Lyric squeezed her eyes closed tighter and exhaled a long, steadying breath. The loudest thing inside of her was the pulsing of her Maker Bond to Destiny.
“Move it out of the way,” Destiny whispered.
And Lyric could imagine it. She could see her translucent hand push the thick cord of glowing purple power to the side. She could see Destiny sitting in a rocking chair on a porch on a spring day. The wind was lifting the hem of a white sundress, and she wore a worried look in her eyes. Silently, the Destiny in Lyric’s mind pointed to the woods. The purple bond was in the way again, and Lyric couldn’t see the trees.
“Hurry,” Destiny murmured.
She’d never done this before. She didn’t understand what was happening. Didn’t understand what she was seeing.Focus. Lyric pushed the bond out of the way again, but this time it was heavier and the searing heat of it burned her hands. She grunted in her mind with the effort, and she was growing sluggish. Tired.
“We can do this,” Destiny whispered, and Lyric could see her hands on the purple bond with her, pushing. The smell of burning flesh touched her sensitive nose. The hem of Destiny’s sundress was muddy now, and her bare feet were sinking in the soggy ground.
A familiar scent hit her senses. Blood and something more. Vic. The way his skin smelled. The way his fur smelled.
Lyric gritted her teeth and helped Destiny move the purple bond. It hurt her hands. Underneath, snaking through the mud, was a thin thread of glowing gold. It ebbed and flowed like magma through the forest topography.
Tears stung Lyric’s eyes. She knew what that was. She’d never seen it, but she knew.
It was a Mating Bond. It was her Mating Bond to Vic.
“What do you see?” Destiny asked.
There was a strange sensation of motion as she walked through the tree line. Destiny had stopped behind her. Lyric turned to look at her, but her dress was caked in mud now, and her hands looked charred, like they’d been burned. She lookedexhausted, and gaunt. “I can’t go with you now,” Destiny said softly. “Help him. Find him.”
Lyric turned for the woods and looked down at the trail of gold winding through the trees. She forced herself into a walk, and the gold thread grew thicker. It curved sharply to the right, and the trees disappeared suddenly. A road appeared with no shoulder on the side. The edge of the road dropped off a cliff. There was a sign, but it was old and faded, and part of it was unreadable.Waters Cre—
Waters Creek Road?
None of the woods or the steep road looked familiar. Lyric heard a sound and watched the thread of gold thicken and curve sharply to the left, to a deer trail that led up the steep hill.
A gray SUV was parked in the trees, and Cian’s black challenger, and there was a drag mark in the dead leaves that lead deeper into the forest. The scent of Vic was thicker here.
“Waters Creek,” she murmured. “Destiny?”
“I’m with you.” Her voice sounded so far away and barely audible now.
Lyric pushed her legs up the trail, but she was so sluggish now. So tired. Up and up she climbed. There was blood on the leaves. She could hear talking now but couldn’t make out the words. Everything was translucent and it was hard to make out what was happening. Trees upon trees upon trees were layered strangely in front of her. One appeared in front of her, and she halted and reached out to touch it. Her hand went through the rough bark with nothing more than a tingling sensation against her burned fingertips.
Inhaling deeply, she pushed through the tree and urged her legs to a jog. The voices were getting louder now, and the gold bond had turned into a creek of glowing power. Her bare feet splashed through it, and drops of the bond splashed across theleaf riddled ground. She ran through another translucent tree and then locked her legs and halted.
The golden creek had widened to cover every inch of the clearing she’d just stumbled into. In the center of it was a wolf. He sat there staring back at her with bright gold eyes.
In her mind, she could hear Vic’s voice so clearly. “Hurry.”
Lyric couldn’t breathe.
Someone was shaking her. Destiny? Destiny had a grasp on her shirt and was shaking her hard enough to rattle her teeth. “Wake up!” she screamed. “Come back to us, Lyric!”
Lyric gasped for breath to fill her drowning lungs.
“Hold on,” Liam growled as the truck made a sharp turn and Lyric and Destiny slammed against the window.
“You’re sure she said Waters Creek and not Waters way?” Liam asked low.
“It’s Waters Creek. I know it,” Destiny told him.
“He’s alive,” Lyric forced past her thickening vocal chords as tears streamed down the sides of her face. She was crumpled in a ball in the passenger’s seat, and Destiny’s weight was pressed onto her.
Destiny’s eyes were filled with emotion. “You did so good. We’re almost there.”
