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She avoids my hands. “I have helped you. I’ve started this process with you, and we will meet again in the future to continue. But I am doing my best while also trying to stay alive.” She hesitates. “What if your destiny never included finding your mother again? What if she’s gone for good?”

I jerk back.

“There are dark times coming, Astra.” Her gaze burns as sure as her words. “You want allies. All the help you can get. But you also need to know how to keep those allies alive.” She points to the door. “I need you to take him far away from here, or he’ll kill me on sight. And you might not survive his fury either.”

I don’t want her to die. I don’t know if this is premonition spoken through the spirits she mentioned or if she can see the future. It doesn’t matter—she helped me, and now she’s in danger. Because of me.

I round the table and throw my arms around her, hugging her tightly.

Did I expect to get all sentimental about someone I just met?

No.

But also… on some weird level, I feel like I know her. Like I can trust her.

Her arms come up, and she grips me harder, her breath hitching. Too soon, she releases me.

“I’ll find you when it’s safe,” she assures me. “I sympathize with the weight on your shoulders.”

The weight. Whether that’s my mother or the curse or something else, I couldn’t say. And I’ve run out of time to ask.

I take the bag and hurry out the front door.

It swings shut behind me, and the glimmer of a ward pushes me forward. Out. It’s like her hand is between my shoulder blades, propelling me.

Another few steps forward, I glance back and watch in amazement as the cottage shimmers out of existence.

Like it was never there at all.

Kian might still sense her, though. I can’t be caught so close to her home.

I rush down the mountain. I pull on the bond, trying to lure him toward me. I don’t know if it works, but after five minutes of fast jogging, I slow to a stop. I turn in a small circle on the path and find a rock to sit on.

The white wolf appears on the path above me. He spots me and tips his head back, howling his victory. The sound vibrates the air, and my body sings. It’s a stupid, bond-driven reaction to be happy to see him. To feel the rightness of it as much as I hate it.

He rushes forward and shifts mid-stride, taking the last few steps as a human and sweeping me up into his arms. He wastes no time, patting me all over, examining me with a precision that should worry me. But it doesn’t. Instead, the warm feeling swells in my chest.

He was concerned. He does give a shit about me.

“Where’s the blood witch?” he asks in the next breath. “You found her, didn’t you? Did she attack you?”

I sigh. So maybe it wasn’t concern for my well-being. Rather, his concern over fatal injuries caused by a supposedly evil witch and my ability to find her again.

“She’s long gone.”

He stares at me, then his jaw tics. He lifts his head and scans the horizon, the mountainside. He might shift back and track her by smell, but I just want him to stop. Stop thinking about the curse and the blood witch and just focus on… this. Does he feel the same amazing sensation spreading through my chest now that he’s close?

Instead of the annoyance and frustration bubbling through from his words.

“I’ll just track your scent back to her,” he says.

He shifts before I can stop him.

No. I don’t think. I just lunge at him.

He’s not prepared for it and takes my weight in his side, dropping low. We roll, and I end up under his wolf. I wrap my arms around his thick neck.

I traveled by magic once. Sonia traveled with more than one person. So why can’t I take him with me? Especially when Beatrice seemed to imply that I could. She spent the night ensuring my power returned, and the earth gave it back to me.