Chapter 46 #2
“You won’t harm me. It’s only glamour. You’re stronger than the magic.
Fight it.” I pull his face close to mine and sweep my lips over his.
I hear a clink as the dagger hits the ground near our feet.
I exhale in relief against his kiss. I pull my mouth from his and he traces my lower lip with his thumb.
“I love you. Please forgive me,” he murmurs and he wraps his hand around my throat. Then the other, squeezing the very life from me.
I claw at his grip, but he’s too strong. He squeezes his eyes shut as if he can’t bear witnessing what his enchanted body is doing. I can’t scream. I can’t beg him to stop. I can’t breathe. His eyes shoot open, and he drops his hands from my throat for only a second, fighting with himself.
I pull in a breath and his hands are on me again.
Tighter this time. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
” He repeats the words over and over and my body weakens by the second.
“Leer wants you dead. He wishes to rule over your Court. He’s so strong.
I can’t—I can’t fight him. I can’t.” The tears in his eyes make them a bright green that distracts me as I stop struggling. “No. No, please fight it, Zara.”
My vision blurs, and his voice sounds muffled.
I’m dying.
“I can’t fight it. But you can. Shift.” He’s yelling now, a crazed panic echoing in the woods around my failing body. “Shift! Shift! Please…please…” He weeps over my death, but he doesn’t stop choking me.
A spark fires low in my belly. I’ve felt it before. When I was falling from the cliff. When Commander Byron had me in his clutches. When Emlyn tried to keep me from running to Alfrie in the dungeons.
The spark pulses into an ember and bursts into a flame igniting my entire body. I don’t know what’s happening inside me, but I unconsciously know it will save me.
I’m blinded by the brightest light that shoots from my very veins. It takes over my Fae limbs and organs. My vision sharpens, and though I’m in dire need of oxygen, Alfrie’s face becomes clear, and he looks shocked. No, terrified.
“Yes. Yes, please. Make me stop.”
A searing pain erupts through my limbs, and I wrench away from his strong hands as my spine elongates and bends. My feline eyes stare down at my impossibly large paws covered in thick fur the color of the brightest sunset and marked with streaks of white and black.
Alfrie drops to his knees. “Gods, you’re…” His shoulders slouch with exhaustion and he gazes at me with his tear-stained face as if I’m a goddess. But I’m no goddess. I finally, finally shifted.
I’m a tiger.
I stalk toward my prey, and he doesn’t move from the spot where he kneels.
My claws emerge and I pad until my nose is directly in front of his face.
His chin hangs on his chest and his shoulders slump.
He reaches quickly for the dagger lodged in the dirt and scurries away, but I’m on him in an instant.
I pin him to the ground and dig my pointed claws into his biceps.
My lean and muscular feline body, weighing him down beneath me.
I growl low at him. I swipe a talon over his chest, ripping his already torn shirt even more.
But I won’t harm him. His eyes are soft, and he stares up at me as I hover menacingly above him.
This is the first time I notice he’s back in his human form.
Of course he is. He didn’t want this. He wants to forget everything.
“Kill me.” His throat bobs and his arms lie limp at his sides, held down under my paws. “Please. I almost. I can’t live knowing what I did. Or nearly did. I’m sorry.”
My feline eyes bore into his, and the predator within me recognizes a feral beast in him. A kindred spirit of sorts. It’s a strange sensation. An understanding that we’re the same. I wonder if he knows.
I press my paws down harder and emit another growl through the long teeth that hang from my snout. Then I back off of him.
He pushes himself up to his elbows. “You have to leave. If you won’t kill me, you need to run as far from me as you can.
” I watch his heart break into a thousand pieces right in front of me and a sickening sadness nearly forces me out of my animal form.
“I’ll make sure Alix and Emlyn are okay.
Just. Go. Find my village. You’ll be safe there for now.
” He pulls the tattered rag doll from his pocket and tosses it in the dirt in front of my paws.
“Please. Take it. Find them and keep them safe. It won’t be long until Leer finds out and hunts them down. ”
I want nothing more than to shift back and hold him close to me.
I don’t want to run. But I’m not safe with him.
Not right now anyway. And I’m no good to Masseda or my friends if I’m dead.
I edge close to him, and he stills, keenly watching me.
I lower my head to his and nuzzle my nose to his cheek and his breath hitches.
I gently lift the doll from the ground with my teeth.
“I’ll find you again.” He breathes. “Run. Now.”
So, I do.