“What. The. Hell. Is that?” Kade’s confusion broke me out of my spell and I looked up, following his gaze. Before me, on the far wall a … mirage had appeared. The wall was gone and a field of green grass now stood a mere six feet from us. The edges of the mirage were fuzzy but the picture inside so clear, so real. In the distance seemed to be huge mountains, lots of vast wilderness, and colors beyond anything I’d seen before. Everything looked like I could reach through and touch it. I had seen images during my Summit task, but nothing like this. This was almost … real.
“Beware!” That familiar mecca voice echoed within the room and I froze, chills running up my arms. It sounded like my mother – I would swear it was her – but my instincts were telling me it wasn’t. Kade looked at me with one eyebrow raised.
“Did you hear that?” I asked him, unsure of what to do now. No one else had heard the voice before so I was astonished when he nodded.
“Yes,” he said. “And I’m not liking this.”
The image shifted slightly then, and a figure ran into view. My eyes were locked on, drinking in all the details. He was tall, wearing tan, fitted leather pants, a vest made of something similar, and tall soft looking boots. He held an intricate bow in his hands, ivory colored, looking like it was carved from bone. There was an arrow nocked in it. The male was looking away from us, his head turned to the side, which gave me a perfect view of his slightly pointy ears.
“Is this a memory, or something more?” Kade said, his voice low. He was doing that thing again where he tried to step in front of me.
At Kade’s whisper, the hunter went still. His body going rigid, he whipped his head around and looked right at us.
“Not a memory,” I said in a rush. Holy heck! This was an actual portal into the Otherworld.
The fae’s brow furrowed, and before I could even think, he released the arrow.
“No!” Kade ripped his hand off the mecca crystal, and in a move almost too fast for me to track, thrust his arm out to intercept the projectile. It shredded through his hand, coming out the other end to rest against my chest. That bastard fae had been aiming straight for me, without thought or remorse. He had wanted to kill.
I tore my hand from the crystal, stumbling backward, and the mirage winked out in an instant. Finding my feet again, I rushed to Kade’s side. He was just standing there, blood dripping from his hand, staring at me.
“Are you okay?” I tried to see his wound better. He was still staring at me.
“Kade! We need to get a healer to look at this.”
He finally snapped out of his stupor, wincing as he looked down at his hand. “This is no normal arrow. It is laced with something that hurts like hellfire.” Gritting his teeth, he reached with his uninjured hand and gripped the tip of the arrow. In a quick movement, he snapped the head off and then pulled the arrow out. As soon as it was gone, blood spurted out of the wound and flowed easily as I rushed to apply pressure.
“It’s not healing!” I said.
Kade shook his head. “It’s doused in something … magic or poison.” His eyes darkened then. “You would have died, Ari.”
Finn, get Violet and have her come to the mecca crystal room. Kade’s hurt. No matter how far in the world I was from my familiar, I could always call on him. I could have called on Violet too, as her queen alpha, but it would have taken too much time to sort through all the pack bonds within me. Time I didn’t have right now.
I leaned in closer, my voice shaking as I said, “You saved me. Again.”
My hands were pressing hard, sandwiching his injured hand, trying in vain to stop the bleeding. Kade was right. This arrow would have eviscerated my heart and kept it from regenerating.
He lifted his uninjured hand and cupped my face, those stunning eyes swimming with emotion. “Don’t take a mate. It would be a mistake.”
It got even harder to breathe than normal, but before I could do anything or reply, Violet was with us inside the room. She started toward us but couldn’t make it all the way.
“Let’s get out of here!” she shouted, her face crumpling as she fought the energy. In my panic over Kade I’d forgotten how strong the mecca energy was here. Either I’d gotten used to it, or Kade was shielding me from the worst of the effects.
Definitely Kade. He was always protecting me.
Keeping a tight hold on his hand, we waded through the magic to reach the tunnel and make our way out. Violet was already gone, no doubt waiting for us on the other side. Once we were all in the library room, and the pulse of mecca shut off behind the now closed door, Kade took a seat in one of the large reading chairs. The magic born wasted no time examining his hand. The first thing Violet did was smell it, her delicate nose crinkling prettily. Then she ran her palm over the top of it, hovering about half-an-inch from the wound.
She whistled low, her head coming up so she could see me. “Nasty old magic. I can fix it though.”
She produced a bottle of liquid that resembled molten gold. Sometimes my friend was a walking apothecary; she almost always had the right elixir on hand – part of her extra-sensory, see the future thing. She focused on Kade. “You ready, King Kade? This is going to hurt like nothing you have ever experienced before…”
He looked at me. “I doubt that.”
My heart clenched and ached. His meaning was clear, and so was the sorrow between us. Duty came first, for us both, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t painful. Our moment was broken when Violet poured the molten gold onto his palm and it began to smoke and sizzle. The bellow out of Kade’s mouth had me and the magic born taking a big step backward; it had been the deepest bear roar I’d ever heard. My guards rushed into the room with weapons drawn, but upon seeing Kade, gritted teeth, rumbling chest, and bloodied hand, they lowered their weapons.
Violet looked impressed. “The last guy I did that to cried like a baby and passed out.”
Kade took a deep settling breath and turned his hand over to see both sides of it. There was a shining gold filling the hole, and after a few moments the gold faded, turning into fresh pink skin.
“I cried a little on the inside,” he said with a wink. Violet and I laughed at the same time, a nervous yet relieved sort of cackle.
“Okay, let’s never do that again,” I said.
Kade shrugged. “Not the most pleasant experience, but we might have just found our greatest weapon, and possibly a way to fix the mecca.”
His meaning hit me then. Holy crap. We had a way into the fae lands. Could we fit soldiers through that mirage portal? If an arrow came through to our end, then surely we could send things into their lands. But why would we want to? Unless he meant…
“So if we could figure out how to manipulate the mecca, we might be able to use the stones to send the energy back to their side of the veil?” I asked, not sure if that was his way to fix the mecca.