“What do you get in return from that? You could find your selected on your own. You don’t need my help, and I’m not fucking you,” I snap.
His laugh is infectious, getting under my skin and into my blood. “Let’s just say pissing off Blackfire is a sport, and for some reason, he’sveryinterested in you, so I’m interested too. I won’t ask you for anything, Meredith.”
“You want to piss off Blackfire by protecting me?” I frown. I don’t understand.
“Yes.” He offers me a hand to stand up. “Take the offer; it’s the best you’re going to get. Blackfire is not near us as far as I can scent, and it might take him some time to get to you. That’s if hedoesn’t get distracted killing along the way. His bloodlust knows no bounds, from my experience.”
“I don’t trust you.” I lock my eyes with his. His eyes are sea blue. I was right with my first glance, but they are so much more. Green flecks dance like lights with the blue, and gold outlines them all.
“You really shouldn’t,” he agrees. “But do you want to do this alone or not?” He doesn’t say it, but alone for me means death or worse.
We sit in silence for a long time, and he just stares at me, and I don’t look away. I don’t know what to say to him, but I know he has won this argument for now. Instead of taking his hand, I nod once, and his shoulders seem to drop in relief. Confusing. I rip my leggings further and tie them around my thigh. It looks absolutely ridiculous with one leg covered and the other half not, but it will do. The second I stand, the hair on the back of my neck rises, and there’s a sound, something between a roar and a screech that echoes around the forest. Something horrid and unnatural.
“Get behind me now,” Reed growls, his voice slipping from the friendly act that he was doing to one that is fierce, terrifying, and seems more like him. I go to tell him no, but we both turn when a branch breaks nearby. Creatures fill the forest, dozens of them, and I don’t know what they are. Each one reminds me of an old, human-built stone statue of a Greek god I once saw in a book. Every bit of them is grey, but they aren’t statues; they are alive. A tartan in dark reds and blacks sways across their waists and falls to their knees; two strips of leather with daggers hang across their chests, wrapping over their shoulders. Each one of the males is built, ripped with muscles, and the hoods of their torn black cloaks cover half of their faces, while the cloaks fall down their back in the middle of their huge stone-like wings.
Blood pours down their chests like they’ve been ripping into something or someone, and one of them makes that horrid sound once again. The biggest of them all steps forward, a gold glittering medallion hanging in the middle of his chest, and he points right at me. His accent is thick and strange, but I still understand his command. “Get the girl, and bring her to me.”
Chapter Ten
I do the most sensible thing anyone could do when stone creatures that are gigantic with disturbing six-packs start screaming, roaring and running—I run in the opposite direction. My feet take off across the forest floor, and it’s all a blur as I run like I don’t hear Reed shout my name or the roaring of the creatures. I hear Reed’s wolf’s growl following me, the sweet smell of seawater in the air, but I don’t dare look back. After a while, I don’t hear anything as I continue running straight through the forest, passing tree after tree. My heart pounds so fast it might be covering up any sounds, though.
Instantaneously, my legs fly off the ground, and they don’t come back down. Something has grabbed onto my back, yanking me up into the air with it, and I scream to the sky. I look down to see the river flooding across the forest floor, a wave coming out of the river that is washing everything away and dragging thecreatures into the river. Reed’s water magic. I can’t see Reed as I’m dragged higher and higher into the sky until we break out of the treeline.
I expect the creature to be horrid as I look up, but instead I find the creature who pointed at me. His grip is tight on my waist, and my arms are crushed against his cold chest. The wind blows his cloak hood down, and I get my first look at the creature I thought was a monster. His skin is grey like stone, but his eyes are black with glimmers of silver—almost like stars. Fangs peek out of his plush lips, and he’s weirdly good-looking. Long black hair falls over his forehead and ears, the tips are grey, and his eyes lock onto mine.
There is a tattoo or marking on his neck, something I can’t quite see. I’m speechless as he continues to stare at me, and I wait for my death. He is going to kill me. I swear he smirks before he grabs my arm, and he bites down hard.
I’m screaming, kicking, and wriggling in his arms as he flies swiftly across the sky with me, biting down deeper and pulling at my blood as he groans. I fight him, but he’s actually like stone in strength, and my efforts do nothing to make him let me go. Nothing I do undoes his grip, and he continues to bite, continues to drain blood from my arm until he suddenly stops.
I flinch as my arm falls to my side, and I feel weak. The stars in his eyes glow as he watches me. His voice is dark, deep and so strange. He leans into me, breathing in deep. “You’re mine, my stone, and I will never let you go from this moment until we are done with this world.” He is growling his words into my ear, and yet I can barely hold my head up. I shiver in his tight grip as he keeps flying with his heavy wings. I want to scream, tell him I’m not his and that he can drop me to my death, but I just can’t. I feel like I’m in a trance.
He’s too busy looking at me, and he doesn’t see, but I feel it. I feel fire lick down my spine, like an awareness, just before a hugeblack wolf, its fur literally on fire—black fire to be exact—jumps from the top of a huge tree. The wolf slams into us, grabbing me in its mouth and flying through the air. I scream this time as my stomach drops, the world spinning as we fall, and I hear the creature’s roar echo in the sky.
Endless black fire pours into the air almost like a shield, wrapping around us as we slam onto the ground, and the trees light up with the fire in its wake. Blackfire. It’s Blackfire who has me. He runs fast with me in his mouth, and the fire spitting off his fur doesn’t hurt me; it just brushes against my skin.
I can barely feel anything as I’m held inside the mouth of the wolf, his teeth inches away from my bleeding arm as he continues to run through the forest. I look over, my eyes widening because we aren’t alone now. I see the white wolf—Reed. I expect him to fight Blackfire, but he doesn’t, and the two of them run side by side through the forest.
Eventually, they stop in a clearing. Blackfire spits me out onto the ground, and I roll in the leaves, coughing as I grab my arm, wincing in pain from the bite. My blood pours through my fingers, and Reed shifts back first, immediately in front of me, grabbing my arm.
“Don’t lick me,” I manage to mumble out even as I feel dizzy from blood loss. “This has been a bad day. Is it over?”
But I’m too weak to fight him as he grabs my arm, takes my hand off it, and begins licking the bite. Eventually, the pain disappears, not the fuzziness. I think I’m going to pass out. “Bad day, not bad life, little human. Now tell me why the fuck you ran from me?”
Blackfire hasn’t shifted back, huffing and snarling as he’s walking back and forth near us. Eventually, he does shift, crouched on the ground, his hood flying around him and his black mask glittering. “Get the fuck away from her and take your dirty mouth with you, Reed.”
If I thought he was angry at Reed, who doesn’t move and only smirks as he licks my arm one more time, his eyes locked on Blackfire, it’s nothing compared to the fury that spills from Blackfire as he looks at me. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Decided to go for a little fly with a new friend?” he growls. “Hopeless as fucking usual.”
“Not willingly, you absolute dickhead,” I spit at him. Why did it have to be Blackfire who jumped for me? I’m still shocked that he did that, when I’m meant to be helping him win this thing. Not the other way around.
“What Blackfire means to ask is, are you alright?” Reed counters, finally letting my arm go but staying close enough that all I can smell and see is him.
“Yes, thank you,” I whisper softly. I need a drink and chocolate cake, and a nap. “Any chance you want to hunt down a cake for me? I mean, I know there aren’t wild cakes running about, but I’ve had a bad day, so maybe you might find something.”
Reed opens and shuts his mouth, clearly unsure what to say. He isn’t getting me a cake; that much is for sure.
“I saved you,” Blackfire snaps. “He was no use, so why are you thanking him and not me?”
Reed shakes his head and leans closer to me. “My pleasure. I will find?—”
