Page 6 of Hunted By Her Demon Wolves

Daeva spied Elria resting on the bed, a hand draped across her brow. The queen had taken to bed earlier in the day after a dizzy spell had rendered her too sick to stand. Daeva wrung her fingers together, casting her mates worried looks. It wasn’t like Elria to succumb to sickness. Was it coincidental or a bad omen?

Cyrus knelt beside his aunt’s bedside. “Aunt, are you well?”

Her eyes flew open as she made a startled cry. She gaped at them through foggy eyes. “Yes, yes,” she mumbled. “These premonitions give me headaches.”

“Where is Damon?” Daeva asked. “I thought he was tending to you.”

Cyrus helped her as she struggled to sit up.

She waved toward the door. “I sent him to retrieve more soothing herbs.”

“She’s been like this all day.” The feathered apprentice, who had a beak for a nose, went to the foot of the bed and made an ear-piercing squawk.

Elria gave another start, groaning as she hung her head in her hands.

Dragomir gave the bird-girl a dark look, and she backed away from the bed with trembling feathers.

Daeva forgot the name of this new apprentice, but her loud squawks startled her every time.

Horatiu stood over his aunt, folding his arms across a broad chest. “Aunt, may we have a private word with you?”

“Of course, boys,” she said. “I was about to send for you.” She waved to the two apprentices, and they left her chambers, closing the door behind them.

Daeva shared a look with her mates before turning to Elria. “Send for them for what?”

Elria thanked Cyrus when he handed her a goblet of wine. “A resurrection spell,” she answered between sips.

Horatiu scratched the back of his head. “A what?”

“Should you be obliterated,” Elria said as she handed the goblet back to Cyrus, “this spell will enable your soul to one day return to your pack.”

A dark fear like she’d never known leeched into Daeva’s veins like spilled ink in water. “You-you’re worried about us being obliterated?”

“I am.” She threw her legs over the side of the bed and held up a hand to Horatiu. “Hecate refuses to listen, but something dark is coming. I can feel it in my bones. The fact that I can’t see it means whoever is planning an attack is using celaris magic.”

“Celaris?” Horatiu asked.

“A rare magic that enables the witch to stay hidden from oracles,” Daeva answered.

Daeva followed on legs that felt weighted with stones as Horatiu led his aunt to a chair by the hearth. “I remember our mother telling us about it,” Horatiu said.

“I thought only you had this magic,” Lucian said to his aunt as he draped a fur across her legs.

She nodded. “Bennu does as well, though she’s still learning how to wield it.”

This magic was so rare that Elria and Bennu were the only two that Daeva had ever known to possess it, and she’d known hundreds of witches. “And you think there’s another witch out there who has it?”

Elria dug her fingers into the fur on her lap. “I do.” She let out a gasp and lurched forward, grasping the sides of her head. “Ahh!”

Cyrus knelt beside Elria. “Aunt, what is it?”

“That foreboding feeling is getting stronger.” She spoke through a strained voice, as if each word pained her. “I fear we don’t have much time. We must do the spell now.”

Cyrus’s eyes widened. “What about our cousins?”

“I’ve already done the spell with them and Bennu,” she said. “Now I must do it with you and Daeva.”

When her mates gave her a questioning look, Daeva nodded.I’m sorry, but I trust your aunt more than I trust your mother.

---