12
Ness
Alvin shoved me.My back hit the house. There was a shed on one side of me. Alvin quickly put his palm against the house to block my exit on the other side. I inhaled sharply. My hound growled and threatened to rip her way out of me.
She couldn’t fight against Alvin, though. I held her back and bided my time.
“Your dragon isn’t here to protect you,” Alvin said.
He was right. Beryl had taken him again. I had no idea what Beryl wanted from Ryder or why she kept taking him like this. It was always at the worst times. He kept coming back with the faery wine in his system. It was only a matter of time before the enchantment won him over completely.
My hound growled at the thought. Though she was small, she was willing to take on a faery queen for Ryder. I wasn’t alone, at least. Ryder’s mate was still here. So long as she didn’t know how I truly felt about Ryder, then she and I could work together to protect him from Beryl.
“Watch your tongue from now on,” Alvin warned. He patted the blade at his hip. “If you don’t then I’ll have to take it from you. A power like yours shouldn’t be in the hands of a child anyway.”
I bit my tongue as the thought of getting it cut out flashed in my mind. My stomach rebelled. I nearly vomited all over Alvin. Pity I didn’t, because he deserved it.
“I truly think my son is a sniveling son of a whore, so I’m not going to punish you for what happened to him. If he can’t defend himself against someone as insignificant as yourself, then that’s his problem. However, if you try to use that tongue of yours against me, then I will make sure you can never utter another word again.”
The pack milled behind him. Everyone pretended not to notice what Alvin was doing, all while stealing glances in our direction. I willed them to move, to act on my behalf, but no one did a damn thing. Even Connor stood there, looking helpless.
I tried to find the presence of my arcana, but it was lost in the churning pit of my gut. I couldn’t even find it to try to grab it.
I wanted to tell Alvin to go suck his own dick. It looked like that wasn’t going to happen tonight. If Harvey hunted me down again, I would practice with him. I was tired of this. There was a power inside of me that I could use to defend myself. If no one else was going to help me, then I would hone this power into a sharpened blade.
“Are you going to be a dumb dog?” Alvin leaned closer, his hand still on his knife like he could read my mind.
My defiance slipped, but I took ahold of it and wrapped it around myself like a shield. No one in the pack had anything to worry about so long as I was the center of attention. I hoped that Catriona could explain that to Janessa later. So long as I was their punching bag, the others were safe.
That was the idea that had propelled me forward for so long. It’d given me the barbed tongue that I used so often.
Perhaps my arcana wasn’t a part of what I was, but an aspect of myself that I’d manifested. I’d learned to use my words to my advantage. I pulled Alvin’s attention away from the pack so that he wouldn’t hurt them. I used words to frustrate him and humiliate him. It seemed fitting that my arcana would have to do with my voice.
If I lost it now, I would be devastated. So, I had to sit back and let Alvin think he’d won.
Man, if I’d been a wolf like my father, then maybe I would have stood a chance against Alvin. I would have used this fury to wipe the floor with him. Instead, I had a small dog with a penchant for storms residing inside of me.
She huffed indignantly. I didn’t blame her. She didn’t deserve my ire right now. She was the only one who’d been there with me, through thick and thin.
I ducked my head like a subservient shifter. Alvin made a content sound in the back of his throat before stepping away. His arm dropped. I thought that was my cue to leave, so I pushed off the house and took a step.
Alvin caught me by the throat and shoved me back. My head slapped the wall behind me. The clouds above spun. I blinked and tried to will my vision still. Alvin tightened his grip on my throat, crushing my esophagus.
Any tighter, and he would steal my voice. I couldn’t let that happen. Panic hit me in the chest, sending adrenaline flying through my limbs.
“Keep this up, and I’ll make sure that all of your skeletons walk out of your closet on their own,” I said, without sparing a thought to whether or not I should.
Alvin yanked me forward and slammed me back. The air rushed from my lungs. Janessa shrieked in the background.
Shut the hell up, I thought.I’m the one struggling to breathe here.
Hell, for all I knew, Janessa might have been having a panic attack. Maybe she couldn’t breathe, either.
However, Alvin froze. I slipped from his grasp. My feet touched the ground, and my knees buckled. I collapsed and reached for my throat. My neck throbbed, but I could breathe again.
Though I wanted to laugh triumphantly, I knew that I’d fucked up. I dared a glance up at Alvin’s sheet-white face. He blinked before dropping his gaze.
For a moment, I thought he would end me right then and there. He seemed to remember that the pack was watching. He took a fumbling step back from me, shook himself, and tried to regain composure. I could tell that he was shaken, though. I could see it in the grim tension of his jaw and the way he wouldn’t look directly at anyone.