Heat and pressure pushed into my back, but I ignored it as the ground come up to meet me. Rolling into the fall, I crashed down on my right shoulder, which flared with pain as I heard a popping noise. But I knew I had not a moment to lose, and burst to my feet, running for the woods.
I didn’t look behind me, I didn’t even know where I was going, I just ran. My shoulder throbbed, my arm hanging limply at my side. I thought it was out of socket but not broken. My head still pounded and the skin around my cuffs was bleeding, but I was alive.
‘Tell me you got out! I see smoke, Demi. Tell me you are fucking safe or I’ll go crazy!’Sawyer roared in my mind and my headache intensified.
‘Got… out,’I sent back as the cuffs’ magic ignited, sending a burst of fresh electricity through my body. It was too much, I’d taken on too much. My skin felt raw and I sobbed, stumbling as I fell to my knees in the forest.
‘Run, Demi. Run until you reach a new territory. If you head west, I can meet you. If that’s not possible, head east to the trolls. Don’t go south or you will hit the Wild Lands and the Ithaki.’
I managed to stand, trying to figure out where the fuck west was when I heard feet pounding on the forest floor far behind me.
I took off running like my ass was on fire, through the thick trees even though everything hurt, even though I wanted to fall down and give up. My injured arm flopped wildly around as I tried to pin it to my chest with my good hand. Tears streamed down my face because I had no idea where I was going. I was still mad at Sawyer for not believing me and choosing Meredith even though he wore a spelled necklace, and yet I wanted to run right into his arms.
My feet pounded the damp earth as I skipped over fallen logs and bushy ferns.
Run.
Run.
My inner wolf cheered me on. I ran blindly until I couldn’t hear the footsteps behind me anymore and my legs burned. I started to stumble, unable to keep up any longer. How long had passed? An hour? It felt like ten. My chest heaved, lungs burning as exhaustion settled into me. Slowing, I felt relief wash over me when I saw the little red flags that demarcated a property line. Just beyond the flags was a small two-foot-tall bush hedge.
Please be the wolves. Please be wolf land! A sob ripped from my throat as I tasted my freedom.
Don’t be the Wild Lands.
Don’t be the trolls.
Please be the wolves.
I was crawling now, sobbing and crawling with one usable arm as the fight left me.
Inch by inch, I neared the border and finally crawled over the red flag line, falling onto my back, looking up at the sky and wondering if I would die.
If I was going to die, then this wasn’t a bad way to go. The sun was up, birds were chirping, and the trees rustled in the wind.
‘God, please don’t let me die.’
I went to church once with a human friend and it was actually a nice experience. The singing, the handshakes and hugs, everyone was so nice to me; I wasn’t used to being accepted like that. I’d meant to send that prayer up to God as an internal thought, but I must have sent it to Sawyer because the cuffs jolted what was left of me. I had no more tears to cry, so dry sobs racked my body as Sawyer’s energy bristled against me.
‘No. No. No. Don’t say that,’came his reply as his severed and broken soul bled into our fractured bond.‘I should have believed you. Even under a spell I should have known. Jesus, Demi, how will you ever forgive me? The necklace. You have to believe me, I… wasn’t me.’
I sensed that he was distracted, and our bond wasn’t the same after I’d torn myself away from it. He felt so far away. I was too weak to respond, but his grief was nearly choking me alive. I felt it even though it was distant and diluted the internal shame and regret he was feeling bled into me.
‘Demi, you’re my true mate. I’m so gutted that I hurt you like that in front of everyone.’His voice cracked.‘Please tell me there’s a chance you’ll forgive me?’
Tears streamed down my face as I thought of the time we first made love, how tender he was, how he asked permission. How I didn’t feel complete without him in my life, and I never would. This was Meredith’s fault, and I knew from Raven that love spells were dangerous and all-consuming, sometimes driving the person who took them to go mad or commit suicide. I was just glad it was broken. I wanted to be in his arms again.
I risked one more shock to tell him something in case I really did die.
‘Forgiven,’I huffed, and then yelped at the shocks that racked my body.
Relief rushed through our bond on his side.‘Just hang on. I’ll find you. Wherever you are, I’ll find you, Demi. Don’t give up.’
Blackness faded at the edges of my vision, and then a blur of brown hair flashed in front of my face.
“Sawyer?” I whimpered, looking up at the sky. Had he found me already?
A perplexed yet strikingly beautiful female troll looked down at me and grimaced.
