Raphael stopped abruptly, setting me down on the forest floor, and I disengaged from his neck. Balthazar and Sebastos stood by a tall stone wall, its surface covered with moss. It towered over us, at least twenty feet high. Apparently astrolabes didn’t take into account things like giant freaking walls that blocked your path when they gave you visionary shadow directions.

Raphael ran his fingertips over the stone. “This is exactly the kind of weird, antisocial thing Death would do. A fucking giant impenetrable wall around his house.”

“Bit of a loner, is he, Death?” I asked. “And here I was thinking he’d be charming.”

A boom of thunder rumbled over the horizon, and fat drops of rain fell over my skin, soaking my hair. Another keening howl pierced the air, and my blood chilled.

I couldn’t imagine how this situation could get any dicier than it already was, but then I saw it. Not only was the wall roughly twenty or twenty-five feet tall, but a flash of silvery-gray fur moved between the trees, followed by the whip of a tail, the snap of a twig under a giant paw.

I swallowed and pressed my back against the wall beside Raphael. “Uh, guys? The wolves are coming our way. They’re huge.”

I caught another glimpse of a patrolling predator, this time between two closer tree trunks. My heart kicked against my ribs. The thing looked to be the size of a horse, and I could almost see the thick muscle ripple beneath its gray fur.

“We need to get up there,” Balthazar growled in a low voice. “They can smell us.”

Raphael prodded at the rocks. “The wall is rough enough that we can get handholds.” He met my gaze. “I’ll start up and help you from the top. Sebastos can help you from below.”

Raphael began hauling himself up, gripping the mossy rock, and I climbed up after him, my fingertips struggling to find purchase on the rain-slicked wall. When I’d pulled myself up six feet or so, Sebastos began climbing up after me. I was fully aware of the shortness of my dress, and that he’d have a view of my tiny pink panties, but I was mostly thankful that he’d catch me if I fell.

Up ahead, Raphael glanced down at me. “You’ve got this, Dawn.”

The sound of growling from below tightened my gut. My chest unclenched a little when I saw that Balthazar was already out of reach of the wolves, climbing next to me.

I glanced down at Sebastos, noting that he was keeping a very close eye on me. In fact, he was keeping his eye on one particular part of my anatomy with an intensity that made me wonder if he’d lose his grip soon.

When I looked beyond Sebastos, my stomach dropped to the sodden ground. A wolf’s amber eyes flashed in the darkness—right on me.

Hurry, Dawn. I scrambled for the next handhold, but this time, my fingers slipped. Reeling, my bare foot slid on a patch of slick green, and my knee smacked into the cold stone. Pain ripped through my leg, and I lost my grip.

For a split second I was falling, headed toward the wolves. But, quick as a flash, Sebastos’s powerful arm shot out. He grabbed me around the waist, pulling me in close to his chest. His other hand had a firm grip on the stones.

“Got you,” he mumbled into my wet hair, and I shivered against him, my clothes sticking to my skin as the cool rain continued to drench us.

I couldn’t tell if it was my heart or his pounding against my chest. I only knew that a deep, rhythmic pulsing of blood roared in my ears, and that it felt good to be pressed in close to his powerful body.

For a moment, I studied his face, the intensity of his concern for me. I was suddenly far more aware of his strong grip on my waist than I was of the cold, wet wall or the sodden fabric sticking to my skin. Wherever he touched me stayed warm, and I didn’t want to move.

If I was going to make it to the top, I’d need to climb, and yet…

What would I remember if I kissed him? His sun-kissed skin and his full lips promised wistful memories, safety. As if entranced, I stared at his lips, his heavy-lidded eyes.

With a move totally unlike me, I leaned in and tasted his lower lip. I knew he wanted it just like I did, and in that moment, I saw no reason to hold back. His lips tasted faintly of salt, like the sea. Almost instantly, his tongue, deliciously warm against my freezing lips, darted into my mouth. He kissed me with hunger, moving his lips expertly, teasingly, against mine. His fingers tightened around my waist.

And then, in a crackling, quivering instant, I was no longer on that stone wall.

Not in a sentimental way. Not in a metaphorical way.

I didn’t remember having closed my eyes, but I opened them, finding myself somewhere else entirely.

But before I could reach him, the snapshot faded. With an uncomfortable crackle in my mind, I was thrust back into the real world.

The chill of the rain and the wind seeped back into my bones instantly, and even the heat of Sebastos’s body on mine did nothing to ease the shock of that change. Heart pounding, I pulled away so dramatically that I almost fell, but his firm grip around my waist prevented me from going anywhere.

“What the fuck...” I stuttered, shocking myself with my choice of words for the second time today.

“What did you see?” he asked.

Wolves brayed loudly below us, trying to scale the wall, but we were out of their reach.

I gasped for breath, staring into Sebastos’s eyes. “I was going to kill you. We were on a battlefield, but it was only us. We wore armor, and I was going to kill you. I was a savage.”

His eyes narrowed, but his lip curled in a slight smile. “You did kill me, Dawn.”

I shook my head, unwilling to reconcile myself with the barbaric woman who wanted to pull hearts from chests. “What was that? A past life?”

“Yes.”

My blood roared in my ears, this revelation rocking the foundation out from under me. “And why did I kill you?”

His grip was firm around my waist, holding me steady. If it hadn’t been for his powerful arm, I’d probably be flying off the wall into the pack of wolves right now. “You had to.”

“Why?” I asked.

From the other side of the wall, Balthazar bellowed, “what the fuck is going on over there? Are you coming?”

“You’re remembering,” said Sebastos. “That’s good. But right now, we need to go.”

I didn’t want to leave the warm safety of his arms. I wanted to stay here, protected, and learn whatever else I could about my past. I wanted to know why I’d needed to kill him, why I’d been so savage.

But Sebastos had a point. We were halfway up a rain-slicked stone wall, with a pack of angry wolves below us, and my best friend was captive somewhere nearby, prisoner to someone called Death. Clearly we had to keep moving.

I pulled away from him reluctantly. If I was going to make it to the top, I’d need to climb on my own. “I’ve got this,” I said quietly. Gritting my teeth, I found footholds and handholds on the slick rock.

“I’ll catch you if you fall again,” said Sebastos, hanging back just a little.

One stone at a time, I pulled my way up to the top of the wall, my arms shaking with the exertion. If I’d been some kind of warrior in a past life, I’d clearly lost all that muscle tone when I’d arrived in this one.

And yet, some of that battle fury still arced through my blood. A new sense of surety imbued my limbs, and I climbed the wall, every handhold now crystal clear. I hoisted myself up the second half of the wall without any help from Sebastos.

I hooked my leg over the top of the wall, my dress riding up to my hips, and pulled myself up with a grunt, rain pouring down my body. I could feel the guys’ eyes on me from below as I swung my second leg over.

Next time I went exploring in a forest crawling with wolves, I’d come prepared with better clothing. And, like, some shoes.

At last I reached the bottom of the wall, and Raphael reached up to grab me by the waist. He lowered me to the ground, and while I hadn’t needed his help, I wasn’t going to object, either. I turned around, catching his gaze, temporarily distracted by the contrast of colors in his eyes, like buttery sunlight gleaming off a deep blue lake.

What would happen if I kissed him too?

Before I got the chance to find out, the snapping of twigs alerted me to Balthazar’s presence. He was staring at my mud-coated feet. “What the fuck happened to your shoes?” His deeply accented voice rumbled through my gut.

“Dropped them.”

Balthazar frowned at me. “Why do I get the feeling that, in this incarnation, you’re not exactly good at life?”

In this incarnation. “About that incarnation thing.” I raised my eyebrows, warmth tingling through my belly. “And I’m beginning to understand the way that I remember in this incarnation.”