Page 4 of Dawn Unearthed

“I’m fine,” he growled. He tilted his head as he studied me, his nostrils flaring. “It seems you’re the one who saved me.”

“What?” I asked, my entire body shaking with warmth and shock. I really couldn’t breathe. What was going on?

He reached out as if to touch me, then let his hand fall. I wanted to move forward but I couldn’t. We both sat there staring at each other as if we were the only two people in the world in a middle of a storm. It didn’t make any sense. “It’s okay, little witch. I think you shocked the hell out of me, but I’m awake now and fine. We should get out of this storm.”

I scrambled away, my eyes wide.Little witch? Why had he called me that? I looked down at my hands and nearly shrieked again, but I had no breath left in me. It looked as if lightning scorched up my arm, white lines of power sliding up to my chest and down my sides.

My hips ached and burned. I scrambled for my shirt, lifting it. The man in front of me raised his brows and met my gaze.

“You okay?” He moved forward this time, his voice a deep growl of anger and… possession?

I shook my head, tried to catch my breath. As if waking from a dream, I realized that what I’d thought was real seemed to be wrong.

My memories were realigning, and I couldn’t make sense of them. Part of me remembered waking up with inked abstract fish and waves across my hips in a belt when I was younger. I hadn’t known why I’d gotten the tattoo. I didn’t remember sitting for the artist, but I’d told myself that I had done it because tattoos didn’t appear out of nowhere. Rupert had never liked it, but it had beenmine. It had called to me, and I knew I needed it. It didn’t make any sense. Only now, I remembered the truth. I’d woken up one day with my body inked in this anchor to…something as if I’d been meant to have it.

Why had I thought I’d gone into a shop and requested it?

Maybe because that was the rational answer.

Only there was nothing sane about what I saw now.

The waves thrashed against my hips, moving around my body as if in a current. The fish swam in and out of the waves, breaking through the water and then diving back in.

Maybe Ihadhit my head.

My tattoo is moving.

The man looked at me and then over my shoulder. “I’m fine,” he said, but he wasn’t talking to me.

I turned to where he was looking, and my mouth dropped open, a scream ready. Then whatever had been pulsating within me, whatever hallucination arced through my brain, hit me again. I fell, my head splashing into the mud. I heard the man in front of me growl again, mumbling a curse as he reached for me.

All I could think about was the creature behind me. The large brown bear that I hadn’t noticed before. I was sure it would finish me off if the burning that sliced through my body didn’t do it first.

And then…there was nothing.

Nothing but questions.

And wrongness.

And darkness.

Chapter Two

Rome

Ilooked down at the woman in my arms, taking in her long, flowing, honey-brown hair, and swallowed hard. My bear scratched at the surface, wanting to get a peek, wanting to know who exactly we had found. We knew everyone within Ravenwood’s borders. We didn’t know this girl. There was something else my bear wanted, but I couldn’t figure it out yet.

I looked up at my brother as Trace began shifting back into human form.

“Good job scaring the crap out of her,” I mumbled. The rain started to die down, and the wind slowly ebbed to a point where it wasn’t all-encompassing.

Trace blinked at me, completely nude after his shift but not looking like he cared all that much. “You were bleeding and looked like you were hurting. I wasn’t going to take the time to shift back until I knew you were healing. What if you needed me to be in my strongest form?” He growled, looking around. “Who is that? She smells strongly of magic, but I’ve never seen her before.”

I shook my head and was grateful when I felt her pulse beneath my fingers. “I don’t know,” I said. “She saved my life.”

Trace’s brow winged up. “And how did she do that? With a spell?”

I knew Trace was hesitant around most witches, but that probably had more to do with his ex than it did the power running through the little witch’s veins. He liked magic and respected it, but loving a witch who hurt because of their magic tended to scar a man, much like the magic had scarred his ex.

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