Chapter 13

13

R hi

I wake to Pip nudging my cheek with his snout, my head pounding.

I groan and drag open my eyes.

It’s morning, gray light visible around the gaps in the ancient curtains.

“Are you hungry again?” I ask Pip, tickling his ears. He definitely seems to be making up for not eating all those days he was ill. “Come on then, let’s go find you some food.”

And me some water. Lots of water. And possibly painkillers as well.

In the kitchen I find Winnie, already starting to brew the second dose of my potion.

“Are you the only one up?” I ask, stretching my arms above my head as I stagger towards her.

“Uh huh.” She gives me a sly smile. “I think I wore Trent out last night. He’s dead to the world. I’m assuming you did the same to those mates of yours. I’ve not heard a peep from them this morning.”

I shake my head. “Nope.” I rub my temples and run the faucet. “I drank too much and got put to bed like a naughty schoolgirl.”

Winnie drops her wooden spoon into the mixture and looks at me.

“But they joined you in bed, right?”

“As far as I am aware,” I say, glugging down water, “no, I slept alone. That’s if you don’t count Pip.” I point to my pet who is now snuffling down the remains of spaghetti bolognese Azlan left out for him.

Winnie gapes at me like I lost my marbles. She rests her hand on my forehead. “Are you sick? Or simply mad?”

“Neither.”

“Five hot men – all clearly wanting to rip your clothes off. Why didn’t you take advantage of that?”

“I tried. I got nervous. And I drank too much.”

“Why?”

“Because five, Winnie, five!”

“I admit it is rather a lot.”

“Yeah, you don’t say.” Pip squeaks from the floor and I can’t help thinking he’s on my side on this one. “It’s intimidating. Hence the need for alcohol.”

“So you don’t want to be sleeping with all of them? I mean, it’s fine if you don’t, obviously. I’m just sort of surprised. I thought the fated mate bond made your mate kind of irresistible.”

“Well, yeah, it does. And I’m not saying I don’t, it’s just …”

“Complicated.”

“Yep. ”

“One thing I’ve learned from hanging out with you, Rhi, is that nothing in your life is ever straightforward. But one thing I’ve also seen is that you always find a way through.”

“They say they’re not going to be jealous, Winnie,” I say lowering my voice as my eyes dart to the door, “they even say they’d like to share me.”

“Shit, Rhi, that is seriously hot.”

“But the practicalities, Winnie. You know those guys. I can’t see how they aren’t going to get jealous … and violent.”

“I think you’d be surprised. And in the fairytale of Queen ?eelfl?d–”

“Woah, Winnie, that fairytale is for kids. There is nothing in there about their bedroom antics.”

“Exactly, in the children’s versions there aren’t, but in the adult version–”

“That’s a fairytale, Winnie. Probably written by some horny dude with too vivid an imagination. This is real life.”

Winnie lays her hand on my shoulder. “They are crazy about you, Rhi. You have no idea how crazy. They were sort of unhinged when you went missing. Hell, the man in black went charging straight into the Wolves of Night compound, all guns blazing, because he thought they were holding you captive. I think you’ll find a way to make this work. You’re destined to be together – literally destined.”

I nod, because I agree with her. More and more, as my story unfolds, I’m beginning to trust in fate, to let her take me where I need to go. And these men, as crazy as it may seem, are important to me and I can’t imagine letting any of them go. Which means I’m going to have to find a way to make it work between us all. Especially in the bedroom.

Pip bumps his snout against my ankle and licks the exposed skin.

There’s something else I’ve been wanting to ask my best friend.

“Winnie, what do you know about familiars?”

Winnie’s eyes narrow and then she peers down at Pip.

“Is this a general question or do you want to know for a specific reason?”

“General,” I squeak, sounding nowhere near convincing.

Winnie rolls her eyes at me. “We’re talking about Pip, right?”

“I honestly don’t know. Familiars are meant to protect magicals from danger, aren’t they? And while I love Pip to bits and he’s a great friend and everything,” I shrug, “he hasn’t exactly stopped me from landing in trouble.”

Pip snorts in an outraged manner and Winnie laughs.

“Yeah, he’s not exactly the best guard dog but I still love him to bits.”

“Me too.”

Winnie picks up the wooden spoon and stirs the potion.

“They say familiars are spirits that take an animal form – occasionally a human one,” she says.

“Like a ghost?”

“I don’t know. It’s not really my area of expertise. And I think the practice of familiars died out long ago.”

We both look down at Pip who is now chewing on my shoelace. When the lace tickles the back of his throat, he gags and spits it out.

“Charming,” I mutter.

“We still need that Cloudpuff,” Winnie says. “Do you remember where you saw it?”

“Yes,” I say, “I’ll go fetch some now. I could do with some fresh air.”

“Alone?” Winnie says as I head towards the door, Pip trotting alongside me .

“No, Pip’s coming too.”

“I don’t think that’s a good–” Winnie calls after me, but I’ve already grabbed my coat and am out the door.

A walk on my own out here in the empty landscape might be just what I need to stop my head from pounding and line my thoughts in order. And not just about my mates but about my mom’s vision too. My mates seem to think her vision was correct, that what she saw is already playing out. Christopher Kennedy will come for me. He won’t stop until he’s destroyed me. But there’s this niggling feeling inside me that that isn’t it. That we’ve misunderstood, missed something. And I can’t shift it.

The winter sun creeps over the horizon as Pip and I walk away from the mansion and across the fields, heading in the direction the beast took me yesterday. The sky turns slowly gray above us and the air bitterly cold. I peer down at my pig wondering if I should have insisted he wore that cardigan Winnie found him.

I haven’t told anyone else about what else my aunt revealed. About Pip. About having to let him go. Because that isn’t happening and I’m scared that if I tell them about that part, they’ll insist that I have to. And then we really are going to fall out.

“Are you cold?” I ask him.

He snorts, shaking out his body and trotting on ahead of me. In the distance I can see the tall stalks of Cloudpuff growing beside a ditch. I plunge my cold hands deeper into my jacket pockets, crunching them into fists and picking up my pace. I only need a couple of the giant plants but the stalks are thicker than I realized and when I fail to snap them in half, I’m forced to use my magic to sear through the woody stems. I lay the first stalk, with its small white winter flowers, across my lap, and tackle another. I’m half way through slicing the stalk when something niggles at the periphery of my awareness.

Magicals.

I snap up my head and peer out towards the horizon. The sky is covered in a thick blanket of cloud and the light is murky but I swear I can see movement – the tiniest dot of movement out there.

Automatically, I clutch my aunt’s locket, resting against my clavicle, thanking my lucky stars I was sensible enough to wear it.

Pip’s snuffling in among the tall plants, his nose wet with dew. I hiss his name and beckon him close, remaining in my crouched position as I watch that dot, my senses primed that way too.

The dot grows bigger and bigger, multiplying into two, three dots, and soon it’s clear those dots are people. Three people, one dressed in the long dark cloak of an enforcer.

Friends or enemies? I don’t know. But I need to warn the others.

There’s someone coming! I yell out in my mind and then through my bond, hoping one of my mates will be up by now and might hear me. Then I pick up Pip and start sprinting back towards the house. No magic comes hurtling over my head, no sign at all that I’ve been seen, and when I reach the crumbling wall that marks the boundary of the garden belonging to the old mansion, I meet Azlan striding quickly my way.

I grab his arm.

“You’ll be seen,” I hiss at him, twisting my head to search for the magicals – one woman, one man and the enforcer still walking this way.

“They can’t see us,” Azlan whispers, also peering that way. “There’s a shield around the house which makes it invisible to others. But they can hear us, smell us.”

“Do you know who they are?”

“Silas,” he says, stepping in front of me. “He was with me when we found this house.”

“Is he a friend?”

Azlan’s eyes narrow. “I can’t be sure.”

I hug Pip closer to my chest, whispering at him to be quiet and we stand there and watch the three people walk straight towards us, pausing several yards before the perimeter of the wall. This close I notice a difference about the enforcer’s cloak. On the front a crest has been sewn onto the fabric – made from scarlet thread. The other woman and man wear similar emblems pinned to their long winter coats. A closed fist.

I don’t know what it means. It’s not something I’ve ever seen before, but it has Azlan frowning.

“There’s nothing here,” the woman says, swinging her gaze right over us, her eyes not seeing us at all.

“There was. The old mansion was right here. I made a note of its position and I remember that dip and those trees.” The enforcer takes a step forward, narrowing his eyes and staring right at us. I hold my breath. “Something’s not right here.”

“Could be a shield,” the woman says, flinging back her arm and firing a bolt of magic right at us.

I gasp and flinch, but the bolt smacks against something unseen in the sky, sparks and shatters to the ground, singeing the grass.

“Did you hear that?” the woman says, her eyes alert and I curse myself for being so dumb.

“Yes, a shield,” the enforcer says, lifting his hand as if he’s feeling the air for magic .

Azlan grabs my elbow and holds it tight.

The enforcer takes another step forward and I feel Azlan’s body grow tense.

“It could be a decoy,” the other man says.

“No, those were werebeast prints we saw down by the stream. They’re here.”

I step closer to Azlan, my blood running cold.

“Azlan!” the enforcer yells. “I know you’re there. I know this is your magic and I know you have the girl. Hand her over now and no one will be hurt.”

I glance towards my mate, who in turn glares at his former colleague.

When there’s no reply, the woman and man fling more magic at the shield, but once again it holds, their magic falling down to the ground.

“It’s no use,” the enforcer hisses to the other two. “This is Azlan Kennedy. We won’t be able to break through his magic. We’ll have to come back with reinforcements – with the Lord Protector himself.”

The woman doesn’t seem convinced. She steps forward, arms raised, until she hits something invisible in front of her, yards from where we stand. She feels along it with her palms, her nose twitching.

“I can smell something cooking.”

I peer back to the house.

Azlan takes a step forward, his entire body rigid and alert.

The enforcer steps forward too, so he’s standing next to the woman. They’re so close I can see the color of their eyes. Hers a brown, his a cool blue, staring straight at me, making me shiver.

“I know you’re there, Azlan,” he whispers. “And I know you know just how foolish this is. The girl’s a menace, a danger, a threat to our country. So make sure you’re on the right side of history and hand her in – before you’re forced to.”

Azlan’s broad shoulders rise and fall but he doesn’t move, and he doesn’t say a word.

The other enforcer shakes his head as if he’s disappointed, then he turns to the others.

“It’s fine,” he says. “They’re not going anywhere. There’s no escape – nowhere to go – and reinforcements will be here before nightfall.”

Azlan spins me around and marches me back to the house.

“Shouldn’t we take them out – stop them from calling for those reinforcements?” I hiss at Azlan before he shoves me through the door.

Azlan shakes his head. “It’s not possible. If they don’t check in, then reinforcements will come looking for them anyway. Either way, they’re coming and we’re leaving. Right now.”