“I’m not touching that.” I take a step back.
Blackfire growls when none of us move, and he picks up the letter. It stops glowing, and he roughly rips it open. “It says that the first trial of the Folkland is tomorrow…”
Reed pulls it from his hand and reads the rest. “It claims we need our selected to survive. If you haven’t found your selected, you’ll face it alone and die.”
I lift my hand and high-five Elizabeth—by moving her hand to mine, as she clearly has no idea how to high-five. “Me and my murder-happy bestie are going to live! Woo!”
Elizabeth sighs, moving her arm out of my grip. The men groan in annoyance. “I killed my selected,” Blackfire grumbles, glaring at me, “because of Hopeless. It’s her fault!”
“Hey, you ripped him apart. Not me.” I put my hands in the air. “I haven’t killed anyone!”
“Mine is dead too. Weak fucker was eaten by the cat,” Orion growls low. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
Reed and Blackfire look at each other. “It doesn’t matter; we will survive this. We have gotten through worse together.” What does that mean? Once again, I’m questioning how these three are even friends and clearly are close enough to trust each other. “We should save our strength for tomorrow.” With that, Reed begins to build a fire that I sit far away from, and Orion walks off with Blackfire, both of them whispering.
“You won’t be able to keep him from killing me forever, you know. Thank you for saving me in the river, but you shouldn’t have,” Elizabeth tells me gently.
“I would have preferred we didn’t go for a swim,” Tannith says, blinking up from the bag. “But that man, naked, phew. I immediately got warm again.”
Why does her calling Reed hot make my blood boil? “He’s not that hot.”
Tannith laughs at my outburst. “Sure, he isn’t, bestie. I can smell desire in this form, just like the wolves can. Don’t lie;you’re bad at it.” My face feels hot, and I wish she was human so I could pinch her.
Elizabeth looks between me and Tannith. “Erm, can you talk to her? I thought no one could talk to beasts. Well, I think there was one who could, but I can’t remember the old story. Either way, you’re human. You shouldn’t be able to talk to her.”
“She isn’t a beast; she is my friend who was turned into this by Blackfire’s uncle.” I shake my head. “And yes, can’t you hear her?”
“No, she sounds like a hissing beast.” Elizabeth shrugs. “And turned or not, no one can speak to them. You shouldn’t tell the others that you can speak to the beast. I don’t know much about the turning, but I met one beast at a ball. A giant snake. The alpha had him on a chain, and no one could speak to him. The Crone alpha said only he could understand it.”
Strange. But I’m hardly claiming to be normal right now. I clear my throat and change the subject. “You’d have liked Tannith. She would have figured out a way to keep your brother off your back by now.”
She smiles at me, and her smile is like Orion’s. “No one can change Orion’s mind when he is set on something. Don’t worry about it; I knew I’d die the second I chose to kill the alpha. I’ve lived longer than I thought I would do.” She shrugs a shoulder. “I bet we would have been friends in a different, not-so-fucked-up world.”
“I could always do with a friend in this one.” I lower my voice. “We need to run when they are busy. We can’t stay here after tomorrow.”
She keeps her voice low. “I should go alone. They will keep you alive because they clearly care.”
I snort with laughter. “They don’t care, and we are going together. We have best-friend tattoos, remember?”
“Hey, I’m your bestie. I want a matching tattoo!” Tannith hisses and goes to bite Elizabeth. I yank her back and tap her nose.
“No biting. We can get tattoos when you’re human again.”
She huffs but curls around my arm and onto my neck. Elizabeth leans back on the tree. “Fine, we go together. Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow.” I nod in agreement. I’m tempted to ask her why. Why she killed her father. Why she did any of it. But not with them nearby.
Hours pass in silence. The fire is horrid and doesn’t get any better, but it’s so cold that I can’t move anywhere else. I feel so weak, my stomach hurts from hunger, and I’m so tired. Just as I feel myself drifting off, Blackfire stomps in front of me and drops a fabric bag onto my lap. I frown as I look up at him. He says nothing, walking away. Elizabeth is snoring next to me on the ground. Reed is on watch, walking around, and Orion is sleeping.
I open it up to find it full of berries. Blackfire got me food that he knew I could eat, and I wonder how exactly he figured it out. I don’t know why he is helping me. Something about this makes me smile, and my chest warms. He might be a psychopath, but this is kind of sweet. I eat half of the berries under Blackfire’s watchful gaze, leaving the rest for Elizabeth and Tannith when they wake up.
Eventually, I start to drift off, closing my eyes as I lean against a tree, knowing that tomorrow is going to be worse. The first trial of the Folkland is coming up, and there’s absolutely no way a human is going to survive it. No human ever has.
Chapter Sixteen
The grey clouds swirl around my feet, moving swiftly as if there is a breeze, but the warm air is still. But there’s nothing, just utter silence, and I can only smell crisp midnight air. I lift my head and look straight into the eyes of my monster. I nearly jump back, but his hand snaps out to clutch my waist and hold me still. He stands so very close to me that I have to tilt my head back to fully look at him and every inch of his otherworldly beauty.
Calling him my monster is a far cry from what he actually is, what he looks like. He is exceptionally handsome, like a living statue created to capture the gods. His black eyes trace across my face, down my body and finally back up to meet my eyes. I focus on the glittering stars in black, how unusual they are. I was always told I was unusual as a kid, with my gold hair and gold eyes, not a common trait for humans. It’s true I never sawanyone who looked exactly the same, and trust me, I looked just for the chance I could find my family.
