“That’s why we need to find that vault. Get the vial of blood. Force their hands,” Kenneth said. “It’s the one thing that will give us leverage. Make the royals back off.”
“Right,” Nico agreed. “Once we get that, we might have a shot.”
They both sounded so confident, but I had doubts. It couldn’t be that simple. Finding one simple thing wouldn’t be enough to make them throw up their hands and say, “You got us. All done. Enjoy your life.” If they’d held power for so many years, even having that secret weapon wouldn’t be enough to stop them.
I opened my mouth to mention my worries, but I froze. The words were already forming on my lips, but I couldn’t speak. My entire body was racked with sharp, shooting pains. I almostgagged because the pain was so bad. I wrapped my arms around my stomach and bent over, letting out a hiss of pain.
“Maddy?” Nico said, his voice laced with concern.
His hand was on my back, but I barely registered the touch. All I felt was pain. Finally, I managed to suck in a breath. Instead of telling them I was all right, a scream erupted from my throat. A scream of agony and torment. It was like my skin was trying to split apart, like I’d swallowed glass, like every cell in my body was trying to explode. I sank to my knees as a cold sweat broke out all over my body, dripping off my nose onto the floor.
“What’s happening?” Nico shouted.
“Christ, I don’t know!” Kenneth yelled.
I gritted my teeth and felt my wolf rising up inside me. She was right there. I could almost feel her breath on my neck. She was so close. As close as she was, it still felt like she was a thousand miles away. She was in pain—I could feel it. Her pain and mine were melding, making it even more agonizing. Something was pulling at us both. A magnetic tug that was trying to rip us in two.
“God,” Kenneth whispered. “Look. That’s got to be it. I didn’t even think about it.”
I managed to lift my eyes to see what he was talking about. Anything to figure out how to stop this pain.
Kenneth was gesturing toward a window. It looked out on the waterfall in the distance. It was the only opening in the entire forest canopy. The sky was already dark.
Sitting there in the sky, casting its glow down on us, was a milky white full moon.
32
NICO
Iheld her for hours. The pain she felt must have been intense. She alternated shivering and burning up. Screaming, then hissing breaths through gritted teeth. I carried her to the bathroom so she could vomit. I was starting to worry that we’d need to go to a hospital. I’d never seen anything like this.
I traced a finger gently over her cheek. “Maddy?”
“Ugh…ugh.” It was all she could say. Ligaments stood tautly on her neck as she clenched her jaws in pain.
I had an inkling of what was happening. I wanted to see if she felt it, too. “Are you trying to shift?”
Maddy jerked her head in a spastic nod. I sighed. This was not how this was supposed to go. The first shift was always a little uncomfortable, but it tended to happen so fast that whatever pain or discomfort there was vanished in a second or two.
But this had been going on forever. Her wolf wouldn’t come through for some reason.
“Maddy?” I asked again. “Is your wolf having trouble coming out? Is that the problem?
She looked at me, her eyes filled with desperation, sweat dribbling across her forehead and down her cheeks. “Stuck. I…feel…stuck.”
Finally, out of sheer exhaustion, Maddy fell into a fitful sleep. I settled her on the bed and put a cold, wet cloth on her head. Kenneth came in to check on her. He looked as worried as I felt.
“How is she?” he asked.
“Asleep. Sort of,” I said. She was unconscious, but she continued to twitch and convulse as wave after wave went through her body.
“I heard what you asked her,” Kenneth said. “Is this really what a first shift looks like?”
I shook my head. “No. This is awful. The moon is having an effect on her. It’s her first full moon since she got all that medicine completely out of her system. I wish I could make it better.”
Maddy let out a low groan, and I watched in horror as her body began to ripple. Patches went from skin to fur and back again. It happened all across her body in waves.
I knelt on the bed and took her in my arms again. She shivered as her body continued to try to shift. Her claws emerged, then receded, her teeth morphed into fangs. Instead of the magical change that usually happened, the wolf teeth seemed to tear through the gums before sliding, leaving blood around her lips.
