Page 143 of Cursed Shadows 4

Daxeel turns and stalks up the incline.

My furious glare follows him for a heartbeat.

Then I hike after him.

I don’t meet anyone’s intent gaze, all three stares alight, and swerving between us both, before they each resume the climb.

I hide my smile.

I bite down on the insides of my cheeks.

Not just my victory that has me flooded with a sense of renewal. But this… That I am the last in the line hiking uphill.

Now, there’s a distance between us. Daxeel sticks ahead at the front, just to be alone in his pain. The others are too wary to stick close to either one of us.

I have a little space.

Enough space that, when we reach the thicker trees with draping lilac leaves and branches that remind me so much of my beloved willows, there is enough distance that I might just make it.

I turn for the curtained trees.

And I run.

31

††††††

I don’t make it to the second tree.

The thick, leafy drapes of the first tree brush over me before Daxeel shoulders his weight into my side. The force of it throws me off my feet and flips me around in the air.

I land on my back with a grunt.

Frosty, dead leaves rush up all around me, a gust of disturbed snow billows at my face—then the weight of a boot presses down on my middle.

The defeat isn’t a flurry of panic in my chest, but rather a stagnant sensation that slumps me. My chances were slim.

I huff a breath at the strands of hair that have fallen into my face.

Rune’s light voice carries downhill, it mocks me, “Something of a wolf, isn’t she? Relentless, that one.”

By the distance of his voice, I understand that none of those males gave chase—they didn’t have to. I made it only a few steps before Daxeel caught up to me.

“More like a snared rabbit.” Daxeel stands over me, boot fixed on my midsection. Cobalt eyes glitter with a rush of excitement, an unspokenI dare you, fight me. “I see no claws.”

Splayed on my back, I loosen a sigh. A moodiness settles over my expression that I aim right up at him.

“Go fuck yourself,” I murmur, limp on the earth.

A small smile plays on his pinkish lips.

I lift my hand from the foliage. “Are you going to help me up, or are you content to drink in my beauty a while longer?”

Slowly, he blinks those long lashes of his, his head tilting to the side, and I watch dark tendrils fall into his face. “Did you forget how to stand on your own?”

Mistrust dances in his eyes like a glittered mist.

I watch the black and blue specks gleam as he slowly draws his boot from my middle, then presses it to the ground, his weight retreating with the movement.

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