Page 62 of Royally Cursed

Well. I was fucked.

“Kai!”

That was about the last sound I expected. Whipping my head, I saw none other than Ayla running toward us, barely dressed but without any shoes on.

Panic seized me at the thought of my mate getting hurt. I tried to fight to my feet, but I couldn’t, not yet.

“Ayla, no! Get away! It’s not safe!”

“I’m not going to leave you!” She leapt into the clearing with her hands raised. “Back the fuck off,” she hissed, her teeth bared.

That was when the magic started flying.

I watched in utter awe as she threw a shimmering ball of something at the four soldiers. Two of them dove out of the way, but two got hit square on and it sent them flying into the bracken. As for the others, Ayla didn’t waste a single second. She made a strange hand motion at one before laying her palm flat and blowing it at the other. Suddenly, the ogre was holding his throat, gasping, and the wolf’s skin was peeling back like he was being flayed, only to reveal a shaking human form.

Had…had she just forced a shift?

I’d heard of that happening once or twice before, but it was supposed to require an incredible amount of power. I knew Ayla was gifted. I just didn’t know she wasthatstrong.

All four were dispatched in only a minute, maybe less, but I could hear the others coming. Part of my brain wanted to warn Ayla, but the rest of me was still caught up in her goddess-like actions.

It turned out I didn’t need to tell her anything at all. She ran to me and placed her hands on my leg, pushing magic into me, which certainly felt strange with our bond, like a feedback loop.

“There,” she said as my leg rebuilt itself in rapid time. Shocked, I let her pull me to my feet and tentatively put my weight down on what was basically a brand-new limb. Sure enough, it was strong enough to take my weight. However, this kind of ability wasn’t typical for either of us. Was being mated affecting our power levels? It was feeling more and more likely.

“Is that something you could do before?” I knew I was wasting precious seconds, but it seemed pretty damn pertinent.

“Nope,” she answered. “Now, come on!”

Hand in hand, we ran back to our camp. No one was immediately chasing us, but we both knew it was our time to go. Hastily grabbing all we needed and shoving it into Ayla’s bag, I only stopped long enough to carve that same symbol into a tree. Hopefully if our companions were looking for us, they would spot it and follow the way.

Gulping down one last hank of venison and splashing my face in the creek, we peeled out. It probably would've been faster for us to shift into wolves, but considering what Ayla said about preferring her witch side and being nervous to shift in front of others, I figured it wasn’t the right moment.

We still made good time, however, and went quite a good distance before we paused and listened to our surroundings. I scanned for heartbeats and scents, while Ayla searched for magic.

We were completely silent as we did so, but after a few minutes, it was pretty clear we were safe. Well, for the moment at least.

“I’m sorry” was the first thing out of my mouth. I felt like the biggest idiot for getting less than five minutes away from our camp and falling into a magical trap.

“Don’t be,” she said, her voice trembling. I recognized that it wasn’t just regular adrenaline making her shaky. I tried to pull her into my arms, but she stepped away from me once more.

“Ayla, what is it? What’s wrong?”

“You almost died because of me!”

What?

I tried to be understanding, I did, but I'd no idea what she was talking about. Maybe the stress of battle had just gotten to her a bit?

“I’m…not entirely sure why you would come to that conclusion.”

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say, because she burst into tears at that, completely inconsolable.

Not for the first time, I stood there feeling like a fool. Clearly I'd done something wrong, but I'd no idea what it could be, and each time I tried to touch Ayla, she'd put space between us, which told me I needed to lay off.

After what felt like a torturous amount of time, she finally spoke again. “This is why I cursed you not to notice me in the first place. Iknewthis would happen.”

Hold up.

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