47. Tye
Shaking off Jaiel”s hand, I walked in, trying not to bristle at the contact.
I”d not minded with Alpha Blackwood or Finn, but it felt jarring to be touched by the prince — that damn imaginary wolf growling at him as though he was a threat.
”What”s going on?” I asked, glancing around.
The room was surprisingly nice. More of those pipes tracked along the ceiling toward a small white sink, a toilet, and a bathtub. Alpha Blackwood wasn”t kidding when he said he”d set it up for the whole compound.
The lack of windows made me feel claustrophobic, though, and I couldn”t help the twinge of gratitude that they”d put me in quarters above ground instead.
”What”s going on?!” Jaiel bit out, eyes wide. ”What in all the hells is going on with you? Last year, you were a mage-hunting golden boy for the Empire — THE Collector, for saints sake. And now you”re a gods forsaken body mage, and are mate bonded to Kaiya!” Shaking his head, he sank onto the bed.
”Though she is a stubborn-headed fool who doesn”t know nearly as much as she thinks she does.” He glared past me, clearly irritated.
Obviously things were not so great in the Kaiya-Jaiel world, either.
Shaking my head, I searched for a place to sit. The only open spot was beside him on the bed. Ignoring the wolf”s protest, I carefully positioned myself there.
Jaiel had always been a half-way decent person. Not a friend — but a reliable co-worker. And I”d never seen him this worked up before.
I opened my mouth to ask, but he”d already started talking again.
”I don”t even know what happened!” He ran his hand through his hair. ”One minute she was stubbornly clinging to our mission despite knowing it”s unnecessary now, the next I was telling her I thought she was worth more than she gave herself credit for. And then she was pushing me away and …” he dropped his head into his hands. ”Saints.”
The wolf snarled ”MINE” and my skin crawled as the territorial beast pushed for control. He had no patience for hearing his mate discussed by another male …
I looked at the bulge of the wineskin from Finn in my pocket and pulled it out. Now was as good a time as any if I wanted to avoid strangling the prince … or worse.
The thick liquid burned my throat, then my chest, and I coughed, fighting it to stay down as I waited for it to take effect.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the wolf”s growling grew quieter, as if it was moving further and further away from me.
Jaiel”s confused stare drew my attention, and I closed my eyes. I”d explain once the unsettling creature was gone.
A few more seconds passed, and I let out a relieved breath and opened my eyes.
The wolf howled from the back of my mind, but it sounded far away, and if I tried — I was actually able to ignore it.
Mage forsaken. My mind felt so calm. So empty. So lonely.
No.I forced a smile.
It was good to be alone. I preferred it that way.
”You okay, Tye?” Jaiel asked, eyebrows raised. ”That smile is a little terrifying. What”s — uh, what”s in the wineskin?”
I dropped the smile immediately.
”It”s just a potion to calm my nerves and keep me from shifting.”
He eyed the wineskin warily. ”I see. And it doesn”t hurt you — or Kaiya?””
I shook my head. ”Not according to these people.”
”Okay.” He continued to stare at the drink for a few minutes.
”What were you saying about the witch?” I prompted. We”d talked about me enough.
Jaiel”s lips formed a wry grin. ”Sorry. I was trying to figure out what they put in that thing. I”ve never heard of anything that would dull your korra.”
”Anyways,” he continued. ”I think I was just saying that she”s a pain in the ass and I should be glad to be rid of her.”
Now that was something we could agree on.
I held up the flask in a mock salute. ”She”s a troublemaker, and not at all worth your time, Prince Kierstall. Good riddance.”
A wolfish snarl resonated in my skull and I winced. Was it me, or did the creature already sound louder again?.
Jaiel studied me, blue eyes too perceptive.
”Then again,” he said. ”Maybe she just felt jealous. I should —”
”No,” I snarled, the wolf howling in agreement. ”Your first instinct was right — it always is. The mission is over. You should take the chance and be rid of her.”
I steadfastly ignored the way the wolf seemed to almost hum in agreement.
I said that for Jaiel — not because I wanted the witch for myself.
His brow cocked. ”Says the man who chased her across a fucking ocean …”
”My situation is different,” I snapped, hands curling into fists. ”She did something to me, and I need her to take it back, or have someone else cut the bond or … fuck. I don”t know anymore. I just don”t want to be —” I gestured to myself, disheveled hair, torn clothes and all. ”This forever. I”m not a gods forsaken mage, Jaiel! I hunt mages! And if getting back to that means crossing a damn ocean to get answers, I”d do it a thousand times.”
The wolf inside me howled at the memory of hunting other mages.
I winced.
It was definitely getting louder. I thought that potion was supposed to last a while …
”Tye.” Jaiel looked over at me, blue eyes concerned. ”Are you sure it would be so bad to stay the way you are? I mean — you saw the body mages. Did those people seem out of control to you? Did they seem like they needed to be collared?”
I ground my teeth and stared at the stone wall.
He wasn”t wrong … Alpha Blackwood and the others were different from mages in the Empire.
But so what? They”d probably change any day now.
”Have you considered that maybe your issue isn”t the need to get rid of the wolf?” he continued, voice soft.
I growled, narrowing my eyes as the wolf howled again.
Jaiel just pressed on.
”We both know there”s nothing that can change a korra,” he said, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling. ”So, maybe you need to accept that it”s always been a part of you instead.”
The human me — the Hunter, recoiled at that.
I didn”t need to accept this shit. The wolf wasn”t a part of me. He was just an intruder that threatened to ruin my life.
The solution was to get rid of him!
”Your eyes have always been so cold,” he said. ”Almost empty.”
My brows drew together, and I glared at him, growl rumbling in my chest.
My eyes were no such thing …
He held his hand up to stop me saying anything.
”BUT —” His mouth widened into a smirk. ”Back in those Giant ruins? That wolf version of you was a badass. And honestly, it was the most alive I”ve ever seen you. I mean, fuck — your eyes were glowing, Tye.”
The wolf huffed his agreement, growing stronger by the second.
But he was wrong. He had to be. My whole life couldn”t be a lie!
”I”ve been tested.” I ground out. ”Dozens of times.”
And I”d tried shifting in the forest on my own. It hadn”t worked.
Jaiel messed with the rings in his pointed ear and looked away. ”But wouldn”t it be possible that a certain lady, or someone similar, has been hiding your abilities from you and the rest of the world … just as they have with Kaiya?”
Rage exploded within my chest and I surged to my feet.
”I knew it! I fucking knew it.” I strode to the door, glaring at it as though it were Frexin and the kings. ”They knew Kaiya was a mage all along, and yet they let me ruin my entire career — let me think I was going mad?! And for what? So they could keep their fucking secret?!” I turned back to face him, skin burning and nails aching. ”I”d have preferred they collar me and tell me the fucking truth!”
””Yeah, but what would the Empire be if not full of liars, thieves, and hypocrites?”
My stomach clenched, and I rubbed my hands over my face, focusing on the feel of the stubble against my fingertips.
Despite all my misgivings, I had to admit that it was plausible.
While the kiss had been the catalyst, I couldn”t deny how familiar the wolf had felt when I shifted — like it had always been there with me, locked just beneath the surface.
But if that were true …
I slumped back onto the bed beside Jaiel.
… if I truly was a Forsaken — one of those vile creatures responsible for the deaths of thousand — the destroyers of all that was good and happy in the world. Then how the fuck was I supposed to continue on?
Dropping my head into my hands, I imagined myself on the other end of a hunt — locked up in the detainment camps, tattoo emblazoned on my cheek, a collar on my neck — just waiting for the day it failed and I turned into a deadly wraith.
The thought of people hurt by my hands made my blood boil.
”I won”t become a wraith, Jaiel,” I said. ”I”ll turn both myself and Kaiya in before that.”
A warm hand gripped my shoulder. ”There are ways to avoid it.”
An image of Finn and all the other happy, healthy body mages flitted through my mind.
They were different somehow.
I looked down at the potion the old woman had made me. These people had found a way to stay untainted by the void.
But how? What separated them from the wraiths back home — the ones that murdered everyone they knew and loved?
”We”ll get answers,” Jaiel said, voice soft. ”Alpha Blackwood said he”d talk with us tonight after the party and make a plan. I”m sure there”s some way to keep you from corrupting and get rid of the mate bond.”
The wolf inside me howled at the thought and I tried to suppress it. But it was already nearly back to its full strength.
I looked down at that flask. Perhaps I should take another —
A faint, feminine scream pierced the silence, and my heart stopped.
The wolf inside me lunged, snapping the last bit of numbness from the potion as he pressed hard against — no, into my mind.
As he took over, the world around me shrank to a pinprick, then appeared again but as if it were behind a hazy curtain.
I stared, helpless, as we exploded from Jaiel”s room, following that aching pull in our chest to another room — a room where we could feel her in pain.
Kaiya lay atop a large bed in the middle of the room, her blond hair damp from a recent bath. She was curled up in a tight ball and whimpered in her sleep.
Letting out a short scream, she pulled her knees in closer, mumbling something.
The wolf growled, a rumble deep within our chest, and we moved closer.
”It”s just a nightmare,” Jaiel said from behind us, stepping to our side. The wolf looked over to see his hand frozen in the air, as if he were debating comforting her.
Heat blossomed up our skin, and I slammed myself against the barrier in my mind, wrestling back enough control to keep the wolf from snapping at him.
With that little bit of control, I narrowed our focus to the witch, and the face that had haunted my days and nights for months.
She might not be mine, but something inside me twisted to see her in so much pain. I lifted a hand to wake her —
”Don”t,” Jaiel said, grabbing my hand. ”It doesn”t work. She won”t rouse from one of these. All we can do is wait.”
”You do this often?” I growled.
The wolf snarled and snapped at the Fae, bristling at the thought of this playboy in bed with the witch, using her like a thousand women before her to replenish his own power.
Then again, he”d said she mattered to him —
Without taking his eyes off her, he shook his head and lifted his hand to her cheek. ”Just once, on the boat ride here. But — ”
Looking pained, he dropped his hand and stepped away from the bed.
”It doesn”t matter.”
Excellent. The wolf howled and seized control once more, pushing us to our mate”s side.
If the prince wouldn”t comfort her, wewould.