Page 64 of Hunted By Wolves and Shadow
“Don’t say it, witchling. I’ve spent enough time as a wolf.” I pulled her into my lap so we could watch the others’ antics. Her body was warm in my arms, but the heat didn’t reach me. My stomach was the same cold knot it had been for days.
Unfortunately, our amnesia was another effect that lingered. The people who weren’t hurt were making plans, either to seek out their pasts or to start new lives, some of them together. Amber had offered homes in her old village on the edge of the Yellow Plain for those who didn’t want to go far just yet. Still, after so many annums together, my family was splitting apart.
I was overjoyed that they had the freedom to choose their own paths now, but a piece of me left with each group that set out. Soon, it would be Emi’s turn. I didn’t want to imagine how much of my heart would leave with my little witch when she finally had the energy to return home.
Pacing between groups, checking that everyone had what they needed, I held it all inside. When Lynx, Fawn, Bob, Bear, and Robin said they were all leaving in the morning for Amber’s village, and asked if I’d go with them, I felt the dam breaking. This would be Emi’s sign to leave too.
Taking advantage of roaming beyond the enclave walls, I found a secluded spot to watch the sun set, my heart sinking with it. When a hand grazed mine, I knew she’d found me to tell me she’d be leaving in the morning.
“Emi. You’re still here.”
“Where else would I be?”
“I figured you'd return home. Since you have a home to return to.”
“I…Yes, I suppose I do.”
Good. That was good. That was what she should do. But what should I do with half a heart when she did?
Chapter 30
Emi
I’d hoped Wolf would ask me to stay, but I should have known better. My role was done, the curse was broken, and he was free to do as he pleased. There was no reason he’d want me to stay with him. For clouds’ sake, I didn’t even know where he wanted to go. He’d been quiet and withdrawn ever since I woke after burning out my magic, the space between us becoming brittle. It felt like an ending. So with no reason to burden anyone with my presence any longer, and now that it was safe to go, I set out home.
The sky above us might be different, but when I reached Baines Upon Bracken Ridge, it was exactly the same. Mrs. Blueheart—mother to the name-calling, nosy Nolan—scooped up her yappy terrier and eyed me warily as I strode past her to my front walk. Before, I would have felt shame, but I felt nothing. If she called me a witch now, she’d be right.
I’d left this house a naïve, timid girl, but I was returning as someone else entirely. Yet in many ways, nothing had changed. Much as I was now a witch, a world-traveler, and a friend to shifters and criminals alike, I was still Emi, the girl nobodywanted to keep around. I swallowed past the painful lump and refused to cry. No one here deserved my tears.
I’d thought Wolf was different, but in the end, here I was again—transformed like the sky above, but as unchanged as the streets beneath it.
Closing the front door behind me with more force than I would have dared before, I followed the sound of shuffling to find my father emerging from the kitchen with a cup of tea. It was the time of day I would normally have made it for him and taken it to his office to make sure he wasn’t working too hard.
He looked up at my approach. I looked back at him.
Wasn’t my father taller than me? He’d always felt bigger before, like I had to look up to him…had to live up to him. But now his hazel eyes met mine at the same level. I gazed back.
“Oh. Emi. There you are.”
That was all he said before he shuffled past me to the half staircase that led to his office. The door snicked shut behind him, and I was left in silence.
I stood there and waited for the feelings of inadequacy to crush me. I’d been gone a whole moon, one that had felt like a lifetime, and all I got was, “Oh, there you are.” I expected pain and longing. Instead, I felt hollow.
No, not entirely. A simmering anger brewed. This wasn’t a family. I’d seen what that was now, and this farce wasn’t even close. Even if Wolf had decided to be a pug-faced dolt in the end, I’d still seen more attention and emotion from him in our short time together than from my relatives in my whole life.Blue skies, I missed him already.
My sister was nowhere to be found, and magic was bubbling back to life inside me, roiling with nowhere to go. I had to channel it into something helpful.
I needed to bake.
By the time Jade waltzed through the door, I was red-faced and covered in a sheen of sweat and flour while a caramel toffee cake and three dozen treacle tarts cooled on the sideboard. I was elbow deep in suds and dishes, and I was fuming.
“Finally,” Jade greeted me, tossing her strawberry mane. She was as lovely as always. “Where in the worlds have you been, Emi?”
For one traitorous beat, my heart jumped to think she’d missed me or even worried about me.
“Honestly. What poor sod did you run off with? Actually, I don’t care. You missed all the fuss when the Mist vanished. Oh, and I had to do the market run for you.”
My teeth ground together. I wanted to scream that not only had I not missed the fuss, I’d been the cause of it. I’d broken the curse. Me! Plus, by my calculations, I’d missed at least four market days, but I didn’t bother correcting her.
