My fist connects with the side of her head. I feel the impact travel up my arm, feel exactly how much force I use, how much I hold back.
Enough to drop her. Not enough to shatter.
She’s out cold before she hits the ground, falling back to lie unmoving.
Enough to shock that fire back into her. To make herfeelsomething other than this unbearable acceptance.
My chest heaves. The rage doesn’t dissipate—it coils tighter, laced now with something that tastes like fear. She didn’t fight back. She didn’t even flinch.
I don’t check on her. I can’t. If I look down and see that resignation still etched on her face, I don’t know what I’ll do.
Domanikk shouts my name, but I ignore him as I stride back to Ceira, grab her hand, and leave.
I don’t take us to my tent. I drag her out to the track that leads from Heartwood to the Barrens. As we leave the clearing I Shift instantly, with Ceira not far behind.
We gallop side by side, her strides matching my own, eager for what she knows will come.
The Barrens open up before us—a wide plain of nothing but rocks and dead trees. The ground is dry and cracked under my hooves, their sound echoing with each fall. All my power surges into my hindquarters, and I push off with a burst of speed.
We run, wild and free with unrestrained abandon. My legs beat to my thudding heart. Ceira’s long black mane ripples as she arches her neck and shakes her head, her shrill whinny piercing the darkness around us.
We gallop for hours, until my sides heave and run with sweat, until my legs start to shake and my nostrils bleed with exertion.
Ceira, with her green Enchantra glowing, is in better shape than me. She could’ve kept going longer, but she stops when I do.
I take a deep breath and Shift, immediately undoing the buttons on my trousers as Ceira does the same.
She knows me like no other—Domanikk is the only other I let this close, but that relationship is different. Complicated.
We collapse together and fuck in the dirt. Skin on skin, sweat and dust, her nails raking down my back as I drive into her again and again.
The sky lightens on the horizon.
The obsession finally goes quiet. Sleeps again.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Alaya
I pry my eyes open, my head fuzzy and out of focus.
The soft embrace of blankets cocoons me, warm and safe. I snuggle deeper, reluctant to leave this nest. No sounds disturb the quiet—just my low breaths as I try to work out where I am.
My peace shatters when my mind starts to clear, recollections flooding back in a wave so overwhelming I whimper.
Domanikk’s silence after our trip to the pond. That tether to Reth that felt so unnatural and wrong. His powerful fist slamming into my head. Nothing after that, just a void of black so dark it devoured everything.
I peek my head out of the blankets, expecting to find Domanikk sleeping beside me, but he’s not. He’s sitting on the chair pulled up to the side of the bed, staring down at me.
“Thank fuck,” he breathes, running his hand through his hair. The usually long, silky strands are now a tangled mess. Dark shadows sit under his yellow eyes, their usual radiance dull and bloodshot.
“What happened?” My voice comes out croaky, my throat dry and parched, burning.
Domanikk gets up and pours a glass of water from a pitcher on the table. He brings it back and helps me drink. I gulp it down greedily, cooling the fire to a low throb.
“You’ve been unconscious since last night. It’s afternoon now.” He scrubs a hand over his face. “I didn’t think you were going to wake up. Not many get up after a punch like that from Reth.”
“I don’t understand why. He didn’t even demand information.” The words he whispered keep echoing in my mind, cryptic and unsettling, but I can’t bring myself to repeat them out loud.
