Page 6 of Heart of a Dire Wolf
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Skyla finally understood what her sister Rayne had often complained about: Plans never survived first contact with reality.
“What do you mean, you have to stay?” She glared at Lerro, huddling and shaking in the corner of their cell. The rising water nearly topped his calves.
“I’m needed here.” He drilled her with a spooky look that bored into her soul. “Use your gift. Make me look like you, to delay the hunters.”
“They’ll kill you.”
Lerro shook his head. “They won’t.” He held up his twitching hand. “I can’t shift. I can’t climb ladders or...” He wrapped his arms around his ribs, as if to keep himself from coming apart. “Make me look like you.”
Skyla didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t carry him, and she didn’t have time to find someone who could help. Every second brought more guards and wizards running to contain the prison break, and she still had to find her mate before she could leave. But she owed him, and he deserved his chance at freedom. “Lerro…”
He glared at her and bared his teeth. “My destiny, my choice. Do the spell or don’t, but I’m staying.”
Skyla blew out a frustrated breath, then worked the illusion. It wouldn’t fool anyone who knew her well, but it would have to do. And though he didn’t ask, she used some of her reserve of hoarded magic to cast the best healing energy spell she knew. Rayne would have been better at all of this, but Skyla couldn’t think about that now.
She turned and waded toward the cell door. She blinked in surprise when a bearded, long-haired mountain man stepped into the doorway. She knew him. The fantastic scent of her mate made her weak at the knees. She staggered toward him, heedless of the eddying water that tried to take her under.
He lunged forward to grab her shoulders and steady her. His touch set off lightning in her nervous system. She looked up at him, into his warm eyes. Everything faded away but him. “Hi, I’m Skyla. What’s your name?”
He smiled. “Nicolas Paletin. Nic to my friends. Siberian tiger. Nice to finally meet you.” His green eyes flashed gold as he massaged her shoulders. “Want to blow this pop stand?”
His deep, slightly accented voice made her nipples perky. She shook herself, trying to get back on track. Water. Escape. Delay the hunters. “Yes, please.”
He glanced toward the back of the cell, then did a double take. “What the hell?”
“Illusion. Lerro’s idea.” She turned to look at the man, seeing the true man through the overlay of her own spell. “Sure you won’t come?”
Lerro shook his head. “Not my time.” He caught Nic’s eyes with his spooky gaze. “Go her way out. Block the culvert. The door is in winter, and Christmas brings the keys. The heart is in you and her and in the frost.”
The ground began vibrating under their feet.
The next thing she knew, she was scooped up into his arms.
“Lerro,” Nic shouted over the growing din, “life debt owed.” He turned and waded slowly out the cell door, miraculously keeping his footing in the shaking.
She pushed a lock of his long, unkempt hair off her face. He glanced down at her. “If you’re going to kill me for not asking permission to carry you, do it after we get out.”
“You’re fine.” Damn fine, in fact. Skyla leaned her head against his shoulder and drew in her first full breath of his scent. Man and tiger blended with salty cold juniper and something uniquely him. Everywhere their skin touched set fires in her. Her sluggish brain reminded her of what Lerro had said.
“My way out is to the left. Hidden maintenance shaft at the end of the wing.”
“The stairs would…” He trailed off, looked right, then shook his head. He turned left and slogged down the hall, past the last gushing pipe. The temblor’s shaking subsided. “Goddess, but oracles make me crazy.”
That explained Lerro’s odd phrasing. She should have recognized Lerro’s gift, but she’d been too distracted to notice. Missing details like that was stupid.And I’m supposed to be the smart one.
When Nic got to the deserted, seemingly barren wall, she patted his wide, muscular chest. “Let me down.”
He obliged but held her steady. The water was up to the middle of her thighs. Her sweatpants dragged on her legs.
She pulled magic from the soapy water and used it to take apart the illusion that hid the entrance. The lucky break of the cell-bar magic’s catastrophic failure made the task much easier.
The thick concrete wall now sported a round, sealed hatch, about four feet in diameter. Nic crouched to spin the center wheel, then opened the latches. He forced the hatch door open against the pressure of the water as it rushed into the darkness. His muscles put world-class weightlifters to shame.
She pulled more magic from the water to create a floating orb to light their way and sent it past the hatch.
She pointed up. “Should be a straight climb up, maybe a hundred feet, to a culvert system, assuming it’s intact.” She looked up at him. “Me first, or you? I’m not a fighter, but I have magic.”
