Page 98 of The Tracker's Revenge
Once on our own, Rosalina and I got the bedroom ready, setting up the potion in a shallow bowl we found in the kitchen, and propping up a few pillows so I could be at ease while I got lost in the overwhelming din of my senses.
“I wish we could do this at my place,” Rosalina said.
“It’s all right. I’ll be all right.”
“I know. It’s just hard when you come out of a trance, and I think it helps for you to feel as comfortable as possible.”
She always made my recovery bearable. She prepared different kinds of tea to calm my nerves, had books in hand to read and pass the time, burned candles so I could smell something pretty when my sense of smell returned, and more...
“It sure helps,” I admitted. “But I promise you, it’ll be all right. I’ll just try to sleep it off.”
She nodded with a sad smile. “Ready then?”
I removed Damien’s token, and the arrow bracelet Jake had given me, then turned to the shimmering potion. We had opted to track Mekare’s mate first since it made the most financial sense. Gently, I dipped my hands into the thick liquid. As it stirred, the smell of pancakes and syrup rose from it. When my hands were coated, I held them in front of me and climbed into bed, careful not to touch anything. Rosalina pulled the covers up to my chest as I made myself comfortable on the pillows.
“You’d better take Blaze.” I gestured toward the cat, who had hopped atop a rustic chest of drawers and was watching us from his high vantage point.
When she reached for him, he shied away and tried to resist her.
“Come on buddy,” she said sweetly. “Toni needs privacy. We could throw things off for her if we stay.”
As if he understood, he allowed her to pick him up and carry him out of the room in the crook of her arm. She closed the door.
I stared at my glimmering hands, which appeared covered in sequin gloves. Dreading the always unpleasant trance, I gradually brought my hands towards my face and touched my eyelids, ears, nose, and mouth, tasting the sweet potion.
After a few beats, the potion vanished, leaving my skin clean, and I was transported to that familiar, glittery blackness. Immediately setting to work, I activated my sense of smell, allowing in a myriad of scents. One, in particular, was extremely prevalent and triggered my memory banks.
Honeysuckle blossoms. The last time I’d smelled them this strongly, it was in Elf-hame when we’d run into Prince Kalyll. Was Mekare’s mate a fae? Could it be the Prince? No, no way. That just didn’t feel right. Besides the honeysuckle, I also sensed an overly sweet smell of roses, which was also familiar. I’d perceived it before, but where?
I needed to know more. Quickly, I release my sense of hearing. A cacophony of sounds overwhelmed me. Loud music, the whirring of machines, an incessant pounding, and more. I rifled through the sounds as fast as I could until there was a particular one that seemed familiar. It was an engine backfiring. It ran unsteadily, making a peculiar clank.
It sounded just like Em’s Vespa.
What the hell?
Em? Was Liliana’s petite neighbor Mekare’s mate?
That also felt wrong.
What was happening? Were my tracking skills broken?
Despairing, I released my sense of sight. My most powerful. If I couldn’t find Mekare’s mate this way, there was no hope for our agency.
At once, flashes of Kalyll’s face tattoos and Em’s green hair filled my mind. I fought to catch a glimpse of something else, but that was all I could see. Inked lines and lime-colored strands of straight hair.
The images bludgeoned me with insistence, blocking all else. Worst of all, they felt flawed without that sense of rightness I’d experienced before. This had never happened.
Oh, God!I’d only done one trance since discovering I was a werewolf. Maybe my tracking skills had also changed—everything else had, so why not? Maybe they were entirely broken, and I would never be able to track someone’s mate again.
Whatever the case, it was time for me to break the trance. I’d been under long enough, and I had used all my senses. I would be deaf and blind for hours.
I shut my senses off, expecting to return to my shimmering void, except I continued to smell, hear, and see the same sights.
Panic raised its head, but I fought it, envisioning the cabin, willing myself to wake up.
Nothing happened.
My heart sped up, knocking against my ribcage and filling my ears with its loud thuds. The pounding combined with the other sounds. I pressed my hands over my ears, whirling in the emptiness, searching for a way out. The gentle shimmering lights that always surrounded me slowly receded, the already-tiny dots swallowed by the backdrop. I reached out as if I could stop them, but the pinpricks disappeared, completely blinking out of existence and leaving me in utter darkness.
