4. Chapter 4
CHAPTER 4
Zev
Z ev found his cousin curled up against a tree with tears frosted on her lashes. Her lips were blue, her skin pale as snow. He wrapped a blanket around Dyna and gently picked her up. She was limp in his arms and frozen to the bone. That divine light that used to glow from her skin had dimmed to nearly nothing. It was the bond, he realized. It was deteriorating like she was. Dyna was breaking before his eyes, and he had no way to stop it.
It enraged him.
He blinked back the sting in his eyes and focused on getting her back to the manor. Lucenna and Rawn waited for them by the courtyard doors.
“Is she hurt?” Lord Norrlen asked softly.
Zev didn’t answer. It was an irrelevant question because they all knew that she was. These wounds simply hadn’t appeared on the outside.
Yet.
He carried her upstairs to Lucenna’s room and tucked her in the extra bed. Dyna’s lashes fluttered open. She didn’t say a word, but her hand reached out and clutched the end of his shirt before he could take a step.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Zev murmured. “Sleep. I will watch over you.”
Zev settled in the wingback chair beside the bed and held Dyna’s cold hand. She shivered beneath the blankets, tears rolling down her cheeks. He counted each one until her breath evened out when she fell asleep.
Would the dreams stop if he stood guard over her all night? What could he do to keep her from falling apart? It was his turn to be the anchor now.
Exhaling a heavy breath, Zev leaned back. But he stilled, his nostrils flaring with many scents.
Dust, despair, and divinity.
His claws extended, his wolf eyes surfacing as he studied the shadows dancing with the balcony curtains billowing in the night breeze.
A low growl rumbled deep in his chest. “If you come near her again, I will kill you.”
The shadows fell still, then departed behind him with the faint flutter of the wind. Moonlight streamed in through the balcony doors.
And nothing about it was bright.
When Zev woke in the early dawn, Dyna’s bed was empty. He leaped out of the chair. Panic rushed through his half groggy mind until he heard the distant thudding coming from outside.
He went to the balcony and saw her.
Zev rushed out of the room and made it downstairs to the courtyard doors where Lucenna, Klyde, and Rawn were watching with concern. He pushed past them and went outside.
Dyna was fighting a tree.
Her fists beat into the bark, leaving behind red stains in the grooves. Blood dripped from her torn knuckles and down her arms. Every brutal thud echoed in the courtyard, but there was no change to her blank face.
She was trying to break through to herself and he could see every fissure left behind. He had done the same damage, ripped at the same wounds, and drowned in the air. Because pain was better than grief.
Zev caught her wrist. If you want to hit something, then hit me. All that hurt. That anger. Give it to me, Dyna. I can take it.”
And she did.
Dyna fell into perfect formation and sparred with him.
“You’re not living,” Zev said as he deflected her blows. “You’re floating through your days, trying to bury what you feel inside. When you do allow yourself to feel something it’s anger, but even that is stinted.” He took her shoulders and shook her. “Scream. Cry. Rage. Release everything you are holding inside. And live. Because I see you dying, and I know how that feels. Don’t let this break you. Don’t let it knock you down. Get up and fight for it!”
She knocked back his hold and hit with all her might, screaming with every attack and blow. Her powerful hooks carried everything she had. Zev bore it all until she couldn’t move anymore.
Her feet staggered and Zev caught her. He braced for more tears, but there were none left. Dyna steadied herself with a deep breath and straightened up. Her chest labored with heavy breaths, and there was only fortitude on her face. Laced with determination.
That strength made him so proud.
She wouldn’t sink into the waves like he did.
She wouldn’t bend.
At the same time, seeing her like this made him sad. Because his sweet cousin was no longer the same. She had endured so much pain, it had sharpened her into a blade. The softness was gone, and so was her innocence. It’s what Zev had wanted to protect her from, but he couldn’t prevent the hardships of life any more than he could prevent time from stopping.
And he also didn’t need to.
He saw the predator growing inside of Dyna, and his wolf surfaced to acknowledge her.
“We are a Pack,” he said. “All we need is each other.”
She nodded.
The others came to join them outside.
“All right.” Lucenna’s eyes glowed bright with magic as she faced off with Dyna. “My turn.”