“We have to go now,” she said. She yanked on my wrist and I surrendered to her. I stumbled behind her through the darkened forest, scraping against bark and branches, nearly tripping over my own feet. She moved swiftly and without fault, pulling me behind and keeping me upright.

Within the minute, we arrived at a large rock overhang. Before I could object or consider, she was dragging me under the rock, into a cave.

She released my wrist and turned to leave.

“You’re leaving me here?”

She faced me, silhouetted by the gray light beyond the cave’s mouth. “Under no circumstance should you leave until I come for you.”

And then she was gone, out of the cave, into the forest.

I wanted to cry out for an explanation. I wanted to rush from the hole where she’d hidden me. But I knew if I did, I would face the full wrath of the Fury she’d sworn to protect me from.

A screech split the air and I knew it was Jamie.

I sank farther into the darkness of the cave and slumped to the dirt, mind lost on Jamie. Poor Jamie. I desperately prayed he was still alive.

You were wrong, brother. The Fury are real. They are more real than we could ever have imagined.

Chapter
Seven

MY MIND STIRRED BEFORE MY BODY. I COULD HEAR the chirping of birds and smell the strong aroma of wet grass as my eyes slowly opened. The cave was dim around me, filled with shadows. A chill ran through my bones. A brief beat of curiosity pounded at the back of my mind before the memories of last night came rushing back.

Startled, I jerked up, bumped my head against a rock, and grunted. I grasped my head with both palms, disoriented. I couldn’t remember crawling so far back into the cave, nor falling asleep. Pulling myself forward, I carefully struggled to my knees and then to my feet. I stumbled from the cave, momentarily blinded by the bright sun.

“Heck of a way to wake up,” someone said behind me.

I turned and saw her—the beautiful woman who was either a Fury of a totally different kind than any I’d imagined, or an angel.

I took a misguided stride backward into a log that sent me crashing to the ground. My arms caught the brunt of the fall. Pain shot up through the heels of my hands.

The woman stepped forward to help, and I held up my hand to stop her. I pushed myself back to my feet, a wave of nausea coursing through me, and I swallowed to calm my stomach.

We stood there two paces apart. Seeing her clearly in the light as the morning breeze lifted her hair off her shoulders, I struggled to reconcile this beautiful woman with any of my notions of what a Fury was.

“Thank you,” she said.