I faced the shifter. “From what I’ve seen, if following the rules means leaving a poor mistress at the mercy of childbirth and angering a wife, then you don’t know what being a true leader means.” Not to mention sacrificing servants to gain power.

  Rage pushed against me, throttling me at the core, and my mind kept swaying between the present and falling into a pit of darkness. I whirled toward the door to head after Raze when Len seized my hand, his fat fingers constricting the blood from flowing down my arm.

  “Go back to your human world. White Peak is too much for grubby girls.” His voice was brutal and angry. “There’s only one use for someone like you.” He licked his lips, and I gagged.

  “Ew!” Coldness flooded me, and my rational thinking vanished. I yanked free from his grip.

  Bee. Lilita’s thin voice echoed in the recesses of my mind like rusty hinges creaking.

  My mind swayed in so many directions, and with no sign of Raze or Talin, would she explode out of me like a hurricane and destroy the manor with everyone in it?

  “What is wrong with you?” Len asked, his eyebrow pinching together. “Why are you shaking that way? You better not have brought any human diseases into our home.”

  I was desperate and maybe kissing Len would do the trick? Too many reasons for why that would be a bad idea flooded me, but I didn’t listen, and I lunged at him, my hands gripping his shoulders. Despite my stomach turning over, I kissed him, hard, holding myself against him. Not a single spark.

  His hands shoved into my chest, throwing me backward, and I stumbled a few feet, wiping my mouth of his disgusting taste.

  “Disgusting whore!”

  I gasped but pushed the angry words to the back of my mind. He wouldn’t understand, so I bent over, pretending to scratch my leg. Instead, I retrieved the pouch of herbs with my persuasion spell from my boot. “You are what’s wrong with the world,” I said, noting a few servants peering at us from farther down the corridor. When they saw me looking, their eyes widened, and they ran away.

  They must have seen me as a mad woman, but I didn’t care. Not when I had to find my princes, and the thorny pain indicating Lilita’s presence crawled through my chest.

  She pressed on the forefront of my mind, chuckling.

  “What’s in your hand?” Len’s smug expression fell when I poured a few herbs into my palm. It should wear off in a few days. “You shall never speak ill of anyone again. Never mouth a word about me, and every word you voice will be a compliment.”

  He grimaced. With his fat fingers flying toward my face, I blew the contents toward him.

  “Speak no evil and forget me.”

  He stumbled backward, coughing as if something had caught in his throat. “W-Witch!”

  His eyes rolled backward, and his body trembled. For good measure, I kicked him in the balls for calling me ‘grubby.’

  Len sunk to his knees, then slumped to his side like a sack of potatoes, groaning in pain. “A f-f-f…antastic k…ick.”

  “Where did Talin go?” I demanded.

  “Ou…O…” Shaking, he pointed to the front door before curling in on himself, crying.

  I turned on my heels, smirked, and ran outside, having wasted enough time.

  The guard turned my way, his glares promising me torture. “Len is dying. Something happened to him,” I lied. “Please help him—now!”

  Without so much as a question, his darted inside.

  The sun hovered over the horizon, painting the skies in bloody streaks, as trees beyond the manor gates shook violently in the winds. There was no sign of Talin or Raze.

  A blade might as well have pierced my heart.

  Chapter 21

  Lilita’s voice fluttered through my skull, her laughter shredding my grasp on reality as my vision blurred in and out. I clasped my head with both hands, trying to steady the spinning. Dread punched me in the gut, emptying my lungs. I gasped for each breath as if it were my last.

  Focus. Raze’s kiss, his touch. Electric warmth. I have control. I repeated the chant, picturing myself surrounded by white light, its energy passing through me, cleansing me.

  When a roar exploded from the woods in the distance to my left, I sprinted faster. With a quick look over my shoulder, I didn’t see any guards following. My spell would have confused Len, and he wouldn’t remember me, so that bought us time. But not much.

  Terror raged within me, Lilita lingering closer in my mind. My kiss with Raze hadn’t been enough. Attempting to do the same with Len had failed, but I’d tried out of sheer desperation. The curse connected the princes and me. But it was more than that, I felt it in my bones. They’d shown me their caring natures and returned my desires for them threefold. I craved them every moment of the day. And I wasn’t saying it was right to feel that way about all four men, but I could barely hold on to my sanity, let alone sort through my emotions.

  We should have left the manor the moment we’d found out the duke was hunting and no way should I have taken my eyes off Talin and Raze. I’d hate myself for eternity if they died. I kept picturing them stuck mid-transformation, bolting home toward the castle. Exactly as Talin had said he’d done on their previous attempts to visit his cousin.

  Then I’d be stuck in White Peak woods, and Lilita would make a meal of me—and probably kill everyone in her path. My knees wobbled beneath me. I’d rather die first.

  Once I passed through the gates, I veered left to where the roar had come from. I trampled snow-coated shrubs and foliage. The constant heaviness of my thoughts lingered.

  Raze, where are you? I rubbed the cold out of my arms, thankful my dress had layers of fabric.

  As I jumped over a dead log, a snap of energy shook me at the core.

  Bee. Lilita repeated my name over and over.

  “Shut up!” I pushed onward, hitting my palm against my temple. “You’re not coming out.” I staggered through the woods and ducked under low-hanging branches. “Raze,” I yelled. “Talin?” Please let that be one of them growling.

  My vision toggled between blurring and sharpening.

  Another roar from my left, and the promise of finding the princes propelled me forward. I wove past trees, the chill in the air freezing me.

  Night crawled across the heavens. But that didn’t matter if I didn’t track down my bear shifters.

  When the land sloped downhill, I lost my footing. Snatching the air, I caught a branch, righting myself. My stomach swirled with bile. Falling down a gorge and killing myself would be a painful way to go. But at least Lilita would no longer have been a problem.

  When a grunt came from behind me, I scrambled upright, the tree to my back, and found Talin, disfigured and snarling in his half-bear, half-human form.

  He sneered, the corded muscles in his neck tense and ready to snap. His eyes narrowed, and his long, furry ears twitched as if he heard sounds I didn’t.

  I froze, unable to find my words. Kissing him seemed an impossibility in his state.

  His lips peeled back over sharpened fangs.

  Trembling, I recoiled away with the tree at my back, well aware of what an attack posture looked like. He charged. My foot slipped out from under me.

  Arms flayed outward, I hit the ground and slid down the snow, the momentum dragging me fast, foliage and shrubs tearing my dress and hair, stabbing and ripping at my flesh. I screamed, the world tumbling around me.

  Darkness snapped across my vision, and all sounds faded, replaced with the repetitive thud of my heart, the constricting sensation of being strangled.

  And in my head, Lilita shoved me aside like a rag doll and charged forward.

  I cracked my neck and pulled myself up. I stood at the bottom of a hill—on a damn iced-over river. “Well, one could go worse ways. About time that whiny Bee got out of the way.” Enough of this being nice bullshit, and who the hell delivers a stranger’s baby? Seriously. Now if there had been an option to use the bundle for a spell, then there would have been a purpose. Though, that was still a possibility once I got the manor.

  The baby would help me open the doorway to the underworld. I’d build myself a small army made up of a few thousand demonic spirits. Then the rest of the pieces would fall into place. Take over all of Haven, destroy anyone who stood in my way, and rule this world how the ancients had intended. With war and bloodshed.

  Shaking snow out of my hair, I huffed and stomped up the slope. I jutted my hand outward, drawing on the energy Bee had ignored for so long. A spark of black threads snapped out from the tips of my fingers, hitting the forest floor. “Winds, lift me. Carry me to the duke’s manor.”

  The ground trembled beneath me, as if it had thundered. Wind battered into me. I smirked, slightly turned on by my power.

  Someone tackled me from the side, and I yelled from sheer surprise, falling over.

  Raze grasped my wrists, pinning me down.

  “Oh, boy. Didn’t know you had it in you. You so want some Lilita candy, don’t you?”

  He lay on top of me, his body transforming. Bones cracking, fur bursting across his flesh, his clothes ripping.

  Ah, how delicious they sounded.

  Bee’s shrieks galloped across my thoughts.

  No way in the seven kingdoms of hell would she reach him. I flicked my fingers toward Raze, my floundering power zapping him. He flinched off me in a flash, groaning, and rolled across the ground several feet away.

  “Son of a demon’s ass.” I climbed up, rage boiling through my veins.

  Raze lay there in his human form spent, naked, and vulnerable, his clothes pooled around him in shreds.

  Bee loitered in my ear, and a sense of warming passion swept through me for this bear shifter. “Disgusting.” I turned away and hiked up the hill. Girl, you need to get your priorities straight. What do you think he’ll do to you when he turns? You’re lucky I was here to save us.

  And who walked these days, anyway?

  Energy snaked down my arm, and I unleashed the power. “Winds. Take me into your arms.”

  A gale curled around me, causing my gown to flutter around my legs, my hair to blow across my face, and a tiara to fall off my head. I stepped on it, crushing the piece. In that moment, the gale lifted me off my feet as if it were an invisible hand.

  Raze smacked into me from behind, knocking the wind out of me, and I lurched forward. His arms and legs latched around my body midair, him on top of me. We were still floating and the current whistled in my ears, tearing at me. I bucked against him and elbowed him in the gut.

  That arousal owned me again. Damn, I might actually fall for Raze if he kept teasing me like this.

  He fisted my hair and twisted my chin to face him. His lips clasped mine, and in that precise moment, a sharp jolt shuddered through me. I screamed into his mouth, and panic sliced through me.

  We fell with a thud, and my vision darkened. The earlier pulse across my skin dampened. And Bee was right there, yelling in my skull to fuck off.

  “Raze!” I gasped as I found myself tangled in his arms, my head pounding, my whole body drenched in sweat despite the cold.

  “Bee? Is that you?” He stared at me for an instant and raised himself to kiss me. I grabbed hold of his face and met his lips. I lay in the snow, drowning in his arousal, ecstatic we’d shoved the bitch back into her place. Because taking over White Peak hadn’t been enough, now she threatened to open a portal and dominate all of Haven? What next? Declare herself a goddess? Yep, nothing like having a deranged psycho living inside me.

  Our bodies bonded, burned up, fit perfectly as one.

  “I thought I lost you,” I managed.

  “Me too.” His voice grew raspy and dark, as if he still fought the change. Our foreheads touched, and I kissed his chilled lips once more. I let out a whimper as he rolled me on top of him and kissed me down my neck. His hands groped my ass, and I mewled. The fiery desire ignited between my legs, but this was the wrong time and place.

  I pulled away, battling to fill my lungs despite the arousal pulling me to Raze. “We can’t do this here,” I breathed.

  The corners of Raze’s eyes wrinkled and with a low grunt in his throat, he got up and yanked me to my feet. His hand looped around my back in a hug. He trembled against me, naked.

  I pulled off my cloak and offered it to him.

  He accepted the clothing with no hesitation and threw it over his shoulders, drawing the ribbon at his neck. “How long will the effect last?” he asked, his teeth chattering.

  “No idea. But we must find Talin before he hurts someone or himself.”

  “He’s in the forest with us, attacking anything that moves. He hasn’t bolted home like before. Could it be because we’re within the magic object in the duke’s house?”

  “Maybe.” I swallowed the boulder in my throat, unable to calm my breathing. Or the terror leaching to my lungs. The constant shivers racing up and down my spine with the goddess’s warning. The nightmare we’d landed in.

  “We have a day to get Talin under control and wait for Rek to return before the full moon tomorrow night.” Without waiting, Raze took my hand and hauled me up the steep slope with such strength and mobility—his agility impressed me.

  I gulped for air. “I found out what Rek did to create the curse. He paid a voodoo witch, and they killed a young servant girl. But—”

  “Who told you this?” His voice crackled.

  “His mistress. She saw it firsthand.” We reached the crest of the hill in no time. Only a slither of sunlight remained, and shadows filled the woods.

  Raze stiffened and sniffed the air. He pushed me behind him. “Talin’s here.”

  I shuddered, so exhausted from running for my life, from someone trying to eat me. If I survived, I swore I was taking a trip to the sea with Ariella and sunbathing for a week straight. No drama. No fighting. No being terrified out of my mind.

  Raze darted to my right so fast, I stumbled into a tree. Fuck, fuck! I reached into my boot, retrieved my pouch of persuasion herbs, and poured some into my hand.

  Snow crunched behind me, and I snapped around to find Talin. His shoulders hunched forward, his face twisted into a wild beast’s.

  Coldness sank through me, and terror froze me on the spot. “Talin, it’s me.” I couldn’t catch my breath.

  “Don’t move,” Raze said from somewhere in the woods.

  Facing my death in Talin’s gaze terrified me because that wasn’t the person I’d craved, who loved his brothers, who’d nearly brought me to orgasm from a kiss. Patches of fur covered his torso and arms, one leg resembled a bear’s, the other a human, giving him a slant as he stood. But his face and eyes were his, and my heart broke to see him this way. I recalled his agony at losing his heritage or having no control of himself. Hating what the duke had done to him.

  Talin charged.

  I flinched backward just as another blur whizzed past my peripheral vision. Raze, in human form, collided into Talin’s side, bringing them both down. Not wasting time, I rushed after them and blew the herbs into Talin’s face as he snarled from underneath his brother’s weight.

  “Stop fighting.”

  Talin thrashed, his teeth biting the air between him. No change.

  Raze held down his clawed paws, his strength impressive.

  “It’s not working,” he hissed. “Kiss him—now!”

  My heart slammed into my ribcage. “Are you crazy?”

  Talin snarled, his fangs practically exploding out of his maw.

  “I can’t hold him much longer. Do it!”

  Every inch of me ached, and I couldn’t get myself to move closer. Because when they read out my obituary, they’d say, “Bee died by having her face chewed off by a bear shifter.”

  Chapter 22

  Talin.” I collapsed to my knees on the forest floor next to the prince pinned to the ground by his brother, Raze.

  He trashed and snarled, his body convulsing.

  “Hurry,” Raze growled.

  I stretched out a shaky hand. With my palm over Talin’s brow, I pressed his head to keep him from biting me.

  Raze shuddered from the strain of his brother’s attempts to get free. He straddled his brother’s waist, keeping his arms locked under his knees. He clasped his shoulders down. Talin snapped his teeth, unable to reach Raze’s arms.

  Talin floundered and twisted, but when his eyes met mine, he eased, his expression softening.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” I pleaded, hating to see him this way. But it was for his own safety.

  “Do it now,” Raze demanded.

  My breath hitched, but I kept Talin’s gaze, his attention. With my other hand pressed to his chin, I lowered myself. “Listen to me, Talin,” I continued. “Remember our earlier kiss, how you had me burning up, how I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since.”

  A faint whimper rolled from his throat, and my gut clenched at hearing the agony, knowing he suffered and struggled to escape his imprisonment.

  I inched lower.

  Foliage crunched from up ahead, and someone gasped.

  Before I could react, Talin roared in my face and kicked into a raving animal, exploding with energy. He bucked Raze off and shoved me aside with a hand, catching me on the face. Blood smeared my mouth from my split lip.

  Fear collected in my chest as I dragged myself backward on my butt across the snow, expecting him to pounce.

  But he lunged toward an enormous man with golden locks standing between two trees, carrying a dead boar over his shoulder.

  “Rek,” Raze yelled. “Run!”

  Fuck! That was his cousin! Everything happened too fast, and I staggered to my feet. “Talin, no!” I chased after them, terror bleeding into my veins. Talin would butcher the one person who knew where the cursed object was so we could break the spell.

  Raze darted ahead of me.

  “Don’t let him kill Rek,” I wailed.

  He vanished into the darkness of the forest. I raced after them and jumped over the dropped boar.

 

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