The Den of Shadows Quartet - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [45]
She was dizzy and weak, and her pulse was hurried as her heart attempted to circulate her thinned blood. Through foggy vision, she saw Aubrey hesitate, as if debating whether he really wanted to let her go.
Then he disappeared.
She put her head down for a moment, trying to clear her mind, then carefully crossed the clearing to make sure Shannon was all right. Hopefully, when the girl woke she would just assume she had drunk too much. She would never know how close she’d come to dying.
With this thought, Caryn put a hand over her own heart, feeling the rapid beating. Unlike Shannon, she was completely aware of how close Death had brushed by her tonight.
CHAPTER 13
JESSICA HAD BEEN WRITING all evening, but by the time midnight came the inspiration had died. She was restless and knew she wouldn’t be able to fall asleep anytime soon. The best way she could think to burn some energy was to go for a walk.
The round moon lit her path through Red Rock Forest, and she soon found herself at her favorite spot: a large oak tree about a quarter of a mile in. She pulled herself onto one of its large branches and relaxed. Something about the night always calmed her.
Finally, under a broad canopy of leaves, she drifted into sleep.
Jazlyn’s heart labored hard, unused to its task. Her lungs burned with the constant effort of breathing. But finally she fell into blissful unconsciousness.
Instead of the death-sleep that she had grown accustomed to, she dreamed of the world she was now trying to escape. She dreamed that she was running through a city street at midnight, chasing her frightened prey. She dreamed that she was flying far above the nighttime desert in the form of an eagle. She dreamed that she was walking in a graveyard, toward the grave of her once-husband.
Jazlyn woke gasping for breath. It took her several moments to realize where she was, which was something that hadn’t happened to her in a long time. Her very survival had frequently depended on her ability to wake instantly.
During those confused moments, a vague memory flashed in her mind of meeting a witch who called herself Monica, a witch who had offered to give her back her hard-lost humanity.
But why had the witch —
“Do you usually sleep outside in trees?”
Startled awake, Jessica sat up too quickly and almost fell from her perch. Alex was the one who had spoken. He was sitting, completely at home, on another branch.
“Couldn’t you rustle some leaves next time?” she grumped, though she felt herself beginning to smile at her odd but welcome visitor. “I nearly fell out of the tree. How’d you get up here without my hearing you?”
“I flew.”
Jessica just shook her head.
“Well, if you don’t like it, I’ll get down.” Alex jumped from the branch and landed gracefully, like a cat. Jessica followed more slowly, having no desire to break an ankle by showing off. They walked aimlessly through the darkened woods as they spoke.
“Don’t you live somewhere? Or do you just follow me around all day?” Before, she had asked him a similar question as a joke, but this time she truly wanted an answer. It seemed a bit too much of a coincidence that he was out here tonight.
“I live nowhere,” Alex answered, his voice serious despite the hint of teasing she could see in his eyes, “and it isn’t day.”
Jessica shook her head again as she realized there was no way to get a straight answer from him.
As she contemplated this fact, she noticed a design on his right wrist, which was only visible because his sleeve had slipped up when he had leapt from the tree.
“What’s that?” she asked, pointing to the tattoo.
Alex rolled up his sleeve to reveal the entire design: a black wolf with golden eyes and white fangs stalked across his wrist. Jessica knew this beast; it was Fenris, the giant wolf who swallowed the sun in Norse mythology. Aubrey had the same design on his right wrist.
She took a deep breath to keep herself from speaking until her thoughts were under control.
This could not possibly be a coincidence.
Over the past day, she had struggled to come up with an explanation