Page 104 of Craved By a Wolf

“Not without me, Kin. I don’t want you to fight him without me there.” Her lips flattened and her gaze turned wary.

She didn’t need to tell him her reasons for him to know them. She wanted to be there by his side to protect him. She felt the same powerful needs he did, was a slave to her desire to take care of him and watch his back, and ensure he survived.

He nodded reluctantly, showing her that he wouldn’t go after the nymph before she was free of her cuffs and her powers had been restored. They would do this together.

“I’ll figure out a way to get us home,” she said.

Kin pulled several wooden tokens from his pocket. “I already have that covered. I just need to find a portal.”

Her eyes lit up and then faded. “But what if Ethyrian kept his promise and he closed the borders? A portal won’t get us out of here.”

He wanted to tell her that he doubted the nymph had kept his promise, because the male had probably wanted Kin to show up and give him a reason to take him out of the picture.

“We’ll find a portal and see what happens.” He took hold of her hand, threading their fingers together, and began walking with her.

She hurried to keep up with him, taking two strides for every one of his as he led her further from the castle. He wasn’t sure where he was going, but the more distance he put between him and that building, the better. There was bound to be a portal somewhere.

The clearing along the bank gave way to dense trees that were bright with glowing bugs and flowers that illuminated their way. Hella’s head turned this way and that as she took them in, and he kept his focus on the path ahead of them.

The trees grew larger, rising to tower over them, their ashen branches threaded with violet veins that shone in the strange daylight of Lucia. Above them, aurora in shades of purple, red and green chased across the sky, drowning out the faint stars. Did it ever grow dark here?

Kin pulled Hella around the thick white trunk of one of the trees.

And came to a dead stop.

It was pitch black save the lights from the glowing veins of the trees.

He looked back over his shoulder and behind them was just as dark, and then jerked his gaze up to the sky. It was inky black, spotted with a million glittering stars and a large full moon.

“What the hell?” Hella said, uttering the question that had been on the tip of his tongue.

Kin backtracked with her, past the tree, and she gasped as they were in the light again. He moved forwards slowly this time, watching the trunk and when they were halfway past it, the lighting changed, putting it half in the light and half in the dark, and then as he continued, it was all in darkness.

“Shadows,” he muttered as he remembered the warning he had been given. “This is the shadows.”

He had foolishly thought the person had meant stay out of the shadows cast by the trees, buildings and rocks in Lucia. How wrong he had been. Hella shot him a confused look.

“I think this is the unseelie side of this world.” He moved a few steps deeper into the darkness and the hairs on his nape rose as he felt the shift in power in the air.

“We can’t turn back,” Hella said and he shook his head and gave her a look that told her that wasn’t going to happen so there was no reason for her to fear.

“We keep moving forwards… but we need to move carefully.” He flexed his fingers against the back of her hand, reassuring himself that he had a tight hold on her and telling himself that nothing bad would happen to her. “There’s bound to be a portal here.”

She looked back at the tree. “The border. We crossed the border, Kin. Ethyrian never closed it to you.”

Or to her.

Which most likely meant the nymph didn’t possess the power to do such a thing and had been issuing an idle threat to force her hand and make her wed him. Another reason Kin was going to kill him.

“Come on, lass.” He drew her level with him and started walking, keeping her pinned close to his side.

His ears twitched, his senses stretching as far around him as he could manage. Things moved in the darkness at the edges of them and he hoped they stayed away, because he didn’t want to see what kind of beasts lived in this dark world.

Hella stuck close to him and he kept glancing at her, checking on her whenever she tensed and muttered foreign words beneath her breath. Was she trying to cast spells to protect them, despite the fact her magic was bound? He tugged her closer still, his heart going out to her, and made getting her free of those damned cuffs a priority.

As soon as they were out of this dark realm.

When they came across another shallow river, he followed it, not liking being out in the open on the banks but it was better than being in the woods where the things he could sense were closer now.

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