The Wolf's Surrender - By Kendra Leigh Castle Page 0,71
of the trees, some walking, some running, others seeming to float...and a few actually flying. There were glints of red, bright fiery sparks. Their eyes.
Mia drew in a single, shuddering breath.
All at once, they stopped and turned to look directly at her.
For what seemed like forever, nothing moved. They were simply...waiting. And that was when she felt it, the power gathering inside of her with a strength she’d never known. It coursed through her blood, singing its wild midnight song as her skin lit, then burned brighter. Pale tendrils of violet light drifted upward from her skin like smoke. And as the magic rose, so did her fury.
She would banish these things from her life, from this place, for good. She knew she could do it, if she could only reach a little more deeply into herself, if she got just a little closer.
Mia felt herself descending the stairs the rest of the way, though she was barely aware of it. She let herself be pulled toward the moonlight, the starry night—the sources of her magic. Then she could hear the whispers rising all around her, taunts of what the Shadowkin planned to do to the Blackpaw, of how pathetic she was to even try to stop it.
Her entire being thrummed with magic, so that she began to shake with it. Somewhere deep in her mind, warning bells began to go off. This was too much. She didn’t know if she could control this, she’d let them use her emotion to goad her too far.
And it was too late, because she had no idea how to make this stop without releasing what was building inside of her. But she had to get out of this house, or she was going to unleash hell in here, and she had no idea what would happen.
Mia barely managed to stagger to the door, flinging it wide and forcing her legs to move to where the Shadowkin twisted and moved, waiting. She could feel them surrounding her, pressing in.
So much power. Show us...
Dimly, she heard a shout behind her, then a snarl. Her heart sank, even as she let go. A violent flash of light shook the very ground as a wave of magic tore through the gathered Shadowkin. But instead of hurting them, she could feel their pleasure, like a sigh. They vanished, at once, riding the wave of dark energy away from her, out of the clearing.
Mia fell to her knees, utterly empty. Every ounce of strength she had was gone, drained from her...and given, albeit unwittingly, to the very things she’d been trying to banish. This was what they’d wanted, she realized dully. A wave of nausea shook her. Her hands hit the ground. Her vision began to waver, but not so much that she couldn’t see Jenner’s bare feet move slowly into view.
“Jenner,” she said softly. “Help me.”
But when she looked up, it was into a face that was filled with so much horror it might have been a stranger’s.
“Mia?” It was a question loaded with meaning, and Mia suddenly knew that if she gave the wrong answer, he was prepared to go from her lover to Lunari. What did he think he’d seen? What did he think she was?
This was what that display from the Shadowkin had really been about, Mia realized too late. They hadn’t just taken her strength tonight. They’d taken Jenner’s trust. And she was too weak to defend herself against the accusation she now saw in his eyes.
“I was trying to make them go away,” Mia said, her voice barely above a whisper. “I thought I could make them go away.”
Then she closed her eyes, finally feeling Jenner’s hands on her just before she lost consciousness. He was giving her the benefit of the doubt, she guessed...but there was no feeling of relief. She’d seen the betrayal stamped all over his handsome face.
He wouldn’t take her life.
But it seemed that Jeff and the shadows that swirled around him had taken everything else.
Chapter 17
Jenner sat slumped at the bar, completely disinterested in the plate of eggs over easy and hash browns that Rowdy had slid under his nose maybe ten minutes before. Now it was cold, and he was even less interested. All he could hear around him was the low and comfortable chatter of his fellow wolves after a hunt. Everyone knew the woods had suddenly come alive with Shadowkin last night, vanishing even before they needed to be chased off.