AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Shit. You’re right. I apologize, but my wolf thinks its sacrilege for you to be in any kind of pain.”
Natalie finally understood the real dilemma. “Because I’m your woman.”
“Yes. It’s an overwhelming instinct, at least where you’re concerned. This is Natalie-specific.”
Because she’d already accessed her wolf, she was feeling the depth of emotion and suffering behind his words. “Thanks for sharing that. I’ll try to keep it in mind. This isn’t simple on any level.”
His lips turned down. He looked grim. “No. It’s not.”
“Then I apologize for not understanding your wolf right now. I’ll try to do better.” Tendrils of his hair had come loose because of grappling with Landris. For a moment, all she wanted to do was smooth his hair back in place, maybe take hold of his long wolf braid and never let go.
She gave herself a mental shake and turned to Landris. The red mark had already faded. Alters healed quickly. “I’ve been trying to put the spell in a mental box, which feels right. I’ve also brought my wolf to the surface and she gives me a warning when the spell starts to fade. But when I approach the future, it’s as though everything disintegrates. I can’t seem to find the bridge I need.”
“Keep using your wolf. She’s very special. She will do a host of things for you, if you let her. Try being more wolf in the situation than fae.”
She nodded, then invoked the spell. The moment she was invisible, she moved the opposite direction away from Grant and Landris. Once more, she knelt in the sand, palms on thighs. The spell was now permanently in the box, so that was good.
She invoked her wolf again and for a moment practiced aligning more closely with her. She could feel her wolf-sign moving across the backs of her hands then up her arms.
Taking deep breaths, she focused on the future but at the same time also kept her thoughts centered on her wolf. She aimed for twenty minutes in the future at her studio.
This time, she held it together: The spell within her mind, the wolf-sign up to her shoulders, and her studio in twenty minutes. She could feel the future open. Excitement coursed through her.
But like a water balloon hitting concrete, her control vanished, and she lost her visibility. Landris’s electrical shower rained down on her like a thousand needles.
She allowed herself one groan of agony then invoked the invisibility spell once more. She glided behind Grant and crossed to the far side of the sandpit as far away from Landris as she could manage.
She tried again. This time when the future began to reveal itself, she kept her emotions in check. Her wolf glided farther, this time up her neck and over her chest.
She held the moment for ten seconds, then fifteen.
When she felt the water balloon begin to fall and her invisibility fade, she decided to act against the electrical shower.
She sped over the sand and once more invoked the spell. She darted off to the side just as the shower of painful sparks landed three feet away.
This time, she groaned her relief.
“Well done,” Landris called out. “You’re learning.”
“You’re right. Pain is a great teacher,” she responded.
Grant stood several feet away from Landris. He had his arms crossed over his chest as he scowled. His lips were pressed into a grim line. She was coming to understand him.
Once more, she moved well away from Landris, knelt in the sand and opened her wolf up even farther. This time, she kept concentrating until she could feel her wolf to the top of her head and all the way to the bottom of her feet. In that sense, she was her wolf, or at least as much as she ever could be.
The sensation was like having two pairs of eyes. She was seeing the world around her in a kind of double vision, yet each was clear.
With her wolf fully intact, and the spell in a mental box, she kept her emotions in tight check. She opened herself to the future: Her studio, but in nineteen minutes.
What she experienced amazed her. With her wolf serving as protection, the spell remained fully functional and she gave herself to the future. She took deep breaths and watched as the door to her studio opened.
Kryder walked through.
Though her heart set up a racket, her wolf had command of her and she held the images as well as her emotions in tight control as she let the future run. Kryder moved like a serpent around her studio, gliding in levitated flight, picking up objects here and there.
She realized, however, that he must have been there often. He’d been tracking her for years, so why wouldn’t he have invaded her studio?
At this thought, her heart began to calm down. What rose instead was a new determination to do all she could to rid Five Bridges of this menace.
