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My stomach drops as the magic pulls through me like lightning. The location will be farther away than I’ve ever teleported, and I keep the tonic on my tongue so it can draw as much as it needs. If it doesn’t have enough, I’ll be ripped apart by time and space.

My world evaporates, and then I’m inside a storm of brilliant colors.

That voice is still inside my head, the kindred magic allowing his words to reach me as I exit onto the other side. I release a breath when I’m greeted by grassy hills stretching out for miles. I can spot the train tracks in the distance.

I made it.

“Clever trick, little arrow.

“I’ll be watching you, but I won’t reach you before the Alpha does.

“When he finds you, submit to him.”

“Why would I do that?” I ask aloud as I plod toward the tracks. My feet sting, but I welcome the pain. It means I’m alive.

For now.

The hooded male’s voice caresses my mind, growing faint as the Rinhold magic he’s using starts to fade.

“Because I have a deal for you. Survive Godric’s wolf, then come and find me when this is over.”

“Survive, how?” I murmur, more to myself than to him, but he answers anyway, repeating the offensive word.

“Submit.”

My throat works on a swallow. He wants me to trust him, to find him again and make some sort of deal. “Trust is earned,” I repeat. Whoever this guy is, he wants something from me. Just like all men do.

And it’s never in my favor.

His next words, however, make me halt in my tracks.

“I gave you my tonic.”

I glance down at the bulge in my pocket I hadn’t noticed and pull out the very same purple vial he had been holding.

When he grabbed my hip, he must have slipped it in there.

Staring at it, I guess at its worth.

I suspect the tonic itself is a weather-alteration tonic, making it extremely rare, but there’s something else about it that is allowing this male to talk to me. I don’t understand that link right now, but I am absolutely going to get to the bottom of it.

I quietly slide it into the empty slot left open after I had emptied the chameleon tonic into the bathing train car.

“I don’t have another,” he continues, his voice even fainter now. My heart flutters from an unfamiliar emotion I can’t place. “I’m trusting you to use it to return to me. Preferably, more discreetly this time. Then we can make a deal. One that will benefit us both.”

There’s no time to consider what deal he could possibly want to make as a wolf’s cry pierces the air.

I have no doubt about which wolf that might be.

Godric has my scent.

And I do exactly what I’m not supposed to do when being tracked by a pissed-off wolf shifter.

I run.

CHAPTER 6

My strength tonic has a few minutes left on it, but even if I drained the whole thing, I know I can’t outrun Godric’s wolf.