Radven nodded, but he wasn’t looking at me any longer. Instead, he addressed Alastor.
“The curse has never reacted this violently so quickly,” he said. “Say what you will about her ‘character,’ Brother, but I think you have more than enough evidence that she’s the one.”
Alastor’s grip tightened almost imperceptibly on my waist. My hair stirred when he growled, “Do I look like I still need to be convinced?”
“I don’t understand,” I said, rubbing my arms. “Why me? If there are others…”
“You’re the third,” Radven said. “In years of searching, we’ve only found three who could sense the essence of our homeland, and we believe you’re the strongest by far. You might be the only one left in this world who can help us.”
“But how did you even find me?” I was still desperately trying to make sense of all this. “And come to think of it, isn’t it suspiciously coincidental that the ‘only one left in this world’ who can help you has been living ten minutes away from you this entire time?”
“Not if you were drawn here.” Octavian was still driving like a madman, focused on the curving road ahead of him, but his voice was as deep and steady as ever. “This is where the curse dropped us. It’s where the link between our two worlds is thinnest. You are sensitive to our essence, so it’s possible that the essence drew you here, even if you were unaware of it at the time.”
I started to argue that nothing haddrawnme here, that I’d come to attend the local university and was simply too settled to move after graduation…but then I remembered my first time here, more than five years ago.
I’d come to visit the university campus. It was my grandmother’s alma mater, and before her death she’d always talked about how much she’d loved it here. She’d gushed about how this place had “four proper seasons“ and “just the right amount” of people. But mostly she’d spoken of how it had always felt like home, how sometimes she’d even heard the wind calling her name.
It was a beautiful sentiment, but I’d always considered it just that—a sentiment. At least until I’d come here myself. Even before I’d set foot on the university campus, I’d known—this was the place for me. I’d felt it in my gut—a connection to this place, a pull I couldn’t explain.At the time, I’d assumed that it was the same thing that most teenagers felt when they were breaking free of their parents and taking those first steps into the adult they’d become. This place was two thousand miles away from my parents, but also the place my grandmother had lived for half of her life—the perfect spot for me to start my life while also remaining connected to my family.
And yes—that first day, standing on the edge of the campus and staring up at the beautiful hemlocks, I could haveswornI heard the breeze call my name as it rolled in off the bay.
“We searched everywhere,” Octavian went on, steering deftly around a wide curve. We were on the lonely, winding road that led up to their estate, and as there were no other cars to be seen, he drove right down the middle, straddling the yellow line—but with perfect control. “We’ve traveled across your world looking for someone who could break the curse. We used money and connections and every other resource we had at our fingertips, so imagine our surprise when you were here under our noses the entire time.”
“It was actually Desmond, one of our trusted servants, who found you.” Radven’s eyes were still locked on the road behind us, but his lips twisted with amusement. “He’s fond of sweets, and he wandered into that little tea shop where you work to get some iced scones. He immediately sensed something strange about you, and he said you reacted oddly to him—scratching yourself quite enthusiastically after your hands touched as you passed his scones across the counter.”
I frowned. I would have assumed I’d remember something like that, but maybe not—after all, I didn’t exactly keep track of every itch or scratch I experienced, or usually give them more than a passing thought. Heck, I’d discounted that strangeshivery-ness for the better part of last night.
“It might have been nothing,” Radven continued. “But Desmond has always had good instincts, and he had a very strong feeling about you. So naturally I decided to investigate further. I went down to the tea shop myself to have a look at you.”
“Wait a minute,” I said. “IknowI’d rememberthat.” Radven wasfartoo beautiful to blend into a crowd. If he’d walked into the tea shop, my coworkers and I would have been chattering about him fordaysafterward.
But Radven just flashed me that amused, crooked smile. “We all have our secrets, butterfly. It doesn’t matter whether you remember me or not—I knew what you were the moment I laid eyes on you. I—”
Octavian cursed, and the car swerved wildly to the left.
Alastor’s arm constricted, keeping me from being thrown across the car, but before I could even catch my breath, something sliced through the back windshield.
I didn’t even see it. Octavian was driving too fast, and the Tendril was moving too fast, for it to be anything more than a blur in the air.
But I felt it. Some part of it must have brushed against me, because I heard that telltalehssssssas an angry red welt erupted just below my elbow.
I gasped at the blinding shock of pain. It was hot and piercing at once, like someone had stabbed me with a molten blade.
The car swerved again, this time to the right. All the lights on the dashboard began flashing, all of the sensors going off at once.
“Hold on,” Octavian growled through gritted teeth over the chorus of warning chimes.
Alastor was already squeezing the breath right out of me, but I still found myself desperately grasping for the nearest solid thing—him. As the car careened around another bend in the curvy road, I held on to Alastor for dear life, trying to ignore the searing pain shooting from my elbow up to my shoulder.
The Tendrils were everywhere. I saw flashes of them through the windows on every side, and sometimes part of one managed to breach the car, slipping right through the metal and glass as if the vehicle weren’t even there. They were non-corporeal—until they struck human flesh.
They’re going to kill me.That knowledge was heavy as a stone in my belly. Less than an hour ago I’d been chatting with my friends, trying to gauge if any of this was even real, and now I was facing the shadowy tentacles of certain death.
Another Tendril whipped past, and I ducked my head, burying my face in Alastor’s upper arm. These guys saw me as some sort of savior, the hero who would send them back to their homeland, but in this moment, that couldn’t have been further from the truth. In this moment, I was terrified, and helpless, and the only thing I could think to do was squeeze my eyes shut and cling to Alastor, praying that these men would save me somehow.
Alastor, at least, no longer acted like he wanted to shove me away from him. One of his arms remained locked around my waist, holding me in place, but the other wrapped protectively around my shoulders, drawing me in as if to shield me with his body.
I could feel the car turning and veering from one side to the other, the squeal of the tires occasionally punctuated by Octavian’s curses, but Alastor’s arms held me close, his cedar-and-citrus scent wrapping around me like a promise.
