Chapter 35
Thirty-Five
Avery
A creeping numbness had spread through her like rot, her own body protecting her from everything she had learned over the last few days.
It was too much for one person to carry.
Felix had checked in on her throughout the day, trying his best to reach out to her.
It wasn’t fair to him to shut down. But it was all her body had allowed her to do. It was all she could do.
It was strange to think that her real mother could be in a cell not too far from here.
Wrongly imprisoned by someone she thought was her family.
She wondered if she was still there. What was she like now?
Was there a way to get her out? She wanted to know, but even the thought of it was too much to deal with right now.
So instead, she shoved it down, not ignoring the pain, but simply letting it be, to let it sit without consuming her.
That was a power within itself, a lesson she had perhaps learned too late.
Moonlight shone through the small window while rain pattered against the stone walls, the familiar scent of Caerwyn wafting in from between the bars. Felix slept soundly on the stone floor of the cell, chest rising and falling soundly as if he were in a bed. Cats could really sleep anywhere.
The shuffle of boots of enforcers had come and gone, leaving them with nothing but meager sips of water.
Even the sound of the rain outside had Avery’s mouth watering.
The enforcers watching them were the council’s personal guard.
She had dinner with them a few times. Watched their lives as they grew up through the academy.
How many were in on this? Or did they even know at all?
She supposed she didn’t blame them. How could she when a month ago she would have thought the same?
A witch hiding a shifter in plain sight. A danger. A disgrace.
Her mother, or not mother now, wouldn’t want this to get out. A single tear slipped down her face, and she stifled the sob that racked her body, trying not to wake Felix. An ache went through her, one that nothing but time could fill.
Soft fur brushed up against her ankles. At first, she thought Felix had somehow shifted. But when she looked down, there were dozens of dust bunnies surrounding her, hopping around her ankles in circles.
“Hello there,” Avery cooed at one, her voice croaky from dehydration.
She gave the one on her ankle a scratch on the head before it broke off and scurried towards the wall, the rest of the fluffle trailing after it like a horde of rats. What were they up to?
Avery turned around on her knees, watching them as they started to form a line at the bottom of the wall. Then, more dust bunnies got on top of one another, forming a structure.
“Felix,” she hissed, picking up a stone and throwing it at him to wake him. It bounced off his skin, and he sat up almost straight away, alert and disheveled. His hair was flat on one side and tousled on the other, lines of stone etched into his face. Must have been a good nap. Bastard.
When he came to, he immediately caught the movement of the dust bunnies and furrowed his brows at the little beings. Scooting closer to the bars, he examined them through long lashes, ears piquing curiously. They watched them create stack after stack, reaching higher than they should have.
At last, the final bunny made its way to the top. They had made a pyramid of dust bunnies at least four feet high. What the fuck were they doing?
Then, the top dust bunny started to gnaw. She saw crimson ripples moving like waves through the stone, and she realized what they were doing.
“They’re breaking the ward,” Felix said, his jaw slackening in shock.
Slowly, but surely, the hole became bigger, the dust bunny literally consuming the ward in the bottomless pit of its stomach. When the hole got big enough, the other bunnies started joining in.
“Smart little fuckers.” Felix smirked.
Avery couldn’t help the smile that came to her face. Despite it all, with Felix by her side, she felt invincible. She didn’t want to test that theory, though, so hopefully they didn’t get shot in the process of getting out of this damn prison.
As quick as they came, the bunnies disappeared into dust, floating through the air and going goddess knew where. Probably off to make some more nests somewhere.
Tentatively, Avery called on her shadows, reaching for the well inside of her. She felt the magic pooling within her, answering her pull. It wasn’t as strong as it should be. But they had done it. The bunnies had broken the ward.
“Can you use your magic?” she asked Felix.
Felix held up his hand, as if to test if a shadow would come out. But after a few seconds, he only shook his head. That explained it. Her other half was still warded.
Fuck. She had to break him out old school.
Using her sharpest tooth, she bit the skin of her arm hard enough to draw blood. The ruby drops ran down her skin, imbuing her with power. The warmth spread through her veins, through her very being. A shudder went down her spine, and goose bumps lined her arms. The feeling was addictive.
Felix watched her from the cell, eyes darkening as he looked upon her. “I can feel your power from here, little witch.”
She didn’t know what that meant for her. But there was no time to dissect it.
Using her shadows, she sent them out, carefully guiding them to the metal bars at the front. They looped around the iron, and using all the force her form could physically muster, she wrenched them apart. The bar of metal not only moved but shattered completely.
A small chuckle came from Felix.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re just the most incredible woman I have ever met.”
A blush crept up her neck and spread along her face. “Stop distracting me.”
“Never.”
Rolling her eyes, she stepped over the shattered iron bars, ducking her head so the top ones didn’t scalp her.
What a painful way to go that would be. After all this trauma, just to be impaled on some shitty bars.
She’d rather die impaled on Felix’s cock.
The image played in her head, distracting her as her foot hooked around the iron and she stumbled forward into the wall.
Goddess, maybe he did distract her even when he wasn’t even trying. Stupid handsome cat.
“See?” he said, smirking wildly.
“Shut it, shifter.”
She recovered herself, dusting the dirt off her prison clothes as a means of soothing the sting of embarrassment.
Turning on her heels, she saw the shimmer of a ward on Felix’s side still active. Couldn’t the bunnies have eaten through his, too? Why did the goddess seem to half-ass everything? Half-assed riddles, half-assed truths, half-assed bunny ward eating.
“Have you ever broken a ward?” Felix asked her.
She shook her head, the anxiety crawling back up her spine.
“Listen to me carefully. Using your magic, concentrate on a single fine point, and send everything you have through it.”
“What if I hit you?”
“You won’t,” he reassured her.
Closing her eyes, she formed her shadow into a needle, the tip thinning and placing itself right next to the ward.
The sound of Felix’s feet hitting the stone told her he had moved out of the way.
So he was afraid of her hitting him. She swallowed the lump in her throat, wishing desperately for the tightness in her chest to go the fuck away. It always came at the worst times.
“Little witch, it’s okay, I believe in you.”
That stopped her for a moment. He believed in her?
Tears welled behind her eyes, threatening to fall.
The last person who said that was her dad, over a year ago.
She knew she should believe in herself. That she shouldn’t need the validation from others to know that she was worthy.
That she was capable. But was it so horrible to have someone start the process for you?
When life had beaten you to a pulp, to have someone believe in you until you could believe in yourself? Sometimes that was all we needed.
Power laced through her fingertips, blood rushing downward towards the shadow. And when they touched? Avery sent everything she had into the ward.
It was silent. Then black shadows spidered through the ward’s magic faster than her eyes could keep up with. Felix took a step back, pressing himself into the corner of the cell as if he knew what was about to happen.
Avery yelped as everything shattered. The wards, the bars. Splinters of magic and iron and stone went flying around them. She only saw it for a second before a cloak of darkness surrounded her. Shadows, she realized—a barrier made out of them.
Clamoring footsteps echoed down the hall. Enforcers drawn by the noise. But when the shadows dropped, she didn’t see the enforcers. She saw Felix. He rushed up to her, gripped her face between his hands, and kissed her until she couldn’t fucking breathe.
The footsteps got closer. But they didn’t care. Felix pushed her against the wall as their tongues danced around each other. It had been mere hours since they touched, but it felt like a lifetime. The bond flared between them, shadows curling around them as they devoured each other.
“Oi!” A voice rang out.
It didn’t last long.
Felix never broke the kiss, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shadow wrap around an enforcer’s throat and take his head clean off.
It tumbled to the ground, spurting blood across the floor.
Part of felt awful. Did that enforcer have to die?
The other part only cared about who was touching her right now.
Goddess. Was he going to take her right here?
The sound of another set of footsteps had their heads turning.
Callum stood there, fury raging in his eyes as he looked between them and the head on the ground. Before Felix could send a shadow out, Callum had already taken off.