Page 45 of Hunted By Wolves and Shadow
With Locke, I hadn’t known what I was doing. The magic had awakened in me and acted on its own while I’d floundered in my pain. This time I was in charge, and I willed it to do my bidding. I swallowed against the echoing pain in my own neck and ribs. It was a shadow of what Wolf must have felt, and I would be strong like him.
I didn’t dare open my eyes until my hands felt like infernos and I heard a catch of Wolf's breath. Then they flew to the jagged opening at his neck. Before my eyes, arteries and veins closed and filled with dark red. Spiderweb-thin nerves reconnected. Muscle knitted together over tendons and bone. Skin bloomed and spread to cover the wound, leaving jagged scars where complete destruction had been only a few heartbeats ago.
My body sagged from the energy drain of it, but a quick check of Wolf’s side showed the claw marks healed into four shiny, smooth slashes.
It was enthralling. It felt...miraculous.
I did that. The Emerald Witch.
I truly had magic.
Now what was I going to do with it?
Chapter 20
Wolf
Waking up at all was unexpected. Waking to Emi's face was a sweet joy and flood of relief like I couldn’t describe. I’d been picturing her as I was dying, but I never thought I’d see her again. Warmth pooled in my chest at the sight of her slumbering in the chair across from me, surprising me with just how worried I’d been. I’d only been able to hope she was safe, wherever she was.
Soft, slow breaths fluttered a stray lock of hair that had fallen over her face. For several heartbeats, I watched it rising and falling in time with her breathing. Up and down. Up and down. Something inside me unclenched and fluttered with it. I had no idea how I was alive, but my heart filled with gratitude for my salvation.
When Emi jerked upright in that way of people who hadn’t meant to fall asleep, I closed my eyes. It wouldn’t do for her to catch me staring.
Blinking as if waking for the first time, I opened my eyes to find her upright in the chair again with a dagger resting in her hands on her lap. I’d been too distracted by finding her here,soft and vulnerable, to notice it. The metal was a beautiful swirl of silvers with a faint blue sheen. It looked expertly crafted and fit her hand like it was made just for her. She hadn’t looked so comfortable with a blade the last time I’d seen her.
It wasn’t the only thing that seemed changed about her. She wasn’t the same Emi who’d left a fortnight ago, and my stomach gave a nervous flip.
Now that she was awake, a lot about Emi was different. Her hair still fell in luscious red waves, but the tilt of her chin was less defiant, more confident. Her eyes were steady, not darting to every sound or flicker of firelight. Even the set of her shoulders reflected a poise that hadn’t been there before.
If the Emi before had been a rage-fueled kitten, now she was a proud tigress, and all the more beautiful for it. She was far more than the pretty girl who’d captured my heart, she was stunning.
“I’m not dead.” Why I felt the need to draw her attention to that fact was beyond me.
“Not yet.”
Definitely a tigress. “I should be dead.”
“I think what you mean is, ‘Thank you for healing me, Emi. You saved my life, Emi. You’re amazing, Emi.’”
I already thought she was amazing, but I couldn’t say that out loud. And now apparently she’d healed me. No wonder she seemed so different. My little firecracker had finally claimed her magic. “You should have let me die, witchling, or finished me off. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“Silence,” she commanded. “I am going to pretend you didn’t just say that to me after I healed you. I’m not the one who—No.” She cut off. “I saved your life, now you’re going to listen to what I have to say. I have questions, and I want answers. Understood?”
I gaped my mouth open and closed, no words coming out. With a look of abject horror, I sat upright to face her and clutched at my throat.
“What’s wrong with you?” Emi flipped to concern so quickly, I had to wonder how much of her anger was feigned, like she couldn’t let me off the hook, but maybe, just maybe, she didn’t truly hate me anymore. Was it just magic that had changed her so much, so fast?
I scrabbled at my throat again and locked my gaze with hers, my eyes wide.
“Your voice? You can’t talk?” She looked stricken. “Oh, clouds! I told you silence. Did my magic—? I—No!Sunbeams, but it’s healing magic, not curse magic. Or maybe it just affects the body however I want. I’m sorry, Wolf. I’ll fix it. I didn’t mean to silence you, not really. I’m just learning how my magic works, but I’ll figure it out, I…”
I couldn’t let her spiral anymore. Laughter burst out of me. “You should see your face, witchling.”
Her jaw dropped. Then, like the wildcat she was, she pounced. She was across the gap from one heartbeat to the next, forcing me to recoil on the couch. The tip of her dagger lifted my chin and I found myself at her mercy and lost in her emerald eyes all at once. It became abundantly clear how much my brain had been addled by the Mist because this right here…yeah, it was insanely hot.
“I can’t believe you! You incorrigible, arrogant, annoying, awful…”
“Any other A-words you want to use, kitten?”
