Page 45 of The Stone Curse
With Touron and the twins ensconced in the guest house of my estate, I’m free to spend the afternoon how I wish, and there’s one special place that I’ve been itching to visit.
The cat sanctuary sits behind my estate—acres of woodland belonging to my father, to me—home to every stray cat I’ve ever come across, which are many. There are no bars, no walls to hold them in, just freedom, nature, and the hunt.
A long time ago, these creatures were kept as pets, domesticated so that some weren’t even allowed outside, but now they’ve been allowed to return to their true nature as predators, and each of them has a story.
But only one of them ever speaks to me.
I walk deep into the forest, toward the river that runs through it and across the rickety bridge into a clearing dappled in sunlight and littered with the leaves shed by the towering trees. I settle on the downy ground and wait.
He knows I’m here, and if he wants to speak, then he’ll find me.
Long minutes pass with the sun on my face and a cool breeze running its fingers through my hair before I sense his arrival.
And he’s not alone. Other felines trail after him, their inquisitive eyes fixed on me. New additions, born here in the sanctuary. But the one who leads them is an old friend. Maybe even ancient, although he’s never confirmed it. His large, inky form pads closer, eyes like emeralds glittering in welcome.
Murnoch is the largest cat I’ve ever seen. His head sits three feet off the ground, his paws are the size of dinner plates, and when he yawns, the action exposes a serration of teeth designed to tear and shred. He’s fearsome and agile, lethal when he wants to be. My friend and my savior.
“Well, hello there,” he says. “It’s been a while.” He pads closer, circles me, and sniffs the air. “You have the scent of a new feline? A new addition to our sanctuary?”
Of course he would smell Taz on me. “No, not this one. This one belongs with me.”
“He’s chosen you, then. Good. You could do with a feline eye on you.”
“So you’ve been saying. How are you, old friend?”
“Would you believe me if I told you there was an ache in my bones?”
“Not at all.”
“In that case, I’m well. Busy with all the new additions to our numbers. We’ll need more space soon.” He looks over my head, up into the canopy. “Soon it will be time to return to the rest of the world.”
This is a safe place. A home where the cats can breed and claim territory. Where they can live side by side but still alone if they so wish, but there is only so much land to go around. “Is it time, then?”
“Soon. I still have much to teach them about survival in the true wilds, about living alongside other much larger predators, about the cycle and circle of life.” He settled beside me and laid his head on his paws. “You may stroke my fur if you wish.”
An honor indeed. I lightly stroke between his ears and down his neck, and I’m rewarded with a soft rumbling purr. “Are you ever going to tell me?”
His purr becomes a deeper rumble. “One day. When the time is right. Then I will tell you. But you remember your vow, don’t you?”
“Yes, I remember.” Never ask. Never demand. Never expect.
He’d saved my life all those years ago. Without him, I wouldn’t have lived long enough to make guardian. He’d lost his own kin in the process, and I’d given him a new family, an ever-growing one, along with my word that I would never ask him who or what he truly was.
But one day he will tell me. One day he will confide in me, maybe even show me what is hidden behind his feline façade.
Until then… “You want to race?”
He chuckles softly. “You’ll lose. Again.”
“Are you scared, old boy?”
He chuffs and pulls himself to his feet. “I’ll give you a head start. One. Two?—”
But I’m already loose, leaping across the bridge and into the woods, the rustle of pursuit close behind me and the thrill of the chase buzzing through my veins.
The race has begun, and even if I lose, simply being here is a win.
CHAPTER 16
