He wouldn’t let the little witch do the same. Even if it meant walking away from the only person who’d ever made him feelsomething.Even if it meant ripping out the bond and letting that emptiness swallow him whole once again.
The witches would never win.
When Felix came backinto the dorm, it was far past midnight.
Avery still slept soundly, a small patch of drool on her pillow and a fluffle of dust bunnies curled up by her head. They were lucky she didn’t have allergies. Despite everything, Felix chuckled at the sight. It was that easy to make him melt around her. He was so completely, utterly fucked.
Before he had met her, he had wanted nothing more than to be alone. People would tire, bore, and frustrate the living fuck out of him. At the end of the day, he would beg that everyone just go away.
But with Avery, for the first time in his whole goddamn life, he wanted her company more than his own. He wanted to fall asleep with her. Wake up with her. He wanted to spend every fucking waking moment in her presence. Most of all, he wanted her.
Funnily enough, his father had told him the exact same thing over dinner one night. He explained to Felix what it felt like when a shifter met the one person in the universe who was made exactly for them. A gift from Arawn. Perhaps it was just the bond, but Felix couldn’t blame it ononlythe bond now. This was all him. All his catastrophic fucking mistake.
But still, something held him back. Until he knew for sure, he still had one finger holding onto that cliff.
Running a hand through his hair, he dialed the number he had used to call Ciro on before. Maybe he needed a reminder of home. Maybe Ciro could talk him out of how stupid he was being.You like a witch?Oh, how Ciro would fucking laugh. They were our mortal enemies, and no one hated witches more than Felix. And he still did hate witches, just not Avery; she was a fatal exception.
The line didn’t ring; it just made a beeping sound like the call failed. He tried again. The same thing happened. What the hell?
Opening up the messages, he tried to send the photos of the statues.Status undelivered.Again.Undelivered.Again.Undelivered.
Pricks of ice dotted through his body. Did someone know? Did something happen to Ciro? His whole den could be under attack by the witches, and he didn’t even know. He was letting them down, only thinking of himself, whipped by a fucking witch. A lot more than whipped now.
There was no way he could do this alone. Break whatever spell was on those prisons. He needed to get off this goddamn island. Come back with a whole army, or something, anything. The hardest part of it all, though? He didn’t want to leave without Avery.
A warm hand gripped his wrist, stealing him away from his thoughts. When had she even gotten up?
Felix twirled around, meeting her tired eyes as she rubbed at them with her other hand.
“What are you doing?” she said sleepily. “Are you okay?”
That was the moment that broke him. Those three little words were enough to have his mouth moving before he could stop it.
“I found something.”
Twenty-Eight
Avery
I found something.
Avery’s heart dropped at the words.
She blinked at Felix in the dim light of her dorm, hand still wrapped around his wrist. His pulse hammered against her fingers, which probably wasn’t a great sign. Gently, he let go of her and sat on the bed, shoulders slumping forward. Whatever it was, it had him shaken enough to display it. This was not good.
“What did you find?” Avery asked softly.
He pulled out her phone without answering her. Opening up the photos, he swiped to the bottom and turned it around. Unease curled through her spine as she looked. Rows of animal statues on a shelf.
“What are they?” she asked, scared of what his response would be.
“Shifters.”
Her mind stuttered. “What?”
She waited for him to say that he was joking. But it didn’t come.
“Hundreds of them, trapped in statues.” He swiped to another photo, and then another. Each time, the dread coiled tighter. “The entire room was warded ten times over.”
