A Love Untamed (Feral Warriors #7)(75)

“What if we’re wrong?”

“What if we’re not?” Melisande stroked his back, pleasing him utterly. “Is there a way to test your theory?”

Goose bumps rose on his arm, and he shivered. Feck. He was about to get another mishmash of intuitions. She’s the real Kara. She’s the key. Lie down and go to sleep.

Damned useless intuition.

Taking a deep breath, he attempted to calm his mind. He’d been at Feral House such a short time, he didn’t have the history with Kara that might have afforded him information the Mage might not have. And perhaps there wasn’t anything the Mage didn’t know since they had access to the real Kara and, possibly, her memories.

But would the soulless Mage remember what it was to love a mate? And, goddess help him, he was beginning to think he did.

He turned away from the caging and his futile struggle to keep it from moving. Striding to Kara, he grabbed the screeching woman’s arm roughly. “Lyon’s furious with you for running away from Feral House, you bitch.”

She gasped, cowered. “It wasn’t my fault! They took me against my will.”

No, this woman was not Kara. Lyon worshipped the air his mate breathed, and his mate knew it. The real Kara wouldn’t believe, even for a second, that Lyon was angry with her.

Goddess help me if I’m wrong. He pulled his blade and, with one vicious swipe, cut off her head.

“Fox!” Castin lunged at him, then stopped abruptly as the woman, the cage, and the town disappeared, leaving them once more standing among the trees on the mountainside where they’d started.

Castin stared at him, the shock of Fox’s action still in his eyes. “How did you know?”

“Once you meet our Radiant, you’ll understand.”

“Look,” Melisande said.

Fox turned to find a fortress sitting high on the mountainside not more than a quarter of a mile away. His jaw dropped, a smile lifting his mouth. “Inir’s stronghold.”

He held out his hand for Melisande, and together, the three started toward it. But they’d traveled no more than a dozen yards when shouts echoed in the distance as dozens of Mage sentinels began to flow out of the fortress’s main gates.

The three of them exchanged glances.

“We broke their toy,” Fox murmured.

Melisande grunted. “So much for the element of surprise.”

This was not a battle for a Feral who wasn’t healing, an Ilina who couldn’t mist, and a shifter who couldn’t shift. If he could be certain that the temporal cage had been disabled for good, he might try to find Lyon and the others before breaching the fortress. But the labyrinth could reset at any time, the other Ferals could be anywhere, and the real Kara needed them. Now.

“Any plan on how to get in there?” Castin asked.

Fox was about to shake his head no, when something about the rocky terrain far below the fortress caught his eye. A tree formation he’d seen before. And suddenly he remembered. The flashback he’d had on the beach, the one where he’d entered a tunnel through the rock. Sly had stolen into some place he shouldn’t have been, desperate to reach a woman he’d been in love with. A woman, he’d realized too late, who had already had her soul stolen. Fox had felt Sly’s heart cave at the realization, and been privy to his thoughts as he’d chosen to go forward anyway, to steal her away and try to help her reclaim her soul. A task at which he’d obviously failed.

But this was the fortress Sly had breached. And whether or not they could do the same, and not get caught, was anyone’s guess.

There was only one way to find out.

“I can get us in there.”

Castin glanced at him curiously.

Melisande, too. “You’ve seen it in one of your flashbacks.”

“Aye. I know of a hidden entrance in the rock far below the castle. If it’s still there, and still open, I can find it. What I don’t know is if the Mage have it guarded.”

Castin shrugged. “I don’t have a better plan.”

“Me, either,” Melisande said, glancing at Castin. Fox watched her look at the other male, saw the way her brows dipped, confusion in her eyes where before there had only been raw hatred.

Now that she knew the truth, and Fox believed Castin had told it, would she have feelings for the male again? Was it possible to hate someone for so long, even mistakenly, then begin to care for them again? He didn’t know and was pretty sure he didn’t want to find out.

Ignoring the twist of jealousy as he did the pain of the cut on his chest that still hadn’t fully healed, he started forward, Melisande falling into step beside him, Castin beside her. He took Melisande’s hand, relieved when she grasped his tightly, and together the three made their way toward the mountain and their one chance at reaching Kara.

Halfway to their destination, the magic swept through him without warning and he shifted into his fox. Dammit. Worse, he lay down on a pile of dead leaves and pine needles and, struggle as he might, could not force himself to stand.

Panic flew through his head. Deep inside, he felt his animal spirit cry out. The darkness was getting too strong.

“Wulfe! To your left!” Lyon’s voice rang across the beach, over the shouts of the half-naked painted warriors bearing down on them in growing numbers.

They’d battled more than a dozen of them already, but they just kept coming.