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She couldn’t handle it.
An abyss opened wide beneath her, threatening to drag her down and swallow her whole. That monster watched and waited, smarter than she was.
“Stop.” Her shaky whisper was lost in the wind. “You’refine. It—it could be worse. Get a hold of yourself.” Her words fell on deaf ears, and her attempt at a smile failed.
A warrior. A queen…a joke. A liar.
She felt wetness at the corner of her eye and swiped it away. Again, again and again. “Fuck.”
Isla’s shoulders shook as she brought her forehead to her knees and sobbed through her teeth.
A weight pressed down on her shoulders, harder and harder, preparing to crush her beneath it.
If you fail, they all fall.
She’d already failed in so many ways, failed so many people.
She hugged her knees tighter, battling against the pressure, but it was too much. Too much.Too much.
Isla’s thoughts eddied an unrelenting cold, blanketing her bones and chilling her breath. She embraced it, sunk into it, and let it carry her away.
Something beneath her skin writhed, clawing at her insides, through her chest, and up her throat. Her wolf?
Isla cried out, her back arching as a flash of pain shook her to her foundations. And then everything was dark and raw and frigid and…powerful.
She slumped, feeling like something had been ripped from her, and through her blurred, blinking eyes, she could’ve sworn that shadows of the forest shifted around her, and faintly glowing eyes stared at her through the dark.
The birds ceased their singing. The leaves around her had scattered.
Isla gulped down air, her teeth chattering and body shaking so violently she may have been vibrating.
Whatever had stirred settled now, but Isla still felt charged…yet, somehow, exhausted.
She scanned the forest again. There was nothing there.
The world swayed.
A possibility reared in her head, but she shut it down; she wouldn’t accept it.
She dug the heels of her palms into her eyes, shaking her head, a tired whimper slipping from her lips.
Nothing. It had to be nothing.
She couldn’t stand for much else.
* * *
Sebastian hadn’t been in his guest suite or anywhere else in the House, and it took asking the staff to learn he’d gone for a run in the forest behind it.
So, Isla had gone from one woodland to another, perching herself on a moss-covered boulder, tall enough that her feet couldn’t reach the ground, while she waited at the cusp of the steepening hills for her brother to return.
It had taken everything to warm herself up again after…whatever that had been. She now donned three layers of tops, two of pants. Frankly, she might have been too hot now.
In the middle of removing her jacket, she heard the crunch of leaves and twigs beneath heavy feet and labored breaths. Not long after, Sebastian crested the hillside, his body dampened with sweat and his golden hair half-pulled back to keep out of his face.
He skidded to a halt, his eyes wide and his hands going to his hips as he caught his breath. “Pudge?” A warm, sly smile broke across his face as if he was genuinely happy to see her. “What are you doing here,Your Majesty?”
Her title shouldn’t have grated her so thoroughly. She resisted the urge to request he drop all the formalities. Isla swung her feet several times, knocking her heels against the rock’s surface. “Looking for you.”
