Chapter 15 15
Elias's POV
I could not stop pacing.
Back and forth across the narrow courtyard of Malarik's refuge I prowled, my claws clicking rhythmically against stone. My wolf body was both native and alien to me. The power in my muscles, the acuity of my senses, traveling on four feet rather than two—everything felt right in a way my human body never had. Yet it was also frightening because I couldn’t change back.
I had tried. Several times during the last couple of days while Narnia slept. I'd willed it so hard my head throbbed, put all of my willpower on getting my body to move. Sometimes I could feel it coming on, the bones starting to resettle, fur retreating a bit. Then I would feel a shaft of pain like lightening, and whiplash backwards into wolf shape as though bound in invisible chains.
I was trapped in this shape. And I didn’t know if I would ever be human again.
I could feel Narnia’s heartbeat through the walls of stone. Long, slow rhythm of deep sleep. I could feel her breath, almost smell her on the outside. There was a constant level of awareness of her that always seemed to be at the back of my mind.
The mate bond. I understood that now.
Brother Malarik had told me on the first night when I wouldn't allow anyone near Narnia's unresponsive body but him. He kept me company in the court, till I lay at her window like a watchful monster.
“She forged the bond when she healed you,” he said. Her strength seeped into yours and yanked you back from death. In so doing, she bound your lives. That was Selene's gift, her curse. Not as punishment, but destiny.”
I wanted to deny it. But what pulled me toward Narnia came from deeper than that, from the wolf who had lived in my soul all along.
She was mine. And I was hers. The bond was absolute.
But how could I accept that? I saw Selene’s words every time I looked at Narnia. I watched the suffering my father had wrought — the blood he brought, the curse he wore.
The door creaked open, and Malarik strode onto the yard. He had stacks of books under one arm and a cup of tea clutched in his other hand.
“Still pacing,” he noted with a thin smile.
I growled and sighed at the same time.
Malarik sat on a bench. "She is still sleeping peacefully. Her body is healing. She will recover."
I leaned in, my body towering over him. I wanted to talk, to ask the questions that were scorching in my mind.
Malarik understood anyway. “You’re always wondering what happens next. Which you may or may not ever be, human. If this bond can be broken."
I nodded awkwardly.
“The bond is unbreakable without killing one or both of you,” Malarik said softly. "And as for your becoming like that, you're not cursed, Elias. You are just what you were supposed be all along.”
He placed a hand on my head. “Your dad wasn’t an ordinary hunter. I've spent 2 days looking through my archives. Kael Varron was ordered to even go so far as carrying out the mission of capturing Selene alive. The Guild demanded her blood for experiments. But your father defied orders."
I stared at him, every nerve wired.
"He killed her instead. Quickly and mercifully. For she was carrying Narnia, and he could not allow the Guild to claim mother and child together. He knew what they would do. So he concluded that and lied to save Narnia.”
The words hit like blows. My father showed mercy?
“Selene didn’t curse us for killing her,” Malarik told them. “It was for everything he had done before. For hunting and slaughter over the years. She cursed him this way so that his son would comprehend. Would know what it was to be the prey. But she also gave you a gift. The opportunity to be what your father could not. To opt for peace over war.”
I rested my head on my paws, feeling the weight of destiny.
"Rest," Malarik said. "She will wake soon."
Three hours later, I noticed her breathing change. Her heartbeat quickened. She was waking.
I was on my feet in an instant, striding toward her door. Malarik shook his head. "Give her space. She will be disoriented."
I disregarded him and opened the door.
Narnia was in bed, her white hair flowing over the pillow. Her eyes opened, two different colored eyes that haunted my dreams. Confusion clouded her expression.
Then she looked at me and her eyes widened.
"Elias?" she whispered.
I inched forward, the sound of my claws clicking gently. I wanted to tell her everything was okay, and that she was safe. But I had no words. Just a gurgly one from my chest.
Narnia struggled to rise, flinching as she did so. Her arms shook, still weak. But her eyes never left mine.
"You're still in wolf shape," she croaked. "Can you not shift back?"
I shook my head.
Her face was a mixture of comprehension and worry. She held my hand and I helped her to the edge of the bed, where she swung her legs over. She gripped me on my head, to stabilise herself and that fire flamed between us. Warm and electric.
“I’ve healed you,” she said softly, with quick fingers stroking me through my pelt. "I remember. You were dying of silver poisoning, and I could not allow you to die."
She looked at her hands. There was still a slight silver sheen to her skin.
"I do not know how I did it. I simply could not let you die.”
I pushed my head into her leg. circumstance In that exchanged contact, I was warmed through.
"What is happening to us?" she whispered.
Malarik appeared in the doorway. “What’s going on is you all are mates. Your souls have picked each other. The connection was a result of Selene's curse, but it slumbered until you were healed by Narnia. It was that act of sacrifice that sealed the connection.”
Narnia stared at him. "Mates? Like wolves mate for life?"
"Exactly. The bond is permanent. You will know with your nth sense where the other is, what his emotions are. One feels the pain of the other. When one goes, the other does too. You’re joined, body and soul.”
"But I don't even know him," Narnia weakly objected. "How can we be mates?"
“The heart doesn’t work in the rational,” Malarik said. “It’s not a question of whether you’re mates, it’s what will you do about it.”
Narnia peered down at me, questing. I saw fear and confusion, and anger. But also something else. Hope.
With both forehands she reached out to my face, taking hold of the muzzle. "I should hate you. For everything. But I cannot. And that terrifies me."
I leaned into her touch. And if I could speak, I would say that I felt the same.
There was a pause between us, something fragile and tender.
Then the world exploded.
The blast shook the sanctuary, threw Narnia off the bed and forced me to stumble. Books flew from shelves. Glass shattered. The walls trembled.
I was instantly up from my chair, the door between Narnia and me. I saw flames going up the forest through the window. Orange and red, moving impossibly quickly.
A voice boomed, magnified by sorcery until it seemed to emerge from all directions.
"Elias Varron! Narnia Voss! You the Archon Serras Tarren, have come for! You can't run from the Guild. Lay down your arms, or we shall burn this forest to the ground — and everyone in it. You have one hour to decide.”