Page 75 of The Reveal
Shit.
Ty stares down at me, huddled there against a tree. I try to imagine what I could possibly look like to a creature like him. Small. Chewable.
But something about the fact I have the cards in my hands changes him. He shoves a hand through his hair, throwing Maddox a look that I would describe as vicious.
However, it only seems to relax her.
“Tell me,” he growls.
There’s something different about him when he says that. Or maybe the way he looks at Maddox shifts. As soon as I think that, it hits me. It’s that authority of his that’s always obvious but has always been filtered through their relationship when I’ve seen them together.
He is speaking now as a leader, not as her lover.
“I already told you. The cards have chosen. She’s the oracle,” Maddox says, sounding exactly the same. “And in case you think I’m bullshitting you, everybody knows that only the chosen oracle can carry those cards. Meanwhile, this full moon is bringing with it the gift of a nasty little ritual.”
Ty doesn’t like that. “Another lock.”
She nods. “Unless you stop it.”
Ty looks at her, and something passes between them, wordlessly. Then he cuts his gaze to me. “You look like shit, oracle.”
“That’s good news,” I manage to say, “because I also feel like shit, and I really hate when I don’t match.”
“Cute.” I think we’re both thinking about how easily he could eat me, a quick little snack. “Doesn’t look like you can stand. What’s your plan? You going to make it up this mountain and do what, exactly? I’m guessing that whoever’s throwing a full moon ritual that has Maddox worried enough to go hiking isn’t going to welcome you with open arms. You plan to fight them?”
“Hadn’t really thought that far ahead.” I try to smile, and my head feels like it might explode. I have to breathe out, hard, to keep it at a roaring ache instead. “But now that we’re discussing it, I’m kind of hoping that the presence of werewolves might work in my favor.”
“Have you pinpointed the location?” Ty asks Maddox. She shakes her head. “So ... what? We wander around playing grab ass all night while we hope that your weak-ass friend can stand on her own two feet and make it happen somehow?”
I want to be offended, except I agree with him.
“Do you have a better option in mind?” Maddox demands.
But I’ve had enough. It takes an enormous effort on my part, but I manage to climb to my feet. I mean that literally. I have to use the tree behind me to launch myself painfully upright, and none of what’s happening inside me is good. I stagger forward, not unaware of the way Ty stares at me. In what I’m pretty sure is disbelief.
“Let’s go,” I manage to get out past that clamping-iron agony pressing into my skull, worse with every breath, every step, every beat of my heart. “I’ve had a rest. I’m great. Let’s do it.”
And then I somehow force one foot in front of the other and start up the trail again.
I hear Ty swear under his breath. I hear Maddox say something to him in a low voice.
The next thing I know, there’s that thunderclap, and then that huge, massive wolf is beside me. He’s looking at me with what I can only describe as a deeply challenging expression.
“Go on,” Maddox says.
I turn back and stare at her in confusion. The wolf beside me growls.
Maddox’s gaze is locked on mine. “Ty is going to carry you.”
I know several things simultaneously then. One, that no human should be touching a werewolf. Two, that this particular werewolf does not want me touching him. And three, that to refuse this offer would be an insult.
A biteable offense, I’m pretty sure.
I stare at him. He stares back. I feel frozen until he makes a huffing sort of sound and lowers himself closer to the ground.
Only then, gingerly, carefully, perfectly prepared for him to turn and bite my head off—literally—do I climb onto Ty Ceridwen’s back.
And then ... I’m riding the werewolf alpha.
