The humming in my blood drowns out everything else as I approach the crumbling walls. Gone are the nighttime calls of owls, the soft sound of crickets, the beating of wings overhead, and the rumble of Kieran’s voice. My hand reaches out on its own to touch the weathered stone.
As soon as my fingers make contact with the cool, rough surface, the world in my head explodes with vivid colors and sounds.
Memories.
A woman with ash blonde hair and heterochromia smiles down at me. She smells like summer rain and wildflowers, and when she smiles, her front teeth are just slightly, charmingly, crooked.
A strong, broad-shouldered man with curly salt and pepper hair swings me back and forth by my chubby baby arms. His is strong and protective, but also soft and gentle.
Running through the streets of the ruins, which were once whole and beautiful, filled with the bustle of daily life. Pack members greeting each other, children playing, shifter teens trying on their wolf forms for the first time. The pack bond flows around everyone, the sense of community and belonging so strong it makes my heart ache. This is it, this is the feeling that’s been pulling me here: home.
Then suddenly it’s dark. Fear fills the air. Fae magic hangs all around us like a noxious fog, so strong even I can smell it. My mother’s face, twisted with determination as she takes me by the hand and pulls me toward a symbol drawn on the floor in white chalk.
“To protect you,” she whispers, lighting a stick of ash wood on fire, the smoke so strong it chokes me. “To keep you safe.”
My father’s voice, urgent and protective. “They’re coming. We have to hurry?—”
The memories hit me like a physical blow and move through my body, disappearing like smoke on the wind. I’m back in the ruins, in the dark forest. My knees buckle and the world starts to spin.
Before I can hit the ground, strong arms catch me and hold me close as I tremble.
“I’ve got you.” Kieran’s voice is a warm, familiar rumble in my ear, his warm chest pressed up against me. “Whatever it is, you’re not alone, Aurora. I’m here.”
I shiver and shake in his arms, the visions still swirling through my mind, accompanied by the strongest emotions I’ve ever felt. I should pull away from him. I should put up walls, keep the distance. Instead I reach out to grasp his forearm, shuddering at the force of the desire that flows through me from a simple touch of skin.
Taking a deep breath, I look up into his startlingly blue eyes. His face is inches from mine, his breath fanning my cheek. The air between us crackles with tension, and I feel his arms tighten around me. His gaze drops to my lips. He wants to be close just as much as I do.
The pull of the mate bond thrums beneath my skin, urging me closer, pushing me to become so close we’re one. For a moment, the past is nothing but the past. It would be so easy tolean up, to close the small distance between us. I can see in his eyes that he wants it just as much as I do.
Except he doesn’t.
Because he rejected me.
Chapter 16
Kieran
As soon as the sun is up, Aurora wants to go into the ruins. I’m reluctant to let her after watching the way she swayed on her feet last night, her gaze distant and glazed, but I know there’s no stopping Aurora Blackburn. So I insist at least that she let me go with her, once we’re sure it’s safe.
“This is our mission, Kieran,” she points out with frustration in her voice. “Whether it’s safe or not, we have to do it.”
“Just… let me make sure this isn’t some kind of fae trap. Pack Onyx land isn’t supposed to start for another half mile.” Pulling out my map, I scan our surroundings while she stares me down, impatiently tapping her foot. “I just want to make sure that we aren’t in the wrong place.”
“The wrong place? Like the type of place that makes me feel as if I’m home for the first time in my life? A place where I touch crumbling stone and see my parents for the first time in my life?”
This is going to be a lot easier if I let her lead the way, I’m realizing. “Alright, alright. Just don’t go anywhere I can’t see you, okay? And if I give the alarm because I smell fae magic?—”
“We’ll both get the hell out. Got it.”
With that settled as best as it can be, we hide her bike behind a screen of fallen deadwood, then head into the ruins. The sun isjust beginning to rise, casting long shadows through the empty streets and crumbling buildings. It’s hard to tell where the pack lands begin and the forest ends—over time, the two have merged so completely that they blend together. But I can feel the stirring of magic around us, and wonder if the pack lands are waking to the presence of one of their own.
Aurora moves with a purpose, her steps guided by some invisible force I can’t see. She seems to know where each of the next crumbling bit of wall will be, how to navigate the narrow streets and cracked sidewalks. I watch her without restraint, the golden hue of her hair gorgeous in the rising sunlight, her mismatched eyes wide with curiosity. A longing for home goes through me, like an echo of the pull she feels—only I know it’s my wolf’s longing forherthat I’m feeling more than anything.
“Can you smell that?” she asks, stopping suddenly in front of a crumbling storefront with broken plate glass windows. “It’s like… baking bread.”
I inhale deeply, but all I can smell is mildew, rot, and traces of old magic. “Nothing but ruins to my nose. What do you see?”
Her eyes go distant, the amber iris golden in the light, her blonde hair once again falling in front of the blue eye. “Everything is whole again. The signs are painted, the sidewalks are paved, and the roads are covered with foot traffic. It’s… some kind of fall festival. There are kids with painted faces and carved jack-o’-lanterns on the porches of the houses. And there—” She points to a pile of rubble covered in growing ivy. “That was a fountain. There was a bronze statue of a howling wolf in the middle.”
