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Chapter 17
Iwoke with a jolt, a scream on my throat. But I swallowed the fear, summoning the strength to hold it together. Orange light from the early morning sun peeking out from behind the horizon drenched me as I lay on the bed in the tiny room in the library. I rolled onto my back and Ash was gone. I scrambled to my feet, my head filled with images of his brothers having taken him. But that made no sense—otherwise, I wouldn’t have beensleeping.
A quick glance outside showed no one was down in the front yard of the castle, so I made my way out of theroom.
At first, I stood in the doorway, listening. Not asound.
“Ash?”
No response. I crept toward the railing and looked down, noticing the couch had been moved from the front door, which lay open. My stomach hardened. If he’d left the door open, it had to mean we were safe, right? Or had he gone to check on his brothers and one of them had attacked him? One way or another, I had to find out what had happened. I scrambled down the stairs, scanning each floor as I descended for movement. At the bottom floor, I spotted the book Ash had abandoned yesterday and picked it up, curious to read more about the connection he mentioned. With it tucked under my arm, I left behind thelibrary.
It was silent in the rest of thehouse.
And that left me shaky. If the men were their beastly selves, surely they’d be grunting or roaring. And while part of me screamed to go back and lock myself in the library, I couldn’t possibly just sit there forever. As much as that sounded like an amazing idea. I passed doors, and with my bladder ready to burst, I checked a few rooms to find smaller bedrooms, a storage closet, and … a toilet. “Thank you,goddess.”
By the time I reached the kitchen, the aroma of porridge found me. And that delicious smell had me smiling, not because my stomach rumbled, but because the boys were back to normal. I rushed inside to find Talin over the fire, stirring a wooden spoon in a black pot over the fire. On the table were spoons and a stack of emptybowls.
“Morning.” He turned my way, and a new scratch lined the side of his face, two more down his neck and vanishing into his blackshirt.
“What happened?” Had they gotten into a brawl while in their half-bearforms?
“Just a few fights against Leven and Raze, who ganged up on me in the cage last night. We probably shouldn’t lock ourselves up together again.” He smiled and winced. “But we’llheal.”
Would his injuries get infected? Though I was glad they weren’t hurt worse, hearing he’d spent his night fighting off the others had me cringing on the inside. “Have you put anything on thescratches?”
“No need.” He carried the pot over to the wooden table and started filling the bowls. “Ash told us what happened last night between you two. Fantasticnews.”
I couldn’t help but detect a dull tone under his words. Was he disappointed? I shouldn’t have been embarrassed, but my cheeksflushed.
With the huge book still in my hands, I set it on the table. “I didn’t become you-know-who and go all control-the-world lastnight.”
Talin took a seat across the table from me and pushed a bowl of porridge my way. “Ash told us that when we change, so do you. Meaning we need to be next to each other at all times. This way, one of us can ensure you don’t turn.” He wiped an injury on his chin, a smudge of blood streaking hisjawline.
“Give me two moments; I’ll be right back. I’ve got something for your scratches.” I didn’t wait for a response and sprinted upstairs to my bedroom to my bag, grabbed my healing paste and a towel, and dashed backdownstairs.
Talin was eating his breakfast, and I sat next to him. “Where are the rest of thecrew?”
“Gone out to collect wood for thefires.”
I unrolled the long green leaf I’d used to stash the paste. “Hold still.” After wiping the blood from Talin’s injury with a towel, I smeared the green goo across hisscratches.
“What is that glob? It stinks like mushed bugs.” He scrunched up hisnose.
“No insects were harmed in the making of my remedy.” I kept my face serious, though the corners of my mouth twitched as I started breaking into a smile. “Just herbs andsaliva.”
“Gross. Hope it wasyoursaliva.” He made a face, then stuffed another mouthful of porridge into hismouth.
I laughed. “A witch’s saliva has healing properties and helps bind the herbs. Anyway”—I dabbed more of the mixture on the cut down his neck—“last night I had a thought about us heading to your cousin’s place.” I explained how hexes required an object to store the cursed magic, and if we destroyed that, the curse was gone. “Only one problem. Okay, there are probably lots of problems, but I’m sure they won’t appreciate a non-bear shifter waltzing into theirhome.”
“That makes a lot of sense.” Talin glanced at me, his thick brows crowning his spectacular green eyes. The faint stubble gracing his jawline coupled with his messy hair—he had this wild look going for him. He was handsome in my books. Nothing ordinary about him in the slightest. I remembered Ash saying Talin needed a wife to claim the throne and become king. I bet he’d have no trouble finding a willing woman, and for the first time, I wished I’d been born a bear shifter. Whomever he married would be damn lucky, and a tingling spark of jealousy wormed its way through mychest.
“I declare you my personal medic,” he said. “I’ll explain I’d fallen ill, but you healed me, and I appointed you as my personal caretaker. And we are simply paying my cousin avisit.”
Being a caretaker made sense, yet goosebumps covered my skin at the idea of something going wrong. “I’ll prepare a persuasion spell to get your cousin to talk and tell us where he’d hiddenit.”
Talin’s lips widened as did his eyes, and hope beamed across his expression. “This mightwork.”
“But you sure they’ll be fine with me there?” Wiping my hand clean on the towel, I collected my bowl and spoon and startedeating.
