Page 56 of Savage Claim

“It’s just a nightmare.” I stroked his damp cheek. “It’s not real.”

“It’s not real?” he asked in a broken whisper.

And then his eyes suddenly darkened, and sharp edges cut into his expression as the realization hit him. “Get out of my head.”

The fury in his words had me frozen to the spot. “I didn’t mean?—”

Fane snatched my wrist and then shoved me away, my back hitting the cold, bloody ground. “Get out!”

My eyelids popped open to our room in Silver Ridge, my heart pounding and limbs shaking. Moments later, Fane bolted up beside me. Our ragged breaths echoed as tension choked the air.

Only two days had passed since I almost died in Rosewood Cemetery. The wound in my torso wasn’t quite healed yet, and Fane had barely left my side. He’d even slept next to me, something he probably regretted right now.

The demon shifter’s head slowly swiveled in my direction, his pupils in black slits. “Stay out of my fucking head.” Venom laced every syllable, threatening to poison me.

But the jerk didn’t get to be mad when he did the same thing.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” I snapped, slowly sitting up to avoid the pain in my healing wound. “It just happened.”

“Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

A bitter laugh slipped out. “You do it to me. And on purpose sometimes.” When his mouth opened, I stabbed my finger into his bare chest. “Don’t even try to deny it, Maverick.”

He snatched my hand, his nostrils flaring. “This is different.”

“Why? Because you finally have to admit that you don’t want to kill me at all?”

Fane ripped the covers off and stood. Ebony strands of hair were wild around his face, and his mismatched irises glowed through the shadows. “I don’t have to admit shit, Teague. Despite what you saw, I do want to kill you. In fact, I’m thinking about it right now.”

“Bullshit.” I threw the covers off and stood, hissing as a sharp pain ripped into my torso.

He was suddenly next to me, his hand on my side as he took my pain like it was becoming a reflex. Once he realized what he was doing, he jerked away.

“Nothing you saw in my head was real.” His low voice held a warning that would make most cower in fear. “It was a nightmare, remember? And the nightmare part wasn’t you dying. It was me being upset by it.”

He stormed out of the room, leaving me to feel the sting of his hurtful words, but he didn’t mean them. Fane would be devastated if I died. What other reason would he have to protect me and remain by my side all this time? He was only lying to himself and barely believed his own bullshit anymore.

I paced the room while contemplating chasing him and demanding he stop pretending. He needed to face reality and his feelings for me. We’d been through this before. Of course, a spell wasn’t involved, but we’d struggled with hating each other for a long time. We could overcome all of that again.

Rustling paper caught my attention, and I turned toward the door as a small note slid beneath the crack. I hurried across the room, yanked the knob, and peered into an empty hall.

Who the hell was slipping me notes?

I gingerly bent and retrieved it, opening the small piece of paper.

Archives. The last shelf in the back. Bottom row. Look for the signs. Find the welcome scroll.

What the hell was a welcome scroll?

I yanked one of Fane’s hoodies off the chair in the corner and shoved it over my head before tiptoeing into the hall. The house was silent at two in the morning while most shifters were sleeping. Knowing the path well, it only took me a few minutes to make it to the archives.

My nose scrunched against the scent of dust as I stepped inside, turned on the light, and closed the door. After taking a few turns in the cramped space, I came to the last bookshelf and kneeled. The tattered books looked like they hadn’t been touched in decades. My pulse shot through the roof when my gaze fell on the tree symbol embossed on one.

This had to be it.

I pulled the heavy tome out, opened it, and uncovered a hidden compartment full of little scrolls. Each blot of scarlet wax sealing them was stamped with that damn tree symbol. My heart thundered as my fingers rolled over them, searching for the welcome one.

How the hell was I was supposed to find the right one? Would I have to break every damn seal open and read them?

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