Page 14 of Their Fated Magic

Reaching over, I pull it back up.

Her dark eyes find mine. “Thank you.”

Thank you for your beautiful smile. Thank you for the gentle way you’ve been with my father. Thank you for making our lives brighter just by being in them. “You’re welcome.”

When she looks away from me, it feels like she’s tearing my heart out with her bare hands. I would do anything to have her look at me gently again. What the fuck is wrong with me?

“Are you still hungry? I think I have some chocolate hidden away.”

She shakes her head. “You don’t have to worry about me.”

But I do. I worry about you. I think about you whenever you’re not with me, and whenever you are with me. It’s insane. This is the one woman we shouldn’t get close to in the world, and the one woman my best friends and I seem to have fallen head over heels for.

Even Drogo. I’d seen his face after he slipped up and admitted our plan. He’d looked like someone punched him in the stomach. He’d stared at the spot where she’d disappeared into the trees for so long I actually thought he was going to run after her… until Garrick did. He was the best man for the job, since us wolves fucked up so badly.

Now, the three of us are heart-broken, and we don’t know what to do about it. Tara is basically giving us exactly what we thought we wanted – a witch to help cure the illness and a way out of our marriage – and none of us are happy. Why?

And what the hell do we do about it?

Garrick clears his throat, drawing our gazes back to him. Our eyes lock, and I can see it in his face. He pities us. “The bears know we’re coming.”

“Yeah, they know we’re coming, and they’re waiting to ambush us even though we’re trying to save everyone,” Drogo mutters before his gaze flickers to Tara.

He’s obsessed with her. The idiot.

We’re all idiots.

Garrick rolls his eyes, and Rinan tries to be the voice of reason. “We can stay on alert and be stealthy if it eases your minds, but if approached, it shouldn’t be a fight. There’s an alliance between our people. Even if it’s very fresh, word has been spread, and the alliance will be respected.”

Drogo makes a sound of disbelief.

Garrick draws himself up taller. “You’re with the prince of the bear shifters. There’s nothing to fear with me.”

I have to focus on the plan. This is the whole reason we’re here, to save our people. “Still, maybe it’d be best to avoid any towns or areas with a heavy population of bears. The last thing we want is for bears to face off with us wolves and end up wounded before we even reach the source of the water.”

“My name will be all the protection we need,” Garrick says, cocky as always.

During every fucking interaction I’ve had with Garrick since I was a boy the guy has been arrogant. We’ve faced off a number of times on either side of the border between our lands, taunting one another to step over into our territories, begging for an excuse to beat the shit out of each other.

But we’ve never actually fought with him. Never actually seen him in battle. Part of me thinks that he’s right about his name and influence being enough protection. Another part of me isn’t willing to risk it, especially with Tara. She’s the only one of us too fragile to handle any sort of fight. One mistake with her could cost her her life.

Although she did kill that bear. She’s pretty handy with a weapon. I push those thoughts aside. Tara won’t be put in a position to have to protect herself. Not with us near her. If something happened to her, I just couldn’t…

My entire body tightens, and I have the overwhelming urge to pull her into my arms and make her promise she’ll be careful. I can’t lose her… like that. Again, I feel sick to my stomach. Maybe I never want to lose her.

“I think we should just follow the water to its source,” Tara says, shrugging. “Then I’ll easily be able to sense the water as we go along until I find what I’m looking for.”

“Sense the water?” I ask, confused.

Her smile returns, the one that makes me want to grab her and kiss her until she’s out of breath. “Yeah. I basically put out my magical feelers until I find what’s making everyone sick. We really don’t know how high in the mountains my mother cursed something in the water.”

Interesting.

“How sure are you that you can find it that way?” I don’t doubt her, but she seems to fly by the seat of her pants. She works on instinct, but she doesn't look as confident as she sounds.

She sits up taller. “I’m pretty damn confident.”

All eyes are on her, but she doesn’t buckle under our gaze, even though I can sense her nerves, which I guess is a good thing. I know so little about witch magic and curses that I just have to trust her. And I do. I actually do.

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