Page 21 of The Unbound Witch

The horse, unsettled by her presence, threw his head back, whinnying as he tried to move away from her. I clutched my thighs to hold on as she swooped higher, out of his sight, though I could tell she was annoyed.

“I got that much. But how do you know each other?”

“We were summit mates,” Atlas answered.

She sighed. “I died as a witch. I’ve only been a wraith for about five minutes. I have no idea what that means.”

“When a shifter turns eight years old, they have to do a solo run up the peak in the Moss Coven. Once you hit the summit, the trainers are there to begin your education. In order to complete it, you make a final run at seventeen up the highest peak in the Forest Coven with your summit mates. All in. All out.”

He paused, and Grey cut in. “When Bastian left to join the shifters, his father was worried he would struggle, being only half, so he arranged it so that I could join them.”

Torryn cleared his throat. “Ah. Yes. That’s what happened. I’m afraid my memory isn’t as good as it used to be.”

“You’re fifteen years older than we are Tor, stop acting like a grandpa,” Atlas said, shoving his arm.

“The Moss Coven summit is just a steep hill compared to the highest mountain in the Forest territory,” Grey continued. “Tor was our very unfortunate trainer.”

“Eh. He was lucky we broke him in,” Atlas said, though the fondness in his words wasn’t lost on me.

“So, what? You had summer camping trips to learn how to sleep outside?” Kirsi asked, unimpressed.

“It was more than that, Ghosty. We trained with various weapons. We learned tobecomeweapons ourselves. We learned to control the beast through our teen years when all we wanted to do was find women to—”

“I get it,” she cut him off.

“Atty and I hated each other at first,” Grey said. “We competed at everything. Shifter training is a lot like the Trials, only longer, and far more brutal. Fighting with no rules, pouring rain, and icy weather. Nothing matters besides cold hard soldiers, ready for battle.”

“Against the witches?” I whispered.

“Against any enemy of the king,” Grey corrected.

I could feel those green eyes on me, even through the darkness.The words he left unspoken circled my tiring mind. I was an enemy to the king. He was warning me to be prepared for the reaction when they learned of … what I’d done. Even in my mind, I couldn’t push past the pain that seared my heart like an iron.

They continued their prattling, but I could no longer hear them as my thoughts eddied back and forth between moments of Bastian as the villain of my life and the savior of it. The fine line we’d walked together until the past healed over and we found contentment in each other. In the moments when we shut out the rest of the world, and there was only him and me and a promise of forever that was shattered far too soon.

I tried to swallow the lump in my throat, squeezing my eyes shut as a tear fell free. I wouldn’t let them hear me sob. I was not the victim, though my heart protested. The missing piece throbbing within my chest. He’d been a boy once, laughing and playing with these men. Their memories were full of his happiness, a life he lived before I’d been in it. Through my silent tears, I pictured him with us now. Would he laugh as easily as they did? Would he hang his arms over their shoulders and remember his childhood in a happy light?

“Raven?” Kirsi whispered from beside me.

“My heart hurts.” I said, because it did. And I just needed someone else to know that I was not okay.

“I know.”

I swiped the tears from my cheeks, trying desperately to hide my despair. “I think I would have loved him, Kir. We just didn’t get the time.”

I felt her then. The cool arm wrapped around me, the head she laid on mine. And for the first time since my world broke into pieces, I felt seen.

“I have to let him go,” I whispered. “But I don’t think my heart is ready.”

“You have a lifetime to let him go. You can hold on a little longer.”

I nodded, more tears falling as I remembered all our stolen moments. The rawness he’d shown me in my dreams, when I’d wished for him to be that man so full of light and casual conversation. He’d wanted me to know the real Bastian. The man behind the mask.

The warm glow from a hanging lantern broke through the darkness ahead and, pushing away the last of my tears, I straightened my back, preparing to tell the shifters and Eden Mossbrook my truth. Horrified as they may be, they needed to know the world was changing.

The quaint cottage, built from the trees around us, sat nestled into the mountainside forest. Mostly hidden behind crawling ivy, the arched door was an homage to many of the Moss coven homes I’d seen.

“Can you believe we’re about to meet her?” Kirsi asked, still hovering close to me. “Imagine the whole world thinking you were dead for over twenty-five years while you just hid in the human lands. Why do you think she did it?”