Nina was by no means helpless, though. Her temper, once ignited, was legendary. He kept losing pieces of his furniture every time she got angry. It had almost become a kind of game with him jumping to avoid the things thrown at him. Not that any of them actually touched him. They were repaired almost instantly once her bout of anger was over. Yesterday, when she had cracked his wardrobe, Kevin had thought for a minute that it almost seemed like Nina did not know what to do when she was angry. Most of her reactions to things were almost childlike, and he had given it a passing thought before, but now, as he watched the fear flit in her eyes, he knew that no matter what she told him, he could not react aggressively.
He licked her cheek in a comforting manner. After so many days of remaining in his true form, he was finding it hard to shake off his habits. However, his gesture calmed Nina down. Was she more comfortable with the bear than the human? That was something he would have to think about later.
Nina pulled away from him and sat down on the bed. The sheet was still wrapped around her, and Kevin sat up, not bothered about being naked. When she studied his lower area with curiosity and interest, he found himself hardening and grumbled, covering himself with a sheet, “My eyes are up here.”
He felt amused at her reaction as well.
Nina shook her head. “It looks so different from the others.”
The smile slid off Kevin’s face. “What others?”
“The ones at the compound.” The manner in which she shuddered told Kevin what she had thought of those men. “I could see the wrongness in their heart.”
There were so many things about her that he did not know. The shifter suddenly became more determined to learn everything there was to her. He held her hands and focused on her. “Tell me about what just happened.”
She faltered. “Grandmother told me never to tell anyone.”
Kevin’s grip tightened. “But I’m not just anyone, am I?”
Nina studied for a few very long seconds, and then shook her head. “I saw you.”
The bear moved inside him.
“You looked just like this. Sitting on the bed. And then you were screaming.” She frowned, trying to recall. “You were telling me to run.”
Kevin watched her with unnerving stillness. “You saw me in a dream?”
“My…” Nina struggled with the words. “…Prophecies. I can see prophecies in my dreams.”
Chapter 8
“My great grandmother also had this gift. She told me never to let anyone find out.”
Nina's hands were trembling and Kevin steadied them. He wanted her to finish. The numbness that struck him at the revelation did not show on his face. The witch eyed him warily, and then asked, “You…I thought–”
Kevin raised his brow. “What?”
Nina settled for shrugging her delicate shoulders. “I just thought you would have had a different reaction.”
“What kind of reaction were you expecting?”
She opened her mouth and then closed it. “I do not know. I’ve never told anyone this before.”
The way in which Grandma Rowena had warned her to never reveal this secret to anyone, the child she had been had thought she might face some terrible punishment for an ability that she could not control.
Had Grandmother been wrong?
“I’m a little shocked,” Kevin admitted. “I’ve never heard of something like this. It's not very common among your kind, is it?” It did not seem to be. Not with the way she had seemed so hesitant to tell him.
Nina shook her head. “Aside from Totters, you’re the only one that knows about it.”
“What really weirds me out is the way you communicate with that bird.”
An indignant screech from outside had Nina cracking a small smile. “Totters thinks the way you tried to sniff my crotch yesterday was weird.”
Kevin looked away guiltily at that.
Nina was feeling more relaxed now, and Kevin moved back to the issue at hand. “How does it work? Does it hurt you?”
The woman gave him an odd look. “Why would it hurt me?”
“Because you were crying in your sleep.”
Nina pursed her lips and lowered her eyes to study the rough, brown hands that covered hers. They were so big.
“It doesn’t hurt. And I do not control when it happens. Sometimes, I remember what I dream, and sometimes it’s only a blur. Totters says that my eyes turn strange.”
“They do. Your eyes were open, and completely silver. And you were speaking something, but your voice was harsher, almost incomprehensible.”
Nina looked uncertain. “Oh.”
“So, you saw a prophecy about me?”
“I do not know if it was about you, but you were a part of it. I never see anything in sequence. It's just flashes.” Nina paused for a few seconds. “This isn’t the first time you’ve appeared in my prophecy.”
Kevin started warily. He did not want to entertain the thoughts that were going through his head. Nina could not have planned all this. But when he saw how vulnerable she looked at that moment, he told himself to listen.
“The night I ran away from the compound, I saw you. Lately,” she studied him, something new in her gaze, “every prophecy that swims in my blood shows you.”
Kevin climbed off the bed.
He wanted to shift, wanted to shed off this human skin. However, changing forms would mean he would not be able to ask questions, and this new revelation demanded he remain in a form that could communicate with the woman in his bed. “What does that mean?”
“I do not know. Maybe that you are going to play a part in whatever happens next. Or that you play a very important part in the events which are to unfold.”
Kevin stopped his pacing and eyed her, frowning. “What events?”
Nina pursed her lips. Kevin’s blood boiled. She was still keeping secrets.
“What events, Nina?” He emphasized on the words.
A flash of some emotion he could not quite identify at that moment and she glanced away, her voice quiet. “You’re angry.”
Kevin blinked. His facial expression had not changed. How could she tell? He sensed her withdrawing from him, and his bear’s upset intensified.
“Is our being here a coincidence, or was this all a plan?”
The outburst was quite unlike the usually calm and controlled shifter, and it left him stunned.
Nina was taken aback by his words, and her tone was hesitant. “What do you mean ‘planned’?”
Kevin could not contain his growl. He did not know whom he was growling at – himself or the woman. “You say you saw me in your prophecies. Did you know to come here? Did I just walk my pack into a damn trap?”
The haunted look in Nina’s eyes made him wish he had rephrased it. Gone was the trust that had lingered there. Right now, as she looked at him, it felt like she was studying a stranger before her. She had trusted him with her most scared secret, and he had turned it around on her and cut her open with it.
He watched as she clenched her fingers as if they had no strength in them. She slipped off the bed and let the sheet fall from her body. Her movements were sluggish, and she walked over to the chair where their clothes were. Wearing Kevin’s oversized T-shirts had become the norm for her since he would chew on anything else she wore.
But, right now, Nina deliberately chose a brown T-shirt that Heather had given her. Tugging on a pair of jeans, she walked over to the bathroom to wash her face.
The blankness on her face and the fact that she had not uttered a word unsettled Kevin.
“Nina.”
She walked past him, her face dripping with water. She did not even touch his towel. It was as if she was going out of her way to make sure she touched nothing of his. Opening the door, she let in Totters who flew onto her shoulder and rubbed his feathered head against her, offering her comfort.
Nina turned to look at him, but the cold blankness in her eyes made his bear snarl. His mate should not wear that look in he
r eyes. It did not suit her!
Mate?
But now was not the best time to ponder over that. He took a step toward her, wanting to erase that expression, but he found himself unable to move. Looking down at his feet, he tried to lift one foot, but it would not budge. He raised his head to look at Nina. “What did you do?”
“I do not want you near me.” The words were like a blow, and his bear struggled to come forth. “You’re just like them. I should never have trusted you.”
Nina gathered her familiar in her arms. “I’ll give you all the answers you seek right now, and then I’ll leave. You won’t see me ever again.”
Kevin’s bear howled in rage and panic. The very thought of his mate leaving him was driving his bear up the wall. Throwing away all restraints, it pushed everything it had to break the magic that bound him in this spot. The human part of him growled at Nina. “You cannot just leave. You are being ridiculous. Where will you go? Back to those people?”
The smile that Nina gave him was of a child whose heart bore many wounds. “You’re not the first person to shun me, Kevin. I know I do not fit in your world. And I will die before I go back there.”
Kevin stiffened at the conviction in those words. “Look, my words were–”
The witch shook her head. “This is how it will always be. Wherever I go, whoever finds out about my ability, they will either want to use me, or they will doubt my actions. I cannot live like that.” Nina ran a hand over the falcon in her arms. “I had no intentions for anyone here. I genuinely liked your pack. Yes, I am looking for someone. Yes, I did not tell you all my secrets. But I was not trying to hurt anyone. You brought me here. Of your own choice.”
The bleakness in her eyes had Kevin pushing against the barrier that froze him in place. She was hurting! He had put that look in her eyes!
“Nina, I never meant to–”
But she would not let him finish. “I do not know why I even bothered trying. Someone like me cannot save the world. Goodbye, Kevin.” She turned her back on him. “The spell will wear off in an hour.”
Kevin roared her name. However, Nina had already left.
It was quite late, and only the night duty sentinels were up and about. Everybody else was in bed. Nina walked through the corridors.
“Master, where will we go?”
“I do not know,” Nina muttered, her heart feeling like it was being crushed. She stopped for a few seconds and put her hand against the wall, trying to calm herself down. “Why does it hurt so much?”
“Because you trusted him. And he is the first man you ever put your faith in.”
Nina walked slowly, her eyes glittering with unshed tears. “This feels strange. I do not like feeling this way, Totters. My heart hurts too much.”
Her familiar hesitated. “Maybe you should give him a chance to explain himself. You humans say a lot of unnecessary things in the heat of the moment.”
Nina had spent her life surrounded by deceit. Trust was hard to come by.
“If I had planned to come here, if I had wanted to put his pack in danger, why would I have told him that I could see prophecies?”
Totters was quiet for a few seconds before he said, “You have changed in these few days. You cannot control your emotions here. I saw a side of you that I have never seen before.”
“What are you trying to say?” Nina paused.
Her familiar hesitated. “That this place is good for you. And that you might be making a mistake.”
Nina grew quiet, trying to think past the pain in her chest. “You heard what he said, Totters. He thinks I manipulated him.”
“Maybe he got confused and said something he did not mean. The shifter has taken care of us, protected us. He is different from everyone we have come across. Give him a second chance.”
Nina glanced into the mirror on her right and studied her familiar in it. “I do not want to leave. I want to cry. And I want to shout at him for hurting me.”
“Then talk to him instead of leaving. He looks at you with possessiveness. Like a mate would.”
Nina looked at her reflection in the mirror, and said slowly, “I do not want a mate. But I like these people. They are kind. And Kevin–”
Her reflection moved.
Nina took a step back, and Totters flapped his wings in distress.
“What?”
Her reflection smiled, her lips stretching to abnormally horrifying proportions.
“Master, run!”
But it was too late. Just as Nina moved, her reflection’s arm lifted and came out of the mirror.
A black shadow.
A black snake coming out of the mirror.
Dimly, she remembered what she had seen as the shadow – resembling her arm – wrapped itself around her neck. Hearing Totter’s angry screeches, Nina pulled herself together and fired her magic toward the mirror, intent on breaking it. As the shadow tightened itself around her neck, Nina kept firing the most destructive form of magic at her smiling reflection. She knew how mirror magic worked. And it was nasty.
Nobody would be able to hear Totter’s shrieks, she realized. They were very far from the residential area of the den. She gasped for breath, and saw Totters glow and ram himself into the mirror. However, even her familiar’s magic was useless against the strength of the caster.
“Totters, get help!”
Her familiar did not hesitate. Turning around, he flew down the corridor, his screeches bouncing off the walls.
With her familiar out of the danger zone, Nina’s eyes narrowed and she gathered up her energy and held onto the shadow around her neck. Her pure, white energy made the shadow sizzle, and its grip loosened for a few seconds – long enough for the witch to start melting the mirror around the edges.
“I’m not that easy to kill,” Nina whispered hoarsely.
Her image in the mirror did not hide its displeasure and a tendril of the shadow sneaked into the temporary barrier Nina had resurrected around her neck. The tendril grew large enough to break through the magic and once again wrapped itself around her neck.
This time, the young witch was helpless to protect her vulnerable area since her hands were facing outwards at the mirror as her heat magic was slowly destroying the mirror. Black dots flew in front of her eyes as she was choked. The magic around the mirror was very powerful, and Nina knew that if she unleashed everything that she had, the den could end up being destroyed – and Kevin along with it.
Gritting her teeth, she felt her legs give way as she tried to keep her focus intact. It was harder with something trying to choke the breath out of her. When she felt herself being pulled toward the mirror, her eyes grew wide with horror.
NO!
If this was a portal, it needed to be destroyed, now! She would not be taken against her will. What she had said to Kevin had not been a lie. She would rather die than be taken back there. It was not death that scared her, it was what they were going to take from her and use.
Her struggles increased tenfold, and she leaked in more power, trying to melt the mirror faster. She was losing energy fast, but the only way she knew how to survive right now was not even an option she would consider. She tried to pull her head back, but the leash around her neck was tight. If they succeeded in taking her, she had a window of five seconds to take her own life.
She was drawn closer to the mirror, and her image smiled.
“I’m sorry, Totters,” Nina whispered to her faithful companion.
She heard his outraged cry and, closing her eyes, she turned her hand toward herself, ready to turn her own magic against her. The roar that she heard made her freeze for a second, and her eyes opened.
Vision blurry, she saw the huge bear run toward her and swipe at the shadow that emitted from the mirror. The shadow blurred but formed again. However, the tendril that had wrapped itself around Nina’s neck like a noose tightened. She saw the darkness seep in from the edges of her vision, and her hands dropped limply to her sides.
The bea
r whom she recognized as Kevin slashed his claws against the mirror. Nina tried to tell him that it would not work, but her voice was not coordinating with her mind.
She saw the bear shift to an enraged naked man, who tore the mirror from the wall and smashed it to the floor, shattering it into a million pieces.
The noose disappeared from around Nina’s neck, and she slumped to the floor.
She was gathered up in a pair of arms that were like steel bands around her. Kevin’s worried face swam into view. There was fury there in his expression, along with fear. Why would he be scared?
“I’m okay.” Her voice was a rasp, and when she tried to sit up, she realized that she had no energy.
Kevin lifted her up in his arms and carried her to his room.
A few sips of water helped relieve the ache in her throat. He helped her lean against the headboard, and she watched as he paced in front of her.
“How did he break free of my magic?”
“I broke the barrier. You must have been very angry when you set it up. It took some time to unravel.”
“Totters, we need to leave here. Every minute that we stay will put this pack in danger.”
Totters sounded startled. “But what about the Council? This pack has some knowledge about them. If we leave–”
Nina sounded weary, and she said, “We’ll have to look for another way. And if all else fails,” Nina ran a hand over her familiar, “then we destroy the last key.”
She felt the alarm from the falcon and then the sorrowful acceptance. “As you wish, Master.”
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