Chapter 30
THE ISLAND WITHIN THE TREE
Ziara
The canyon was a fever dream.
Or maybe Rehabhen’s bite was making me hallucinate, because this place was hella trippy.
Unlike the dragon blood trees outside, the ones inside the gorge were speckled in vibrant shades of violet, teal, gold, and pink, making the canopies look less like umbrellas and more akin to enormous magic mushrooms. Multicolored butterflies and moths flitted around a collection of teal rocks at the base of the nearest tree.
A strange, elongated lizard perched on a branch.
Its tongue flicked out to track a moth that fluttered out of range at the last instant, and the lizard’s jaws snapped shut on empty air.
I looked back at Mack for reassurance that I wasn’t losing my mind, but his attention wasn’t on the scenery. It was on me. More specifically, on my bandaged arm.
The worry pinching his features dug deeper under my skin than Rehabhen’s bite. I whipped my head forward before Mack could catch the reaction that had to be written all over my face.
His concern shouldn’t bother me. Mack loved me. He’d always been protective, and he would have torn Rehabhen apart if the alpha hadn’t held him back. Like me, Mack would sacrifice anything for the pack.
But the look in his eyes had changed. It wasn’t just worry anymore. It was the slow, awful recognition of someone watching a countdown they couldn’t stop.
I wasn’t walking away from this mission.
Coming to terms with that was hard enough without watching Mack accept it, too.
I swallowed, shoved the grief somewhere it couldn’t reach me, and locked my attention onto the canyon.
Falling apart would only get me killed faster.
If these were my last moments with my loved ones, I’d rather spend them being useful than afraid.
The soft, earthy smell of the canyon carried a hint of natural sweetness, like tea made with milk and honey.
Like Jillian used to drink.
Mack squeezed my arm, instinctively stopping my slide down that dark path.
He was the best. Best friend. Best sparring partner.
Best protector. Best lover. Half the unmated females in the pack would have clawed my eyes out for a shot at him, and a few of the mated ones probably fantasized about it.
He could have had any of them, could easily be with a wolf who could shift, who smelled right, and whose blood didn’t double as a skeleton key for dark magic.
He’d never even looked twice at any of them.
And here I was, repaying his loyalty by hoarding secrets that would shatter us. Every cell in my body knew the dragon was closing in. I could feel it in my bones, like a storm building on the horizon. When he arrived and I surrendered, Mack would likely never forgive me.
But maybe that was for the best.
At least he’d be alive to hate me.
Our footsteps sounded strange on the pale limestone canyon floor.
So different from Washington’s forests or the sandy ground of Yemen.
Something told me no other place on Earth was like this island.
Spongy moss covered the walls in thick patches of emerald and gold that…
undulated, grinding against the wall disturbingly sexually.
Not a sight I wanted to traumatize myself with, so I averted my gaze to the shallow pool in front of me.
Instead of reflecting the cloudless blue sky, a scene played out on the mirror-like surface that I suddenly understood as if I were there.
Dad and Rust were barely more than kids playing dress up in fatigues, each equipped with an old-school musket that shook in their unsteady hands.
The enemy was closing in. The two of them were the only survivors of their company, and they didn’t know where to go.
An explosion ripped their attention to….
“Eyes ahead.” The alpha’s voice cracked through the air. “All of you. Don’t look at the pools.”
The command snapped my gaze onto Rust’s back, but my brain kept chewing on what I’d seen. Dad and Rust, young and armed with Civil War-era weapons, tracked. They’d enlisted to earn passage from Ireland during the potato famine, trading one hell for another.
The pools we passed kept trying to snag my attention.
They glowed faintly like the screens in the security room, making it almost impossible not to look.
Compelling sounds drifted from their surfaces.
Voices. Laughter. The crack of a gunshot.
The off-key warbling of a drinking song that was so familiar, my head nearly turned before I caught myself.
Then the canyon narrowed, and the pools became the least of my problems. The moss on both walls strained toward me as the passage shrank until we had to turn sideways to get through.
When Mack and I were kids, one of our teachers demonstrated static electricity by handing out balloons and instructing us to rub them in our hair.
The charged balloons made nearby hair stand on end, reaching for it as if it couldn’t help itself, which was exactly what the moss was doing.
Every tendril on the canyon walls leaned toward me as I squeezed past, close enough that I could feel the faint tug of its eerie magic.
I held my breath, sucked in my stomach, and sent up a prayer of thanks that my C cups weren’t any bigger.
When the canyon widened again, I thought we were past the worst of it, but a pool appeared without warning, set into the floor directly in my way. I sidestepped, but my gaze dropped before I could stop myself. The air whooshed out of my lungs as the memory sucker-punched me right into the past.
My belly hurt.
That happened sometimes. I was supposed to tell the alpha whenever the pain hit so he could take me to Sereana, but I didn’t want the witch to hurt me again. The table was cold, the spikes were sharp, and Sereana was mean. She didn’t seem to like anyone, but especially not me.
I just wanted Jillian.
She always knew. Before I could even raise my hands to ask for what I needed, she scooped me onto her lap and pressed her palm against my stomach, humming the song that made the bad feelings go away.
The scent of lavender soap and the oatmeal cookies she snuck me from the mess hall wrapped me in a protective cocoon, like a caterpillar.
“There, there, sweet pup,” she said, tucking my hair behind my ears with calloused but gentle fingers. “I’ve got you.”
I buried my face in her neck and breathed her in, trying to hold on to her warmth.
The cocoon could no longer hold me, and the beast inside of me was no butterfly.
A searing heat started in my belly and spread through my bones like wildfire, cracking me open from the inside. My spine twisted. My skin tore. Something ancient and savage clawed its way to the surface, and then everything went black.
I screamed.
Or maybe Jillian did.
Everything went dark.
When I regained consciousness, the floor was red. Blood was everywhere, but I couldn’t stop watching it drip from my hands. The smell of lavender and oatmeal cookies was gone, smothered beneath copper and death.
And Jillian…
Jillian was in pieces.
The alpha was there, also covered in blood and gore as he cleaned up the mess. My mess. I must have made a sound, because his gaze snapped to me, and for the first time ever, I saw fear in my father’s eyes.
“What have you done, Ziara?”
“Zee!”
Firm hands gripped my shoulders and yanked me backward, hard enough that it rattled my brain and clacked my teeth together, interrupting my moment with the puddle.
“I told you not to look.” The alpha’s voice cracked like a whip with barely suppressed fury.
“I didn’t mean… but Jillian. She was right there, and I couldn’t…” My voice cracked.
Mack’s arms tightened around me. “It’s not real, Zee. Whatever you saw. It’s not real.”
But it was real. It had happened. I’d shifted, and my demon wolf had ripped apart the most loving, wonderful pack grandma ever. She was dead because of the monster inside me. Age-old guilt clawed at my throat and burned my eyes, but I refused to shed a single tear.
The alpha watched me with narrowed eyes. “What all did you see?” he asked.
I shook myself, not fully understanding the question because he couldn’t tell? “Just… what happened? What I did to Jillian when I shifted.”
Finally, he nodded, appeased. “Move out. And keep your goddamn eyes forward.”
Mack released me but stayed close. As soon as we started walking, he got my attention. His hands moved, and it took me far longer than it should have to realize he was signing.
“Are you okay?” he asked with his hands.
We’d learned sign language as kids from a book we found in the library as a way to communicate without nosy, all-hearing adults hearing what we were up to.
It had been years since we’d communicated like this, but it was like riding a bike.
Thank God, because I needed to get at least one thing off my chest. And I could use a distraction from my memories.
I signed back, “I’ve been thinking.”
Both of his eyebrows shot up in an expression that was equal parts tell me everything, and please don’t be planning anything else to piss off the alpha.
Fair. I considered dropping my concerns, but I realized something that might harm the pack and was determined to do my duty and report it. Mack’s rank was higher than mine, so telling him would do.
“I think the dragon is tracking the bloodstone.”
Mack blinked, then signed, “What do you mean?”
I shrugged because I wasn’t entirely sure. “Maybe there’s something on it, like a spell, that he’s following.”
“Was he in your dreams last night?”
I frowned at the question because I would have reported it if he had been.
Now that everything was out in the open and the danger had been verified, there was no reason to keep any new information from the pack.
Also, the dreams had nothing to do with what was on my mind.
I’d been calculating the odds, and the math wasn’t mathing.
“No. I didn’t dream last night.”
When I hesitated before continuing, he signed, “So, how do you know?”