* * *
Alone among the trees,Selene waited, hugging herself against the cool spring air and the even colder ramifications of her decision to leave Sanctuary and her life as an acolyte. The list she’d started in her head was growing. She’d have to tell Artemis the truth, move out of Sanctuary, try to find a job and a temporary place to live. Jason would offer to help her, of that she was confident. But she shouldn’t presume. Their relationship was too new for that.. Wouldn’t it be wrong for her to lean on him too hard, too fast? Perhaps there was a werewolf family in need of a nanny. She’d always been good with children.
As she paced, a high-pitched keening met her ears, the bleat of a dying animal. She wandered toward the sound, peering through a thick web of tree branches. A deer. Mauled by a wolf, by the looks of it. She frowned. It was odd for her kind to kill what it did not eat. Unless… it might have been her or Jason who’d done it, perhaps becoming distracted with each other and not finishing their meal. Well, she couldn’t just leave it to suffer. She pushed through the thick line of trees and strode toward the doe, intending to break its neck. But when she reached it, the strangest thing happened. The doe changed. She’d seen it move, watched its throat constrict with its screams. But now it was dead. For some time, by the looks of it. An old, rotting kill. She shook her head. Was she hallucinating from the stress?
“He doesn’t mean it,” came a woman’s voice from behind her.
Selene whirled to face a svelte woman with a platinum-blond bob. Her skin was smooth as marble, and her features as sharp as if they were chiseled from the same. She was wearing a red wrap dress that showed off every curve. But it was the talisman around her neck that gave her away: a twisting dragon with a red stone eye. It looked to be made of pewter, but she knew better. It was dragon scale.
“Nickelova.” Selene scanned the line of trees behind the woman in horror. She’d been so caught up thinking about Jason she unwittingly crossed the border of the property and moved beyond the protective enchantment of Rivergate Manor. She hugged herself harder, suddenly feeling more naked than a moment before.
“He’s a dog,” Nickelova said. “He uses women and throws them away. He used me. Then, when I asked him for help, he dropped me like a hot stone.”
“Jason didn’t drop you. You tried to kill him and his siblings,” Selene said, hoping her words were enough of a distraction that she could make it back to the safety of Rivergate’s protections. She inched toward the trees.
“Did he tell you that? It’s refreshing to know he speaks of me at all. But it appears I am at a disadvantage. I didn’t know about you until today.” She frowned. “My curse should have brought Jason to my door by now. When the full moon rose again and he still hadn’t come to me, I realized there was a problem. No way could he go this long without sex. Not Jason. Imagine my surprise to track him here only to see him”—she ran a finger along her bottom lip—“with you. Such a tender moment. That sort of thing should have triggered my curse. It seems someone has interfered with my magic. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?” Her eyebrows knit.
Selene said nothing.
“Did you think I wouldn’t suspect anything? Did he think I wouldn’t check on him when he didn’t follow my instructions?” Her face contorted, rage turning her elegant features ugly.
Selene darted for the border, running as fast as she could in a wide arc around Nickelova. But one pulse of the dragon fae amulet and her muscles locked in place as rigid as if she’d been turned to stone from the neck down. She cursed.
“What’s your name, wolf?”
“Go to hell,” Selene said.
The dragon amulet flashed again and Selene’s throat constricted. The force at her neck lifted her onto her tiptoes. “Say your name.”
“Se… lene…,” she rasped, clawing at her throat. The tightening eased, and she dropped to her feet again, pitching forward to take deep, gasping breaths.
“Selene, I think once you get to know me, we are going to be great friends.”
“I don’t plan to get to know you,” Selene said between pants.
“You don’t have a choice. I want Jason’s help, and I have a feeling that all he needs to see things my way is a little motivation. Judging by what just went on between you two, I think you are exactly what I’m looking for.”
Selene screamed as Nickelova’s amulet pulsed once more, and an invisible arm snatched her around the waist, doubling her over. All the air whooshed from her lungs, and a rush of darkness overtook her. A moment later, she landed somewhere hard and cold, totally alone.
* * *
Jason had just fastenedthe last button on his dress shirt when he heard Selene’s scream, a soul-piercing sound that reached him on a primal level. At a dead run, he navigated the short way back to the place where they’d been. But when he reached the tightly grouped trees, she was gone.
“Selene! Selene!”
“This way.” Silas arrived behind him, sniffing the air. The two brothers walked to the tree-lined border of the property and stopped. “She passed beyond the protective boundary.”
“Why? Why would she do that?”
“There’s a kill.” Silas pointed at a dead doe. He approached the carcass, carefully picking his way through the tight web of branches that signified the border. “Do you smell that?”
Jason caught a whiff of someone other than Selene, a dangerous scent he hadn’t smelled in weeks. “Fairy magic.” A hard lump formed in his throat.
“Fuck.” Silas dug his fingers into his wild hair.
Jason’s phone rang. He slid it from his pocket, glancing at Silas when he saw who was calling. He tapped the screen and raised it to his ear.
“Jason?” said the familiar, dark voice, edged in gravel. “Ryker from Lost Things.”
