Chapter 24 #2
“You could be what I have been waiting for,” the goddess said. “Let us see if you can live up to your own potential.”
They exchanged a wary glance between them. What the hell did that mean?
The goddess’s laughter shook the maze, and the flowers started to breathe, expanding and contracting like lungs before they shot out clouds of shimmering glitter that drizzled on them like golden snow.
Avery, more curious than her cat counterpart, held out a hand to catch the pollen.
It landed softly, gently resting on her and shimmering under the light.
Pollen floated around them, dusting them in a fine layer of gold. She tipped her head back and closed her eyes, letting the tiny particles catch on her face, a childlike joy spreading through her. For just a moment, the world fell away.
“It’s beautiful,” she said.
When she opened her eyes again, her gaze landed on Felix, who was already staring.
“It is,” he said, not looking at the pollen.
Her heart stumbled, missing more than a few beats. Gold dust clung to his dark hair, the pollen settling in the hollow of his throat. His eyes gleamed with something she couldn’t quite decipher. A beautiful riddle just waiting to be untangled. And by the fucking goddess, she desperately wanted to.
She laughed again, feeling more giddy than usual as she watched it make Felix into a glittery beacon, not an inch of him spared.
What a strange situation they were thrust into.
She never would have chosen it for herself.
But wasn’t that the beautiful thing about life?
The paths that you least expected, even the ones you detested, always led to something extraordinary, if for only a moment. And this was that moment.
A shifter and a witch, bound by fate, and she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
Pollen swirled around them, dancing and shimmering in the light as Felix took a step closer. She didn’t move. Didn’t take a step back. His hand came up and cupped her cheek, her heart hammering like a bird against its cage.
Using his other hand, he grabbed the waist of her dress and pulled her forward until she was flush against his warm skin.
An inch, that was all it would take for her lips to meet his.
Every part of her wanted to. She was sick of pretending like she hadn’t spent the better part of the last week thinking about the kiss beneath the oak.
She wanted it all and more. For once in her life, she wanted to be selfish. To do what she wanted.
Felix stumbled back, claws extending with a pained groan. Avery’s blood ran cold, the hairs on her arm raising as if subconsciously detecting danger. Something was very, very wrong.
Shadows grew around him instead of shrinking as he continued shifting. His face snapped and snarled, as if he were trying to stop the transformation.
“Run, little witch,” he said, voice demonic and hungry.
But the voice wasn’t his. It belonged to something else entirely.
Terror locked her body as she realized what was happening.
Taking a step back, she tripped on a root and fell backward onto her ass.
She crawled away, ignoring the pain of the rough dirt dragging against her skin as Felix’s features hardened into something predatory, mouth grinning wildly like a man who wanted to hunt, and she was his prey.
Fuck fuck fuck fuck.
Felix grabbed his head and dropped to his knees, a strangled snarl escaping him. When her back hit the hedge, and she couldn’t move any further, she froze like a mouse in front of a cat. It was a terrible habit of hers.
Every limb went limp. For some reason, her body debated fighting or flighting and had decided to be utterly useless. Would playing dead work? Probably not. All she could do was watch in horror as his limbs lengthened and bones cracked and stretched into shadow.
His voice slammed into her mind, Felix’s voice, not the thing’s.
“AVERY, RUN! I cannot hold it back any longer.”
Felix’s body morphed into something inhuman.
Shadow swallowed him whole, reshaping him into something with a cat’s build and a skull for a face.
A monster. All the blood drained from her face as she finally heeded his warning.
Finally, her legs unlocked, and she scrambled to her feet and hit the ground with all the force she could muster, pushing herself forward and back into the maze.
Dark laughter echoed, sending goose bumps skittering across her skin as she ran for her life.
“Keep running, little witch, because if I catch you, I’m going to fuck you,” the monster said.
Dear fucking goddess. Why the fuck had the goddess done this?
Did she want to see how fast she ran? Panic clawed up her throat.
She didn’t want to find out what the monster meant by that.
Her legs burned as she pushed herself further, walls of leaves bleeding past her vision.
She didn’t remember the way they came. A wall of green interrupted her. Dead end. Fuck.
The monster’s voice rumbled through her head. “I can scent him on you, witch, and I’m going to make sure that I fucking rub every inch of you to get his scent off and replace it with mine.”
“Five,” the monster said.
He was counting down. Her stomach turned over, fear twisting in her gut. Her shoulders moved rapidly as she fought to catch her breath. No time to stop. Keep going. Keep fucking going. Blood roared in her ears. Her muscles bunched, every instinct shrieking one word: run.
The walls blurred around her, and her thighs screamed, slowing her down while the cold wind of the late night sliced her cheeks. Her lungs burned. She didn’t dare look behind her.
The walls became denser, the moon struggling to light the way through the maze.
But she didn’t stop. A low, foreboding purr rumbled through the maze.
The vibration sent a bolt of unwanted pleasure through her core.
She choked on a sob of horror and humiliation, stumbling on a root.
Rough bark scraped the skin from her palm as she broke her fall.
No. I will not fucking die here. Clambering to her feet, she pushed off and ran.
“Four.”
Dead end.
“Three.”
Dead end.
“Two.”
Dead fucking end!
“One.”
No. No no no no. Her legs gave out. She caught herself against the hedge wall, gasping and shaking.
But the sound of heavy footfalls behind her pushed her harder, despite the stitch in her side, despite her vision spotting, despite the purring coming closer.
Something dark blurred past, forcing her to move sideways, but a hulking form of shadows already blocked her path, so she banked left.
The shadows shifted to seal every other escape.
There was nowhere else to go.
Eight feet of pure nightmare stalked toward her. The skull almost looked like it was smiling, a sadistic grin that promised pain.
She went still. It moved like a cat—one careful paw in front of the other, the purr vibrating in every bone. Even her piercing vibrated along with it. The pleasure made bile rise in her throat even as her nipples hardened.
“Found you,” it said. The voice was like a rapacious symphony, begging her forward with its predatory rhythm. Shadows poured from its form like smoke, its tail swishing back and forth.
Avery pressed herself into the foliage, praying for a gap, a door, anything.
Every time she tried, roots moved to block her path.
Her body went hot and wet despite the terror freezing her lungs.
She wanted to scream at herself, at her traitorous cunt for responding to a monster.
Tears pricked her eyes as it kept creeping closer, its movement so animalistic.
Her body tensed under its gaze, her legs starting to shake.
“Please,” she said.
It cocked its head at her words, examining her in a feline manner as she begged the beast not to come any closer.
But it didn’t stop. Didn’t relent its violent pursuit.
Her heart raced so fast she thought it would beat out of her chest. As it came closer, she saw his eyes within the skull.
They looked so much like his. Was he still in there? It had to be worth a try.
“Felix, you don’t want to do this,” she begged him.
“Oh, but little witch, I have been waiting to ravage you since the moment I saw you,” he said before turning his nose to the sky and inhaling. “I can smell you, smell how much my mate wants this.”
The word mate reverberated around her mind. No time to unpack that. On instinct, she pressed herself as far as she could into the wall and bit into her tongue hard enough that she tasted blood.
Tendrils of shadow grabbed her ankles and wrists, hauling her into the air. All the air left her lungs as her body hung suspended. The tendrils pulled so fiercely she half-expected her limbs to rip loose. They hoisted her higher until she met its eyes, glowing hazel and green.
“Going somewhere?” The words carved into her mind.
Her breath caught; even if she wanted to scream, she couldn’t.
The tendrils tightened and loosened like a living vise around her.
A whimper escaped her lips, sending a wave of pleasure through the bond, not hers, she realized with horror.
It was the monster reveling in her fear.
It spoke again. “My mate’s blood tastes delicious.
” The voice sent shivers down her spine.
Heat bloomed deep in her belly, and she hated herself for it, hated her body for responding to fear like this.
Blood roared in her ears, the rational and completely sane part of her screaming run, run, run.
But there was nowhere to go. She wanted to look away, but her body didn’t let her, eyes rooted to the undulating shadows.
More tendrils emerged from the creature, extensions of pure darkness racing toward her.
Avery started to babble. “Felix, what are you doing?”
“Enough words, little witch.”