Misty
I fell asleep curled around Cole in the late hours of the night. He’d laid me in bed, and I’d immediately pulled him back to me, not ready to give him up just yet.
I can’t tell myself this doesn’t mean anything anymore. This feeling–this overwhelming ache–isn’t growing weaker, and I’m desperate for a way to keep him.
I drew lines over his chest and stomach as we fell asleep in each other’s arms, the sheets tangled and pushed to the edge of the bed, listening to the rain pour over Oasia.
But I wake up to Cole sitting straight up in bed.
I rub my eyes, blinking into the darkness. “What’s wrong?”
He shushes me, his body rigid as he scans the room.
Fear creeps through my body. My heart skips a beat as he slowly, silently, slides out of bed and pulls on his discarded pants, fastening his belt. Still, he looks around, his eyes narrowing as somewhere in the depths of the apartment, a door clicks shut.
I shoot upright. He heard it, too, and holds out a hand in a motion that tells me to stay still, to stay here.
He edges toward the door, which is slightly ajar, and waits.
My heart bounces up my throat as terror blinds my senses. Seeing Cole like this–rigid and… worried… it does something I don’t like to my brain. Anxiety rushes in, followed by adrenaline, and my ears start to ring in warning when Cole slowly opens the door a little further.
“Cole,” I hiss as he steps out of the room, my heart thundering.
He ignores me, standing stoically in the doorway, his back muscles flexing while he scans the living room.
It happens fast. One second, he’s here, and the next, a figure in black is tackling him to the ground back into our room.
I scream as the figure brandishes a blade and tries to jab it into Cole’s neck, but Cole rolls with the man toward the bed.
I jump to my feet, running to the end of the mattress. “Cole!”
A second figure enters the room in a black cloak with his hood covering his face. He looks at Cole before turning his head in my direction, his profile catching the faint, dreary morning light coming through the windows.
Nathan narrows his eyes at me then stalks in my direction.
I hold my hand out in warning. “Don’t come any closer,” I snap.
He pulls a long blade from his cloak, the curved metal barely visible in the darkness. Cole, meanwhile, gets on top of the first man and snatches his knife from him, lodging it in the stranger's throat. A sharp gasp of pain echoes around the room, but Cole’s already on his feet and barreling toward Nathan.
“Stop!” I shout, worried I’ll hit Cole with my powers instead of my intended target–my disgusting ex-boyfriend.
I’m not sure what to do. I gape as Cole sends a fist flying, his knuckles splintering against Nathan’s jaw. But Nathan is… different. Cole’s normally much stronger than him. Cole’s built, and fast, and Nathan is more a “gym rat” than the man I love–
Love. The word tangles through my head at the most inopportune moment. Stupidly, I leap off the bed and crash into the men just as they collide.
Cole grunts in pain when my elbow collides with his collarbone. The three of us hit the ground–hard–falling through a dainty little table.
Nathan doesn’t make a single sound. He rises, quick on his feet, and grabs my leg.
I kick wildly, my toes meeting his groin with a crunch, but he doesn’t so much as flinch.
That’s when I notice the faint green light creeping through his eyes.
Panic drowns my senses. “Cole!”
Nathan drags me across the floor. Cole is on all fours, trying to catch his breath. I turn to look back at him at the same moment he pulls Nathan’s blade from his side, blood spraying. Nathan stabbed him right in the ribs.
Fear clouds my senses. I go slack, unable to tear my gaze from Cole as he sways, trying to catch up to us, but he has to brace himself on the doorframe while Nathan continues to drag me away. “COLE!!”
I reach for him, begging my powers to activate, and send a beam of what I hope are my healing powers toward him.
Something hits me over the head–hard.
My vision blurs. I choke on my own breath, fighting the sharp, throbbing pain echoing from my left temple. Pressure builds behind my eyes while I’m pressed into the tiles and quickly realize Nathan is stepping on my head as hard as he can.
It hurts so bad. I grit my teeth, my eyes water as I watch Cole struggling to stay upright–fighting his way toward me while blood gushes from his side. His eyes shine like he’s trying to shift. He’s too hurt. I can see it in his gaze as desperation whispers over his face.
I reach for him again, crying out as I send my healing powers toward him. Just as my light fans over Cole, and Nathan lifts his foot to no doubt crunch his boot through my skull, Cole shifts.
There’s blood everywhere. His gaping, open chest wound erupts but doesn’t stop him from careening toward Nathan in all his wolfish-glory. Cole is a massive wolf. Huge, and fast, he leaps off his claws and collides with Nathan.
I roll away, landing back on my belly, and watch in horror as Cole tackles Nathan to the ground, busting through the bistro table where I would have been having breakfast a few hours from now.
Nathan writhes, trying to kick out from Cole’s hold, but Cole rips into Nathan’s chest with a massive golden claw.
Blood gurgles through Nathan’s scream. I feel a pinch of regret for him. A single sliver of the feelings I used to have for him flare to life.
That hesitation–the sudden need to call out to Cole to tell him to stop–must show in my face because Cole says into my mind, ‘If you want him to live, tell me now. You can heal him, but you need to know that he asked for this. He wants to work with Richard, and he likely asked to be cursed.’
My mouth goes dry. I think of all our good times. Introducing Nathan to my family. Flirting and giggling at the bar in Serpentia. Kissing in shadowed corners of the university. Watching his track meets…
But then I think of my Grandpa Maddox and his concerns, his doubts. I think of Nathan’s lying. His affair. His lying, again.
How he would have killed me just now if Cole hadn’t stopped him.
I nod, but close my eyes as Cole bites through Nathan’s neck.
I hear the sound of flesh tearing and… and Nathan’s head rolling across the tiles…
I pinch my eyes shut, stifling a horrified sob as a larger thud echoes through our sleepy, normally quiet and totally spotless apartment–now wet and crimson with blood.
A scream tears the air. Lavender’s shrill, terrified voice breaks as she cries, “Oh, my Goddess! Where are they?!”
Three sets of hurried footsteps rush in my direction, but I can’t look away from the scene in front of me, not now that I’ve opened my eyes.
Cole is bleeding profusely, lying limp in his wolf form next to what’s left of Nathan’s mangled, headless body.
I crawl, ignoring Orion’s shouts, ignoring Lavender bellowing as she sobs. I ignore the third male voice, lifted in alarm. I imagine it’s Cole’s commander, Abernathy, whatever his first name is. I reach Cole’s side and flatten my hands over his chest, sending my healing powers ripping into his body, stitching him back together again, piece by piece.
But then Orion kneels beside me, his hand on my back. “Do it. Cure him.”
“Richard will know.” My voice doesn’t sound like my own. It’s far away, dreamy, and nearly lifeless. I’m so tired of this. I just want to wake up beside Cole. I want to eat breakfast and go for a walk, to go to the store to buy groceries and get distracted by Solstice decorations like a normal couple. I want to bicker over our Solstice plans. I want to take him to see my family and vice versa. I want to fall asleep with him in our bed, in a home we share and made ours. I want a future where he slides a ring on my finger and calls me his wife. I want to cry with him in our car when we drop our kids off at kindergarten for the first time. I want to watch his hair turn gray and the creases around his eyes grow with age.
I want a different life with him.
I want a shot at that.
But that isn’t what fate had in store for us, is it?
Tears cloud my eyes, roaring down my cheeks and falling onto his fur. Orion rubs my back like I’m one of his children that he’s comforting, his fingers curling around my shoulder in solidarity. “Leave the scars but kill the curse. You can do it. I’ve seen you do it.”
I meet his eyes. They’re pleading, filling with tears. “He won’t leave, even if I break the curse.”
“But he won’t be Richard’s puppet anymore. Give him this. Do this for him.”
“He doesn’t want it.”
“He will never admit that he’d lost his will to live–to even try–until he found you. Do this for him. Give him a chance–”
My powers surge against my will. My wants, hopes, and dreams blur my actions. Maybe it’s selfish. Maybe he’ll look back on this moment and hate me, but I won’t let him die like this. If he wants to die in a blaze of glory fighting for his kingdom, fine. Be my fucking guest, Cole. But I won’t let a curse spun by a madman take him.
I’ll kill him myself before I let Richard hurt him anymore.
Isn’t that what Cole said he’d do for me? Kill me so Richard couldn’t have me?
I close my eyes as the first wave of the curse fights back. I know the feeling now. I know the push and pull of my powers fighting something ancient and terribly strong–something that doesn’t want to give him up.
But, he’s mine. No one else–nothing else–gets to have him. Just me.
Orion stays by my side as my powers untangle the curse. I don’t need a blade of mist this time. I take it apart, fractal by fractal, turning green light to ash, turning the bloody room around us to a cloud of smoke so thick I can’t breathe, but I don’t give up.
Cole’s curse runs deep, and it takes all of my strength–all of my power–to erase it. But, I leave the scars. They’ll be there forever–a constant reminder of what he had to do for his kingdom and for me.
Maybe Richard won’t notice it’s gone with the scars still in place. That’s my hope as my body starts to freeze, my powers shuddering until they flicker out.
I’m barely aware of Lavender behind me, her shaking hands cupping my face so I have to look into her teary eyes.
“You did it, sweet girl,” she hums, giving me a sad smile.
I don’t feel Commander Abernathy trying to scoop me into his arms and barely register him telling Orion he’s going to put me in the tower for safe keeping.
But then Cole’s voice echoes around us. I blink, and he’s here, his body draped in a robe someone must have thrown onto him when he transformed back into his human form. He takes my face in his bloody hands and kisses me deeply, ignoring the eyes watching our every mood.
“Thank you,” he murmurs against my lips.
I feel myself slipping, falling into that dark, endless sleep. I can’t fight it this time. I used my powers to their breaking point repeatedly, over and over, for weeks now. Healing him, healing others, fighting for my life against the terrors of our situation.
I slip in and out of consciousness for the next two days. Cole is always here–with me. I’m not sure he’s left my side. I pick up bits and pieces of the conversations he has with whoever visits our apartment in the castle–which has been cleaned of blood and the bodies removed. I heard mention of a dress. Cole wants it to be pink, a specific shade. Bubble gum. My favorite color.
But he’s sad and stressed. He knits his fingers in mine when we’re alone and tells me stories about his childhood, his brother, and Annabel.
On the second day of my second power haze, I hear Lavender's voice drifting through the room, and something strange on my belly–cold, and firm.
“There’s a heartbeat,” she whispers, softly, her voice a drifting flicker of noise in my numb brain.
“Have they confirmed they’ll come? It’s been days,” Cole replies in a broken voice.
“Not yet, but this is her only chance to get out. Both of them.”
I slip back into the darkness with Cole’s fingers squeezing mine.