For a moment, I hesitate but then I understand what he wants. “You want me to come for a cuddle?”
Snow huffs again.
I kneel down and crawl toward him. Even though I know he’s Mack, being this close to something so huge and powerful feels unnatural.
I put my hand on his stomach. His fur is thick and soft. As I lie down, Snow curls around me. His limbs are enormous. He could crush me—or eat me—in a second. But all he wants to do is keep me warm. As I let him envelop me, Tanner crouches down and leans onto Snow’s hind leg. Sam tucks in next to me. Kole, however, stays with Luther.
“I’ll watch him. You four sleep.” He looks at Tanner. “We’ll switch in a few hours.”
Fighting a yawn, Tanner nods. I snuggle down, tucking myself into the warmth of Snow’s huge body before finding Sam’s hand and squeezing it.
I’m almost asleep when he whispers, “Nova? Do you think Nico’s alright? Did we do the right thing? Making him go back to Ragnor?”
I don’t open my eyes, just breathe in slowly and whisper back, “I hope so, Sam. I really hope so.”
26
KOLE
At first light, we leave the campsite. My body aches with tiredness. Although Tanner offered to swap places with me, in the end I stayed awake all night. Watching. Waiting.
I last saw my mother ten months ago. It is always the same journey. A train, a jump into the trees, then a trek down into the valley. Before going undercover with the League, I visited like any normal son would visit—by road. But after I left, and especially when I found out what the League did to Tanner’s family, I vowed I would never put my own people in danger like that.
The commune is protected by old magick. It is unfindable unless you know what you’re looking for. So, I did everything I could to keep it that way.
As we move through the forest, Nova hovers next to me. She keeps looking at Luther, but he won’t turn his head in her direction.Something happened between you?I ask her, sending the question silently through the air between us.
You saw,she replies, arching her eyebrow at me.You watched.
Not the sex. After. I meet her gaze. My eyes are dark. I can feel the blackness in them. As we weave through the trees, the energy of the earth pounds in my ribs. Power pulses in my veins. If I wanted to, I could rip up the entire forest and I know it’s because I’ve got Nova’s blood inside me. Having her close makes it worse but having her further away would make it worse, too. I shouldn’t have bitten her again but how the fuck was I supposed to resist when she was begging me to do it?
I tried to talk to him. It didn’t go well.She shrugs and attempts a smile.
I want to put my arm around her. I want to show her the tenderness I feel able to show when we’re alone in the dark but, with the others present, it’s hard. Something inside me resists.
I don’t like that Luther is causing her to feel hurt and confused. I don’t like that he fucked her and now he’s barely even looking at her. I knowwhyhe’s being this way—because he doesn’t let anyone get close, period—but I’m not okay with him doing it to Nova.
If we were back at the cabin, I’d sit him down and tell him to sort himself the fuck out. To stop messing with our girl. But we’re not, and there isn’t time for that right now.
We’re approaching the part of the valley where the ground slopes steeply downward when I start to feel cold. Too cold. The hair on my arms prickles. I’m about to turn around and tell the others to stop when something hits me. Like a brick wall. A blinding light floods my vision. I stumble back, and then the light becomes darkness.
I hear Nova’s voice, but it’s very far away.
When I look up, it’s like I’m at the bottom of a well staring at a pinprick of light. I focus on it, but it grows smaller and smaller until it disappears. A heavy blackness envelops me, stinging my skin like a poisonous mist. I look down at my hands and arms but can barely see them. They’re translucent. Not really there at all.
My heart beats faster, thudding in my ears. Fear grips my chest; the same feeling that turned my blood to ice when Tanner and I stood in the trees outside the Hollow.
Everything in my body tells me to run, but I can’t.
When I look up, the black mist starts to clear. Heat crawls up my legs. I turn my gaze down to my feet. Red hot vines snake around my calves, thighs, and waist. They burn. I pull against them, reach down, and snap them. My legs are free but when the vines fall, they take strips of my clothes and my flesh with them.
I scream, but no sound comes out.
With open wounds sending torrents of pain through my body, overwhelming my thoughts, I stagger forward. Then I see him. Eyes as black as coal, gray skin stretched tight over an enormous seven-foot frame. Long, gnarled fingernails reach for me. One of them points at my throat. The dagger-like nail pricks my skin, a bead of deep red blood glistening on its tip. He draws the blood to his gaping mouth. When he sucks my blood from his finger, I scream again. I fall to the floor. Pain swallows me up. I am imploding and exploding. His eyes bore into my soul. They take everything. My name, my past, my life. I am nothing but pain.
“Kole? Kole, can you hear me?” A voice breaks through the torment.
I feel something. The whisper of a touch. I latch onto it and try to bring myself back.