Page 45 of WitchBorn
My lungs burned for air as a dark shape skated through the water, sliding through the depths like a rocket. The shadow wolf, its dark fur rippling like liquid night, swam with terrifying speed, eyes glowing with malevolence, focused on me. The beast’s jaws snapped open, ready to strike while I struggled to lift my head and stare death in the face.
A blur of movement caught my eye. Finn propelled himself from the darkness, arms outstretched. He blasted past the wolf aiming for me. The shadow wolf lunged, nipping at Finn, whoslammed a fist into its snout and spun my way, colliding with me, but holding tight. Finn wrapped me in a protective grip. Body in front of mine as a shield while the wolf snarled at him.
I focused on his glowing form, clawing for consciousness as I lost the battle for air and sucked in water, ice filling me from the inside out. The weight of water filled my chest with an intense pain. Who knew fae could die by drowning? I never imagined it was the way I’d go. But I was part mortal after all.
My eyes wouldn’t stay open, and the darkness slid in as Finn gripped me around the waist and dragged us downwards. A wriggle of magic tingled over my skin, and I glimpsed a dark swirl of a chaotic whirlpool, water and shadows churning that registered in half a fading heartbeat in my mind as a portal.
Was it freedom from this world? I had a half second to hope as the pain vanished with my consciousness. Darkness overwhelmed my senses as Finn yanked us through the portal.
I blacked out, rising for a few seconds to the feel of his lips on mine, familiar now, though strange as few ever cared to kiss me as he had. But it wasn’t a kiss this time. He forced air into my lungs, which screamed in pain as they were overwhelmed with water.
“Breathe! Wesley! Don’t die!” Finn begged. His hands on my chest hurting as he shoved the water out of me. I choked and sputtered, turning to upchuck water and bile, but losing my battle with consciousness again as the icy goo poured out of me.
Finn’s warm body curled up behind me slowed my shivers as I came back to. I vomited more, a sick human sensation that I really hated. But Finn kept me from falling into the mess and held me tight despite the shivers. I thought he was growling, the muted sound coming from behind us, but as I glanced back I realized we had landed back in the clover field, but weren’t alone.
“He’s not going to touch you,” Finn promised. “Just breathe, okay? You really scared me.”
I coughed, the sound matching the pain, but nothing else came up.
“Release him,” a deep voice growled.
“No,” Finn said. “You tried to kill him.”
“Should have snuffed you permanently,” the wolf snarled. “Useless and weak.”
“Whatever,” Finn said, using himself as barrier between us. “You don’t like either of us, let us go.”
“Mine.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Finn said. “You’d make a shitty lover. Killing your mate and all that.”
“Not me,” the wolf growled. “You. Always you. Weak. Human mistakes.”
Finn frowned, confusion crossing his face. He mouthed the wordme?
But I understood, even as my heart raced, lungs ached, and sleep tugged at me. The wolf, dragon, shadow, or whatever remained of the Autumn king had torn itself apart.
I reached up to touch Finn’s face, searching for the resemblance, finding only tiny traces of it. “You are the Autumn king’s human soul,” I said. Not some strange rescue or even a child the King had hidden away. “You are the Autumn king.”
Thirty-One
WESLEY
“What? How is that possible?” Finn asked. The dark blotch of discolor had crept up his shoulder again, expanding from his back, and stretching around to crawl across the stretch of his chest. From gone to quickly growing, I recalled the wriggle of magic before the portal appeared.
“You opened a portal in the water. Holy shit.”
“What? No, I didn’t.”
“Mate,” the wolf growled.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said. I rose shakily to my feet, clinging to Finn. He kept himself between me and the wolf. “What’s your goal here, Mr. Wolf?” I asked. “You can’t kill him because destroying your mortal soul would end you both. Am I the weak link here? ‘Cause if so, send me back to the mortal realm. I didn’tchooseto be here. You brought me here. Why? You don’t seem to like me much.”
The wolf morphed into the human male form. Too perfect to be real, and now standing several steps from the wolf and Finn, more of the resemblance bled through. I cursed myself for not seeing it sooner, but Finn, the poor bastard, was in the thick of it. “Mate, mine, protect.”
“Super, caveman. I get your wolfy brain doesn’t work the same way, but you lived with a human half for a few centuries, right? You were old long before you met Sebastian. Shouldn’t you have picked up more about humans?” I waved a hand at his physical form, meant to entice? Or did at one point in history Finn look like that?
He flinched when I said Sebastian. Was that a sore spot?