Chapter 14

14

J ack still wasn’t back when I returned to the cabin after leaving my amphibious friend sunbathing on its rock. Calum sat waiting on the bench with our bags, but Tenebris had already let himself inside. I found him rummaging through a shallow, wooden chest beside a bed made of pine boughs and fur blankets built into the far wall. Because of course he’d immediately start snooping.

I stepped inside the single-room shelter, taking in the stone fireplace sealed with red clay and the crate full of kindling placed beside it. Mismatched candles flickered from the top of a small table that’d been pushed against the back wall, with a set of charcoal pencils and a thick, leather book resting beside them. A wooden door built into the floor implied a root cellar of some sort.

“Find anything interesting?” I asked, running my fingers over the book’s soft cover.

“That depends,” Tenebris replied. “Do you find crudely-sewn underwear interesting?” He snorted. “You’d think after ten years the guy could manage some decent stitching.”

“I doubt it’s high on his priority list.” I flipped the book open to the first page. Dancing charcoal eyes winked back at me from a familiar freckled face. My breath hitched. He drew me from memory?

“Ooh, how about these gems?” Tenebris crowed, oblivious to my distraction. “Socks that were clearly knit by a blind badger. Honestly, I’m only guessing they’re socks at all.”

I turned the page, and my eyes welled up at the sight of my wolf form running joyously through an autumn-tinged forest. A hand rested on my shoulder, Calum’s comforting pine needle scent enveloping me like a warm hug. He didn’t say anything, and I leaned back against his broad chest as Tenebris’s comment slowly sank in. Knit socks…

I turned my head, finding Tenebris with a lumpy red sock over his hand. He angled it my way, moving his hand inside like a puppet. “This is the song that doesn’t end,” he warbled in a high-pitched voice, making the sock mouth the words along with him.

Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry.

“Ten…” Calum’s low voice held a gentle warning, making Tenebris falter, his brows lowering in confusion when he realized I was a blink away from breaking down.

“Mari? What’s wrong?”

I swallowed, hard. “Nothing, I?—”

A flash of sunlight from the opening door had me pressing my lips together, the hairs on the back of my neck prickling to attention. A shuffling of footsteps and Tenebris’s eyes widened when he looked over my shoulder toward the door. My brain screamed at me to turn around, but my head refused to budge. Belatedly, I recalled the open book and slammed it shut. As if he wouldn’t know exactly what I’d been looking at.

“We need to talk.”

The husky timbre of his voice was a straw too many—I was officially broken. They’d have to go on without me, leaving me to grow old and moss-covered in my stupefied state.

Calum cleared his throat, his big hand squeezing my shoulder. “I think he’s talking to you,” he murmured, low enough to be meant only for me.

Me. Right.

Who was I again?

“Mariana?”

I snapped back to reality, the sound of my name in that voice clicking something into place deep inside me. Motor skills reinstated, I finally turned my head—and found myself freezing up all over again.

Gone was the wild mountain man in tattered clothes from before, replaced by the Jack I remembered. Only older and more ruggedly built. Deliciously rugged, really. And with strong, capable-looking hands. A whisper of heat danced between my legs while I envisioned those calloused fingers slipping inside and…

“Nice haircut.” Tenebris’s voice cut off my daydream as effectively as an ice bath. “And are you wearing different clothes? Those actually seem kind of nice.”

Jack ran a hand down the front of his dark green vest, tugging at the lapel. “Ah, yeah. A friend helped me resize some of the giants’ clothing.” His gaze strayed to Tenebris’s hand, his eyes narrowing on the red sock he still wore like a fucking mitten. My fingers twitched with the memory of knitting them, Lyall’s ever-patient voice guiding me through the steps while I awkwardly worked the needles.

Tenebris gulped and silently slipped the sock off, shoving it back inside the chest, closing the lid, and sliding the entire thing under the bed.

“A friend?” Calum asked. “Are you saying there are still giants living inside the castle?”

Jack gave Tenebris a last, lingering glare. “No giants. Just Harp, and she can’t really go anywhere seeing as she’s an enchanted instrument.” He shook his head. “We can discuss her later. Right now, we should probably talk about what happened ten years ago seeing as Noah was… less than honest about everything.”

“That’s one way of putting it,” I grumbled, the overload of nostalgia holding my brain cells captive melting away as anger flared hot inside my chest. I was seriously going to strangle that asshole if—no, when —we ever got back.

“See, that’s what I don’t get,” Tenebris interjected. “Why would he lie about that? Even going so far as to create a ruse about you leaving the forest.” He gasped, eyes widening dramatically. “Unless… did he trap you in here on purpose? Had that been his plan all along?”

“I doubt he could have known this place was cursed,” I pointed out, glancing over at Jack. “But you’d know best. What exactly did happen that night?”

Jack sighed, scrubbing the back of his head. “Noah and I were drinking at The Bloody Belle . The rest of our party had either gone home or were passed out at the table when I told him about the ‘magic bean’ Granddad had given me as a bonding present. I hadn’t believed it was actually magical, but Noah practically fell out of his chair in excitement. Said he’d read stories of your grandmother’s infamous beans, but he’d thought they’d all been used up. When he told me they were supposed to be strong enough to cut through the cloud barrier at the top of the beanstalk, I had the drunkenly brilliant idea to do just that.” He grimaced. “Not one of my better plans.”

Tenebris snorted. “No shit.”

“Shut it, Tentacles,” Jack countered.

“It’s Tenebris and you know it.”

“Do I?”

“So you got drunk and climbed the beanstalk, dragging Noah along with you, and miraculously made it through the lethal barrier with the help of a magic bean,” I summed up, cutting the two idiots off before they digressed any further.

“When you put it like that, it sounds pretty stupid, doesn’t it?” Jack admitted.

I arched a brow. “Little bit, yeah.”

Tenebris leaned toward me, whispering in the loudest fucking voice possible, “Isn’t that pretty much the same thing you did? Only swap booze for the gut-wrenching fear of Abuela’s retribution and me and Calum for Noah.”

Gods, I wanted to smack his beautiful face right now. Ignoring my idiot friend, I frowned. “But what about the wards surrounding the base of the stalk? How’d you get past those?”

“Noah.” Jack grimaced, as if tasting something gross. “He’s part witch, you know. And apparently a pretty good one at that. He had those wards down in a blink.”

“Damn.” Clearly I hadn’t known my former-friend-turned-number-one-enemy well at all. “Okay. So, what happened when you reached the top? And how is it you ended up stuck in here while Noah is living life to its fullest down in Mondue?”

“Fucking Noah,” he growled, leaning back against the cabin wall. “He was already an anxiety-ridden mess from the climb, and by the time we reached the front door, he looked like he might retch at any moment. I told him to wait and let me scout ahead, but mostly I didn’t want to be too close when he inevitably yakked. I lent him one of my daggers, and he stayed in the doorway while I headed inside. Which is when we saw Gregar, the shadow monstrosity, rise up from the middle of the freaking floor.”

“Gregar?” Tenebris interrupted with a snort. “Did you come up with that yourself?”

“You try living with something like that for ten years and not naming it,” Jack snapped.

“Focus, please,” I sighed.

Jack’s cheeks tinged pink. “Right. So, there we were, me facing down a fifty-foot giant made of solidified shadows and fucking Noah shitting his pants in the doorway. Then Gregar let out this ear-splitting whine and lunged forward. Noah and I both turned to run, only problem was—Noah got out first, and the door swung shut behind him. When I tried to pull on it, it wouldn’t budge. I yelled for him to open it from the other side, but the door remained closed, and I ran out of time to wait. I made for the first door I could reach and thanked the goddess when Gregar didn’t turn back into shadows and slip through after me.”

“And we’re definitely sure he can’t do that?” Tenebris shot an uneasy glance toward the cabin door.

“We’re safe,” Jack assured us. “Seems he can’t leave the foyer. Although, fair warning, he’s not the only shadow beastie roaming the castle. The others just wait until dark to come out. Speaking of which”—he cracked the door open and peeked outside, revealing a sliver of pink sky—“I should probably get the fire going before the night wings come out. The smoke from the chimney helps keep them off the roof.”

“Night wings?” Tenebris squeaked, visibly paling.

“Yeah, night wings?” I added, on the same page as Tenebris for once. My fingers twitched with the sudden desire to be holding a weapon.

“Don’t worry,” Jack said, collecting a handful of wood from the crate. “They won’t be able to get in once we bar the door for the night. Speaking of which”—he looked at Calum before nodding toward the door—“would you mind?”

Calum shuffled around Jack as he crouched in front of the fireplace and heaved the heavy wood beam into place over the door. He then made his way over to sit on the floor beside the bed and began pulling off his boots. Guess we’re hunkering in for the night. I shrugged off my cloak and folded it on top of my rucksack, which Calum had apparently brought in earlier. Surveying the cabin’s limited seating, I finally opted to squeeze onto the bed beside Tenebris, leaving the lone chair for Jack.

Then proceeded to watch his every move.

Every twist of his hand, every shift of his shoulders—I couldn’t tear my hungry gaze away, even as I begged myself to do just that. Pull yourself together, Mariana. You got over Jack years ago. This thing you’re feeling right now? It’s just a fleeting bit of sentimental what ifs. It’ll pass. No need to get your hormones in a bunch.

Jack tossed the last of the kindling into the growing orange flames and glanced over his shoulder.

I tried very hard not to swoon as the light danced across his porcelain features.

The corner of his mouth kicked up in a knowing smirk.

I countered by snuggling into Tenebris’s side and tucking my hand around his arm.

Jack’s eyes darkened.

And then the shrieking began. A cacophony of high-pitched chirps rang out around us, followed shortly by the scratching of wings and tiny claws against the roof and outside the walls. Tenebris sat up ramrod straight, the tension rolling off him in waves. “Night wings, was it?”

Jack grinned. “That’s right. They’re like bats on crack with a taste for human flesh.”

“You don’t say.” Tenebris shivered, and Calum leaned closer, placing a comforting hand on his thigh and lightly squeezing.

I watched as Jack’s gaze traced the move with marked interest. So much for my beard. I gave Tenebris’s shoulder a half-hearted pat, but I had a feeling our fake lovers act wasn’t fooling anyone.

Jack let out a humorous chuckle. “This place is crawling with nasty creatures after dark. Just wait until you see the jungle…”

“There’s a jungle?” I echoed, jaw dropping. Damn, this place is big.

“Jungle, farmland, forests, lakes. Even villages. You name it, one of those doors opens up to it,” Jack replied. “How else do you think the giants could survive in the space of a single castle?”

I pictured the multitude of doors lining the spiraling staircase. There must have been sixty, at least, each one leading to a different room or section of land. “Amazing.”

“I drew a map of it,” Jack said. “Or of the parts I’ve explored anyway, if you want to see it.”

I couldn’t help it—I laughed. “Of course you made a map. The walls of our treehouse were covered with them. A map of Mondue, a map of the forest, a map of your freaking house.”

Jack shrugged. “What can I say? I like a good map. Although, calling it a map might be a little misleading. It’s basically just a sketch of the places I’ve explored, notes about which shadow creatures are lurking there. Nothing fancy.”

“I’ll be the judge of that. Can we see it?”

“Sure. Let me just get that box you were all helping yourselves to back out…” He swung a pointed look around at the three of us, to which we all tried to appear properly apologetic. “It’s just under here,” he murmured, kneeling in front of me and using one hand to hoist my legs over his shoulder while the other pulled out the hidden chest.

I squeezed my thighs together, praying those damned vampire senses of his didn’t pick up the sudden excitement working its way through my system. Given the smug little smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth, I was fairly certain he knew exactly what his touch was doing to me. His thumb stroked a lazy circle over my ankle as he shifted through the jumbled items.

I bit my lip.

His grip tightened.

Tenebris smothered a snort, and I jerked to my senses, pulling my legs off Jack’s shoulder and tucking them up against my chest. “Did you, uh”—I cleared my throat—“find it yet?”

Jack held up a cylinder of rolled-up parchment. “Got it right here.”

“Excellent.” I nodded toward the paper. “Let’s see it.”

Anything to distract me from the fluttering mess that was my heart.