Page 42 of The Beginning (Covert Moon, #1)
Sensing trouble brewing with the instincts of someone who'd survived years in this business, the bartender intervened.
"Hey, I don't need problems here. Matthias lives in the apartments across the street—Cascade Suites.
First floor, one of the back units. I don't know which number, but that's where you'll find him if he's anywhere. "
"Thank you." The stranger stepped back and finally deigned to look at me, offering a smile that wouldn't fool a child. "My apologies. You may continue your business."
I may? Oh no he didn’t. As if I needed his royal permission to exist in this space. My eyes met his, ready to deliver a response that would strip paint from the walls, and time fractured like glass. I couldn’t speak. Why was he so familiar?
His eyes were dark and intense—dismissing me entirely.
But something about his face, about the way he moved, struck a chord in my memory.
Where had I seen him before? He was attractive, if you could get past his entitled attitude.
I shook my head, trying to clear it. I couldn’t remember.
His face wasn’t one that I would have forgotten.
Threat. The sensation echoed in my mind like a mantra. He was connected to whatever had happened to me, whatever forces were hunting my family. To Silas, to Calyx. His presence here couldn't possibly be coincidence. I had nothing other than instinct to back this up, but I knew .
I fought to keep my expression neutral, to hide the recognition and fear and, truth be told, unwanted desire blooming in my chest migrating down to my core.
What could I say? He was attractive, or would be, if he kept his arrogant mouth shut.
My training kicked in—never let them see they've rattled you, never show weakness to a potential enemy.
I forced my breathing to remain steady, my posture casual, even as my magic stirred restlessly beneath my skin like a caged animal sensing danger.
But those eyes held depths, and the way his expression shifted told me he'd seen something in my face despite my efforts. The almost imperceptible widening of his eyes showed me that he, too, had a reaction to me. Too bad he was bad news wrapped up in a great jawline.
“What do you want with M…,” I started.
As if he hadn’t heard me, he just turned and strode from the bar with fluid grace. The door squealed as he left. As though they had all agreed, the table of five rose in perfect unison, and made for the door, following him into the night.
Oh, hell. I didn’t trust the guy, hormones be damned, but I couldn’t let him be jumped or killed before I had a chance to question him myself.
I tossed a ten on the counter and slid off my stool, legs unsteady beneath me.
The bartender pocketed the money with a grateful nod, already back to his glass-polishing routine as if encounters with strangers asking about locals were just another part of his evening shift.
Outside, the front of the bar was empty despite six people having just exited ahead of me.
No footsteps echoing on pavement, no shadows moving under streetlights, no sign that anyone had ever been here at all.
I checked both directions with growing unease, then followed instinct around the back of the building where my car waited like a faithful companion.
What passed for the parking lot on this little wedge of ground was deserted, gravel crunching under my feet as I continued around the far side of the building.
A wide alley squeezed between the bar and a storage shed.
. The space felt charged with potential energy, like the moment before lightning strikes.
And it took a moment for my brain to catch up with what my eyes were taking in.
Back against a chain-link fence ostensibly designed to keep drunks from wandering onto active train tracks, stood the stranger who’d so easily dismissed me.
He wasn’t looking dismissive now. He looked downright dangerous.
He was surrounded by a pack of what I'd initially mistaken for large dogs—until I saw the intelligence in their eyes, the coordinated way they moved, the unnatural size that spoke of something far more dangerous than any domestic animal. These were definitely wolves, and nothing like any wolves I’ve ever seen before.
And he was holding a sword.
The weapon definitely hadn't been on him in the bar.
The blade gleamed under the dim streetlight that barely penetrated this far back, and he wielded it with the kind of fluid competence that spoke of years of training.
Yet here he was, fending off creatures that moved with disturbing coordination, their growls harmonizing in a way that raised every hair on my arms.
I stepped into the alley without thinking.
"Hey!" The word tore from my throat as I ran toward the pack, grabbing a beer bottle from the ground and hurling it in their direction.
Glass shattered against brick, the sound sharp and aggressive in the confined space.
I wove a repelling spell in my hands and threw it at them as I neared.
"Get out of here!" Wild arm-waving and aggressive posturing usually worked on strays, but these weren't strays.
"No! Woman! Stay back!" Gray Eyes shouted, his voice carried something beyond concern—it was actual fear.
Too late. Instinct had taken over, and something primal in me demanded I help him fight whatever threatened him.
The magic in my blood sang with recognition of danger, power rising to meet the challenge without conscious direction.
As if responding to an invisible command transmitted on frequencies I couldn't hear, every creature took two precise steps backward and fixed their attention on me.
The sudden shift from aggressive pack to focused audience was deeply unsettling, like being examined by a jury I hadn't known I was appearing before.
"Don't run. They'll overtake you." His voice cut through my confusion with quiet authority. "Back against the wall. Move toward me. Do it now."
His tone carried the weight of someone accustomed to being obeyed in life-or-death situations.
I raised my hands, showing the animals that I carried no weapon, and took careful steps backward until the bar's brick wall pressed against my shoulders.
The surface was cold and rough through my jacket, grounding me in physical reality while everything else felt like a fever dream.
I sidled along the brick, closing the distance between us while keeping my eyes on the pack that watched with eyes that shone with unnerving intelligence.
The nausea flattened my like I was tar and it was a steamroller.
The alley tilted sideways, walls sliding at impossible angles as my vision blurred around the edges. I fought the disorientation with everything I had, but my body was responding to something beyond my control.
What in all the hells?
I dropped to my hands and knees, right hand splashing into an oily puddle.
Grit bit into my left palm like tiny teeth, and my skin erupted in an overwhelming sensation as if thousands of tiny feathers brushed against every nerve ending.
It felt like being turned inside out and rebuilt from my toes to the top of my head.
My vision went black. My ears filled with a roaring sound that drowned everything else out.
What was happening?
When my sight returned, I was standing again, facing Gray Eyes with new awareness flooding my senses.
Colors were more vivid, sounds more distinct, scents so complex they told stories I was only beginning to understand.
A breeze cut through the alley with autumn's sharp edge, and I was suddenly, impossibly freezing.
I looked down and discovered I was completely naked.
The shock hit all of us simultaneously—me, Gray Eyes, and the pack of creatures who seemed as stunned as we were by whatever had just occurred.
The silence crackled with tension until one of the animals broke from the group, approached and licked my fingers with surprising gentleness before bounding away into the night.
The rest followed, dissolving like shadows, leaving me alone with the stranger whose impossible sword was sliding into an equally impossible scabbard at his waist.
The moment he released the hilt, both blade and sheath vanished as if they'd never existed, Gray Eyes stepped toward me, his eyes wide with shock and alarm.
. His mouth moved, forming words that seemed to come from underwater, and I wanted to run, wanted my clothes back, wanted answers that made sense in the world I'd known just moments before.
Instead, I opened my mouth to scream.
He reached for my hand, and the moment our skin connected, my stomach turned inside out. I doubled over and vomited all over his expensive-looking boots as my vision collapsed to pinpoints and I fell into the dark.