Page 20 of Soul Fated

She slipped inside and, after zipping the door closed, dropped to her knees beside me.

"Hey.” She reached out to touch my shoulder. Her hand was warm, and I leaned into her touch. "You okay?”

"Trying to process what just happened."

Evelyn nodded, her auburn hair falling over her shoulder like a curtain. "You don't have to. Not right now." She shifted, sitting cross-legged next to me. "You don't have to make sense of anything."

I closed my eyes and rolled onto my back. "I thought I was going to die."

Evelyn twisted a loose strand of my hair in her fingers. "Remember when I was little, I was terrified of thunderstorms?” I nodded. “I thought the lightning was going to strike our house and burn it down. My parents used to tell me that the thunder was just the moon goddess and her mate having a wrestling match."

I forced a smile, for the first time able to plant myself back in reality. Evelyn’s parents. She’d been worried about them accepting her after returning and staying in Black Lake. I didn’t know whether she’d talked with them yet. "Did it work?"

"Yeah, it did." She grinned, her eyes crinkling at the corners. "I still think of that whenever there's a storm. Wrestlemania in the sky."

I blew out a breath. "So what you’re saying is, I should imagine the man who snuck in here with a knife is actually?—”

“Yeah, okay. Terrible comparison.”

I laughed. “Kind of the worst.”

“I just meant forces are working beyond us that we don’t understand. That’s comforting.”

I grimaced. “Is it? Because I was happy living my mostly mundane life.” I didn’t rely on my wolf-like Evelyn always had. It wasn’t that she wasn’t there. I could feel her, and I never had any problems shifting, but comforting?

Evelyn lay back on Lana’s pillow, and we stared up into the darkness in silence for a moment.

"You remember when we were kids?" I whispered. "How we used to sneak into each other's beds during those storms?"

Evelyn smiled. "Yeah. And how we'd pretend to be asleep when your mom or my dad came to check on us."

I nodded, the memory bringing a warmth to my chest that I hadn't felt in a long time. "Maybe it wasn’t the worst comparison. This kind of feels like that."

I didn't even know I was asleep until suddenly I wasn't. One second, I was curled up next to Evelyn, and the next, I was gasping for air. A rough hand clamped over my mouth, and I couldn't scream. Couldn't breathe. My eyes flew open, wild with panic, and I tried to struggle, but something held me in place.

Fabric replaced the palm across my lips, and the tent fabric parted beside me. I was yanked out of the tent, my sleeping bag still wrapped around me. I wanted to cry out, but my voice was trapped behind that gag. The world spun, and I flailed, trying to get my bearings.

There was no scent, and that’s when I knew who it was. A second later, I made out his face in the moonlight.

Kael.

He loomed over me, his eyes cold and calculating. I barely had time to register what was happening before he pulled me from my bag and threw me over his shoulder. I struggled, but it was like fighting a steel beam. How the hell was he this strong with only one arm?

Kael didn't waste time. He took off, his strides long and purposeful. The motion jarred my senses, and I squeezed my eyes shut, praying this was some messed-up nightmare. It had to be.

Kael's grip tightened, and I cried out as his shoulder dug into my ribs. I looked back at the tent as he carried me away, and my heart clenched. Evelyn was still asleep in there, wasn’t she? I had to get her attention before we moved too deep into the trees.

Where was Lana? Jasper? I tried kicking and pushing against his back, but it was like trying to move a boulder.

My lungs burned, and my breath came in short gasps, my body fighting for air as the cold night air stung my skin. The pounding of Kael's footsteps punctuated the hiss of air from my wheezing lungs.

I struggled, my thoughts a whirlwind. Why was he doing this? What did he want? My mind raced back to that night at Nathan’s. How he looked at me. How he ran his thumb over the hilt of the dagger.

The dagger. My arm didn’t ache. I didn’t feel anything, which meant Lana still must have it. That or he’d figured out some other way to keep the dark magic quiet. What would he want with me if he didn’t have the relic? I shuddered at that question.

Then, out of nowhere, a figure shot out from the trees, barreling into Kael with a force that sent him stumbling. I hit the ground with a thud, the wind knocked out of me. I gasped, my vision blurring. I forced my head up and caught sight of a familiar profile.

Lana. My heart surged.

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