Page 57 of Magic & Secrets
Suddenly at my side, he growled, “Why are you following me?”
“What else should I do?”
Roque studied me as if I were an oddity. His blue eyes flashed silver, fearing what magic flowed through me. I tried to remember the warmth we shared last evening at the pub. Instead, my mind only felt the cold.
Curling his upper lip in disgust, he asked, “Did the ancient one tell you how to bewitch me?”
“I wish I had the power to make you my slave.”
Our words turned to smoke in the chilly air. Roque seemed oblivious to the cold as he studied me like a predator playing with its food.
Reaching for his hand, I whispered, “We have walked into a cursed place.”
Sidestepping my touch, he muttered, “It’s just cold.”
“No, we’ve gone north.”
“Bane Shifters don’t get lost. We’re moving west.”
Reaching for his hand again, I shivered. “I fear we’ve found ourselves in the Widows Forest.”
Roque stepped away again before I could touch him. “I know where we are.”
“You’re wrong. The forest is tricking us, drawing us deeper. We need to leave.”
Roque lifted his nose to the air and inhaled sharply. “There are no enemies here,” he said before snarling, “Besides you.”
His distrust cut me deeply, yet I had no choice except to remain close. Our mate bond left me paralyzed against my self-interest. I couldn’t even abandon him to find my bevy. I was helpless against this need.
Roque felt the same desire. If not, he would have killed me back when I revealed my magic. His programming ran too deeply within him to forget his hatred toward my kind. The Armgard would always be his enemy.
Yet, he remained weak against our bond. I chose to use his feelings to save us by turning around and walking in a different direction.
“You’re traveling the wrong way,” Roque immediately insisted.
“No, we’ve been traveling the wrong way for hours. Your instincts are clouded by the forest’s power.”
“More lies,” he muttered, refusing to follow.
I kept walking, hurrying my retreat as the cold air made breathing more difficult. Roque couldn’t help following me. He showed no signs of struggle despite the growing chill. Was the cold air a trick of the mind?
“What is the Widows Forest?” Roque called out.
“Eighty years ago, Wolf Shifters led by a Sorceress named Noeme killed the men and children in a nearby outpost. They brought the women to this forest to slaughter as part of a ritual.”
“Your masters filled your head with stories.”
“Do you want to know what they told us about your kind?” I asked, glancing back at him over my shoulder.
Roque snarled in response before shrugging. “Share.”
“They insisted Bane Shifters were cuddly and obedient,” I replied and walked faster. “That’s why you’ll follow me out of his forest before we’re lost here forever.”
“Horseshit,” he muttered. “There is no curse. I’m not lost. I can feel exactly where I am in the world. Didn’t your masters inform you of a Bane Shifter’s internal compass?”
“The forest clouds your instincts to keep you trapped here, where the curse can feed off your power.”
Roque grabbed my arm to stop me. He quickly tugged his hand back as if I had shocked him. The hair on my forearms prickled from his growing agitation.
