“Hope that thing isn’t a cannibal,” I said mostly to myself, but I heard a laugh come from under the boards. Relief flooded through my ethereal veins. Vallis was still alive. I pried harder, tearing up my nails and cuticles in the process. I never realized so much could hurt and sting like a bitch when you weren’t even in your body.
The bear snarled and I glanced over my shoulder as it ripped at Pami. Its spectral form couldn’t take skin but it ripped something. It was as if her left side had some unseen hole where magic or something akin to it poured out. She pressed both of her hands to her side and fled backwards until she was out of sight.
“Don’t eat me!” I said to the ghost bear while I pried hard at the boards. I couldn’t give up. I couldn’t even think of how helpless I felt because then Vallis would know.
“Son of Colton,” the bear said and my hands fell still.
“Yeah? That’s me,” I nodded.
“You do not know me, but I know of you. We are not blood but for a while Colton was part of our family, but I wronged so many of yours and…” the bear’s words trailed off.
“Finn?” I asked, he was the only bear shifter I knew who’d wronged my family directly. He was trying to shoot my grandpa and hit my dad instead. Which was why my sire had a wolf to begin with.
“It is I,” he lowered his massive head for a second.
“I… I don’t know how to get him out,” I said, pointing at the boards under my knees.
“You will need help. I believe he will have more air now that the soil cannot penetrate into his prison I will guard him. I will keep her away for as long as possible. It is as much as I can do. You deserve more help. Ask for it from the people who can give it to you, Son of Colton.”
“I… I thought you moved on,” I said, remembering years ago when Grandpa had to go stop him from raising hell.
“Moving on is near impossible when… Never mind. It is not for the young to be burdened by the old. I have to make this right. This and before. It has to be made right. I will guard him. You rest. You have to rest. Eat too. Go!”
I opened my mouth to say that I couldn’t leave Vallis like this. Even if Finn had good intentions now, leaving felt like leaving my mate all alone and he’d spent enough time like that over the last few years. Only, I didn’t have a choice. Energy wasan infinite resource, but our bodies could only process and burn up so much of it because it had to go down to rest.
“I LOVE YOU, VALLIS!” I shouted as my body pulled me back into it.
***
When I woke, I wasn’t sure what time it was. It was dark outside and it seemed like either seconds or a million years had passed and it was up to me to figure out which one it was. I didn’t try to sit up right away. There was something cozy about sleeping in an unbroken salt circle curled up under my favorite knit blanket.
“Mate?” Vallis’s voice reached my ears and my heart jumped into my throat before plunging into my stomach finally jerking back up to its rightful place. I turned over to find my mate sitting outside of the circle, tapping his thumbs against his feet. The salt circle kept him out. I wiped away a section of it with a clumsy flop of my hand. My limbs felt heavy but not as heavy as my skull. It was as if someone replaced my skull with draconic metal.
“You worried me,” Vallis said softly.
“I’m sorry… Sorry that I couldn’t get the boards apart,” I yawned, feeling the same shame and disappointment radiating through my cells again. I’d gotten to him but couldn’t help him. Whoever my ancestors were, they were hanging their heads in shame about about right now.
“No, they’re not,” Vallis sighed and flashed me a sad smile. “They raised someone who tries. Besides, I can breathe now. That’s the important thing. Wars are won one battle at a time and we won this one, thanks to your friend.”
“That’s….” I sighed, unsure of how to explain Finn.
“He told me who he was,” Vallis said. “We had a few days to talk while you were out.”
“Days?” I said, trying to sit up, but my stomach rumbled and I gave up and laid back down.
“Yeah,” Vallis nodded. “It was a while. I can’t believe no one came to see you during that time.”
“They might’ve and thought that I wasn’t home. I gotta get up. I gotta pretend to do Yule. Preston’ll have his baby soon,” I said, pushing myself to sit up this time.
Vallis lifted me up and carried me out to the sofa before disappearing back into the kitchen. A few minutes later, he came back out with a chicken sandwich. I devoured it. I needed to head into the woods to hunt but right about now I felt like a deer could kick my ass all over the territory and take me home and feed me to its fawn.
Vallis laughed at the mental imagery playing through my thoughts. I loved the sound of his laughter. I glanced at the clock and decided to get a shower and swing by Grandpa’s for dinner. He always had an open door and tonight I needed it.
“I still haven’t gotten you a Yule present,” I sighed, sliding off the sofa.
“Yeah, you did: AIR!” Vallis chuckled. “It’s I who haven’t bought you anything.”
I hugged him tight and kissed him. Okay, to be honest, I ended up being late for dinner because we did more than wash each other’s back in the shower.
