Page 65 of Forged By Heart and Claws
I forced my head up.
The guardian still stood there, its crimson eyes calm and ancient. Another low growl rumbled from its chest. Slowly, it dipped its head in what felt like recognition before its body unraveled into threads of light that disappeared into thin air.
“Briar!” Vad’s voice cracked like a whip through the stillness. Boots slammed against stone, and his wings beat once, slicing through the cold air as he dropped to his knees beside me.
His arms were around me in an instant, pulling me tight to his chest. I could feel his heart pounding—wild, desperate—as he cradled the back of my neck. His smoke-and-myrrh scent engulfed me as his hand cradled the back of my neck.
“What happened?” His voice was hoarse, cracking. “What did it do to you? Talk to me. Please?—”
I shook my head, still gasping, my voice barely a whisper. “I-I don’t know. Something’s wrong with my wolf.”
He pulled back just enough to scan my face. Fear was written in every line, tension tight at the corners of his mouth, his eyes wild and searching. He looked like he was about to come undone.
Around us, the circle of wolves began to fade, their forms flickering like dying embers and blinking out of existence, one by one. Like they’d never been there at all.
Vad’s hands slid to my shoulders. “What did it do to you? Where does it hurt most?” His voice dropped to a low rasp.
“My wrists.” I lifted them with trembling hands. They throbbed like they’d been flayed. The butterfly tattoo on my left wrist had deepened, not just in color but in presence. It was no longer just ink. It glowed faintly, the black almost metallic. A mirror image now marked my right wrist, identical in every line, every winged curve.
Vad’s eyes widened. His fingers brushed my skin reverently, as if afraid touching it might hurt me or him. “It’s on both now?”His lips parted as he examined the living tattoos, his expression unreadable. “Was this there before? Or did the guardian...?”
“I didn’t feel like this after the stag,” I rasped. “There was... discomfort. Nothing else then. This is different. This is from the guardian shadow wolf. My wolf feels…distant now.”
He stared at the marks like they were going to bite him. “What do they mean?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “But my wrists still burn.”
The pain pulsed like embers buried under my skin. Faint veins spiraled from the tattoos and up my arms beneath the straps of my dress, dark and glinting faintly beneath the surface. “And my back... it itches.” I tried to move my wrist and gasped as a sharp pain lanced up my arm.
Vad caught my hands, his grip gentle but unyielding. “Stop moving.” His wings flared behind him in a snap, the instinctive reflex of a predator bracing for war. “Is it spreading?” He tugged down the strap of my sundress to examine the veins. His breath hitched. “It stops at your neck.”
“I can feel it,” I whispered, blinking past the burn in my eyes. “Like something’s inside me—pushing... pulling.”
He shifted his weight behind me. The air still shimmered faintly where the guardian wolf had vanished, the echo of its presence rippling like aftershocks.
“I’ll kill it if I have to,” he muttered, low and cold. “The second you’re safe, I’ll hunt it down.” He peeled the back of my dress down carefully and swore under his breath. “It’s running straight down your spine.” His voice dropped to a growl. “We need to get you out of here. Now.”
The last thing I wanted to do was make him more upset and worried. “I’ll be fine.” My words cut off as another wave of heat surged from the marks. I clenched my jaw. “It called to me, Vad. I don’t know what happened, but it changed something.”
He moved in front of me and cupped my face, his hands framing me like I might disappear. His gaze burned with panic barely held in check. “I should have stopped it. Kept you from going to it.”
“There was no stopping it.” My throat tightened. “Whatever that thing was… itchoseme. I felt it.” My wolf whimpered. “She’s not gone—my wolf—but she’s different. Distant.” Another spasm of fear pulsed through me. What if I wasn’t going to be able to shift again? Was she all right?
Vad’s expression darkened into something raw and dangerous. He pulled me flush against him, bracing his arms around me like he could hold me together by force. “Then we fix it. Whatever this is… whatever it did. We find a way. Do you need me to help you?”
The words should have steadied me, but the heat beneath my skin only deepened. The veins along my forearms pulsed faintly with shadowed light, like ink moving through glass. The burn intensified. “It hurts,” I gritted. “Fuck, it hurts so much.”
His forehead dropped to mine, the desperation in his expression mirroring the pain in my chest. “I know. Just breathe. I’ve got you.” He wrapped his arms around me tighter.
Then he went rigid.
His attention snapped to something over my shoulder. His claws pricked lightly into my skin as our bond flooded with sudden, sharpened alarm.
The guards found us,he linked.
I tensed, dragging in a shaky breath. My body still throbbed with residual magic, the veins along my arms pulsing like shadowed lightning beneath the skin.I don’t know if I can fight them yet.
His voice turned to steel.Then hold on to me, Briar. Because I will end anyone who tries to touch you.
