Avery turned the riddle over in her mind, looking up at the moon as if it would whisper the answer.
Spirits writhing and reaching their peak, a crude metaphor for Spirit Night. It had to be. The veil was at its thinnest at midnight.
The mouth? It could only be one thing.
As the answer clicked, a smile formed on her face. “The midnight cave on Spirit Night.”
Despite the tides, the midnight cave always seemed to open at the strike of twelve. She had been there once or twice, but apart from the magically disappearing water, it was just a cave.
A smile tugged at Felix’s mouth as well, before he seemed to catch himself and frowned instead, trying to look like he was a fearless predator. In reality, he looked like an overgrown itty-bitty kitty, or maybe he had just grown on her more than she thought.
“Am I really so predictable?” the goddess said in her chorus of flowers.
Avery chuckled. “It was a pretty easy riddle.”
The flowers let out a witchy cackle that rang around the leafy walls, scattering birds from within the hedge. Felix’s ears flattened against his skull, his tail giving a single irritated lash. His grip on her arm tightened, then released entirely.
“Hmm, smarter than I thought,” the goddess said. “I have a few more tricks up my sleeve, though.”
Not ominous at all.
“Like what?” Felix said.
The flowers chuckled, golden pollen falling from their stamens. “That’s for me to know and for you to find out, my little kitten.”
Avery snorted at the demeaning nickname while Felix glared at the flowers. Payback was sweet.
“You could be what I have been waiting for,” the goddess said. “Let us see if you can live up to your own potential.”
They exchanged a wary glance between them. What the hell did that mean?
The goddess’s laughter shook the maze, and the flowers started to breathe, expanding and contracting like lungs before they shot out clouds of shimmering glitter that drizzled on them like golden snow. Avery, more curious than her cat counterpart, held out a hand to catch the pollen. It landed softly, gently resting on her and shimmering under the light.
Pollen floated around them, dusting them in a fine layer of gold. She tipped her head back and closed her eyes, letting the tiny particles catch on her face, a childlike joy spreading through her. For just a moment, the world fell away.
“It’s beautiful,” she said.
When she opened her eyes again, her gaze landed on Felix, who was already staring.
“It is,” he said, not looking at the pollen.
Her heart stumbled, missing more than a few beats. Gold dust clung to his dark hair, the pollen settling in the hollow of his throat. His eyes gleamed with something she couldn’t quite decipher. A beautiful riddle just waiting to be untangled. And by the fucking goddess, she desperately wanted to.
She laughed again, feeling more giddy than usual as she watched it make Felix into a glittery beacon, not an inch of him spared. What a strange situation they were thrust into. She never would have chosen it for herself. But wasn’t that the beautiful thing about life? The paths that you least expected, even the onesyou detested, always led to something extraordinary, if for only a moment. And this was that moment.
A shifter and a witch, bound by fate, and she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
Pollen swirled around them, dancing and shimmering in the light as Felix took a step closer. She didn’t move. Didn’t take a step back. His hand came up and cupped her cheek, her heart hammering like a bird against its cage.
Using his other hand, he grabbed the waist of her dress and pulled her forward until she was flush against his warm skin. An inch, that was all it would take for her lips to meet his. Every part of her wanted to. She was sick of pretending like she hadn’t spent the better part of the last week thinking about the kiss beneath the oak. She wanted it all andmore.For once in her life, she wanted to be selfish. To do what she wanted.
Felix stumbled back, claws extending with a pained groan. Avery’s blood ran cold, the hairs on her arm raising as if subconsciously detecting danger. Something was very,verywrong.
Shadows grew around him instead of shrinking as he continued shifting. His face snapped and snarled, as if he were trying to stop the transformation.
“Run, little witch,”he said, voice demonic and hungry.
But the voice wasn’t his. It belonged to something else entirely.
