The Wolf Crown (The Wolf Kings #2) (MLM)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

                Jack didn't see the Seer at first. They entered the lit tunnel into an even wider cavern, stalactites and stalagmites threatening to fall over their heads or pierce the soles of their shoes. Graham lingered at the corners where he could stand on all four paws, alert for any incoming threats.

Jack rubbed his temples. The whispers had not died down, and they were making his migraine worse. He saw Tiberius glance at him with a clenched jaw, maybe just as frustrated by the noise, or maybe he was just angry that Jack was in pain at his side and there was nothing he could do to fix it.

He got his answer when Tiberius stopped them, glaring into the darkness, and demanded, "Make it stop! We're here, stop hurting him, damn it!"

Jack followed his gaze, but even in the light of the glowworms, he couldn't see anyone. He imagined a beautiful priestess with her head covered, her eyes downcast, her mouth stitched in eternal silence or something. Then his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he could make out the figure. He knew it was her because the whispers grew louder, louder, louder. And he just barely caught a gasp before it left his lips.

The Seer was a skeleton. Nothing more than a cluster of bones protruding from the end of the cave, bare patches of skin still attached in random places, like the rocks had collapsed on her an eternity ago as she'd stopped to rest and she just sat there for the rest of her life, alive and waiting in the darkness.

The bones had turned a filthy color, the rags that hung off her shoulders and hips brown and gray now, and she had one eye in its socket, a neon blue that glowed as brightly as the glowworms. It was staring at Tiberius, then it shifted in one swift move to watch Jack instead.

Tiberius instinctively grabbed Jack's shoulder. Everett grabbed the other. His wide, horrified eyes rested on the Seer. Even Wyatt had taken hold of the hem of Jack's coat.

"I think," he said slowly, "this was a mistake."

"Why doesn't she blink?" Mira asked, shoulders rising to her chin. "I think that's creepy."

"My king?" Everett murmured, looking to Tiberius, and in his wary tone, Jack could hear the question he wasn't asking. Is there time to go back? To avoid hearing whatever this being wants to tell us?

Tiberius seemed to be seriously considering the question.

"Do not fear me, Jack Hunter," the Seer said, her mouth, half torn away, the rest an eerie skeletal smile, only opened slightly. She didn't need her lips to shape her words, her voice in Jack's head was clear enough. "Only the weak fear their destiny."

"It's gone," Everett blinked. "The voice, I can't hear her anymore."

"This prophecy," the Seer said in Jack's head, "is only for your ears."

Jack nodded, and relayed the information to the others.

Tiberius growled. "Get on with it, then," he commanded her. "Say what you want to say."

"Tiberius," Jack started, but the Seer's voice cut through again.

"The Shadow Wolf is coming, Jack Hunter."

Jack froze. He thought Tiberius might've said his name, but it sounded underwater now. The Seer watching him with her glowing blue eye.

"It is coming for you." Her eye twitched to Tiberius, and back to Jack again. "All of you. You will fight the beast, but at a terrible cost." Her eye glowed a little brighter. "That is your destiny, Jack Hunter. Fire, shadows, and death."

Then the Seer went silent, her blue eye dimmed, and the others' soft breathing and Graham's growls sounded in his ears like a tidal wave of noise. He'd had no idea just how quiet the rest of the world had turned until the Seer's voice had vanished. His eyes fluttered and his heart thumped painfully. He didn't think he was breathing.

Tiberius put a hand on his head, his touch gentle and wary. "Jack?"

"I don't get it," Wyatt said, looking around. "Was that it?"

"Are you sure you're remembering it all?" Everett asked for what felt like the millionth time.

Jack had told them everything that the Seer had told him as they trekked back to Crescent Castle. The scent of pine around him helped him breathe a little bit, and Jack found himself grateful for the simple ambience of singing birds and rustling leaves. He never wanted to experience the silence of those caves again.

"Yeah," he murmured, "I'm sure."

Tiberius wasn't speaking, and Jack caught the look on his face just briefly, long enough to see him thinking hard.

Everett repeated the prophecy to himself over and over. "The death could easily refer to the Shadow Wolf's, and the fire . . . well, that could be anything."

"Maybe we burn the thing in one of the fireplaces," Wyatt agreed enthusiastically. "There's a hundred of them lit all over the castle!"

"I doubt we're going to destroy the Shadow Wolf under a cozy mantel," Graham said thoughtfully, for he'd transformed back once they were out of sight of the cave entrance.

Jack glanced at Tiberius again, his back rigid. He almost called out to him, but he couldn't find his voice. He cleared his throat and rubbed the nape of his neck. The sun was setting now, the light shining beautifully through the trees, but Jack felt cold. He tried again to call out to Tiberius—why was he so far away?—and again failed to gather the strength.

"Maybe she just wanted to give us bad news," Mira pointed out. "Maybe she didn't say anything good because King Tiberius yelled at her."

"Mira," Everett warned.

"What?" she stared. "He did."

Tiberius wouldn't glower, wouldn't turn around, wouldn't look at Jack. Was he rethinking their relationship? Wondering why his mate, of all people, had to be the one targeted by the only monster that could kill him with a single touch of his fangs?

Jack's legs stopped working. He came to an abrupt halt, and only when Everett's concerned expression came into view, calling Jack's name, did Jack realize his hands were shaking.

He fell to a crouch, hugging his knees. His breaths escaped him in trembling sighs, his very bones felt chilled, and he couldn't organize a single one of his thoughts. Was he suffocating? He felt like he was suffocating.

His friends were surrounding him now, kneeling at his side, trying to get to eye level with him, but even they were blurring.

Fire, shadows, and death.

Maybe this was the shadows part of the prophecy. His vision was going, all he could see was darkness. He tried to follow one thought, reestablish some kind of order, but lost hold of it just as quickly. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew he was panicking, but knowing that wasn't helping him focus any better.

"Don't you see? You follow your instincts. Your mind, no matter how strong, always comes second to your heart."

Right now his heart was racing too fast for him to catch up.

Then a pair of strong arms were lifting him off the ground, and his head was resting on a warm shoulder.

"He's fine," Tiberius's voice said, steady and sure and powerful in his ear. "I've got him."

Jack caught his friends' expressions and thought he should say something reassuring, say he was fine, say he could handle it. But he couldn't stop shaking and he couldn't find his voice and he couldn't breathe right.

All he could do, and all he wanted, was to curl deeper into Tiberius, turn his face into his chest and inhale his comforting scent, and force his breaths in one at a time. Tiberius's fingers dug into his back, a silent promise.

You're fine. I've got you.