Page 52 of Wolf Queen Ruin
And then I realized I was staring.
Damn it.
He gestured toward my pack.“You should eat something as well.”
I nodded, my head bobbing jerkily while my cheeks flamed.I ate a protein bar while he studied the map.Darkness descended with tropical swiftness, bringing with it an orchestra of nocturnal sounds—insects, frogs, and occasionally, the distant roar of something much, much larger.
As I settled into my sleeping bag atop my foldout cot, I asked, “Do you need to sleep at all?”
“Less than humans, but yes.”His blue eyes gleamed in the darkness.“I’ll take first watch though.Rest while you can.”
I should have argued, insisted on taking first watch myself, but the day’s trek had taken more from me than I wanted to admit.The jungle’s heat, the constant vigilance, and perhaps something about the Wolf Queen’s magic had left me bone tired.
“Wake me in four hours,” I murmured, already feeling consciousness slipping away.
In my dreams, I ran on four paws through moonlit jungle paths, a sensation I hadn’t experienced in years.The freedom of my wolf form, lost to me since my dad’s banishing ritual felt so real, the scents sharper, the sounds clearer, my body powerful and sure as it navigated the forest floor.
Ahead, a larger wolf waited, its coat silver in the moonlight, its eyes ancient with knowing.
Welcome home, it seemed to say without words.I’ve been waiting for you.
Chapter sixteen
Damien
Thejunglebreathedaroundus, a living entity with its own rhythms.Its own hungers.
I could recognize the subtle differences between ordinary darkness and the kind that concealed predators.This darkness was both.
I leaned against the massive ceiba root, conserving energy while keeping watch.My diminished senses were a constant, maddening reminder that this place wanted me vulnerable.
The Wolf Queen’s magic had already stripped away layers of power I’d taken for granted since my turning.My hearing, once capable of detecting a mouse’s heartbeat a hundred yards away, now struggled to separate the cacophony of jungle sounds into distinct threats and non-threats.My strength, while still greater than a human’s, had deteriorated to perhaps half its normal capacity.
Luna slept several feet away, her breathing deep and even, though sometimes she talked in her sleep.Even in slumber, she maintained a certain alertness, her hand under her pillow with her machete, her body positioned for quick movement if necessary.A survivor’s instinct.
I found my gaze lingering on her longer than necessary.The slight furrow between her brows suggested her dreams were not peaceful.I wondered what occupied her sleeping mind.Perhaps her daughter?The child whose life hung by the same tenuous thread as my maker’s?
My chest constricted as I remembered the phone calls that had come before we arrived in Panama City, and after.Both had delivered crushing news.
“Elliot has taken a turn for the worse,” his doctor had said without preamble during the first call.“The healers give him only months.Maybe less.”
The ground had seemed to shift beneath my feet.“That’s not possible.The Wasting shouldn’t accelerate that quickly.”
“And yet it has.The corruption has reached his heart.”The doctor’s tone had softened.“Damien, you should prepare yourself for the possibility that you won’t return in time.”
I’d ended the call before he could continue, unable to process the implications fully.Now, alone with my thoughts in this hostile jungle, his words echoed with terrible clarity.Months.Maybe less.
We were at least three days from finding the crypt and extracting the Shadow Fang, and another three to return to civilization—assuming everything proceeded without complications, which seemed increasingly unlikely with each passing hour in the Wolf Queen’s domain.And that was for onlyonepiece.
We might not make it back in time.
We might not make it back at all.
I might fail the vampire who had given me new life, who had guided me through the blood-madness of my turning, who had become more family to me than the fae court that had cast me out.
My eyes drifted again to Luna.She had her own desperate race against time.The same inevitable end without the Shadow Fang’s intervention.
Our “arrangement” had seemed so straightforward at the beginning.A transaction.Her tomb-raiding skills for my resources and connections.Then a fake engagement to navigate our way here.Simple.Clean.Temporary.
