Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
Felix
Confusion swam in Felix’s mind as the world came back into focus. The mossy ground bit into his knees as he looked at his hands, his bare thighs, his naked torso.
Fuck.
The monster had come out.
Green walls still towered above him. So, he was still in the maze. His head throbbed as he grasped at memories, trying to figure out what had happened only moments ago. Avery. Where was Avery?
His breath caught as he saw her, almost a mirror of himself. Her pale skin glowed in the moonlight, and what was left of her dress, not much, hung in shreds that shifted with each breath.
She looked wild. She looked beautiful. And he had no right to look upon her if he had been the one to do that to her. Guilt grabbed inside him. Had he done that? The monster never let him remember. Sometimes that was for the best.
Avery moved, picking herself up off the ground and storming toward him. A little slither of fear gripped his chest. Felix scrambled to his feet before she came up to him like he was a red flag and she was the bull, bare-ass naked and furious enough to gore him.
She poked him hard in the chest. “You ruined my only dress, you behemoth.”
Really, that was her first concern? “If it’s any consolation, you look far better without it.”
A blush formed over her face as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Explain yourself.”
“About the dress? I think you know what happened to that, kitten.”
“No. The giant-ass shadow-cat-monster you just became,” she hissed, voice dropping like someone might hear them.
“It’s complicated,” he said, subconsciously mirroring her and crossing his arms. It wasn’t that complicated; he could be an itty-bitty kitty or a big scary kitty. Did he scare her? Obviously not enough for her to run away.
“Try me.”
“All shifters have a monstrous form, little witch. It’s powerful, but hard to control, and often burns us out for a few days,” Felix said. His monster was now locked away once more and sulking.
Her face softened. “So now you can’t use magic?”
“Temporarily, yes.”
She chewed at her lip, a bit of blood dripping from her bottom lip. He resisted the urge to wipe it away.
“And why was my magic able to stop it?” she questioned.
The air around him stilled. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, when I pushed my magic into you, you went back to normal.”
What? That was new. Usually, his form would just tire itself out. It had never been forcibly shoved back into its box somewhere inside him. Every damn day, there was something new with this witch. With this bond. If only he had been able to control it himself.
“I’m sorry I lost control,” he said.
She smiled. “It wasn’t you; it was the damn goddess and that stupid pollen.”
“Still,” Felix said, jaw grinding. “The monster is a part of me.”
The goddess had invoked his monster form, but he had given over to it.
Hadn’t resisted its pull. And now he had done god knew what to Avery.
And how the hell had she forced him out of it?
Was that what the goddess meant about their potential?
It was a dangerous power if witches could force shifters to their knees.
Avery opened her mouth, but a sound cut through the clearing.
The steady beat of dragon wings. Without a second thought, he grabbed her, put a hand over her mouth, and dragged them toward a shadowy part of the hedge.
She squirmed against him, her scent mixed with his, flooding his nose—what had he done to her?
Because it smelled like sex. And it was fucking irresistible.
But now was not the time to act like a total creep and shove his nose in the crook of her neck like he so desperately wanted.
Muffled annoyance came through his hand, but he didn’t let up. He also ignored the way that Avery seemed to perfectly fit against his body, and how easy it would be to bend her over.
The wings grew louder until he heard a dragon landing. Finally, Avery stopped squirming, her breath coming a bit faster as she realized what was happening. Hooves followed, clattering from the forest’s edge.
An enforcer’s voice rang out. “This is where the shifter signature came from, Commander.”
Fuck. His monster form must have triggered the wards. He had just painted a target on both of their backs.
Slowly, he let go of Avery. She turned toward him, and just in case she was going to say something, he put a finger to his lips.
“That’s my sister,” she said into his mind.
“I’m aware. It’s also an entire squad of enforcers.”
“What are we going to do?” Her voice climbed higher, laced with panic.
He had no magic. No weapons. No fucking plan. What bad luck was following him right now? Probably karma from the hundreds of witches he had killed and had most definitely cursed him far into the afterlife. It was fine. This was fine.
“Search the maze!” Wren’s voice rang out through the clearing.
Fuck. He had left the gate open like an amateur.
Avery whispered through the bond. “I know something I can do.”
“Avery, no.”
“Run,” she said, echoing what he had said only minutes earlier.
Absolutely the fuck not. Before he could reach out and grab her, she was already gone, running out through the maze.
He bolted after her, gravel crunching under his bare feet. And just before she could get to the entrance, he caught her. Felix slammed them both into the hedge wall, branches scraping.
“What are you doing!” Avery screeched down the bond.
“You will not sacrifice yourself for me, little witch.”
The gate squeaked open. Almost instinctively, he reached for his magic and stopped cold.
The well was full. Impossibly full, as if his monster form hadn’t just burned through every drop.
He didn’t have time to dissect it now. Later, he would, as well as Avery’s complete disregard for her own safety.
He cloaked them in shadow, blending them in with the surrounding night. The high of the chase still hadn’t subsided, even if he hadn’t been a conscious participant; the feeling of it lingered. Avery’s sweet scent told him she hadn’t shaken it off either. Fuck, it drove him crazy.
An enforcer walked into the maze, Wren on her heels. The blazing rifle drenched the green walls in a glowing pulse, stopping just short of their hiding spot. But they would need to move soon.
The enforcers crept closer, and with their every step, Avery’s panic spiked through the bond.
“Now is not the best time to panic, kitten,” Felix murmured, forcing his breathing to come out slow and hoping it was enough to calm the bees swarming inside of her.
“You think, dickhead?” Her nails clawed into his skin.
He smothered a smile, but after a few seconds, her breath fell into line with his, her heartbeat following a beat behind. They were far more entwined than he ever knew.
His grip tightened, a warning. Don’t be stupid.
She had thrown herself in harm’s way for him.
Willingly. A tail-lashing lecture was in her near future.
Unless she had been running to tell her sister about the shifter in the maze.
No. He didn’t believe that for a second.
It was what he would have believed last week.
The realization wrapped around his throat.
She had tried to save him. A terrible way to do it, but it was the thought that counted.
This little witch had created cracks in his armor, and it was so close to shattering.
The enforcers were within arm’s reach, almost close enough for Avery to reach out and touch. Both of them held their breaths, becoming as still as the statues in the maze.
A familiar hadn’t followed them in here yet, thank whatever god was listening. The moment one did, those noses would find them in seconds. Think, dammit. They were sitting mice here.
The enforcers passed, including Wren. Felix’s shoulders barely began to drop before another group appeared at the gate, this time with familiars in tow, a dog and a fox.
Fuck. They were intent on finding them.
His shadows slipped into the hedge, winding their way through dense foliage. There wasn’t a tangle of branches or anything stopping them from going through it. It was his only option.
“What are you doing!” Avery said.
He put his hand around her mouth to make sure she didn’t make a sound. “Trust me, little witch.”
Pulling them into a sea of green, he made each movement carefully so as to not make any noise. Out of all the things he had survived, a rustle of leaves would not be his goddamn end.
His shadows carved a peephole. Clear. Just one squad off in the distance that was too far to matter.
“Stay close to me,” he commanded.
For once, she obeyed, hands clinging to his arm as they emerged from the bush. He clothed them in shadow, blending into the night. They kept moving, kept going until the tree line that bordered the campus was in sight.
Almost there. Almost ther—
The ground shook.
A black dragon took a step forward, its giant head swiveling toward them in a serpentine manner.
“We’re going to die,” Avery screeched into his head.
“Stay very fucking still.”
The dragon did nothing but stare, its gaze boring into them. There was something off about it, like it recognized them even cloaked in shadow.
Voices in the distance had his ears swiveling.
A squad was moving this way. They needed to go, now.
Felix tugged at a frozen Avery, keeping his eyes firmly locked on the beast just in case it changed its mind.
But it didn’t. The dragon followed their movements, delicately sniffing the air and doing nothing to alert its owner. Did it want them to escape?
Those golden eyes watched until the forest swallowed them whole.
The oak door of the dorm shut behind them, and the tension sizzled between them like water on coals.
Felix had kept his mouth shut the entire walk back. Why had she tried to do something so stupid? He wanted to fuck some sense into her. Shake, he meant shake.