Page 6
As a twig snaps under foot, I flinch. But not because of the noise; because I caught myself wondering if it might be better if it had been his heart. Because then at least we’d know what made him collapse.
Approaching the cabin, I try to tell myself that I’m just falling into old habits.
I spent so long living on the edge of disaster that I’m still constantly waiting for something to go wrong. For one of my mates to be taken away from me. For the world to end... again.
I have just about talked myself into calming down when I spot the cabin up ahead. It’s far too small for six of us plus a frigging polar bear, but Mack doesn’t want to return to The Hollow. And I am inclined to agree. Too much happened there and, besides, even with magick, it would take a lifetime to rectify the damage caused by The King and his followers.
I’m at the bottom of the steps when something tells me to turn around. I spin so I’m facing the jetty. Beyond it, the lake is darkening. Gray and choppy, its surface is unfriendly today.
My eyes land on something. A large white shape. My heart lightens instantly and I grin, waiting for it to draw nearer.
But it isn’t moving.
“Snow…” I start to run and it’s not long before I realize that Luther is crouched next to him, waving at me with tight, urgent arms.
He calls my name and rushes toward me, grabbing my upper arms and nodding back at where Snow lies on his side, breathing heavily.
His eyes are closed. A deep rumble shakes his chest each time he exhales.
“What happened to him?”
“I found him like this.” Luther reaches into his pocket and waves his phone. “No hell-damned signal out here with the force field still in place, but I didn’t want to leave him.”
“Mack’s sick too.” I crouch next to Snow and weave my fingers into the fur on his shoulder. He sighs and seems to lean into my touch, but his eyes only flutter open a little, then close again.
“Mack’s sick?” Luther’s entire expression darkens. He, too, more than the others, almost as much as me, has been waiting for the next bad thing.
While Tanner and Sam have told us not to be so dramatic, and Kole has stoically tried to focus on the bar, Luther and I have been the ones issuing words of caution like don’t get too comfortable and the Anti-Magick Alliance is still out there.
As always, Mack has floated somewhere between the two camps. Neither worried nor calm. Waiting, assessing, keeping the peace.
“What the hell do we do with him?” I ask, looking up from where I’m now crouched on the decking. “We can’t carry a polar bear inside. Not even the six of us could manage him.” I worry at my bottom lip with my teeth. “Are there magickal vets around here?”
At that, Luther almost scoffs. He still finds it amusing how little knowledge I have of their world. Despite saving it, and becoming something of a celebrity among supers up and down the country.
“There are some consultants who specialize in shifters, but they’re rare. None in Phoenix Falls, that’s for sure. And seeing as Mack and Snow are, as far as I know, the first shifters to be separated from one another, I’m not sure even the best consultant in the country would know what to do with them.”
“Well, we can’t leave him like this.” Feebly, I attempt to tuck my arms under Snow’s giant front leg and heave as if I might be able to encourage him to stand up.
He doesn’t even flinch.
Luther folds his arms, looking at me quizzically, amusement wrinkling the worry that had hardened his features. After letting me try one more time to move the ten tonne bear in front of us, he takes my arm and helps me to my feet. “Okay, Supernova. Enough,” he says. “I’ll stay with the bear. You go get somewhere there’s signal and call Tanner.”
“And then what?” I ask, hands on hips now, anger flaring beneath my skin because there’s nothing I hate more than feeling helpless when someone I love is in trouble.
“Then we hope someone at that hospital has a plan.”
4
KOLE
I sense her before she’s even close. For the third time this evening, her essence crawls beneath my skin, snaking through my veins, tugging at my heart. And other body parts. Distracting me from the job at hand, which is re-opening The Solar Cross after far too fucking long.
But, for the third time, she does not show.
She flits away before I’ve had the chance to catch hold of her properly. And, the way it does every time she leaves a hell-damned room these days, my heart constricts with the memory of losing her.
“Need some clean glasses, boss.” Jake who, thank fuck, decided to quit the police force and do something more suited to his skill-set, waves at me from behind the bar.
