AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Snow,” Shadow said, sliding his hands beneath my armpits and hoisting me to my feet.
Shaky and uneasy, I leaned on him for support. Tears streamed down my face. That had been too close. We couldn’t continue through the forest with unexpected attacks like this. Those crows would be back. Or hunters or some other animal controlled by my stepmother’s dark magic.
The dwarves and resistance fighters all crowded around, each of them specked with scratches and blood.
“Is she hurt?” Hunter asked, squinting as he examined me.
“Scratched up but fine,” Axe said in a way that suggested I needed to toughen up a little.
“What scared off those blasted crows?” Hunter asked, scanning the skies, which were a gloomy gray but held no sign of the birds anywhere.
The panthers’ gazes drifted to me, but they didn’t reveal my secret—the magic dwelling inside me that the dwarves weren’t aware of…the magic I might be forced to use at the slave camp if things went south.
“Don’t know,” Axe said, kicking a few bird carcasses with his boot. “But I don’t care to hang around and wait on them to return.”
“Me, neither,” said a few of the other resistance members.
Teeny bent down to touch one of the dead birds, pulling out a shard of glass from its neck.
Fire crawled along my skin. I didn’t want to answer any questions. If everyone knew I had magic, they’d expect me to save them all when trouble struck. What if I let them down? I didn’t want to be anyone’s secret weapon. Not when I didn’t have full control of the magic inside me or know how it might respond to the threat on my life.
“What about the caves?” I asked Grimm, my gaze not leaving Teeny as he scrutinized the fragment.
Grimm stared at me for a few moments like a desperate, frightened animal that’d been backed into a corner. “This way,” he finally conceded, setting off eastward. Most followed, but not the panthers.
Teeny loitered for a moment, before tucking the shard into his pocket and stomping off after the others.
Damn it!Evidence.
I didn’t brood for long on the matter, though. Shadow’s ear was all torn up, blood trickled down Phantom’s forehead and neck, and Flare’s bare chest and shoulders had taken a beating. They all looked like they’d emerged from a war. A sob choked in my throat as I touched the side of Shadow’s face. I stretched out my hand to Phantom and Flare, earning a quick, concerned smile from the former and a wink from the latter.
“Phantom,” I whispered, sneaking free of Shadow to dust aside a bloodied feather from Phantom’s chest. That inner spark, the one I’d felt when we’d first touched, ignited with even more force.
Shadow motioned for Flare to follow him, and the two walked away, leaving me alone with Phantom.
Phantom turned to accompany them, but I grabbed his forearm.
“Wait,” I said. I had to tell him how I felt before I went mad. Before I lost the chance to let him know. In case we didn’t make it back from our mission.
“Snow, I get it,” Phantom said, prying his arm free. “You’re with Shadow. You don’t need to spell it out for me.”
The defeat in his tone had my shoulder snapping back.
“No, youdon’tget it,” I said, wanting to take his hand and stroke it but squeezing my elbow instead. “You mean the world to me, too.”
Emotion slammed against my sternum. I dreaded his rejection. Him turning his back on me to walk away. I couldn’t imagine him leaving me to go back home. Both he and Shadow brought me joy. Shadow with his love for farming, his strong sense of family, his loyalty, and his steadfastness. Phantom for his vigor, protectiveness, doting attentiveness, and our mutual love of history. I wanted both of them to replace the family I had lost. A girl was allowed a selfish desire every now and then.
“What…?” Phantom’s face relaxed, as if he were relieved.
“I want to be with you as well.” The last part was the hardest to say, especially with the way it made me feel so greedy to want more than one. “If you’re open to sharing me with Shadow.”
He clutched me to him, wrapped his arms around me and held me just as tightly as Shadow had, making the spark inside me blaze. He took hold of me and kissed me hard. The-end-of-the-world hard. Like he didn’t expect us to make it back alive. I savored the feel of his lips on mine as if it were my last kiss. The last happy memory of my time in Haven.
