Page 118 of Untraced Magic
Wings.
What the fuck?
I whipped my hand behind me, and feathers laced through my fingers.
“Ah fuck.” I winced, pulling away at the pain.
I hadn’t noticed my top barely clinging to my chest, torn to shreds at the back from the wings that had slashed my skin, emerging fully spanned at my back. Coarse and black as a moonless night, rimmed with a golden glow around the edges.
They resembled what I would imagine a phoenix to look like, and something gnawed at me about my family history that I was sure Skye had mentioned before. A passing comment about a half mage, half shifter somewhere back in a previous generation.
A cry tore through the forest, my attention turning to it somewhere up ahead. It stripped me of pain, a chill scaling my bones.
Morgan.
I knew that voice as if it were my own. My mate’s cry hurtled me forward, charging onwards so fast, I lifted into the air with the grace of a fucking newborn giraffe through a gap in the canopy.
My arms circled for balance, eventually finding their natural place as I soared above the ground until a church emerged ahead of me. My back burned with each dip as my wings brought me closer to the ground, but I pushed through, my only concern being Morgan. I had to find her.
Flying didn’t come easy to me as I maneuvered through the air, easing myself to the ground gradually, at one stage almost flipping on my back.
As my feet found firm ground again, I stuck to the shadows of the forest, my ears alert, eyes scanning the tree line. With a full moon illuminating it from behind, the church stood within an overgrown graveyard about fifty feet away.
Limbs of deceased vines crawled its walls, almost camouflaged with the forest behind if it wasn’t for the turret extending from its pitched roof.
I stalked forward, my footsteps muffled by moss clinging to the ground, my gaze scanning the tree line once more before focusing on the church.
A solid timber door looked to be the main point of entry from my vantage point, the only windows high above. I inched closer, my fingers wrapping around the edge of the door that stood ajar. It slid open silently, and I ducked inside, keeping close to the wall.
Stone formed its interior shell, rows of pews blocking my way to the front. It smelled like it had be shut up for years. Like ass.
Movement to my right stole my attention.Wes.
Our eyes connected from opposite sides of the room, confirming my worst nightmare and I froze, betrayal gripping me tight.
He stared back at me, and I couldn’t gauge the look on his face. The face I had grown up with. My blood ran hot, searing through every part of me, my palms itching for release as if forcing me to accept the deceit.
My strides pushed forward in his direction.
Wes held his hands in front of him. “Ty, I had no choice.”
Rage twisted inside me. “You always have a choice!” I growled through clenched teeth. “Always!”
“I swear, if it wasn’t for…”
“Wasn’t for what!” I roared, unable to fathom any explanation he had. “What reason could possibly convince you to capture my mate? Because I can’t think of a single fucking one!” I stabbed a finger at the air between us.
As I closed in on him, Wesley’s steps angled backwards toward a side door I hadn’t noticed before.
His head shook in defeat.
Coward.
Suddenly he bolted toward the exit and instinctively, my palms spread wide, my magic coming forward like a hit of euphoria as I let a fireball loose in his direction before his form disappeared.
Then I saw her, splayed on the ground at the front near the pulpit.
“Morgan!” my voice boomed off thewalls.
