Page 21 of Shadow's End

I will … just be careful.

Always am, I repeated with a mental grin.

She snorted.Seriously, that reply is getting old.

And yet, I will continue to use it.

She mentally rolled her eyes, and the connection between us faded back. I switched my full attention to following Aiden through the thick scrub, leaping over rocks and fallen tree trunks with an ease and sureness that wouldn’t have been possible six months ago.

As we crested the ridge, Aiden swung right, onto another long scree slope. I cautiously followed him down. Loose bits of stone and earth slid away from every step, creating a mini avalanche that chased Aiden’s heels. He made it safely to solid ground, then turned and waited for me.

“You okay?” He caught my hand and helped me down the few final feet.

I nodded, squeezed his fingers, then released them. “How far away is the other entrance?”

“Just down there.” He pointed to the right, where two sections of rough red stone rose sharply, forming a narrow crevice between them. “Are you sensing anything?”

I shook my head. “Doesn’t mean there isn’t anything there, though. I’ll lead.” I paused. “Any known vertical shafts I need to worry about?”

He half smiled. “No, though given your tendency to find them, it might be wise for us to tie on, just in case.”

I arched my eyebrows, amusement teasing my lips. “For safety reasons? Or because you’re desperate to tie me down?”

He grinned. “I refuse to answer that question on the grounds I might incriminate myself.”

I snorted softly and moved on cautiously. As we neared the crevice, several tiny but luminous threads of wild magic drifted toward me. I raised a hand, and they looped around my wrist.Energy surged around me, through me, and suddenly I wasmentallyfalling toward a pool of light—a bright, fierce light that was not only filled with power but also voices. Speaking to me. Warning me.

Surprise had me stumbling, and I probably would have hit the ground if Aiden hadn’t lunged forward and caught me. “I’m fine,” I said, even though he hadn’t said anything, my mind still on the whispers rather than my surroundings.

“You’re not,” he retorted. “What just happened?”

“It’s the wild magic. It’s speaking to me.”

“Hasn’t it always spoken to you?”

“Katie speaks to me through it, yes, but this isn’t her.”

Katie O’Connor had been Aiden’s youngest sister, and her soul—along with the ghost of her witch husband, Gabe—now protected the second, much newer wellspring within the reservation.

“Then who is it?”

“The Fenna.”

There was an edge of surprise—and perhaps even wonder—running through my reply. I’d thought they’d rejected me outright, but these whispers suggested that was not the case. I’d been judged, true, and the wolf in Mom’s bloodline considered insufficient to fully contain and control the sheer depth of power that lay within the wellspring, but Belle had been right. They had not vetoed my use of its power and there was no curtailment in the power I could draw. They were simply limiting it to what my body could safely contain without harming myself or the child I carried. In those brief, confused, mind-blowing, awe-inspiring moments when I’d stepped into the wellspring and found myself in the presence of hundreds of powerful souls, I’d misunderstood the stream of information flowing through and around me.

No surprise there. I did tend to do that.

“What are they saying?” Aiden asked.

“They’re warning me about what lies in wait up ahead.”

And it was a threat that would take every ounce of my power to contain.

Because what waited was not a demon, but a vampire.

Not Marie. Jaqueline.

I stopped and spun. “You can’t go any further, Aiden.”

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