Page 47 of Season of the Wolf

I looked at Nick differently than most. From my vantage point, he was far from being an innocent, teenage kid. Even though I now believed he was on a mission to meet those expectations. However, in reality, he was one thing and one thing only … a killing machine. Everything about him made him a more efficient killer as his destiny related to Evangeline’s.

He hears her heart because it makes it impossible for her to hide.

He’s a half step quicker than she is so she can never outrun him.

He would eventually be the strongest wolf to exist since his grandfather, only so he’d be a formidable match for the hybrid queen.

These traits, theseabilities,made sense. They served a purpose, but what Hilda explained … it felt like a stab in the dark. Unless Evangeline being estranged from her dragon made her weaker. In which case, being aware of this would put Nick at an advantage.

“I’ll look into it,” Hilda concluded, letting her gaze land on me again. “Is there something else you want to know?”

A thought crossed my mind for a second and she picked up on it right away. Maybe the result of magic, or maybe it was just intuition.

“I can’t fix you,” she breathed, boring a hole through me with her dark eyes.

“I didn’t ask you to.”

“No, maybe not out loud, but it’s crossed your mind.”

Again, I wasn’t sure if she’d purposely dug around inside my head or if this was just one of those cases where women know what you’re thinking beforeyoueven know what you’re thinking.

I dropped down into the seat across from her, staring at nothing while my mind raced.

“You know I can’t undo this,” she reiterated.

“I know,” I said before she could finish.

“Then … why are you still lending your thoughts to the matter?”

I glanced up.

“Because I can’t shake the feeling she’ll die because of me.” The words fell from my mouth without thought, because if I’d been aware of what was coming, I wouldn’t have uttered such a thing out loud.

And that’s when Iknewthis was Hilda’s doing.

“A spell,” I sighed.

She smiled, shaking her head. “I’ve done nothing to you. It’s the furniture. Anyone who sits in these chairs must speak only truth,” she revealed. “But if it makes you feel any better, there’s another side to this. Whatever you say while under the spell’s power, I’m also bound to secrecy.”

Bracing my hands on my knees, I prepared myself to stand, was free to do so, but stopped. It’d been a long time since I said exactly what I was thinking, feeling. Maybe I’d come here for a reason, and this was it.

When I settled in again, a curious grin crossed Hilda’s face. Those bracelets sounded into the air again when she shifted to cross her legs, never letting her gaze leave mine.

“So, I see the loss of your dragon hasn’t made you a coward,” she smiled, knowing I’d chosen to stay, had decided to see just what truths her spell would bring out.

I took a breath and waited for the questions to begin.

“You’re afraid of Evangeline’s untimely death, but …” Her eyes narrowed into suspicious slits. “Something scares you even more,” she observed. “What is it?”

“That being mortal will rob me of an eternity with her. It’s going to rob me of what I’m owed.”

My eyelids twitched with the emotion the admission brought with it, at the feel of these deeply rooted fears being ripped from my body.

“What you’re owed,” she repeated, never breaking her gaze. “Explain that to me.”

The answer came pouring out. “I fought for this,” I seethed. “I fought to survive all this time … to gethere!Maybe knowing that someway, somehow, she’d come back, because … I felt her even when she was gone. And now that it’s happened, now that, by some small miracle, she’s whole again … my days are numbered.”

My throat burned with rage I’d held in for weeks.

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