He was alive, but barely. I turned to Gwinifer. She knelt a few metres away, her gaze fixed on her brother, something likedespair clouding her eyes. I glanced at Finn. His eyes were hollow, blood trickling from his nose.
“Finn,” I said. “We need to bring him back. You need to...You need to fling him to the healer.”
But Finn just stared, and it was as if all hope had left him.
“He’s not going to die,” Finn murmured. “He is fated to live. Cursed.”
I stroked Reagan’s cheek. He’d closed his eyes. I hadn’t seen him close them.
“Caedmon, wake up.”
His body sagged. And then I heard the crack—
A sound that froze my heart in my chest. His legs trembled, a violent shudder racking through his form. Shifting.
He wasn’t conscious, yet he was shifting.
His boots vanished, replaced by thick, fur-covered paws.
No.No.
Varian spoke, his voice softer now. “There is nothing they can do. He is cursed.”
Fur spread across his body, overtaking his flesh inch by inch. I watched it happen, powerless, lumps catching in my throat.
“Please stay. I want you here.”
I looked at him, at every familiar feature, wishing I could memorise every piece of him before he was lost forever. His lower lip, fuller than the top. The way his hair hugged the nape of his neck. The rough strength of him, the wit in his eyes before the curse had claimed him. I longed to see his eyes one last time, to tell him that I wouldn’t leave him, even if I couldn’t save him.
But the beast took over every part of my mage’s body.
CHAPTER 31
He was massive, his four paws stretched wide.
I draped myself over the beast on the floor, not pulling away. Couldn’t. My head rested on the side of his stomach, rising and falling with the rhythm of his breaths. Each inhale, each exhale—it was him. It was still him.
My fingers slipped through the coarse fur, searching, soothing, reminding myself over and over that this was Caedmon. That beneath the lupine frame, the elongated snout, the closed eyelids, lay the man who had stirred my whole life.
The others moved around, their voices edged and urgent, but I wasn’t listening.
Alive. He is alive. And when those eyes opened again, when I saw that piercing blue staring back at me, I’d know for certain.
Just wait.
I wouldn’t leave him. Not now, not after. Even if he couldn’t speak, even if it wouldn’t ever be the same.
The voices of the others finally sliced through my haze, pulling me back to the dim, tension-filled room.
“...for this,” Gwinifer snarled. “When I tell her what you did, you’ll never take his place.”
“Malory will see reason,” Varian replied. “She knows Mountheim needs me, and I am the best choice to resolve this.”
“Anything would be better than you,” Finnegan growled, disgust dripping from every word. “You’re nothing but a power-hungry parasite.Howthe fuck did you know what the end of the curse was?”
I lifted my head from Caedmon’s chest. My voice cut through their bickering, steadier than I expected. “I want to speak to her.”
Varian laughed. “You humans are so pathetically useless. Do you think she will grant your wishes for you?”
