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21
Alec looked awful. His skin was clammy and pale, his breathing ragged. I walked behind whoever was carrying him, not taking my eyes off him.
He’d pushed me out of the way and taken the super high dose of toxin that was intended for me. I wasn’t sure if Tyler’s intention had been to kill me or to render me so incapable of fighting back that he could do as he wished. I shuddered at the thought.
Alec had saved me from so much worse than death. A grim thought settled in my mind. Was death the better option than risking losing myself to the mating bond?
I pushed the thought away. I couldn’t go there right now. Alec needed me. I was going to get him through this and help him recover. The rest of it could wait. It had to wait.
We approached a rocky hillside that seemed to appear out of nowhere. It didn’t match the rest of the landscape and it reminded me far too much of the caves back at Wolf Creek.
Sheila was leading us right for a huge rock that appeared to be rolled in front of the hill. My whole body tensed and my breathing grew rapid.
“Don’t tell me we are going into that cave with the huge boulder to trap us until we die,” I said.
Sheila gave me a sympathetic look. “I knew this part might concern you, but give it a minute. I promise it’ll be okay.”
“I’m not sure it will be,” I admitted. My feet were glued to the spot. I wanted to keep moving. Alec needed me, my friends needed me. But I nearly died last time I went into a cave like that.
The only reason I’d been okay in the cave with Alec was because it was shallow and closed on one end. On the other end, it had been fully open. It was more like an overhang than an actual cave.
Sheila placed her hand on the large stone and without effort, it rolled aside.
“Using magic to move it is making it worse, not better,” I said.
“You don’t have to go in yet. Please, just look.”
I forced myself to move. Each step felt robotic and agonizing. I stopped a good ten feet from the entrance. “Happy?”
“A little closer,” she said.
I took five small steps and peered into the opening. To my surprise, it wasn’t a dark cave. It looked like a window or a short tunnel. Instead of seeing rock and dirt, I saw a neat path that led to a meadow. There was an actual mother-fucking waterfall in the distance. “What the hell?”
“She made a deal with a fae,” Sheila said. “They did some of their super special magic for her.”
I blinked a few times, ignoring the fact that I’d been told fae were a myth. Who was I to argue? I was a wolf shifter, which humans thought was myth. “No wonder you’re not worried about her being found.”
“Yeah, but we shouldn’t linger and make that easier,” Sheila said. “Go on.”
Malcom, with Alec on his back, stepped into the passage. Kyle followed. Sheila waited at the entrance for me. “I have to close it so you have to go.”
I nodded, then held my breath and moved forward. As soon as I crossed into the tunnel, my chest felt tight, but I fought through it. After hurried steps, I emerged on the other side, my feet sinking into soft, mossy grass. The spongy ground was a relief for my injured feet. Walking for days in the woods barefoot was a terrible idea. I would never trash talk shoes again.
The meadow we were standing in was like being in another world. Huge, leafy trees swayed in the wind, rainbow-colored birds flitted from tree to tree, and a butterfly flew by. The air smelled different here. Like honeysuckle and lime. You’d never know we just left a mountainous pine forest. Magic was the only explanation. “This is incredible.”
“Never snows here, either,” Sheila said. “I don’t know what she did to win over that fae, but it was worth it.”
“She got a hell of a deal,” I agreed.
“This way,” Shelia led us through the enchanted-fucking-forest, along a well-groomed dirt path.
We walked for a while before a storybook cottage appeared in view. I stared open-mouthed at the brown house with red and white trim and a thatched roof. It almost looked like it was made of gingerbread. “This can’t be real.”
“Should I be worried about the fact that we’re walking toward a house that looks like it’s made of cookies to visit the witch who lives there?” Malcom asked.
“I was thinking the same thing,” I said.
“Nobody eat anything,” Kyle said.
