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And from everything I know, everything I’ve seen, I think he’s past that point. He wants reform, yes, but there’s a personal angle to this.
Part of this is merely about revenge.
Finally, the Auclair advisor says, “He’s made it clear there will be no peaceful resolution to this. He won’t be satisfied until everyone he considers an enemy is dead.”
“I advise none of you leave the region,” says Auclair. “Our Marionettes have created a boundary to keep the wendigos out, but that hasn’t stopped their numbers from gathering on the other side. Our scouting teams will report should they find Westcott’s other compounds. We know of a few.” He dips his head toward Cam then me. “In the meantime, our team will review the recent attacks that have been documented, see if we can find any patterns, anything we’ve missed. Any hints as to what he might do next. We’ll reconvene when the other officials have arrived.”
One by one, the others filter from the room, but I’m glued to my chair, unable to move.
I don’t know what I’d been expecting from this meeting, but it hadn’t been my own competence as Reid’s partner and trustworthiness getting called into question.
“See you tomorrow for training, princess?” Cam offers casually as he slips from the room.
CHAPTERSIX
My feet carryme forward of their own accord. At this point, I don’t care where they take me as long as it’s far away from here. Energy buzzes in my veins, begging to convert to magic, to let hot blood spill over my fingers, to let it take over, to let it take, take—
I shake my hands out, squeezing my eyes shut until Anya’s smug face fades from my memory. The lift of her chin, the pointed look she’d cast at me over her nose.
I’ve never considered myself to be a jealous or insecure person. But the sheer rage I’d felt upon seeing her, at the stupid games she tried to play with me in there. They were nothing other than a transparent attempt to get under my skin, to see how far she could push me. Logically, I know this. IknowI’m giving her exactly what she wants.
But it’s thisotherfeeling inside of me that has my stomach in knots, my throat tightening to the brink of suffocation. Because those fantasies had sprung to my mind as if they were their own living things. That wasn’t petty anger or a thirst for revenge—it was cold, hard bloodlust.
I wanted to kill her. I wanted todestroyher.
My steps slow as I reach an archway eerily similar to the one outside the infirmary at the Carrington estate. The walkway is framed with walls of floor-to-ceiling windows and towering beams scattered in between.
I’ve been meaning to come by and see the other wolves since Cam told me where they were, but it’s been an overwhelming few days. Even that feels like a pathetic excuse considering they helped save my life.
I push through the double doors. Hopefully they’re still around.
Half the beds are full of sleeping people when I step inside, and there’s no healer in sight. Most of the inhabitants don’t look sick or injured—at least not visibly so; maybe they’re so short on beds they’ve started relocating people here. I tread quietly through the aisle, searching each spot for a familiar face.
“Darkmore,” someone hisses.
Leif smirks at me from the bed on the far left. My heart somehow warms and drops into my stomach at the same time, happy to see him again, but also…he looks a lot worse than Cam led me to believe.
I hurry down to his station, unable to keep the surprise from my face at the bandages wrapped around his head, stained red and clearly needing replacing. There are puncture marks all over his throat, and his left hand is wrapped in so much gauze only his fingertips are visible.
“Leif,” I breathe. “Oh my God, I had no idea—”
“It looks worse than it is,” he assures me, though he winces as he props himself into a seated position. “Promise.”
“If I hug you am I going to hurt you?”
He holds out his right arm before I even finish the sentence. I carefully wrap my arms around his waist and rest my forehead on his shoulder, fighting the sudden urge to cry.
“I’m not the best at healing,” I say, flipping the blade out of my ring. “But I—”
“I’m fine, Valerie.”
I give him a stern look. “Just sit back and let me return the favor, would you?”
His smirk returns as I examine his injuries, trying not to let my thoughts play out on my face. If this is how bad it looks with his accelerated wolf healingandanother witch clearly did a few healing treatments on him…I’m going tokillCam for downplaying it so much. If Leif were human, he’d be dead. Even as a wolf, it looks like it’s a miracle he’s not.
“I would’ve been here a lot faster if I’d known it was this bad,” I whisper.
I draw blood from my wrist, then intertwine my fingers with his, focusing on the warmth growing in my palm, imagining it sinking through my skin, into his, and traveling into his blood, repairing the damage as it goes.
