Page 55 of Wolf Queen Ruin
“We don’t have the luxury of turning back.”He lifted to his feet and stretched his arms over his head, the movement displaying the lean power in his frame.
I tried not to notice how his shirt hitched up, revealing chiseled abs and a fine trail of dark hair that disappeared inside his pants.
God.Damn.And now I couldn’t unsee it.
“We should get moving.According to the map, we need to cross that ridgeline by midday,” I said, more to distract myself than anything else.
We packed up our shit.Damien watched my every movement as I readied myself, his gaze even drilling through the tree I crouched behind to pee.For some reason, it didn’t bother me, his steady presence a comfort.Soon, we set out.
The jungle seemed different in the morning, more vibrant somehow, with colors too rich to be natural.A flowering vine near my foot bore blossoms shaped like perfect spirals, their centers pulsing with a soft bioluminescence.I took a picture of it with my phone, for no other reason than I thought it was pretty.
I found myself instinctively choosing our path through the dense vegetation, not following any visible trail but some inner compass that seemed attuned to the flow of the jungle itself.Twice I steered us around areas that looked passable but felt wrong somehow, the air hanging too still or the scent carrying an undertone of decay.
“You sense something,” Damien said after the second detour.
I chewed my lip, uncertain how to explain.“It’s like…listening to music and hearing when a note is off-key.Some places here feel wrong.”
“The boundary wards?”
“Maybe.Or maybe just natural dangers.”I pushed aside a curtain of hanging vines.“Either way, I’d rather not find out the hard way.”
“Your instincts are sharper than most humans’ I’ve encountered,” he said, his gaze assessing.“Even before your banishment, you must have been exceptional among your pack.”
“Nah, just average.Below average, according to my father.”
“Then your father was a fool,” Damien said with such matter-of-fact certainty that I almost tripped over a root.
But hewasa fool, though.My father, I mean.
We continued for another hour, climbing toward the ridgeline.The ascent should have been grueling in the heat and humidity, but I found myself moving with surprising ease, as if the jungle itself were helping me find footholds and stable paths.
Damien, by contrast, struggled increasingly, his movements becoming less fluid.I caught him steadying himself against tree trunks several times, his knuckles white with the effort of appearing unaffected.
When I suggested stopping to rest, his refusal came with a flash of pride that might have annoyed me days ago but now seemed almost endearing in its stubbornness.I slowed my pace anyway, finding convenient reasons to pause—adjusting my pack, consulting the GPS, or examining more interesting plants and taking pictures.If Damien recognized my transparent accommodations, he didn’t say anything.
We were nearing the top of the ridge when we encountered a barrier.
It appeared without warning.One moment the path ahead was clear, and the next I stopped abruptly before what seemed like a shimmering curtain of heat distortion, visible only because of how it bent the light passing through.It cut across our path like a vertical river, flowing from ground to canopy.
“What is it?”Damien asked, coming to stand beside me.
“You can’t see it?”I turned to him, my eyes wide.
“See what?”He looked directly at the distortion with no recognition.
I reached toward the barrier.My hand passed through with nothing more than a warm tingling sensation.I took a full step forward, turning back to see Damien still watching me with confusion.
“It’s some kind of boundary,” I explained.“Invisible to you but visible to me.Try to cross.”
He moved forward, only to freeze mid-step, his body going rigid.A grimace of pain flashed across his face, and he stumbled backward as if physically repelled.
“Damien?”I stepped back through the barrier, again feeling only mild warmth, and moved to his side.“What happened?”
“A barrier specifically calibrated against vampires.”He gritted his teeth, one hand braced against a tree trunk.“The legends weren’t exaggerating the Wolf Queen’s thoroughness.”
“Can you push through it?”
His jaw worked, the muscles there flexing beneath his pale skin.“I could try.But there’s a significant risk I’ll be completely incapacitated if I fail.”His eyes met mine, intense and direct.“And I won’t leave you unprotected in this place.”
