Page 58 of Cage Me

Concentrating, I pull my power back to me, calling it away from my mate and toward the well at my core. My knees want to give out from the extra efforts, but I try to hide my exhaustion.

“Let’s go inside and I’ll tell you,” I say to them with a grin.

Drake’s arm wraps around my waist, and I lean into his touch. “You’re resting after this. Whatever this is, it took too much out of you.”

He’s not wrong, and I know we should be prepared for Kel to show up at any moment, but the more open I become, the more I learn, the less I’m worried.

That witch isn’t coming here. We’re going to her.

Drake half carries me into the house, and Kasha leads us to the couch, which I consider a small mercy because sitting on her wooden chairs in the kitchen sounded less fun than nearly being swallowed by the earth.

Leaning back on the cushions, I sink into their offered comfort and roll my neck. Yeah, I could fall asleep right here in the living room, but I know I have some explaining to do first.

“How about some coffee?” Kasha asks pointedly when I yawn widely. “I have some VitaBrew from Natalia.”

I grimace and shake my head. “Just regular coffee is good. I’d actually like to sleep after this conversation. Not two days from now.”

She laughs on her way back to the kitchen. “You’re no fun.”

“What the hell is VitaBrew?” Drake asks when we’re alone again.

“It looks and tastes like coffee but is like a drug the humans called crack or cocaine. Well, nearly like that. If you don’t know what those things are, you’re better off not finding out.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” He wraps an arm around my shoulders, allowing me to settle further into the couch.

Kasha comes back with three steaming cups. “Energy minus the cocaine.”

Drake passes, and that doesn’t surprise me given what I’ve just said, but I don’t hesitate to take a long pull from my mug. With a sigh, I rest back on the cushion and smile. “That’s already better.”

“Now, care to tell us why you seem more like an angel to me than a shifter?” Kasha says with unveiled interest.

“Well,” I glance at both of them,” I kind of am.”

Kasha nearly drops her drink and Drake’s face goes pale, both of them making me laugh.

“I’m still a wolf shifter, through and through,” I confirm, “but an albino wolf is only born when an angel blesses them. I’ll have to ask my mother if she remembers meeting anyone unique when she was pregnant with me, but that’s my understanding of the whole thing.”

“And your camouflage ability?” Drake asks. “You made me disappear out there, but I could still see the both of us.”

“You seem to be the exception when it comes to me using my abilities against you, but with the barrier gone between me and my wolf, I’m realizing I can do so much more than hide my wolf when needed.”

I place my hand on Drake’s thigh and glance between the two of them before continuing. “The moment I was freed from my own restraints, knowledge flooded into me. Things I feel as if I’ve known my whole life but have been blocking out. What Natalia was telling me about being pure? I understand that now.”

“It’s not that I’m ‘good,’ but my energy is original,” I continue, my excitement growing with every new revelation that comes to me. “There’s nothing else like me on this world. I don’t know why the angel chose me or my mother, but I can protect others, hide them from their enemies, just like Natalia has been doing with her spells made from my blood. She unlocked my powers before I even knew they existed.”

Drake’s grin grows wide, and the silver flecks within his charcoal eyes are nearly as bright as they’d been when I shared my energy with him. “I knew there was a reason I wasn’t willing to let you go so easily. You are everything I’ve never known in this life.”

His joy for me radiates through our bond, sending shivers up my spine. How could I have ever thought rejecting him was the best thing for me?

Kasha holds up a hand and starts lifting fingers as she speaks. “So, you’re touched by an angel, you can hide yourself and anyone else whenever you feel like it, your blood protects others from their enemies, and you glow like the sun. Anything else?”

My lips press together as I hold a hand in front of me. “What are you talking about? I’m not glowing.”

I mean she’s not wrong. My wolf does have a glow to her, but that isn’t something Kasha should see now.

Even Drake appraises me, appearing to be looking for something neither of us can notice.

“I’m part fae,” she states, and I realize I’ve never even taken the time to learn what she specializes in.

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