gave it to me on our first date and it should have been a red flag when he wouldn’t stop using it.

“I… I was just looking for someone.” I took a step back, surveying the brood as they slowly woke up. Was I crazy? My ex really slouched in front of me, right? Everyone else saw him?

“The stutter’s new. Maybe Mags can help with that, too. I’m sure she has a crystal for it.”

Abner’s constant advice on my self-improvement grew tired in the first month we were together. But he compared me to Maggie only right before we broke up. He never gave me a reason he rejected my proposal and promptly left to sleep with her. At this point, I didn’t want to know.

“I should go.” But I couldn’t move. My legs simply wouldn’t work. When I looked to Declan for help, the brood suddenly surrounded us in a tight circle, intent on Abner and I. The stag, Toad, a midnight-colored wolf—their gazes bore down on me. All the blood rushed to my face, and I startled into snake form.

“Oh my Godds, Evening. That look is dumber than your rock collection. You’ll never pull off scales.” Abner’s wide mouth opened on a bray, and the rest of the brood followed suit. My chest tightened, strangling my breath into a reedy wheeze.

I guess they were just being nice last night when this stupid form didn’t seem to bother them a bit. I really needed to find Ward because Declan and Noora laughed too and it made my throat sting and my eyes well up. My mate didn’t seem to be anywhere in the brood, but my gaze rested on that dark wolf and he looked bigger.

Abner wiped his eyes, his smile going sympathetic like it did every time he cut me down. It made my heart surge in my chest like an idiot, just like it used to. But this time it was because I was angry as hells he said those things at all.

Ward only ever encouraged me, praised me, looked out for me. Abner’s voice sat like glass shards in my mind. Where did my mate go? That midnight wolf stepped to the side. Did it have an extra leg? Or three? I couldn’t process because he revealed Ward sitting in the clearing in his bear form, happily embracing Maggie. My sister looked up at him with adoration in her eyes. My breathing sped up. I stood, paralyzed.

The sound in the back of his throat snapped my attention to Abner. “Wow, what a happy couple,” he said.

I looked back and Maggie stood with a now-human Ward, hanging on his flexing arm. Words jumbled up in my throat. Maggie and I had shit to work out for sure. The thing with Abner wouldn’t just go away. But she would not take the thing that made all of that feel like a slight bump in the road of my life. I should have lit her up like a roman candle that very day.

No words came out, but something inside me clicked and lit a geyser of pure rage. No one was going to come between my teddy bear and I.

I dove forward, running as fast as my stupid legs would carry me, intent on a massacre. That lion would look like he had a black eye compared to what I was about to do to my sister. The black wolf skidded to a stop in front of me. He definitely had too many heads. I shifted as I leapt over him with more grace than I had ever managed. Just as my fangs were about to meet flesh, I started awake with a giant gasp.

My heart beat furiously against my ribs. I rolled and sprung up next to the fire. Night still blanketed the camp site. Declan and Noora slept, but they both moved like they fought their dreams. And Ward? Something large and dark and terrifying crouched over him. The image of the wolf from my dream flickered over the creature, except the wolf had sprouted an impossible number of legs and heads. My rage returned, and the wolf disappeared, leaving a nightmare with foot-long claws, razor teeth and dark, flowing hair feeding on Ward with gut-churning slurping sounds. Its body melded with the dark but amongst all that unnaturally moving hair sat a crown made of wire, blinking lights, metal, and a tooth the size of my palm.

The tooth beat a drum in my body that I was coming to associate with the relics. I would not eat wires and a tooth. I promised myself after the last time. Most importantly, this thing was hurting Ward.

My scream of rage sounded just as badass as my dream as I dove on the creature, whipping him away from my bear, striking it in any way I could. My pure fury lent me strength I shouldn’t have had to push back the piece of night. Those hissing scales in my mind flooded me with more power, shifter power. I wasn’t sure what to do with that other than keep hitting the monster. It tried to sink me back into a dream. My snake fought with me, keeping me awake.

Strike him down. Protect our mate. Okay, the voice thing was new. I would deal with that when we weren’t fighting a dream demon.

There was no way I was going back to that nightmare where I ended up stuck with Abner and Ward had a happy family. I head-butted the creature in the nose, a move Fallon always had success with, and it slunk away from me into the dark. My immediate headache—worth it.

I scrambled back to Ward, shaking his shoulders, willing him to be okay, still furious that he had let Maggie rub all over him. The completely rational part of me knew it wasn’t him and knew it wasn’t her, but fear had taken the reins.

“You bastard!” I screamed at him as I hit him on the shoulder. “You promised you wouldn’t even look at her.” I punched him right in the rib and got a bruised hand for my trouble, but no response from Ward. My anger faded as fear set in.

“Wake up, Ward. Please.” I shook him by both shoulders and watched his hand flop to the ground. “I don’t know how to do this by myself. Please wake up. We can be whatever kind of mates you want.”

He didn’t move, but at least he wasn’t fighting himself like the others. If he wouldn’t listen to me, maybe his bear would. I reached deep inside where those Goddess relics made a home in my soul and said, “WAKE UP!”

Ward gasped awake just as I had, immediately wrapping his arms tight around me. I couldn’t breathe a lick, but I was so grateful he squished me to him, I didn’t care.

“I had the worst dream, viper. The chain. I couldn’t escape, no matter how hard I tried.”

A squeak came out with no words, and Ward finally eased his grip on me.

“There’s a creature with the relic. It was?—”

“Noth?” Ward’s voice strangled.

Ward peered over my head to the wolf, who looked like a starry void with too many legs.

“Oh, no. Not your ballad friend?” I turned in Ward’s arms. “I thought he was an elf?”

The nightmare monster heaved and slobbered with desperation. I hoped some intelligence would shine through the relic’s call, but the creature remained lost. The relic—a blade-shaped bone—sat strapped to his head, glowing in time with the lights on the makeshift crown. Those same wires filled the box we took from the last temple. It was like nothing of the Harrowlands and it chilled me down to the bone.

“Step away from her. You have a new master now and you will lead his army once I’ve killed the witless one,” the creature lisped.

I huffed. I was the witless one? “Looks like the owner of the box finally found us.”

Ward tucked me behind him. “Noth. Do not give in to the Goddess’ call. It’s twisted.”

The monster lunged forward, snapping its jaws in its many heads. “I see clearer than ever, bear. I am not meant to be caged. We will be free to do as the Goddess intended and tear the fabric of reality from its moorings once this one is dead. She grows too powerful.”

The brood members woke slowly, stumbling to their feet. Declan stood on four paws, but his eyes remained glassy, like the dream still latched onto his mind. Worse than that, a team of men entered the camp in strange, dark armor that blended with the night with even stranger weapons pointed at us. They were definitely not of the Harrowlands.

I turned back to Noth, and Abner stood beside him. Pinching myself, I was unfortunately wide awake.

I tapped Ward’s shoulder. “Do you see a skinny guy with bad teeth and a face like a lemon?”

Ward nodded. “Yes. Do you see a man with a collar and chain?”

“Yep. My ex.”

Ward growled. “My attempted jailer.”

I took a gulping breath. “Nightmares manifested in the real world were not how I thought we were going to work through our mate trauma.”

“You want to try?” Ward’s hopeful voice sounded completely inappropriate for the amount of danger we were in.

I attempted to stick to the topic at hand. “Are they real?”

Ward kept his friend in his line of vision. “Noth is a powerful Nightmare Walker, but he’s never made anything solid in the waking realm. It must be the relic.”

“How can he hear its call? I thought all shifters turned into animals?”

Ward stood, sheltering me with his body. Unfortunately, the brood and the men in black surrounded us. “Not all of us shift into pleasant forms. The Elven council will be furious that their King is out here in his other form.”

Great. How were we supposed to fight Ward’s friend and a King to boot?

“Grab her,” Noth said and dream Abner started forward and the rest of the brood came closer. Did their dreams still govern them?

Ward stepped up. But that gave one of the scary men in black a chance to grab my arm and haul me away. I was a snake so fast he didn’t have time to pull away before my fangs buried in his forearm. I didn’t feel the least bit bad. My venom bubbled his skin and tore screams from his mouth, unlike the shifters. At this point in the quest, I was ready to be a savage if it meant this would end faster.

I chomped the next one, approaching with his tube-like weapon. Biting his unprotected neck turned out to be easier than I thought, but the stick in his hand went off with the sound of an explosion. My snake form muted the ringing in my ears.

The next man in black used a snarling, slobbering Declan as a shield, his weapon pointed at my head. I wasn’t as fast as the shifters surrounding us, but I moved faster than the human. I was absolutely sure that’s what they were beneath their strange clothes and mechania weapons. Declan tried to fight me, prevent me from getting close to the man. The mini-explosions sounded all around me and a searing line of heat grazed my side as I bit Declan and prayed my venom would snap him out of it again.

Be careful of their artillery, I warned Ward, who squared off with Noth. He had magic between his hands, speaking some spell that glowed with an unholy fire.

You may have to bite Noth even if I can get the relic off him, Ward warned.

It seemed to work on Declan. He wasn’t brawling with me anymore, even if he did retch up last night’s mead.

SHIFT! I commanded him and he popped into his human form, looking pissed. Find Noora and the temple boys. Wake them any way you can. They’re the only other ones not affected by the relic. If we can get them awake, he won’t be able to nightmare them, either.

Declan scampered off after barreling into the man in black so I could bite at his legs and arms. Two other shifters dove into me, rolling us back toward Ward. Every shifter I bit would only help us, but this was going to be a losing battle. The snow leopard on my right sunk his claws into my shoulder before I could bite him. Even though he turned very apologetic once my venom sank in, I couldn’t take many hits like that. My leg hadn’t healed from the arrow.

Contain the men in black, I ordered them. Or kill them. I don’t care at this point.

We can help you here, the snow leopard said.

I don’t know what will happen if you get too close to the relic. Keep the others safe.

They nodded. When did I turn into the person they would listen to? They slunk off into the night and I heard the screams of men shortly after.

I had to get back to Ward. I wouldn’t want to fight my bestie and we wouldn’t contain Noth forever.

Ward had Noth pinned with a frightening amount of magic. Thick, sorcerous ropes pulled taught with Declan and the gang’s effort. Ward sweat through his shirt, straining to keep Noth contained. The figment of Ward’s jailer surrounded him. What had to be his dead quest partners joined him. The Nightmare Walker wasn’t making this easy on my mate.

“You don’t really want to hurt one of the few friends you have left,” a half-decapitated man said, and Ward shook.

It was awkward to run to them in snake form, but I managed a waddle. Luckily, everyone was too busy with the raging nightmare monster to notice my wombling. Maybe I needed to do this human. I shifted as I skidded to a stop. More human screams sounded from the outskirts of the camp as our brood let us deal with this.

Noth fought his bindings hard, jaw snapping, ever more limbs reaching out as Ward shielded the group from his friend’s grasp. Everyone had their hands full just holding him down, so it was up to me to grab the relic. I looked for an opening to dive into the fray, but suddenly Abner stood in front of me.

I edged closer to Ward to avoid him.

“Evening. Don’t do this. You’re going to get hurt. You trip getting into the house,” nightmare Abner said.

I shoved him out of the way and he appeared corporeal enough, if more scrawny than I remembered him. Real enough to make me nervous. “I told you to never call me that. And I stabbed a giant worm in the eye. I got this.”

Abner tried to step between us. “You’re such a liar?—”

Ward punched him right in the face. Surprise squeaked a chirp out of me as Abner fell back on his ass in the dirt. I laughed so hard I doubled over. Godds that was satisfying, even if it wasn’t the real Abner.

“You’ve got this,” Ward said with full authority ringing in his voice.

Warmth flooded me with his words. He trusted me to do this.

“Shove off, ghosts.” I pushed Ward’s nightmares away from him as well. They drifted back towards us, chatting up a storm again. We needed to finish this before they harassed us to death.

“You will not hurt Noth. I can get the relic,” I told Ward.

“I can hold his head, but he can shift into any nightmare. You have to be fast,” Ward said, sweat beading his brow as Noth tugged an arm free of the enchantment. “I can only repeat the structure of this spell so many times before it snaps.”

“Can your bear sit on him?” I asked.

“My bear will tear him apart if I let him out. You can’t hesitate. Noth will fight hard for the relic. Snake in there and eat it.”

“Excuse me?” I blinked at him.

“Veretis’ Fang of Courage is the thing in the center of that crown. That is the one relic the history books say shrine maidens actually ate and wielded unmatched bravery in the face of adversity.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Noth roared into the night, jerking Declan off his feet. The wolf shifted, the spelled rope in his jaws pulling taught.

“Debate later!” Noora yelled and Noth lunged at her, only stopped by Brightpaw, pulling the magical rope tight.

I didn’t think, I just shifted and dove for Noth, crashing into him as he unhinged his jaw further than any wolf ever could. I wrapped around him as his mouth came slamming down on my middle. The punishing gnawing erupted agony across my body. Everyone started screaming. Venom leaked from Noth’s mouth, pumping through me, and my snake took over, reacting with her own bite. This time, I called the venom with a vengeance. The faster I forced it into him, the better. No one would harm my brood.

Noth howled a distorted wail as he released me. Whatever he bit me with raced through my system, my heart thundering. My mind slipped, like my human side couldn’t keep a grip on my control. Overwhelming fear spread through my bones. A nameless, primal fear that Noth snapped forward to eat from. His form bulked, but the fear also spurred my snake. My coils expanded, a rumble rattled my throat. I gripped my snake’s intent, yanking because she was about to destroy Noth on her own. No fear meant no barriers, no hesitation, no reason not to tear the threat limb from limb. Her brutality was terrifying, which only added to the fear sloshing inside me.

I only had one chance to distract her out of a bloodbath—I lunged for the relic, opening my mouth wide. A mouthful of metal and bone made me gag, but I chewed it all, struggling to swallow. The mess scratched and burned all the way down.

Wait until you see this, Veretis’ familiar voice echoed. The Goddess’ power warred with the fear venom inside me, eventually flowing around it rather than fighting it. My body snapped, lengthened and twisted around Noth tighter, even though he stopped attacking the moment I took the relic from him. The fear screamed I would become an even more horrific monster.

My vision swam. The ground grew pretty far away. The crunching and screams of the brood turning on the black-clad men sounded so distant.

SHIFT. I commanded Noth with all the power in me and he fell forward into a perfectly graceful looking elf, complete with long, pierced ears. I didn’t put any effort behind it, but the entire clearing of shifters shifted, finishing the fight with the remaining humans with fists and brute strength.

The Goddess’ power formed an endless lake, even if Noth’s venom made me a shaking mess.

Evie! Ward yelled into my mind. He looked so cute. More like a teddy bear than ever.

Noora shrieked, “Dragon!”

Shit. With this much adrenaline in my system, there was no way I could fight a dragon. Ward swayed on his feet from the effort of his spells and my instincts screamed, run! We needed to get out of here. My snake demanded my mate be safe. I reached down—that was new—and took Ward in my very long talons, clutching him to my chest. The fear rode me hard, my heart booming in my ears, my mind still hazy.

Safe, safe, SAFE!

I pushed off the ground, stretching to the sky, and let my body do the rest to take us to safety.