Page 40 of Faerie Fate
Pleasure spiraled. The freedom of being able to accomplish something so small without a terrible skull-cracking headache or the cold chills…I’d never take it for granted again.
Madam Muerte’s zombie curse may very well be the death of me. And it took being healthy again, free from the symptoms, for me to actually realize the severity of it.
I shuttered those negative thoughts away and held out the still-steaming meat for Mike. “Here. This will help.”
Noren paced frantically around us, digging grooves into the desiccated dirt road. The fur between his shoulder blades lifted, his lips peeled back from his teeth while he paced. He’d have our backs, I knew without a doubt.
“Thanks, Tavi.” Mike refused to meet my gaze. “But you should eat.”
My own hackles lifted, bristling with his dismissal. He focused instead on the scar around my neck until the line of melded skin grew hot. “Oh? What I find isn’t good enough for you?”
His brows hiked up. “That’s not what I said.”
“We can’t stay here for much longer. That woman was serious with the fireballs.” Bronwen rubbed her hands along her arms and shook her head. “She might send people after us.”
She refused the offered meat, so I held it out to Mike until he had no choice but to take it.
“We eat, and we find some kind of public gathering place,” Mike said through a mouthful of food. He hastily swallowed. “That way we can ask around. Surely someone can point us in the right direction.”
Bronwen hiked her thumb over her shoulder. “We’re definitely not going to have any luck back there.”
“No, we won’t,” Mike agreed. “But if we keep going down this road, we’ll hit Mirwen. Or whatever town constitutes Mirwen right now. The tavern there is old. Really old. Odds are good it’s standing now.”
Luck hasn’t been my bread and butter. If anything, I’ve taken out stock in Murphy’s Law. “I can go check it out, give you time to ground yourself and get your magic back up.”
“No!” Mike was quick to answer. “No, it’s fine.”
I shifted from foot to foot, watching Noren. His eyes fixed on something in the distance but the road was empty from both sides and the fae woman’s shouts had stopped. “I’ve got it covered,” I said irritably.
He glanced at my scar again. “You’re not going alone. That’s final.”
Yeah, because he didn’t trust me. With the mate bond, no matter how much distance or time between us, even in a different world, Mike knew Kendrick had a hold on me. Even though I couldn’t feel him now, who knew what kinds of strings Kendrick could pull from our time?
Especially if the mate bond went soul deep.
Chapter Eleven
“Fine.” My voice hardened. “Let’s find the tavern, if it’s there.”
Every step we took was a gamble. We knew that much. But hopefully the stolen clothes would help us fit in.
“Hey, buddy.” I crouched down and clicked my tongue to get Noren’s attention.
The direwolf turned to me and the hair along his spine bristled. He tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowed and yellow, and grew another few inches. Anyone who met him along the road would be terrified. As they should be.
The Unseelie fae apparently bred direwolves as weapons and worked black magic to twist their minds, making them loyal, deadly soldiers. Noren might be a friend but that didn’t mean other fae during this time period would see him the same way.
I maintained eye contact until he slunk forward and crouched in front of me.
“I need you to keep to the woods off the main road. We’ll draw even more attention to ourselves if you’re with us. I don’tthink people here are used to seeing a direwolf even three hundred years ago.”
Noren’s eyes narrowed further until it looked very much like he was glaring at me, a clear rebuttal to my well thought out argument.
I suppressed a smile and reached out to scratch him behind the ears in his favorite spot. “I know it’s not ideal, but we’ll be much faster with you out of sight. The sooner we can find our witch, the sooner we can get back to our own time.”
I was grateful nothing had happened to Noren with our trip back in time. He seemed to have weathered the adventure better than Bronwen. I should have asked Mike if creatures like the direwolf could withstand the magic that fueled his time travel.
I’d been too sick to do anything. Thinking was completely off my radar.
