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Chapter 23
Talin slept inside the carriage, unconscious, and in his human form. We’d covered him with two blankets for warmth. In the opposite seat, I curled up, my head in Raze’s lap as he stroked my hair. His softness calmed me. We’d left behind the duchy once ruled by theduke.
“Who would look after that manor now, with Rek dead?” I asked out ofcuriosity.
“He has a younger cousin who will step into therole.”
“Do you think Ash and Leven are all right?” I wasn’t ready to face additional terrible possibilities. Sleep tugged on my mind, and even the smallest thing seemeddifficult.
“They’re resilient, and I prayed they are safe. When we changed, they would have transformed as well, and the curse would have driven them to bolt back to the castle.” His tonedarkened.
“I hope you’re right.” I swallowed past my dry throat. “We lost the chance to break the curse.” Anguish burrowed through me. “Rek would have stashed the cursed object it in a private location. And with him now dead, I doubt we’d have the chance to scour the manor for secretcompartments.”
Talin still hadn’t snapped out of his state or stir. How hard had Raze hit him across the head.Goddess, please aid his fast recovery,and I pictured an invisible white bubble around him, sending him healingenergies.
“It never occurred to me that Rek would bring a voodoo witch from Tritonia. I assumed someone local practiced darkmagic.”
“Rek was a fuckwit and let jealousy drive him to madness. He used to joke that if Talin didn’t find a wife soon, he might challenge us for the throne. His father had always loathed our parents. He loved our mother and could never forgive losing her to our father.” Raze sighed. “My dad would tell us that a kingdom will fall if all families are not inunison.”
“There’s always a relative who stirs problems, causes heartache for others.” With only Dad and me left, I was lucky not to have that problem. But most of my friends had troublemakers in theirfamilies.
“True, but I think what my father had in mind was that despite squabbles, the king would bring all the other three dukes under the same direction. To provide a better life for all bear shifters in White Peak. Not that we’d squabble amongst ourselves for higher-rankedpositions.”
“Your father and I would have gotten alongwell.”
Silence fell over us. We jolted about with every pothole we crossed over. Raze raked his fingers through my hair. Heaviness tugged on myeyelids.
I bathed in their company. Where Raze’s caring nature showed, where Talin wasn’t trying to eatsomeone.
* * *
The world softened beneath me,and I startled awake. I opened my eyes and stared into Raze’s smiling face. Behind him lay the fishnet material covering the four-poster bed I’d slept in the first night I’d arrived at thecastle.
“How did I get here? Where’s Talin? What about Ash and Leven?” Night still cloaked the sky outside, and I must have been in deep sleep to not feel Raze carrying meindoors.
“It’s all fine. Talin is in his bedroom, stirring. I found the other two had crashed from exhaustion in the library. Ash loves that room, even when he’s under a curse, it seems. So I carried them both and locked them in the cage. I worry they’ll fight, but not as if I had any other option.” Raze chuckled, his eyes creasing at the edges, and his fingers stroked my cheek. “It’s late. Tomorrow will be long. Goodnight.”
He pulled away, but I leaned the side of my face against his hand, kissing his palm. “Don’t leave, please.” After the insane day we’d had, I yearned to be held and forget how close we’d been to breaking the curse. I cringed because it felt as if we were starting from the beginningagain.
Raze nodded without a hint of hesitation. “Move over.” He kicked off his boots and took off hisshirt.
An orange glow from the fireplace lit up his layers of muscles, which had me chewing on my lower lip. I unbuttoned my coat and shuffled my arms out of it. My dress had dried, even if was torn at the hems, but I didn’t care when Raze got into bed alongside me. The mattress indented under him, and I rolled towardhim.
I shifted to face away from him, and he pressed up against my back, both of us spooning. My head cradled on his bicep, and his hand sailed around me, his musky scent comforting me. Raze seemed to calm my nerves with a single touch. Here, we could pretend we weren’t facing the end of the world tomorrow night, but instead that I’d simply found the most amazing shifter, and he was into me too. All four of them affected me in the best possible way, and I lost my breath each time I thought about losingthem.
I wasn’t sure I’d recover from such a loss, and that terrified me more thananything.
“You okay?” Raze asked, his sweet lips on my neck. “You’reshaking.”
I nodded, unable to find my words when it felt as if I suffocated in mymind.
His arms coiled around me tighter, and he kissed the skin between my neck and shoulder. “I’ll always protect you,Bee.”
My next breath hiccupped, and the words poured out. “But whatif—?”
“No. Don’t think like that. I believe in you, in our future, in everything my parents hadbuilt.”
Swallowing past the boulder in my throat seemed an impossibility. “I want that too, but I’mscared.”
