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“So, are you friends withElliana?”
He shook his head. “I just met her at the tavern when I went asking people for help with a curse. But a few days ago, she sent me a message saying she was tied up and couldn’t meet with you. She described you, but honestly, I was ready to leave tonight if it was no-show again.” He reclined and glanced into the wilderness. “My name is Raze Ursa.” A smile broke over his face, his sharp cheekbones perfectly accentuating his ruggedfeatures.
“I’m—”
“I know who you are. Bee Père from the Terra realm. You’re nineteen, live with your father, love to sun-bake, and Elliana speaks highly of yourabilities.”
I clamped my mouth shut when I realized it was hanging open. What else had Elliana told him? And what did sun-baking have to do with the assignment? Perhaps I’d misunderstood everything. And in the bear world, “collecting someone” must have translated into shoving them inside a carriage and scaring them half to death before introducingyourself.
“Why didn’t you tell me this in the tavern, instead of acting allstalkerish?”
His thick eyebrows lowered. “I went to prepare our transport, as I’d let the dragon horses roam free in the meadow. Except the damned charges bolted, and I spent half the day chasing them. They got excited, as they rarely spend time in a green field.” His voice dipped with that not-impressedtone.
I released a long exhale. After all the earlier commotion and alarm, exhaustion washed through me as if I’d dragged myself through an ocean ofmud.
“Why were you so late?” he said in a deep authoritative voice. I was glad the shadows hid his face because I imagined him scowling. And while I found the man handsome, he left me worried. I’d never met a bear shifter before. Were all of them grizzly and ready to bite your headoff?
“To be fair,” I started, “I was at the mercy of a friend who had to bring me a key ingredient, and she got caught up in a mess with wolves in the Den. Goddess, you don’t want to hear what she got up to.” And considering Scarlet had brought three of the wolf shifters illegally into Terra, I definitely hadn’t heard the full story yet. But on our next catch up, she’d have to tell me every detail, especially where it involved the threeshifters.
Raze tsked. “You sure you can break curses?” His patronizing voice carried the arrogance I expected fromroyalty.
I snorted and straightened my posture. “Magic comes from inside, not what I look like. Sorry I didn’t battle a wild animal as a child to prove myworth.”
Silence folded around us, and he studied me from his side of thecarriage.
I broke the silence. “Once we get there, I’ll check the patient, then cast my breaking spell, and I should be out of your hair bymorning.”
“Sure hope so. We’re all counting on you. No room for failure.” The intensity of his gaze seemed to pierce right through me. Okay, I heard the warning loud and clear:Don’tfail.
Drawing a bent leg under me, I huddled under the blanket. “As long as you keep your end of the bargain and pay up, I’ll do my best. But I made it clear to Elliana, there are no guarantees. Every curse is unique andtemperamental.”
I’d only tackled a few curses in my life, and there was only one I hadn’t been able to reverse. A farmer’s cattle had stopped delivering milk for weeks on end. Nothing I’d tried worked, until I’d discovered he’d had two different spells put on him by two unrelated people. A jealous neighbor and his ex-wife. Turned out the spells intermingled and locked on to the poor cattle so tight, I had no chance of removing that mess. Instead, I added my own incantation, which bent the existing hexes to only affect the animals duringmoonlight.
Raze didn’t respond at first, and I waited for him to challenge me. After a pause, henodded.
We traveled for several miles without a word exchanged. I had premade a paralyzing spell in case I needed to protect myself and run away. Though I never knew when dealing with bears if it would work. Except the ingredients were in my bag, which was probably somewhere outside on thecarriage.
“How much longer ’till we get there?” I rubbed warmth into mylegs.
“Not long. Once we’re over the crest, the castle is just to theright.”
I choked on my next inhale. “Castle? Is the afflicted bear shifter aroyal?”
Raze nodded. “Something likethat.”
Completing a spell for a normal bear shifter, I could handle. But arrogant royalty demanded the impossible. Plus, guards could toss me into prison for not healing the royal member. Back in Terra, they surrounded the priestess every moment of the day, treating her like a goddess, and the only time she spoke to ordinary folk was when she dished out punishment. How the hell would bear shifters behave? Irritation buzzed through me, as I wasn’t ready to meet some snooty king or queen. I hadn’t even brought my best clothes or a dress, opting rather for thick, layered clothes to handle the freezing weather in WhitePeak.
Centuries ago when Haven had been divided into seven realms, a family had taken control of each territory and called themselves royalty. Some places had lost those bloodlines, but others still controlled their kingdoms with iron fists. Was that how it was in WhitePeak?
My breath fogged the window, which had tiny piles of snow along the sill. I cleared the pane with my sleeve, not confident in the slightest this was a simple job because of how turbulent it had gone so far. And what if I couldn’t cure the hex? Would they imprison me for life? I needed to return to Dad and look after him. My next inhale rattled all the way to mylungs.
“You seem worried?” Razeasked.
“I’m fine.” A blur flitted between the trees, moving almost in pace with our carriage. I squinted for a better look. My thoughts flew to wolves, except they mostly resided in the west side of White Peak due to an agreement they had with the bearshifters.
“Your perspiration gives youaw—”
Another dark shape raced through the night, and my heartbeat sped up. “Hey, what are those things outthere?”
