The mystery of the wargs’ nature was unraveling, and yet there were still so many layers to peel back I wondered if I would ever reach the heart of them. Of him.

“You’re ours, Ellis.” Heat flickered in his gaze. “Mine.”

The single word, rumbled in his guttural and possessive voice, threatened to liquefy me where I lay. Forcing myself to remember he was no longer a wolf I could pet when the mood struck me, I shoved upright on wobbly arms and blinked at our surroundings. “Where are we?”

“The caves beneath the pond.” He glanced around too, as if he hadn’t dared peel his eyes away from me to examine the oddly civilized space where we found ourselves. This had been the sprite’s home, and it still looked the part. There were sconces mounted to the walls, but no fire, and the walls glowed with bioluminescence. “We’ve been down here the better part of an hour, and I haven’t heard a peep. I can smell her. It’s Harlow, but it’s Charybdis too. His scent is overlaying hers. His imprint is stronger, because the kelpie nested here too.”

“So she might still be down here.” With the pack in the forest, she hadn’t had many places to run or much time to make her escape before we disturbed her. I pushed to my feet, and Graeson caught me before I stumbled. “How did you know to find me at the lake?”

“I went to the Garzas after you hatched your brilliant scheme.” Sarcasm thickened his voice. “I wanted to quiz them about the magic you planned to use.”

“Oh.” I rubbed my throat. No gills. No goo. Just smooth skin and scabs from where I had clawed myself. “The magic didn’t work for me. It washed off in the water.”

“I had a little better luck.” His gaze went serious. “We almost didn’t make it.”

“You don’t have gills either.” That I would have noticed. “What went wrong? Why didn’t it work? What did the Garzas tell you?”

“Enzo said without a sample he couldn’t be certain, that he’d bet the magic was keyed to humans. To have it keyed to Harlow specifically would require DNA samples, fresh ones, constantly, in order to keep up with minute changes in her biology.” Graeson shrugged. “He figured there was a fifty-fifty shot it would work on me, but on you…” His eyes narrowed with admonition. “There was no chance of it working with fae biology, not when it was meant to allow a human to mimic a fae.”

“I should have tested it beforehand.” I suppressed the urge to fidget. “There wasn’t time.”

“You would have had plenty of time if you had died,” he scolded. “All of eternity.”

I dipped my head and let the words come. “Thank you for saving me.”