Page 43 of Fae Unleashed
CERRI
Faust was a son of a bitch, I knew that much.
However, the face hovering above my own didn’t belong to him. It belonged to a dead man. That was how I knew this was a nightmare. Knowing and feeling were two very different things here, though.
Alvin Combs grinned wide as he forced me to my knees. He gripped my chin hard enough to crack bone. Claws pierced my skin. That feral gleam overcame his eyes. This was how the hunt would begin.
Was this what his victims saw? Those girls that Addie and Ness dug up, had they been in my position? I wondered if their hearts had raced the same way. Or had they given in to their demise?
Dread and exhaustion wanted to overtake me. I could feel both creeping in from either side. My limbs turned heavy, arms dangling at my sides and knees refusing to lift me to let me run.
Alvin yanked me close, forcing me to catch myself on my useless hands. “Do you think you’ll ever be able to escape me?”
A shiver raced up my spine. My blood turned frigid as ice slid in to freeze my mind. I trembled before Alvin while a part of my mind screamed that this wasn’t right. I had no idea what that meant.
I should have been running.
I needed to escape.
If I could get out, then I would live!
You’re falling for it. This isn’t who you really are!
Alvin shoved me away. I collapsed to the ground. Though I tried to pull myself together, my body refused to cooperate. Trembling hands and weak knees could do nothing while this man dropped and shifted into the largest wolf I’d ever seen.
I reached inside myself for the wolf that I should have been born with, but there was nothing there.
Wait, I could feel somethi—
Alvin tossed his head back and howled. The sound shook the bright daytime. I flinched and pulled in on myself.
Run, you fool. You need to RUN!
Miraculously, I shot to my feet. I turned and lurched without knowing where I was headed. All I knew was that anywhere away from him was better than here.
The unforgiving earth pricked at my bare feet. I should have winced, but there was no pain. Another sensation rippled beneath the balls of my feet. I couldn’t quite figure out what it was when my lungs burned and my heart threatened to burst.
I should have known that this day would come. It was only a matter of time before Alvin set his sights on me. I’d always been the weakest of the Pack. I had no natural defenses. The moment that Ness was removed from the picture, I was on my own.
Ness...was alive. Where was she, though? Why couldn’t I remember where she’d gone? Alvin hadn’t killed her. I knew that down to my very bones. He wasn’t capable of anything like that.
No shit,the voice in my head said.And he can’t killyou, either.
What did that mean? I had no power of my own. Potion-crafting was the only thing I’d ever been good at, and I had no potions here. My pockets were empty. My cauldron was miles away at home.
Alvin’s thundering footfalls rushed up behind me. Any moment now would be my last. Why did I think I could outrun an Alpha wolf shifter? I’d known since the first moment I’d laid eyes on him that he would be the death of me.
Oh, quit that shit. We don’t cower before him. There’s no use in fearing a dead man.
My feet tangled beneath me. Fear turned my mind to mush. My thoughts refused to be coherent. The only voice that remained steady was the one in the back of my mind.
This couldn’t kill me. It wasn’t real.
The ground offered its power. Arcana bled out of the earth and suffused my body. I gasped. The voice in the back of my mind became the one in the forefront. Memories rushed back to me.
Rhoan. Tal. Delphine. Faust. Beryl…
I sat up and looked Alvin in the eye. Truth be told, I was more annoyed with myself than I was with Faust. Shame on me for letting him overwhelm me like that. I’d known that it was Faust’s machinations the moment I dropped into this nightmare, and yet it’d overtaken me a bit.
