Chapter 30

Lyra

Bianca looked stunning in her dress. It was a deep burgundy velvet with a plunging neckline, full skirts swishing around her legs as she moved. The color had always looked good on her. It was also the color she’d worn when she let me die.

I snapped my gaze away before either of them could spot me looking, refusing to give them the satisfaction. Besides, why should I care if Bianca and Kael attended the festival together? It was a couples’ festival, and they were a couple. More power to them.

But I was just about to suggest to Luca that we go check out the fried foods stand—conveniently located all the way on the other side of the festival grounds—when Kael and Bianca came over.

“There you are,” Kael said by way of greeting. “We were just looking for you.”

Luca’s arm tightened around my shoulders. “Funny. We weren’t looking for you.”

A muscle jumped in Kael’s jaw. Their fight from the other night still seemed to be eating away at them, and it took all of my willpower not to roll my eyes at the Alpha male posturing.

Finally, Kael cleared his throat. “Well, we all know each other. We should stick together before the hunt.”

Bianca’s eyes widened. “We’re participating in the hunt?” she asked. “I would have dressed differently if I’d known.”

“Sorry,” Kael replied curtly. “I forgot to tell you.”

Bianca frowned, and Luca flashed me an amused look. “Trouble in paradise,” he whispered in my ear so only I could hear. I bit my lip to restrain my smirk, but Kael caught a glimpse of it and shot a glare my way.

Suddenly, the event organizer’s voice boomed across the festival grounds. “Welcome to this year’s couples’ festival!” he said. Luca grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the stage. Kael and Bianca, of course, followed directly on our heels.

“As always, we’ll be kicking off this annual festival with a couples’ hunt,” the announcer went on. “If you’ve brought a partner and would like to participate, please line up to my left and prepare for the contest. Thirty-two hares have been released into the forest, as well as a single stag.”

“Oh,” Luca muttered, leaning in close, “I forgot about the stag. If we kill it, we’ll win the grand prize.”

“Which is?”

“An all-expenses-paid date night of our choosing.” Luca winked roguishly.

My cheeks instantly heated at the thought. I’d accepted Luca’s invitation because he was a friend, and I’d assumed he was on the same page as I was. But a date night didn’t need to be romantic, I supposed; if we won, we could still do something fun without actually being a couple.

When the announcer was finished, we lined up with the other couples. Behind us, I could still hear Bianca lamenting about her dress. In my opinion, Kael was being a pretty awful boyfriend by not offering to drop out of the hunt.

And yet, when I glanced over my shoulder, he wasn’t even looking at her. He was staring at me.

I suppressed the urge to shudder and returned my attention to the hunt. The organizers led four groups of three couples in different directions—Luca and I went with the first group to the west, while thankfully Kael and Bianca followed the third group to the north. The east, of course, was off-limits.

“You ready?” Luca asked as we took our positions at the edge of the forest.

I nodded, admittedly quite excited for a hunt. I’d never gotten to participate in one before, being wolfless and all, but my senses had sharpened after Jade’s return—despite being shift-sealed—and I was confident I could keep up this time.

The horn blew, indicating the start of the hunt, and the couples took off into the forest. With a wild whoop of excitement, Luca took my hand and pulled me after him.

As our legs carried us through the forest, weaving around trees, climbing boulders, and leaping over fallen logs, I couldn’t help the holler of glee that ripped from my throat. I felt free like this, untethered. Like I could do anything.

I could only imagine how it would feel in a few short months when I could finally shift. This would be the first thing I would do, I decided—race through the forest.

Luca and I worked together like a well-oiled machine. Our rhythms matched easily, and soon we had caught three rabbits between the two of us. I was faster, so I would often corner the prey while Luca would pounce from behind a rock or within the tree branches above.

“I see the stag!” I said after our fourth rabbit, pointing. “Up there! It just went over that creek.”

Luca followed my finger just in time to see the stag’s fluffy white tail disappear behind a bend in the trail. Quietly, we split up and approached from the stag’s flanks. It was in full-on panic mode, head swiveling and nostrils flaring, but it didn’t see us coming.

I pressed myself against a large tree, holding my breath. There were no other wolves around that I could see—I could only hear them in the distance, howling and laughing and shouting. The prize was ours so long as we worked together.

Peering around the tree, I spotted Luca from the other side of the stag. He made a hand signal with two fingers indicating for us to creep up from the flanks. I nodded and dropped to a crouch, carefully picking my way through the underbrush.

The stag was so close now I could touch it. I made eye contact with Luca again, and he shot me another roguish wink and a nod.

We pounced. Luca extended his fangs and claws, aiming for the throat.

But the stag was too quick. With a buck and a wild bray, it twisted away from us and tore off through the woods. Luca got nothing more than a scratch along its hindquarters before it was gone.

“Dammit!” Luca sighed, retracting his claws. “Good try, though.”

“We might still be able to catch it if we hurry,” I said, moving toward where the stag had disappeared. I turned around to grin at Luca as I walked backwards. “I’m thinking a night at the arcade and all the pizza we can eat would be—”

“Lyra, wait!”

Luca lunged forward, reaching for me, just as I took one more step back—and felt a solid wall slam into my spine. Gasping, I whirled around, only to see that there was nothing there. But when I held my hand out, my palm met hard air.

“Shit,” I huffed, palpating along the circular border that had formed around us. A shimmering silver ring had appeared on the ground. “A magic trap.”

Luca pointed. “Look at the words in the ring.”

I looked down to see that words had indeed formed in the silver ring. “‘A prison formed from fate’s delight,’” I read, “‘But just one kiss shall end your plight.’” I glanced at Luca. “So we’re supposed to kiss.”

“Guess so.” Luca turned toward me, mouth lifting at one corner as he began to lean in. “What do you say?”

Before his lips could touch mine, I leaned back. “I’m not kissing you, Luca.”

He froze. His expression guttered. Then, cheeks reddening, he leaned back. “Oh. I guess I misread the situation.”

My heart ached for him, regret instantly washing over me. “Luca, did you think…?”

“It’s fine,” he said, managing a smile. “I just misunderstood, that’s all.”

“I’m sorry. I thought we were just friends.”

“We can be.” Luca’s face softened. “I’m okay with that.”

I tilted my head. “You’re sure?”

To my relief, Luca nodded, his usual grin returning. “Yeah. If you don’t see me that way, then I’ll respect it. But we’ll need to find another way out of this trap, then.”

I bit my lip, considering. Even when I read the riddle over and over, it seemed a kiss was the only way out. But for safety purposes, I figured the magic traps had timers on them so as not to keep students confined for too long.

And so we waited.

And waited.

Ten minutes passed, and the circle remained glowing around us. The invisible wall of solid air around us remained intact, stretching too high to climb over. Luca was just getting down on his knees, genuinely pushing his sleeves up with the intention of digging our way out, when I finally crumbled.

“Maybe a light kiss wouldn’t hurt,” I said.

Luca snapped his head up. “Are you sure? We don’t have to—”

“Just a peck,” I clarified. “To get us out of here.”

Luca hesitated for a moment, clearly uncertain, but finally nodded and stood. We leaned in, eyes fluttering shut. Just a kiss. Just a small peck—

“You guys got trapped?”

Luca and I pulled apart and whirled around at the sound of Kael’s voice. I turned so abruptly that I slammed my head against the invisible wall, causing me to stumble back and clutch my temple in pain. Luca caught me and gave my shoulder a squeeze before releasing me.

“Where’s Bianca?” Luca asked, noticing that Kael had wandered into the clearing alone.

“Busy,” Kael replied. “You know you can get out of that trap with a kiss, right?”

My face flamed. “Yes, but—”

“Here. Let me help.” Kael stepped into the circle, willingly trapping himself inside with us. My breath caught, heart pounding as he reached for me.

Was he going to—was he going to kiss me?