Marked (The Coldest Fae Book 3) by Katerina Martinez (novel24 .txt) 📗

senses to the aromas in the air around me. I was instantly, and dizzyingly, flooded with information coming from all sides. Sweat, cooking meats and vegetables, the musky smell of leather, wet dog, elk. It became hard to separate the odors after a time, but I had to focus.

The fae I was looking for had just left the tent, and I thought—impossibly—that I could smell him. Concentrating carefully on his scent, letting it fill my nostrils by taking deeper whiffs of the air, I thought I could drown the rest of the world out and maybe even follow it. My human nose wasn’t exactly designed for this kind of thing, but it was the only nose I had, so I went with it, pushing into the crowd of fae and wolves alike.

Some of the wolves growled at me, baring their teeth. I skirted around those, and twirled around the others that were standing, trying to stop me from getting to where I needed to go. It was a gauntlet of bodies, and people, but one the Royal Selection had at least prepared me for.

Fancy feet, Dahlia.

Fancy feet.

Breaking past the blockade of fae, I made a dash in the direction I thought Jaleem had gone. He could’ve been anywhere, could’ve gone anywhere. For all I knew, he was hiding in one of the tents, or lurking in the shadows, waiting to pounce on me again.

There were only women and children inside of the tents, though. They watched me as I rushed past, their eyes a mixture of fear, confusion, and withheld aggression. None of these people liked me. I probably smelled too human for them, but I couldn’t think about that now. I had to find the wolf, and I had to do it quick.

Finally, a break.

As I rounded a corner, emerging on the other side of a large tent, I spotted movement in the distance—on the hill I had descended to get here. It was him, the wolf. He was running up the hill at full pelt, trying to make it to the stone circle at the top.

“He’s too far ahead,” I said.

“Just start running,” Gullie said, “You’ve got this!”

Nodding, I put my head down and broke into a sprint. Fancy feet, keep it light, keep it quick. A month ago, sprinting like this would’ve been impossible. I’d never had a reason to run in my adult life, but the selection had given me many physical skills to call on that were going to come in handy out here.

The speed at which I was running and my ability to vault over obstacles and skip neatly away from potential harm, though, bordered on the supernatural. Yes, I was faster, and stronger, and tougher than the day I had gotten to Arcadia. We could thank Mira and all my challenges for that. But there was more to this than just that.

I was unnaturally fast, and sharp, and yet it felt like the most natural thing in the world. Like I was waking up from a long sleep. The faster I moved, the more my skin started prickling over and flushing with goose bumps for almost no reason. It could’ve been the running, the sweat, the adrenaline, but this wasn’t the first time I’d felt that itch over the last couple of days.

In fact, the last time I had felt this weird in my own skin, my teeth had started to ache, and they were aching again now.

I had only just reached the base of the hill by the time Jaleem made it to the top. I watched him tilt his head back and howl deeply into the sky. A moment later, a bright flash of light pulsed from the top of the hill, and then he was gone, leaving the echo of his howl trembling against the mountains.

He had gone right back the way we had come, knowing full well I had no idea how to cross over to the other side. I wasn’t going to be able to catch him, and that meant in less than an hour’s time, I was dead—and so were Mira and Melina.

“Shit,” I said, as I ran up the hill.

“Don’t worry,” Gullie said.

“Don’t worry? He’s gone!”

“He’s not. You’ll get him.”

“Do you know something I don’t?”

“Once again, we all know something you don’t.” Gullie buzzed out of my hair and flew alongside me. “You know what you have to do.”

“Then how about you fill me in? Because I’m not getting it.”

“Just shut up and run!”

I realized only after I’d reached the top of the hill that I had made it all the way up here without stopping to catch my breath. I was breathing a little hard, sure, but I wasn’t panting, and I wasn’t winded. I actually felt strong, fit, different. That was the word I’d been looking for.

I felt different, only I didn’t know if that was a good or a bad thing.

“You want me to howl, don’t you?” I asked as I stared at the stones.

“It looks like that’s what activates the circle,” Gullie said. “So, just go and do it.”

I scanned the stacks of stones, trying to find another way of operating them that didn’t require me howling like a fool into the night air. I wasn’t a wolf, and that meant the only sound I could make would sound laughable to a real wolf’s ears. Then again, the shimmering mark on my hand belonged to the white wolf.

Did that mean I could do what those fae could?

“What if I can’t?” I asked.

“Do you remember the day we found each other?” Gullie asked.

“I do. I thought you were a bug that had flown into my room. I tried to swat you.”

“You did swat me. It hurt like hell.”

“I know… I’m still sorry about that. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the look on your face, how badly hurt you were when you got to me. And then I hit you, on top of that.”

“Water under the bridge. And in your defense,