It didn’t bear thinking about.
Snow obscured the way ahead as my mood plummeted. Every few minutes, lightning flashed above. I trudged on, bent double against the howling gale. Eventually, a lone lantern appeared in the inky darkness, swinging in the wind.
Not yet ready to return to my miserable room with its narrow bed and damp-stained ceiling, I headed toward the glowing light.
A glass of elkwine might warm my blood. Failing that, at least there would be a fire where I could dry my feet before going back to the boarding house.
34
Raven
Awarm wind brushed my skin as we sat on the porch drinking iced tea. Adam had hugged me long and hard when we popped through the wards around the farm under the cover of darkness.
He brushed a stray tear away before checking me from head to toe to make sure I was uninjured.
“I saw the press conference,” Adam told us. “Tiberius must be furious about losing his assets.”
Did he mean me? I wasn’t sure I liked being called an asset.
“Did you know about the labs?” Rasmus asked.
Wait, were there more places like the one Alaric and I had been held in? My thoughts drifted back to my storm mage, and for the millionth time, I reached out to him down the silver tether between us. But although I sensed his presence, it was little more than a faint echo.
The optimist in me said that was because he was out of range, but the more likely explanation was he’d shut me out.
Alaric’s walls had never truly come down. Pushing away those he cared about to protect them had always been his default strategy.
It appeared not much had changed since we parted.
While I had no choice but to accept his decision, it didn’t mean I had to like it.
“Wereyou aware of the laboratories?” Maverick leaned back in his chair, shoulders relaxed, but I could feel the anger burning down the bond when Adam failed to reply immediately.
“I’d heard rumors, yes, but nothing substantiated.” Adam sighed regretfully. “Tiberius stopped trusting me the minute I expressed my disgust at how he treated Nula.”
Nula? I slanted a look at Maverick, but he was too busy eyeballing Adam to notice.
“Um, who’s Nula?”
An ethereal figure floated through the doorway from the kitchen. With her long, gray hair and translucent skin, the female seemed more dead than alive, but when the muted light from the porch lantern hit her face, I saw how breathtakingly beautiful she was.
“You must be Raven,” the female rasped. She massaged her throat with slender fingers, as if the effort of speaking pained her.
“Um, yeah? Are you Nula?”
I didn’t recognize her, but from the way Adam pulled her closer, she meant something to him. I scrutinized her aura, trying to get a read on what she was, and more importantly, her intentions toward my guardian.
Her aura was weak, a haze of pale green with hints of gold and amber. My magic sensed the weakness in her life force. Something bad had happened to her, bad enough she’d almost crossed the veil.
Was she a witch? Nothing about her screamed witch. Human? No, not human.
“She’s a shifter without her animal,” Maverick said in my mind. “Alaric’s mother.”
“You’re Alaric’s mom?” I blurted. Of course she was. If I looked closely, I could see they shared the same bone structure and green eyes, although hers were not as vibrant. More mossy green than emerald green.
Adam loosened his grip on the female. She drifted closer, a soft smile on her lips. I tried not to cringe when she took hold of my hand because, despite the warm, humid air here, her fingers were cold as ice.
“Yes, Alaric is my son.” She let me go after a few very uncomfortable seconds.
