by S. L. Morgan
Dominic’s hand came up and braced the back of my head. I pulled back, only to lose the smile that had been plastered on my face. Dom’s eyes were somber when mine met his.
“Good God, what the hell happened to you two?” I asked him, looking over at Finley who was watching Dominic like she had no idea where this side of the alpha shifter came from. “Seriously. What happened after that thing pulled me into the water?”
“That water,” Dom ran his hand over my face, “God, I can’t believe you’re standing here.”
“I told you I was going to beat this quest.” I smiled, trying to cut through the grim tension I was getting off both the master shifters.
“No, Jenna. That water should have killed you—killed you. It was laced with acid and sulfur. I almost went in after you, but I couldn’t fight past my wolf’s defenses of it. If you were going to fake quest die, I would have just been teleported with you. With my wolf literally stopping me, Finley’s wolf almost losing a paw to the touch of that stuff, we knew something wasn’t right. It swallowed you up, you shouldn’t be here,” he explained.
“You shouldn’t,” Finley said. “What kind of dark power do you have in you? And how did you find us up here? We’re out of reach of the academy, and Dom got rid of the hawk shifter as soon as she came up to us and started chanting some weird shit about the school’s sovereign being fed.”
I looked around. “What the hell?” I said to Dominic. “Is this the crap they were using to kill the others? Does Finley know?”
“Once we got out of the grips of the school, I sent the stupid hawk girl back, and Finley came out of the control the academy had her under. That Brenda chick is working for someone at that school, we’re not sure if it’s the dean, but he has something to do with it. Fin’s fine, she’s cool like you and me.”
“How did you find us here?” Finley demanded. “I’m not sure how to even ask how you escaped that water we should have never come across. Whatever is at the school wants you. At least that’s what the hawk was spouting out like a damn mocking bird before Dom took her out.”
“I heard the cries of Dom’s wolf. I thought it was strange.” I looked up at Dom studying me like I’d been brought back from the dead. “Why would you cry out like that if you’re trying to stay hidden from everything?”
“He never cried out,” Finley said with a look of confusion. “He never once howled. We were only in our wolf forms because dusk is here and dark shadows are coming after us. They aren’t here to send us back to school. They’re hunting us now, trying to kill us, we think. Our wolf forms have taken them out and sensed them better when they come for us.”
“Then why are we not in our wolf forms?” I asked.
Dom looked at Finley, then me, “We had to be sure it was you before I killed you. I figured the shadows were manifesting what we wanted most now. I wanted you back, I can’t explain it, but the belief that you died in that water ripped through me, and it was a void I can’t explain.” He reached for my hand, “you heard me howling?”
“Yes. You weren’t? I heard it as plain as day.”
He licked his lips, “Jenna, you heard the inside cries of my wolf. It was never audible. You shouldn’t have heard that unless we were true mates.”
“As in…”
“Yes,” Finley answered, “As in when are the pups going to arrive now? sort of mates. You both shouldn't be this connected. Dom told me about the fake relationship to protect Ethan.”
“Oh my God,” I said. “What if the school is going to hell right now? Me, dead. You two out here being hunted…what if Ethan is in trouble?”
“Ethan has been following us,” Dom said with some relief in his voice. “He’s been fighting the hawk shifter off and secretly trailing us. When he shifted back, he led us here and flipped out, mandating we not leave for our safety. Now, I know exactly why he wanted us here. He wanted us to wait for you.”
“Where is he now?”
“No one knows. He just watched over us from the trees,” Dom said. “He’ll be delighted to see you’re here safe.”
“What do we do now?” I asked.
“E told me to dig a den. I have, and with Finley’s help over the last few damn days, we’ve practically have built a mansion underground. Come on, we have to start sorting through this mess. Ethan will show if he knows it’s safe for him. They locked him in the dungeons, and he escaped them.” Dominic laughed, “Apparently, they think he’s still locked away, so he’s safe out here and undetected with us. Let’s get underground before the shadow hunters come, it’s almost dark.”
With that, I followed the two Immortal Academy fugitives underground and was blown away at what these two had accomplished to give us a hideout under the grounds of this sinister area. Now, I guess we all had to try and piece this part of the puzzle together. This was where I was going to recruit Finley, Dom, and Ethan to get the heck out of here. Now, I would have more people helping me search for someone to help stop the murders at this school…oh, and find the dark SOB who tried to murder my butt.
Chapter Thirty-Two
I sat on a log that was close to the small fire pit where the fire that was built was struggling to stay lit. Dom dumped some twigs on it, and I watched as the smoke plume went up through a small hole in the den he and Finley had dug out.
The area was lit by the little fire pit, but I could tell that it was large enough to fit at least eight of us. Finley and Dom went for the packs, and we all sat quietly as we ate the jerky that was given to us as food rations for the quest.
“So how did this whole thing go dark on us?” I finally asked.
“We have no idea. After we lost you, Dom was in save Jenna mode since he instantly sensed this wasn’t a fake death you’d suffered.”
I looked at Dom, who sat protectively at my side. “Thanks for potentially risking your immortal life to come after me. While I was underwater, it felt like I was moments from being transported back to the school, but I fought that off.”
“Why did you think you were being transported back?” Dom asked in confusion.
“I saw the school. I felt it pulling me back there, I fought it off, and then the next thing I knew, I was out of that black tar water. It seriously felt like I’d survived a trap.”
“And you thought you were in the water for ten minutes?” Finley questioned. “How long did it take you to reach us?”
“As soon as I popped out, I knew the water had to have pulled me far away from where I fell in. I thought I kind of got lucky when I popped out of that and heard the cry of the wolf. I didn’t really question my being lucky enough to wind up close to where you were, I was more curious as to why the wolf cry was what it was.”
Dom exhaled and placed a hand over mine. “Jenna,” he captured my eyes with his complex expression and amber brown eyes, “For you to hear my wolf…” He swallowed hard and hit me with the Dom smile. “You shouldn’t have heard that.”
“I picked up on your inner wolf emotions.” I rubbed my hand over his. “Are you sure…” The words locked up in my throat just as it had Dominic’s.
There was no way. If the alpha were my wolf’s true mate, no freaking way we’d be that connected. I shouldn’t have heard his wolf, period, no matter what.
“There’s something different about you, Jenna,” Dom said, looking at Finley across from us before he darted his eyes down into the flames as they licked at the wood in the fire pit. “We may not be connected on a mateship level—we’re not even in a real relationship—but you are unique. There is something that hides behind your wolf.” He looked at me, “Can’t you sense its power?”
“All I know is that I’m not your average shifter. I mean, my wolf is even different from my natural form. Her eyes are blue, and mine are brown. I’m sure you all noticed that a while ago.”
“It was noticed by the masters,” Finley smirked. “We just thought we had a half-breed shifter,” she teased. “Seriously, though, that’s when we all started watching you.”
“And?”
“Well, we didn’t have extraordinary abilities to sense what made you unique. We just thought we had a special shifter with us. When you joined Dom’s unit and didn’t answer his alpha commands, that’s when we all really knew there was something different about you. You have no idea who you really are, do you?” she asked.
“I have no idea who my parents are. I wanted out of Dark Water Academy and out in the world so I could find them, but instead of graduating and being able to find out my lineage, I was brought here. All I know is I’m over the eighty percent immortal blood mark, and I was forced into this place.”
“Ethan mentioned House Silvers when I asked him why he was drawn to you,” Dom said. “I have no idea about your family’s house. I don’t know where Ethan got that information from, but he’s a special kind of owl. He won’t say any more than Jenna of House Silvers.”
“Yeah, that one got me too. Maybe there is family history, maybe there’s not.”
“E wouldn’t reference something if it weren’t the truth,” Dominic eyed me like he thought I knew more than I was saying.
“Jenna, we have to know everything. There’s no way you survived that abyss for that long,” Finley said in frustration.
“I have nothing. I’m just as confused as both of you.”
“Leave it alone,” Dom ordered Finley. “She has no idea, we have no idea. All I know is we have to get back to the school and figure out what the hell happened and why Jenna was almost killed out here.”
“We can’t go back to the school,” I said. “We have to get help.”
“Absolutely not!” Dominic’s voice was stern. “Have you lost your mind?”
We were interrupted when we heard rustling come from the bushes that Dom used to conceal this hideout den.
“Stay here.” Dom rose up and stalked over to the entrance.
“You have to leave.” It was Ethan’s voice.
“God dang, E,” Dom let out a deep breath, “I could have snapped your neck.”
“And I would have healed if you did.” Ethan looked at his cousin’s lethal expression with indifference. “You know I cannot be killed.”
“What do you know?” Finley asked as she and I approached Ethan.
Ethan smiled at me. “I knew you would save yourself. Your power helped you.”
I couldn’t help but hug my friend. “I’m glad you’re safe, Ethan Carter.”
“I am happy you’re safe as well, but right now in danger. You need to leave. I have found another area where they can’t sense Jenna. She opened up something they’re using to track her. You all must leave now.”
“Lusa? Ethan, what about my sister? What’s happening at the school?”
“The school is not harming anyone. The school hunts for Jenna. Lusa is safe.”
“Alright.” Dom looked back at Finley and me, “shift and get the packs.” He looked at Ethan, “Get your owl to lead the way, we’ll leave now.”
“Your wolves must not stop. Follow me to safety.”
We were shifted and on the move, using our wolf instincts to guide us away from the place where I’d found Dom and Finley.
Finley sprinted out in front, I stayed in the middle, and Dom was trailing us. Ethan’s beautiful owl flew close to the ground as our wolves clawed through the thick mud to follow him to his new hideout.
I yelped when a large black mass swirled down and huge claws formed from it. It plucked Finley off the ground, and I knew she would be toast if she couldn’t fight it off. Before I could leap up and try and attack the thing, Dom was in the air from behind me, and his sharp fangs sank into the claws that were deep in Finley’s back. Her wolf wailed as soon as the thing disappeared and she fell to the ground.
She whimpered, barely able to move. Dom’s wolf nudged her back to her feet, only to have her stumble again. Oh my God, did that thing break her back? I watched Dom back away as Ethan’s owl turned and banked hard off to his left as it returned to us. The owl’s massive talons extended and got Finley right behind her head at the scruff of her wolf’s neck—the place that we felt nothing when carried—and Ethan screeched as if to yell at us to follow him.
The owl turned back and continued on with an injured Finley hanging from his claws. I felt horrible for her. We wouldn’t know the extent of her injuries until we got to whatever safe place Ethan was leading us to. I hoped that he was leading us away from the enchantment of the school and into the human world.
After fighting off countless black shadows, we arrived at some massive cave. Ethan kept flapping his wings hard, so I knew we weren’t stopping here. The cave opened up into daylight—maybe made it through a portal to the human population. It was daylight now, and Ethan was heading toward an enormous waterfall. The cliff the water fell from was hundreds of feet high, and tall trees lined the mountain range that surrounded this valley we were in.
We followed Ethan’s owl as he banked to the left, then the right to fly in behind the waterfall. The cavern was wet and musty, and my wolf didn’t like the damp environment, but it wasn’t up to her. If this was the human world, then this is where we would plan to get help.
Ethan set Finley’s injured wolf gently on a ledge that was on the other side of this cavern. Light peered in from a parting between two rocks, and I could scent the pine needles and nature outside that slit of an opening. Dom stayed in wolf form, trotting over to an area behind another group of rocks, most likely shifting back like Finley and I had to. We had to assess her wounds, and with Ethan here, hopefully, he had some way he could help her. He seemed to be blessed with some kind of special magic, and I was hoping healing was part of his unique owl DNA.
“Here,” I said after shifting, throwing on my clothes and helping a slow-moving Finley. “Let me help you get your shirt…”
“Don’t touch my shoulder.” I looked, seeing a broken bone trying to pop through her skin. Her other shoulder was the same.
“God, both your arms are busted,” I said. “Let me wrap your shirt around you, cover you up.”
She let me tie the shirt around her chest because we knew Dom and Ethan were going to want to examine her.
“What was that thing?” I asked her.
“Same things we’d been fighting since hiding out at that other place,” she said with a whimper. “Dang, this is killing me.”
“The poison is in her. Her bones will be liquified soon,” Ethan said, staring at her shoulders. “Jenna, you can stop it.”
I looked at Ethan like he was insane. “Whatever magic you think I’ve got in me, it ain’t healer magic.”
“You can help her. Focus.” Ethan’s eyes were that weird white color again. “If you lose her. You will all die.”
I glanced over at Finley who was kneeling in pain, gray veins showing her skin dying from the inside out. “I’ll get wood for the fire,” Dom said. “She’s freezing. Do your thing, Jenna.”
“I don’t know what you both are thinking, I don’t have a thing!”
“Then, go! If I’m going down like this, I’d rather be consumed by poison alone,” Finley lashed out in pain.
Her wails and groans and her body fighting the poison threw me into a strange trance. I felt heat surging in my bloodstream. I glanced at my palms as they turned fiery red—something that only happened to witches when they activated their magic. I heard Dominic drop the wood he was carrying to the fire, most likely stunned by what was happening to me.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was part freaking witch now?
“Heal her. I must go back. The school needs me to watch it while they wait.”
I ignored Ethan and focused the energy that was ready to explode like lava from my hands. Yellow—fairy glitter yellow—swirled around the bright red ball of energy that was sitting in my hand. A sparkling blue flame swirled around and through the energy ball. I felt like someone took my arms and guided them to where Finley was writhing on the cold, damp stone in the cavern. I pressed the ball of hot energy I’d
created into Finley’s spine. Like an x-ray, I saw two broken ribs, a punctured lung, broken arms, and dislocated shoulders as my magical healing ball went into her.
She collapsed over onto my lap, and her eyes shut peacefully with one soft sigh.
“Holy hell, what did I just do?” I said as I stared at my hands in total disbelief.
“There’s some large leaves and straw out there. I’m going to fashion up a quick bed for her, and then we’re going to figure this out.”
I looked over to see the wolf in Dom’s eyes. Whatever I had done had brought his wolf into the game either to protect Dom from me or to scent out who I really was. I just pulled a freaking witch-fairy-healer move all in one magical energy ball. What the heck was I?
As Dom worked fast to build up some bedding with leaves and grass in an alcove, I ran my hand gently over Finley’s forehead. She was completely out, and I could actually feel the heat in her body, surging and searing her injured bones back together. Her shallow breathing slowed into relaxed, deep sleep breaths.
Dom took her and cradled her in his arms, walking her over to the makeshift bed he pulled together in vamp speed. He didn’t seem to argue with Ethan flying back to that stupid school, so hopefully, E was safe, and we were safe out here.
It was easy to see that Finley was in a healing coma and would be out for at least twelve hours. Now, it was up to Dom and me to figure out what the heck I conjured up and just did to heal the Master shifter. This was insane, and I had never been more confused about who I really was until right now.
Chapter Thirty-Three
I took the logs Dom dropped on the stone floor and placed them together. I felt the heat still bubbling in my palms and remembered watching Vannah when she created these witchy magic balls. We were so amused when she first learned how to channel her magic, pull it into one place, and manifest these balls of light.
