ROWAN
What in the ever-lovingbuttered bunionsis happening to me? One second, I’m breathing fine, the next I’m ready to vault this table and tear Iris’s throat out. I’ve never been quick to anger—sarcasm, sure, frustration, plenty—but this? This molten heat bubbling inside me feels foreign. Possibly even dangerous.
Sure, Cade got me all worked up in the garden, but I was fine when I walked away. Well, mostly. I knew what I wanted and that was to find Liz. To figure more out about this prophecy and then make a plan for what comes next.
But now? Now my blood feels like fire ants marching under my skin. Every inhale scrapes against the back of my throat. I want answers. I want control. Hell, I want to rip everyone’s faces off, starting with Iris and her smug little riddles.
My chest burns, too hot, too restless. I close my eyes, desperate to hold it together, but thesecond I do—I feel her. A presence beneath my skin, pacing, prowling, pressing closer.
Wolf.
I don’t know how I know it’s her, but I do. She’s right there beneath the surface, and it almost feels as though she’s…apologizing?
Apologizing? For what?
She didn’t drag me here. She didn’t shove me into this mess of a family.
The muscles in my arms twitch with restless energy, a pulse begging for release.
“What is that?” Liz’s voice cuts through the silence I’m clinging to like a lifeline.
“She needs to shift,” Archie replies, his whiskers twitching. “Her energy’s too much to contain on her own right now. If she doesn’t bond with her wolf, she’s going to break.”
A jagged laugh rips from me, rough and humorless. “I think we’re already past that party trick.” My eyes snap open and lock on Iris. “But you’re not getting rid of me that easy. Answers first.”
“You might even be worse than your mother.” She stands in a flourish, her muumuu floating around as her hands go up in the air. “You’re of alpha blood, Rowan. You’re not just a hybrid. You’rethehybrid. The prophecy has made people fear you because they should. Once you shift, once you get a taste for that power, you’re going to want more.” She shakes her head. “No, you’re going toneedmore.”
Cade’s chest rumbles from behind me, low and thunderous. “Not all alphas are power hungry bastards.Even if she’s inherited the gene from her father, that doesn’t mean she’ll rule with an iron fist.”
“You’re right,” Iris says, her face growing somber. “But she’s notjustan alpha, is she? She’s like popsicles and sand.”
We’re not going to get anywhere with Iris leading the conversation. At least not to where I want. I turn toward Liz. “Where’s the book you were talking about?”
She pulls it from beneath the table as if she’s been holding it tight this whole time and flips the pages with deliberate fingers until she stops midway through. Her shoulders square, her voice shifting into something that carries weight. It’s like her words settle into the room, a spell meant just for me, entrancing me until I’m focused on nothing else.
When sun meets shadow, and blood runs deep,
One shall rise from woven sleep.
Born of Hollowborn and beast of night,
She bears the mark of eternal might.
Neither moon nor magic shall end her breath,
No fang, no flame, no spell, nor death.
A bridge between the world and war,
Her fate will open every door.
With light, the world may mend,
By darkness, all kingdoms bend.
Should her heart be torn in two,
The sky shall split, and time unglue.
