“Don’t let the yarn fool you,” she says when she catches me looking. She holds up one needle, sharp as a dagger. “Emergency scarf or emergency stabbing—I’m ready for both.” She pats her pack. “I even have bandages, jerky, and glitter bombs.”
Rowan lets out a snort, the sound too short-lived but welcome all the same.
“Thought you’d change your mind,” Liz calls as we approach.
“Not a chance,” Rowan shoots back playfully, but it’s missing her normal lightness.
Still, she steps into the center of the field, planting her feet like she belongs there. Resolute. Fierce. And gods help me, so damn stubborn.
I hang back, letting her set the tone. Pushing her, one way or another, now would likely only make her dig in deeper. Knowing that, I signal to Liz to start slow. Warm-ups first, sparring second.
Rowan squares up with her friend, moving through defensive drills. Her form is sharper than it was a week ago. But her focus wavers. I can see it in the way her eyes flick, distracted, like she’s listening for something no one else can hear.
Liz feints left, and I expect Rowan to miss it, but she counters hard, putting the vampire flat on her back.
“Ouch. That was fire, girl,” Liz says, amusement lacing her voice as she bounces back up. “I like it.”
Rowan’s smirk eases some of my worry.
They continue, harder now, and I almost call for them to ease up. But before I can, Liz throws Rowan to the ground, rough enough that I swear even I feel the rattle of bones from twenty feet away.
The growl that rips from Rowan takes everyone by surprise as she reaches for the vampire, but it’s nothing compared to Liz’s hiss.
“What the hell was that, Ro?” the vampire demands, cradling her wrist and rolling away to stand.
A crackle of energy stirs the air, and everyone freezes.
Rowan scrambles up, pale and clammy, staring at her own hand like it’s betrayed her. “I—I didn’t?—”
Liz rubs her arm, eyes narrowed. “That wasn’t normal.”
“No kidding,” Iris mutters, dropping her knitting into the fanny pack and striding closer. She pats the pouch with a solemn nod. “Good thing I brought duct tape. Fixes everything.”
No one laughs.
I inch closer to Rowan, but keep some distance, not wanting her to feel cornered. “Do you know what happened?”
She shakes her head, panic flashing behind her eyes. “I don’t know. It just…slipped out.”
My wolf surges inside me, restless. Because I saw the same thing last night in her eyes. Whatever this power is, it’s tied to her emotions, and it’s growing.
“Enough for today,” I say firmly, stepping between Rowan and the others before they can press harder for answers my mate either isn’t ready to give or doesn’t know how to. “We shouldn’t have been out here at all. Everyone needs a day of rest.”
But even as I speak, the unease crawling across the yard tells me this isn’t just going to vanish because I demand it or Rowan wills it away. Not when the air still hums with her power.
Rowan breaks the silence first. “I’m sorry. Cade is right. I’ve pushed too hard. I need a break. I know we don’t have time for that, but?—”
I cut her off. “We have time forwhatever you need.”
She nods, her chin dipping for the first time since we left her room. “Sure.”
Liz lays a hand on Rowan’s shoulder, softer now. “It’s okay. We’ll pick it up again tomorrow. Maybe just a little slower.”
We start to disperse, but I don’t miss how Iris keeps shooting Rowan sidelong glances, suspicion lurking behind the jokes, or how Archie circles her like a guard who won’t stand down.
Rowan barely holds herself together, and just when I think I might be able to whisk her away, every hope of figuring out what the hell just happened fades away.
Elias’s wolf comes speeding out of the forest, and he shifts back into his human mid-stride, eyes wild with urgency. “The Archers are coming,” he heaves as his gaze sweeps over each of us, landing on me last. “And not just a few, Cade. Dozens of them, including pack wolves, a few vampires, and at least two council members. Each shadowed in ways I’ve never seen before. They’re here to kill first and ask questions later.”
