“I will fight one last time, but never again,” Odette said. “I’ve received a vision from my goddess, and I need to be there.”
“What’d you see?” Stefan asked.
Odette shook her head. “It’s not important. It just told me that this is where I have to be.”
Her mate wore a blank look. She hadn’t even told Theo what she’d foreseen. For some reason, that frightened me more than anything else I’d experienced today.
Low drums sounded throughout the camp, fae playing steady and ominous beats. There were shadows as people danced in front of the fire, giving offerings to their pagan gods. Shifters sang a haunting tune as sorceresses chanted beside them, the words sinister and full of the promise of death.
I knew the words as the song rang throughout the camp. It was the war song of the fae, and one of our oldest traditions, dating back to before we’d come to Earth. Every fae sang it before a great battle. My friends picked up the tune, singing along with the rest of the fae. I joined in with the others, melding my alto with Ethan’s bass as the firelight flickered over our haggard forms.
“I was born for battle
I was born for blood
War upon my breath
To have a good death
Soar across the sky
Swing my sword and shield
Join my god and goddess
in the hunting fields.”
When midnight came, people began heading off to bed, but I struggled with the idea of sleep. I didn’t want to waste my final moments in dreamland, even if it would help me fight better.
It wasn’t like it’d make a difference. My fate was already determined.
Ethan sensed my restlessness and stood. “Come for a walk with me?” he asked.
“Sure.” I got up from the fire. I took Ethan’s arm as we headed into the woods. We didn’t have anywhere to go, but I was unable to stay still nonetheless.
We didn’t wander far from the camp, but we headed far enough into the woods that no one would hear us talking. The pine trees boxed us in from the outside world as Ethan grasped my arm. “You want to hear a bit of history?”
“Why not?” There was always more to learn about my culture. I needed a story to distract me from the thoughts racing through my head.
“In the old days of Edinmyre, when we hadn’t yet left our spiritual home, shifters would go hunting for their mates. They’d search the woods until they found a sorceress to bond with, then carry them off to a cave far off from the village that they had spent weeks preparing. They wouldn’t let them go until the sorceress had accepted the mating.”
“Sounds barbaric,” I said dryly.
“No one was ever forced to do anything, of course. It was the way things were back then.” Ethan shrugged.
“You can’t convince me it was romantic.” I had no fantasies of being abducted by some guy and hauled off to his sex-cave.
“It was a complicated situation. The sorceress would sit in the cave and wait for her shifter to bring her offerings to impress her. A fresh kill, jewels, whatever she liked. If she slipped away, the shifter would go looking for her, and bring her back to imprison her in the cave until she either rejected him or consummated the bond.”
“Can’t imagine a better way to get a woman to agree to marry you.”
“I’d like to trap you in a cave for a few days and not let you out.”
I gave a wry smile. “It’d be nice.”
“Run, then, little wolf.” Ethan let go of my arm, and gave me a gentle shove forward. “I’ll try not to catch you too quickly.”
“Seriously?” I snorted.
