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I buried my face in Juriah’s side, squeezing him as tightly as I could manage after that fight. Adrenaline still kicked through my system, causing my heart to slam rapidly against my chest. Could he feel that? I mean, he had to know that wolves weren’t exactly adjusted to flying with random strangers.
Macy, you slept with him, I argued with myself.But flying is the line you draw? Seriously?
Seriously, I wasn’t even sure. The way Juriah cradled me to his side sent shock waves through my system that confused me to pieces. That same tenderness had come from his lips, his mouth, and his tongue. Gentleness like this existed in books or movies. It didn’t happen in real life. Nobody respected me enough to be kind to me, yet Juriah had crashed right through the door with his wings and his good looks and his money—
His money.
My stomach flipped and my throat locked up as we descended. Yeah, I was definitely not used to flying. Maybe on a good night I would have enjoyed the sights, but this was a getaway, an escape into…oh goddess, where were we running to?
Ground appeared beneath my feet. I kept my eyes shut while my stomach rolled and flopped, my arms and shoulders trembling as I tried to adjust to being back at ground level. Hands cupped my face. Warmth soothed my core.
“It’s alright, Macy. We’re safe,” Juriah whispered.
He sounded normal again. He sounded like himself.
“You can open your eyes now.”
One peek produced a standard alley. I knew we’d flown a good bit away fromMoss, probably deeper into the city if I had to guess, but I couldn’t recognize this alley by a glance. When I opened my other eye, I noticed the other two figures nearby and gasped as I jumped back.
Juriah took my hand. “At ease. These are my friends.” He pointed to the tall woman with braided reddish-blonde hair. “That’s Galanthia.” He gestured to the man with dimples in his cheeks and glowing gray eyes. “And that’s Izdor.”
“Izdor,” I repeated. “Like how you mentioned inside the...” I tried to point behind me, but it wasn’tMossanymore. It was hardly a building at all.
Maybe we hadn’t flown deeper into the city. Where were we?
“Yes, I was speaking to him,” Juriah replied. “We went to the outskirts on the other side of Wolfcreek.”
My shoulders slumped with relief. “So they can’t find us.”
“I wouldn’t speak too soon on that,” Izdor alerted us. “But we’re safe for the time being. We have to move quickly.”
I stared at the velvet bags tied to Juriah’s belt. I studied the black fabric, the softness of it, even touching it with the tips of my fingers to see if it was real. Sure enough, there were hard coins inside, and there were probably a lot of them even if the bags weren’t particularly big. Space spells were becoming far more popular these days.
That was why I’d asked Juriah if he could carry the safe. We would have been loaded. But then again, we would have been weighed down.
I held my hands to my chest while trying to catch my breath. It was coming faster than before, harder than when I had been up in the air. Was it a delayed response? Sure, why not? Because delaying our escape further would befantasticfor timing. Here was another one of my many panic attacks, perfectly timed, slamming into me like I had into Rick when I was protecting Juriah.
My eyes went wide as I knelt to the ground.I protected Juriah.
“Macy?” Juriah joined me on the ground. “What’s going on? Are you alright?”
Galanthia stepped forward, enough for me to notice but not to drag my attention from the velvet bags. “She’s panicking, friend. She needs immediate attention.”
Immediate attention. I laughed once, a sort of weird squeak at first, and then it broke into a fully crazed cackle that seemed to echo through the alleyway. Juriah let me laugh. He didn’t try to stop me or hug me. He didn’t touch me much except for his large hands resting on my shoulders.
Oh goddess, I was going crazy. I was absolutely losing it. All those years locked up behind Percy’s house were finally catching up to me. Being away from the Baneridge Hounds would probably make me lose even more marbles than I already had. Jesus, what was I thinking running away from them? I could barely provide for my pack, let alone for myself.
I was nuts. I was absolutely bonkers. I was going to die out here, and nobody was going to save me.
Juriah held my face firmly. Despite the pressure, I didn’t feel like he would hurt me or like I wouldn’t be able to get out of his grip if I wanted. I stared into his eyes, noticing that they were back to the pale honey they’d been when we met. No more bright white. No more angelic rage.
Oddly enough, I had actually liked it when his eyes turned. They were such a furious white that made me think of cosmic stars finally expired. How bright were those explosions in space? What did it look like when a star inevitably died? That had been visible in the confined orbs of Juriah’s eyes. That was what I saw.
Now that I wasn’t alarmed, I was impressed by him. I was in awe of his strength—and I was worried about the time it would take for it to end.
“Are you leaving me here?” I blurted. “You can take me to the woods. It’ll be easier there for me. I can shift and run. I can survive as a wolf. I can—”
His finger rested over my lips. “Macy, I would never dream of abandoning you.”
