Chapter 7 Monsters and Magic #2
“I’m not hurting them,” Daire tells me. “They just need to cool down.” The darkness recedes slowly. “See?” His lips tickle my ear, and then his arm around my stomach tightens as he straightens behind me, and I suddenly feel small against his frame, a foreign sensation.
“If you pull that bullshit again, I’ll keep you out here all godsdamned night,” Daire yells as the blackness fades further, revealing Griffin.
Blood streaks across his feathered chest, inviting guilt deeper into my thoughts. The wolf follows, taking two steps before its eyes cut to me. Something inside me seizes, making me impulsively lean back into Daire. His grip tightens.
A low growl rumbles from Griffin.
The wolf turns its gaze to him. They lock eyes, unmoving.
“Is he… talking to it?”
Griffin and the wolf both turn toward me as though they heard me, though my question was barely a whisper.
Griffin shakes, his form rippling. Bones snap and reform, defying everything I know and believe as the beast becomes a man.
A naked man.
The scratches are already fading to pink against the dark runes and hard lines of his chest. My gaze drops before I can stop it.
Dear baby Jesus.
His cock is long, thick, and only semi-hard.
Heat rushes through me so fast it makes me dizzy.
I drag my eyes up, fixing on a point over his shoulder, mortified.
He stops suddenly and turns back toward the wolf. If he says anything, it’s too quiet for me to hear. The wolf huffs, then turns to me. A low, lingering growl rumbles from its chest before it turns and trots deeper into the forest.
I don’t realize Daire has released his hold around me until a handful of clothes go flying at Griffin’s chest. He catches them easily, his expression impassive as he looks at me.
I’m frozen, trying to make sense of what just happened, starting with the black mass, the baby deer transforming into a wolf, Griffin turning into an animal, and how he fought to keep me safe despite not knowing me, then turned back into a human and somehow magically healed.
“Are you okay?” Daire asks.
Griffin shakes out the clothes and pulls on a pair of black sweatpants before slinging the shirt over his right shoulder and closing the space between us.
“How?” I ask. “You... It...” I can’t find the words.
Griffin stops in front of us. “Rule one, you don’t run, and two, you don’t leave my side.” He holds up two fingers. “What part of that wasn’t clear?”
“I should have transported us,” Daire mutters.
Griffin releases a sigh, then places his hand over the cut on my arm and quietly says something.
A pleasant warmth, like being wrapped in a towel fresh from the dryer, consumes me, and as he pulls away, I realize every cut and mark the forest made on my skin has been healed.
Not scabbed. Not faded. Completely gone.
I stare at him like a fish out of water, and for the first time in my life, I really wish I were the fainting type.
Griffin laughs, and I realize too late that I said my thought aloud.
“We need to get her inside. She’s shaking,” Daire says.
Griffin swears. “It’s probably shock.”
“There was a deer,” I say. “A baby deer. It was…” Words fail me. “And there was that black stuff—it was going to kill it.”
“It was a trap,” Daire says. “The deer was never in danger.”
I glance at the woods—at the rotted underbrush. “Were you the black stuff?”
Daire shakes his head.
“But you had smoke or… it came out of you.” I try to breathe, but my chest is too tight, my fears even greater than my confusion as I realize, for the first time, just how far in over my head I am.
“And you,” I turn to Griffin. “You transformed. You had fur and claws and…” I feel too hot, and my head starts to swim. Maybe I am a fainter.
“Hey. Hey. You’ve got this.” Griffin grabs my hand and places it over my heart. “Feel that?” My pulse is racing. “You’re safe.”
I don’t know how long we stand there, but finally, slowly, my pulse evens out.
Griffin watches as I pull away.
“It’s going to get dark soon. We need to go. Do you want me to carry you to the house?” Daire asks.
Being carried like a damsel in distress seems like a guaranteed way to make this day worse. “No. Definitely no.”
My heart does that strange hiccupping sensation again as I spin around, a new wave of panic crashing into me. “Where’s Scarlet?”
Daire places a hand on my shoulder, and my heart seems to settle instantly. “I brought her to the house before coming to you.”
“Can you all do that?” I ask. “Shift into another animal, I mean?”
Daire’s eyes lift to mine, and he slowly shakes his head. “Some, but not all.”
“Will I? Can I already?”
Daire shakes his head. “That’s a question I’d be asking you.”
I shake my head. “No. I—I’ve never…” I pause. “Would I know?”
Griffin smiles. “You don’t have to learn everything today. There will be plenty of time.”
But questions don’t stop churning through my thoughts as we make our way back to the road. It’s darker, the trees appearing more ominous than they had before.
They sandwich me in the middle, Griffin on my left, typing rapidly into his phone, and Daire on my right. I’m not sure when our hands joined or if I was the one who reached for him, but I keep my hand clasped in his, grateful for the comfort as every noise steals my focus.
Several minutes later, we stop in front of what can only be described as a castle. It’s bigger than any property I’ve ever seen, complete with turrets and balconies peppering the front.
We walk up the wide steps to the double front doors that soar high over my head. My palm feels instantly cold as Daire’s hand slips from mine so he can place his palm on a large rectangle beside the door. A faint click has him removing his hand and reaching for the doorknob.
Nerves swarm my belly. Uncertainty and my new fear of enclosed spaces are so loud and prominent that I can’t force myself to move. “Swear to me that if I go inside, I’ll be able to leave.”
Griffin’s gaze darkens as he pulls in a sharp breath through his nose. His jaw is flexed so tight I’m shocked he hasn’t broken his teeth. “You will never be a prisoner again. I swear to you on my life.” His jaw feathers again. “Never.”
Daire nods. “Mysthaven is your home, not a jail.” He pushes one of the doors open, and with my heart in my throat, I step inside.