“Eve, wait!” he called after me.
My eyes burned as I picked up my pace, sprinting into the forest, leaving the shattered pieces of my heart at Killian’s feet.
I struggled to breathe. My lungs squeezed tight and refused to obey my desperate need for them to expand with life again.
The ghost of Killian’s lips still imprinted on mine.
I’d never felt more broken.
I hurried through the thickening woods, spindly trees looming over me as I fled the demon I wanted but couldn’t have.
It would be selfish to trap him here in the human realm for years, stuck in a mage coven away from the life he’d built back in the Hybrid Kingdom. Or beg him to wait for me for fires only knew how long while I fixed myself.
As always, he was out of reach. Off-limits.
Something rippled through my subconscious. It took me a minute to connect the mental sensation to meaning.
A person waited up ahead.
A clean feeling I was coming to recognise, something magical, lurking in the forest and tripped my instincts.
“Eve! There you are,” a bright male voice called out.
I turned in time to see a shock of golden hair, practically glowing under the dim moonlight filtering through the canopy. Alvie hurried towards me, crunching through the leaf litter.
I dashed the tears staining my cheeks and pasted on a smile as he neared. “Alvie, what are you doing here?”
Why wasn’t he back at the ceremony with the rest of the mages?
He stopped within biting distance, flashing a friendly smile, but the expression didn’t reach his yellow eyes. “I wanted to say congrats on joining my coven,” he said before chewing his lower lip. “But… I also need your help.”
I frowned. “Help with what?”
Something was off with the sunny mage. I just couldn’t put my claw on what.
“It’s the ward,” he confessed, snapping a twig beneath his shifting weight. “The coven needs strength. Will you help me?”
“Sure.” I drew the word out, trying to puzzle out what was triggering my instincts.
I may not plan to be here long-term, but I needed the coven’s help during my stay. As a half-breed, I was a freak back home.If fixing the ward with Alvie encouraged people to overlook my differences, I couldn’t afford not to.
“Excellent.” Satisfaction radiated from the mage’s golden eyes.
He snatched my hand, damp palm sliding wetly against mine. I barely resisted the urge to yank free as he tugged me along, almost breaking into a run.
The faint tingle of magic tickled my senses as we rushed through the dim forest, hinting at the invisible barrier protecting the coven’s grounds.
Mycoven’s grounds.
I stuffed down the burst of anxiety the thought brought on.
Alvie jerked me to a stop right before the wall of power, keeping my hand captive. At first glance, nothing seemed out of place. The line of half-buried stones sat untouched. Magic fizzed that same static from a few hours ago.
“Alvie…? What’s wrong with the ward?” I peered around the hushed forest. “Was there a disturbance?”
Fear snaked through my middle. Had the hunters found us? Had I led them right to the doorstep of my new coven?
Danger stalked me everywhere I went.