Page 71 of A Lady’s Guide to Werewolves

Chapter Seventeen

It was some time before Sorcha could move from where she had landed.

And some time still after that before the wolf, panting, turned back into Aidan, in a flash of witchery that smelled like pine boughs. He pulled a plaid from the pack he had insisted on carrying and wrapped it around his hips. The sun gleamed on his muscular chest, the pelt of soft hair. “Are you all right?” he asked hoarsely.

She nodded. “Thanks to you.”

“You were the one who knew what to do.”

“And you were the one to do it,” she pointed out. “The Collector doesn’t stand a chance against us.”

They did not speak about what the Nightmare had shown them. It was enough that the sun was shining and she could feel Elderberry’s presence again.

Even if Sorcha planned to sleep very little for the foreseeable future.

“He knew the Red Cloak would come back,” Aidan said grimly. “And would try to free the bird.”

“And trigger the Nightmare spell. Oops.” He shot her a look. She grinned, mostly because her heart was hammering in her chest, pulse thumping in her ears. And her palms were sweaty.

And also because she would not let the Collector win. Not now, not ever.

If her hands were still trembling, that was nothing he ever needed to know about.

“The bloody bastard set a trap for both of us. Red Cloak and the wolf,” Aidan ground out.

“It looks that way.” Sorcha pushed to her feet. Her muscles felt as though she had swum around the whole of Lyonesse.

Aidan stared at her. “You’re not seriously going for a walk now?”

“Just over to the wall here,” she murmured. A sparrow called to her, encouraging her.

Aidan followed as if he were afraid she might fall over. “Are you picking blackberries?” he asked when she started digging through the brambles and the thickets along the wall.

“Yes. These look ripe enough, don’t you think?”

“You were nearly killed not ten minutes ago.”

She shrugged. “And now I’m hungry.” And she also wanted to be a little farther away from the tower and disintegrated Nightmare. Just in case. She wasn’t sure if it had been merely discouraged or properly banished, and she was not keen to find out. And her stomach was growling. She ate three berries at once. “Don’t you find that kind of witchery makes you hungry? I could have eaten a hundred loaves of bread after the curse breaking.”

He looked the most flummoxed she had ever seen him. She popped a berry into her mouth. The sweet-tart juice hitting her tongue was soothing, familiar. Things couldn’t be all that bad if you were eating sun-warmed berries, now could they?

“So you set a trap for the Collector and then he set a trap for us,” she said.

“Aye,” Aidan said grimly.

“We’re definitely going to have to set a new trap.” She offered him a berry. “Something painful.”

“Are you certain you still want to do this?” She speared him with a narrowed gaze. He held up his hands. “Beg your pardon, Lady Sorcha.”

“Don’t even think about trying to talk me out of it.”

“Just as soon as you stop hurling yourself headfirst into danger.” He leaned against what was left of the stone wall where ivy tangled with the blackberry thicket.

She frowned. “You are very calm. It’s a bit annoying.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“Were you always like this?”