Chapter 4 Maze
MAZE
Leaving the media room, I headed to the stairs leading to the lobby from the second floor.
Nervous energy fluttered in my stomach. It’d been way too long since I'd seen Talon. The ridiculous urge to run down the stairs and into his arms rose, but I squashed it. I didn’t know whether Talon would be receptive to that kind of affection.
When the lobby came into view about halfway down the stairs, I met Talon’s gaze. Fire lit up his amber depths. A ripple over his features before his eyes shifted to those of his wolf. My body heated, and I slowed my step.
Talon stood in the center of the lobby with his brothers, Jenson and Larc, on either side of him like sentinels.
The fourth male with them, Shaw Grizz, was part of Talon’s inner circle.
He lounged on the sofa a few feet away with all the false ease of a bear ready to snap a bone if someone looked at him wrong.
I studied Talon closer as I descended from the final step and crossed the lobby.
His hair was shorter. The last I saw him, it fell past his shoulders.
Now it was short on the sides while the top was longer.
He wore black dress pants and a light blue button-down shirt that was perfectly tailored to him with the sleeves rolled to mid-forearm.
He held my stare, unflinching, like he’d been waiting for this exact moment since the day I walked away.
Candra went to move around me because apparently, I wasn’t moving fast enough. I cut her off with a glare, which only made her roll her eyes.
Stopping a few feet from Talon, I nodded to him, then his brothers and Shaw. I opened my mouth but closed it, not knowing what to say. “Hi” seemed lame. So did, “Welcome to VPA.”
How can I be of service? Nope, definitely not that one. Talk about a double meaning when standing face to face with my mate.
Talon’s jaw flexed once before stepped closer and took my hands. I fought a groan at the feel of his skin against mine. Our magics reacted to the touch instantly. As did his wolf. From the low growl rumbling in his chest, he felt it too.
“We heard about Jessica.”
“She’s dead.” The words came out clean, stripped of anything that might be mistaken for weakness. It was my coping mechanism. Just shove all those uncomfortable emotions behind a locked vault in my mind. Lately, the fuckers kept escaping that vault.
Anger, maybe grief, flashed in his gaze, but it was gone before I could pin it down. “We’re sorry.”
Candra scoffed. “Not like you killed her. Although there was a scent of a shifter in the area.”
Jenson sent a glare at Candra and growled, “Whoever did this wasn’t one of ours.”
Nicky gave a humorless laugh. “We know that. And we know who did it.”
For a beat, no one moved. Then Talon asked, “Who?” When I didn’t answer, he continued. “We are here to provide our help in finding and ending whoever killed Jessica. Plus, we have other information that we believe will help.”
I gave him a sharp nod. “Not here. Conference room.”
I turned and led the way down the hall, past the gloss of client-facing decor that hid the bones of what we really did here. The large conference on the first floor was for human clients. Today, it was neutral ground.
The shifters filed in and sat on one side of the conference table. Candra, Nicky, and I took seats opposite them. Winter settled at the head of the table with her tablet and connected it to the seventy-inch smart TV on the wall behind her. Moments later, the VPA logo appeared on the screen.
When everyone sat, Talon leaned forward. “Maze, we want to help.”
My name in his mouth scraped nerves raw. “You’ve got enough to handle with your own clan.”
Jess was my responsibility.
“We believe Balder is behind this. He’s making an army, using the same ritual the Prime did when she turned us into shifters,” Shaw said, low and steady.
My thought instantly went back to Jessica’s memories. The lab and experiments…
Jenson nodded. “We’ve had a few run-ins with the beasts. They’re not natural. We call them eitrborn after Quil did an autopsy of one of them and found eitr in the DNA.”
Eitr was a block poison that corrupted anyone it came into contact with. It also had the magical properties to create life.
Nicky snorted. “Cute name for nightmares.”
I caught each of my sister’s eyes before meeting Talon’s. “He’s using eitr to replace the fylgja.”
“Or create a twisted version of the shifter’s animal spirit.” Talon fisted his hand on top of the table. “This is all guessing from what we know about the ritual. Balder has the Prime’s grimoire.”
Meeting Winter’s gaze, I nodded for her to start the memory feed. “We saw Jessica’s memories.” She recorded enough to confirm what you already suspected.”
The shifters didn’t speak as they watched Jessica’s last moments flicker on screen.
Jenson’s jaw went stone hard. Larc didn’t blink, but I was pretty sure he broke the arms of his chair.
Shaw muttered something under his breath that sounded like a curse.
And Talon didn’t move at all, but I felt the ripple of his wolf thrashing inside him.
When it ended, Jenson’s voice was sharp. “Balder will die.”
“Fuck yeah, he will,” Talon said, his gaze never leaving mine. “We bring him down.”
“Winter’s tracing the magical signatures found on Jess’s body,” I said and took a breath to clear my head. “Jessica was in Manhattan before her trail went cold. There’s a coven in upstate New York she was working with.”
“Then you and I go there. Find out what she was tracking,” Talon said.
My traitorous heart beat a little faster at his words. “Agreed. Then we’ll track Balder from there.”
Winter’s voice was quiet as she said, “It’s not just witches anymore. If Balder really is creating an army of corrupted shifters, then he’ll need a lot of magic.”
“Any magical being is at risk of being taken,” I finished her train of thought.
The silence that followed was heavy enough to choke on. Finally, I stood and turned to Talon. “We leave at dawn.”
Chairs scraped as they rose, the meeting fractured into smaller movements. Shaw lingered long enough to refill his coffee. Jenson offered me a polite farewell. Candra and Nicky left bickering over battle tactics. Winter drifted out last, her laptop hugged to her chest like a lifeline.
That left me and Talon.
He moved closer and kept his voice low. “Maze. You sure you want to do this together?”
I didn’t want to go on this mission with anyone else. However, so much time had passed, I wasn’t sure of his feelings. Yet, neither of us would choose any other option but to mate. It was our duty to our clans.
“If we’re going to win this war, you and I have to mate. The ripple effect of the soulbound will strengthen our clans.”
One corner of his mouth inched up, and his wolf flashed in his eyes. “I’ll do it.”
Relief edged through me. Until he added, “But not like this. Not out of duty. If I take you as my mate, it’ll be because we chose it. Not because the Norns demand it.”
His words reached into my chest and squeezed my heart. I stared at him, every instinct warring inside me. “Talon—”
“Maze,” he interrupted, his voice rough but certain. “I want more than power. I want you. All of you.”
The air between us went molten. And just like that, the next battle wasn’t out there. It was inside me.