Chapter 28

28

I was a breath away from screaming. Not because I was afraid of whatever curse creature was creeping toward us, although I didn’t relish dealing with it right now.

It was bigger than that.

It was—my stomach curled in on itself —helplessness.

The one emotion I’d spent a decade shielding myself from, painstakingly scraping away every raw nerve, every tender leaning. Now, it was all I could feel.

I’d failed to contain the curse.

Calum was badly hurt. Dying, maybe.

Possibly dead already.

Tenebris would be alone. He didn’t do well on his own.

And Jack…

Gods, he’d spend the rest of his life trapped up here. Only now he’d be stuck with me—a hot mess with a talent for ruining every fucking thing she touched.

“Mari. Hey, Mari.”

I dragged my gaze away from the bed to find Jack watching me with a look of concern. He held up his dagger and nodded toward my midsection. It took me a second to figure out what he was getting at, but then I realized he’d fallen into a fighting stance and was waiting for me to do the same.

Get your shit together, Mariana.

I fumbled for my daggers with shaky hands.

The shadows moved again, only this time they slid to the very edge of the bed and a pair of big blue eyes appeared amidst the darkness, blinking up at us. I tensed, waiting for the creature to show its teeth.

It gurgled.

High-pitched and squeaky with the slightest hint of a purr, the thing was making a noise I’d expect from a cuddly pet, not a vicious curse creature. I lowered my weapons but remained alert, just in case the adorable shadow blob decided to spring out and eat my face.

It slunk forward, and two floppy ears sprung up from the top of its head as it cleared the bed frame. It blinked its round eyes, gaze darting back and forth between me and Jack. When we remained motionless, it scooted farther still, a plump body popping out behind its head. It lifted a long, hind leg and scratched at the side of its face.

It’s a rabbit.

A few, wispy black hairs sprouted from its back end in place of a tail, and it lacked any discernible features aside from its too-large eyes, but the resemblance couldn’t be denied. It was a freaking bunny rabbit, cursed castle-edition. Not that it wouldn’t still eat my face off.

At least it’d be a distraction.

“Hey, little guy,” Jack murmured, keeping his dagger at the ready while lowering himself to the creature’s level. “Did we scare you? Barging into the room like that.”

Dear gods, did my ovaries just twitch?

Get it. The fuck. Together.

The creature cocked its head, studying us for a long, bated moment before making a vertical leap up onto the bed. Jack’s hand wrapped around my wrist, stopping me from releasing the dagger poised between my fingertips. “Wait,” he whispered.

I gritted my teeth, the need to take control of just one thing making it overwhelmingly difficult to stay my hand. But I did, and the creature scampered to the head of the bed where it promptly curled up in a ball atop one of the plump, white pillows before disappearing altogether.

“Looks like the curse affected the giants’ pets, as well.” Jack sheathed his dagger and pointed at a piece of parchment tacked to the wall. Someone had sketched a rabbit cradled in a man’s broad hand.

I took a step closer, examining the man’s face. It was soft and guileless, like a child’s. I blinked, realization clicking on like a light bulb. He is a child. My gaze drifted upward, to the circlet crowning his slicked-back hair. A prince.

“Is that…” Jack’s arm brushed mine as he stepped beside me. “…Harp?”

I glanced down at the picture he was pointing to. Its bright colors and wobbly lines looked to be done with finger paints, but there was no mistaking Harp’s golden form. Pink and red hearts decorated the background, along with a chain of light blue music notes. “Seems the young giant prince was fond of bunnies and music.”

“And toys,” Jack remarked dryly, looking around the cluttered room.

“And toys.” I ran a hand over the polished wood of a nearby rocking horse that could have easily seated a full-sized adult. My fingers curled over the curved arc of the horse’s graceful tail, my throat tightening. How can something so beautiful exist among all this chaos without being ruined?

And there, in the quiet stillness of that over-stuffed room, with the fate of my friends unknown and the man I’d once loved above all others a hands-breadth away, the armor I’d spent a decade crafting simply… cracked.

It started somewhere in the vicinity of my navel and traveled upward until my entire chest felt as if it’d been ripped open. Deep, racking sobs worked their way up from the rubble, searing my throat and blurring my eyes. Each wave was a punch to the gut, and I bowed forward, nails scraping at the horse’s wooden flank while I sank to my knees on the lush, blue carpet.

I didn’t look up when Jack lowered himself beside me, not even when his strong arm wrapped gently around my shoulders. I merely squeezed my eyes shut against the tears and leaned into his warmth, whispering, “What are we going to do?”

Jack smoothed my hair back, lips brushing my forehead as he drew me closer. “Whatever we have to.”

I swallowed. “I was so sure it would work.”

“It was a good plan.”

“I brought the entire room down on our heads. I almost got us killed .” I choked on a sob. “Maybe I did. Calum…”

“Is a werewolf and will heal in no time. He knew what he was doing,” Jack interjected. “We all did. It just didn’t pan out the way we’d hoped.”

I sniffled into his vest, too overwhelmed to feel self-conscious about the snot that was no doubt streaming from my nose. “You make it sound as if there’ll be a next time.”

“Well, why not? You didn’t lose your spell brushes, did you?”

“No…”

“So, we’ll find another avenue to try. A different vessel, maybe.”

I shook my head. “If all we needed was an artifact, the decanter would have worked. I need to know more about the original curse.”

“All right, then that’s what we’ll focus on.” Jack gave my shoulders a squeeze before releasing his hold and standing up. “Starting right here.”

I blinked up at him, the tears slowly drying while I took in the confident set of his jaw, the way he surveyed the cluttered room as if it truly might have the answers they required. Like he truly believed I was strong enough to break this curse.

A whisper of light eased into my chest, lifting me to my feet. Jack nodded his approval before bending down and picking up a bent trumpet. He held it up, peering inside its flared bell with an expression of intense interest. As if there might be some kind of clue etched along its brassy innards.

My lips curved into a smile, and I picked up a large, stuffed animal and pretended to examine it. “What secrets are you hiding, bear? Spill, or it’s pincushions for you.”

Jack chucked a red and green ball at my head. “I’m being serious over here.”

“So am I.” I pursed my lips as I plucked an elephant-shaped music box off one of the shelves lining the wall. “Very suspicious.”

“That’s it,” Jack retorted, grabbing a large, fluffy pillow from off the bed. “You asked for it.”

I held up my hands while he prowled toward me with the makeshift weapon. “Hey now. This is serious. We’re supposed to be looking for clues.”

He smirked as he backed me into a corner, a wicked gleam lighting his eyes. “Here’s a clue for you—duck!”

I dipped below the stuffed silk a second before it would have whacked me in the head, and scooted around Jack’s side. Keeping one eye on the pillow in his hand, I scanned the room for more.

Jack waggled his eyebrows as he stepped over a wooden train set. “Running away?”

I stuck my tongue out like the mature, thirty-year-old werewolf that I was. “I’m merely assessing the situation before I beat you senseless, pretty boy.”

Jack’s grin widened. “So you admit I’m pretty?”

“Now you sound like Tenebris,” I taunted, working my way around the bed in case another pillow had fallen onto the floor.

“Oh, now you’re gonna get it,” Jack growled. He lunged forward, pillow swinging over his head, and I darted backward to avoid being hit—only to trip on a box half-hidden beneath a pile of rumpled clothes. I fell onto my butt in a fit of un-Mari-like giggles.

“You win,” I gasped between bouts of laughter. “I’ll be serious.”

Jack stood over me, one eyebrow raised. “Take back your Tentacles comment, and you’ve got yourself a truce.”

“Yes, yes. You’re nothing at all like Tenebris. Polar opposites, really. Happy?”

He held out a hand. “For now.”

I rolled my eyes but accepted the proffered hand, allowing him to pull me up onto my feet.

He didn’t let go.

I didn’t move away.

His free hand drifted upward, caressing my cheek with the delicate softness of a butterfly.

The laughter fell from my lips, which suddenly felt terribly dry.

I licked them.

His gaze followed.

I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.

He tugged me closer, face lowering toward mine. “Mari.”

That’s all it took. Just one word and the ever-increasing proximity of the boy I’d tried so hard to forget and the man I was slowly learning would never leave my heart. He made me both weak and strong by turns, and there was nothing—literally nothing —I could do about it. Because it was him. It would always be him. I was done fighting.

“Jack.”

My hand curled around the back of his neck, fingers tunneling through his hair. The other slid beneath his vest and splayed over his heart—it pounded against my palm, each beat a match striking in my core.

And then his lips were on mine, and I was ablaze. I tore at his buttons. He fumbled with my cloak. Lips locked in a desperate need to stay connected, we clumsily shed each other’s clothes like drunken virgins on the brink of eruption. My shirt hit the floor beside his, and I fell back on the bed, greedy hands pulling him along with me.

And landed on something hard.

I broke our kiss long enough to dig beneath rumpled bedding and find the offending object. When I pulled it out, I expected to see yet another toy, but what I found was an egg.

A golden egg.

“The fuck is this?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” Jack rumbled against my neck, his mouth blazing a steady path south now that it’d been freed from my own. I chucked the metal egg to the side as he tugged the laces free on my pants, loosening them just enough to make room for his hand while it slid beneath the leather. Calloused fingers rubbed against my clit, and I arched my hips with a feral moan.

My alpha roared with the pressing need, and I wrapped my legs around Jack’s waist, rolling him over onto his back. His expression was nothing short of awed as he stared up at me, lips parted and pupils blown to hell, and he kept those eyes on mine while his finger slipped inside, curving to hit the spot he used to know so well. He kept it there as I shuddered, hips grinding against his hand. Watching me as he added a second finger, thumb circling my clit.

Watching as I rode him straight over the edge.

My walls clenched around his work-roughened digits, and I slumped forward onto his broad chest while the release flooded my system.

His hands splayed over my back. “Gods, I’ve missed seeing that.”

I nipped at his shoulder. “You know what I’ve missed?”

His voice grew husky with need. “What?”

I rose up on my knees and grasped the hard length straining to free itself from his pants.

“This.”