Page 57 of Hunted By Wolves and Shadow
“I promised you that you didn't let your family down, and I won't either,” I told him.
“Not if it means spilling your blood. I’d rather remain cursed here forever than let you do that. I’d rather curse us all again than lose you." His oath was deep and dark, cutting right through me. I half wanted to tackle him back to the bed for those plans he’d teased me with.
“I don’t particularly want to die.”
“Good, because I’m not letting you sacrifice yourself for us. Besides, you’re not Ruby’s only relative. I doubt you’re willing to throw your sister on the pyre, no matter how much I think she deserves it for how she treats you.”
I had to smile. He was cute when he got protective. “True. And who knows where my mother is, so that’s a dead end.”
“The Amber Witch,” he started. “She might be able to help. I’m set to see her again in two days, and I want you to come. I never really trusted a witch before you, but she has helped us over the annums.”
“She’s the one who killed your friend,” I recalled. It was no wonder he hated witches.
“Technically, her brother killed him.” Wolf paused to scrub a hand over his face. Without thinking too much about it, I curled into his side and wrapped my arms around him while he told me about his annums with Leo, how the lion shifter had lost himself to the Mist, and how Wolf had watched, unable to help, when Leo attacked the witch and was killed. “I buried him at the forest’s edge. I went back often at first. Not long after, a giant leafy structure appeared on the Yellow Plain where there'd been nothing before. It was hard to make out through the haze, but I waited and watched, and eventually the girl I'd seen that day emerged from it.”
“That was Amber?”
He nodded. “She walked over to the forest where I stood. I couldn't understand why she seemed unafraid—I was strongly considering ripping her throat out at the time—but I figured it out a heartbeat later when I tried to lunge for her and found all four legs firmly rooted to the ground by vines.”
“Her magic...it's plants?”
“Clever girl.” He paused to kiss my temple. “Yes, she can grow anything, anywhere. She explained it to me, said a lion had attacked her, but she'd seen him change into a man when her brother, Jacks, killed him. She apologized, but I know he was only protecting her. I get that. Anyway, she’d figured out the Mist was a curse and she wanted to help. I'd just lost my only friend, but I knew I wasn't alone in the forest. We’d seen others. When Amber said she'd make a place for us to gather free of the Mist, it seemed too good to be true.”
“The enclave,” I guessed. “She's the one who made it for you.”
He nodded again. “It's the only reason I didn't lose myself the same as Leo, because I could be somewhere as myself, where I could deal with my grief as a man instead of letting the emotionsrule me as a beast. Slowly, I met others and brought them in for sanctuary. Over the annums, Amber kept coming back. She brings necessities we can’t get; items of comfort, food staples, stuff like that.”
Wolf’s face fell. “It’s never enough. There are beasts in these woods too far gone for us to save, who will never be human again, but we save the ones we can.”
At the pain in his face, all I could think was that could have been him. Wolf could have lost his mind and himself just like his friend had, and like so many others must have done over the annums while the Mist plagued us. I could have lost Wolf before I ever met him, and it would have been all Ruby's fault. My grandmother was the true monster in this story.
“Do you think Amber can help?”
Wolf squeezed me. “I hope so. If nothing else, she's a witch like you. She can probably answer some of your questions, maybe help you learn more about your magic."
How did he do that? It was like he knew that all this turmoil about my family's selfish ways had left me with more questions than answers. There was so much no one had bothered to tell me, because no one cared. But here was this man who’d met me as his enemy, and was now the one to give me everything I needed. He was the one who’d seen my worth, no matter what was inside of me, and who made me want to become the best of myself.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “For…for all of it.”
His only response was to drop a kiss on the crown of my head and hold me close against him. It was everything.
Chapter 26
Wolf
After howling the signal for the Amber Witch, I forced my feet out onto the edges of the Yellow Plain. It was painful to gain enough distance from the trees to break free from the Mist so I could be fully present with Emi. Wordlessly, she took in the pain on my face and offered me her hooded cape. She’d worn the red one again, and I found it surprisingly easy to accept on her. Bit by bit, Emi was reclaiming the things her grandmother had ruined.
I draped it around myself, using the excuse to keep my arms wrapped across my middle as if I could hold myself together with my own two hands. As promised, the Diamond Witch strode at Amber’s side, looking like her inverse image, willowy with dark skin and white hair. The Crystal Witch was a step behind, pale and typically-Anterran in appearance. She hung back while the other two drew close.
Although undeniably striking looking, I couldn’t call the Diamond Witch beautiful when her face was strained by so much haughty disdain. “You summoned me, dog?” she said.
“You tricked me,” I replied.
“I did no such thing. I provided a prophecy as it came to me. It’s not my fault you failed to do what you were supposed to.”
Pain stretched my voice thin, showing my irritation. “I did exactly as your prophecy said,witch. It didn’t work.”
“Clearly,” she snarked.
