Zane knew what was happening this time. He felt himself being sucked into the deep, dark water. Cold enveloped him and tried to steal his last thoughts. In his mind, he saw Chelsea. If she was right, and Zane had been the monster all along, then he could still save her.
14
Chelsea ran and ran, but she wasn’t getting anywhere. Her limbs grew heavy, dragging against the ground. She sucked in great gaping mouthfuls of air, but her lungs still burned with the lack of oxygen. The trees around her remained the same. The road was narrow and unchanging.
She should have been close to town by now.
Town? Why was she heading to town? She needed to reach Zane. He would be at the lake. She would always be able to find him there. It was an extension of him. So long as the lake heard her words, Zane would, too.
She tried to stop, to turn around, but her feet slapped the earth with achingly slow steps. Her body refused to respond. It was a loop, her body working on autopilot while her mind was trapped. She tried to scream, but no sound came out. She couldn’t even whimper.
This couldn’t be real.
It wasn’t. The clammy, sickly sensation of magic slid down her skin. She shrugged it off like a wet blanket and came to, gasping. A room full of shifters looked down at her with varying degrees of concern. Through them all, Chelsea saw Sybil.
The witch waggled her brows and lit another cigarette.
“Are you alright?” Zara asked as she took a seat beside Chelsea. “You passed out earlier. Is there something wrong that you haven’t told me about?”
Chelsea sat up, her eyes still on the witch. If Chelsea was a spellbreaker, then the witch shouldn’t have been casting spells on her. She thought she was immune, that no magic could do things like that to her. It seemed like they worked for a moment before falling apart.
Earlier, she’d been livid. Her rage was a cold thing swimming in her blood. It formed a wall of ice around her. She imagined that wall now. It was sturdy and impassable. To that, Sybil’s brows dropped. Her expression went from bemused to annoyed in an instant.
Sybil had spoken the truth, but not all of it. She let Chelsea believe that the magic just wouldn’t work, when in reality, Chelsea had to work to break the magic. It was all very new and weird to her. She didn’t know what she was doing, but the visualization seemed to do something. It annoyed Sybil, so that was enough.
Chelsea threw her feet to the floor. Her head was still light, like she really had run that long distance. Her stomach grumbled, but she ignored it. Someone grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back down into the couch. She snapped and flailed. The hands on her only tightened.
“What’s wrong?” Zara asked, nearly shouting.
“Get that damn witch out of here. And, for heaven’s sake, let me up!”
The hands vanished. Chelsea leapt to her feet and found Asher standing sheepishly behind the couch. Her friends were just trying to help, but they were wasting time. It didn’t matter if something was wrong. They needed to find Zane.
“You said spells didn’t work on her,” Jude noted.
“She left out the how part,” Chelsea added. She might have been standing in a room full of dangerous beings, but she was getting tired. Everything was moving too slowly. Where was their sense of urgency?
Couldn’t they see their friend was in danger? She truly thought they were trying to help Zane, but everything was just too slow. She needed to find him now, before anything else happened.
She turned on the witch again. It occurred to Chelsea that Sybil could be manipulating the whole room. Chelsea didn’t know how magic worked. This was all a surprise to her. Could Sybil work magic on the clan without their knowledge? Chelsea didn’t know how to extend her anti-magic force field to the clan.
Until she figured out how to break the spell holding the room, she would never escape. Sybil must have worked something while Chelsea was trapped in the dream. She scanned the room. Sybil’s magic had a weird feeling to it. Like the fingers of death.
A lump took up home in Chelsea’s throat and made it hard to swallow. Could she run from shifter to shifter and touch them to dispel the magic holding their minds? She gave Cole a nervous smile and decided she would rather not. Cole would bite her hand off if she so much as reached for him or Jude.
Chelsea started with Zara. She took Zara’s hand and asked for help finding something to eat. It was true that hunger pinched Chelsea’s stomach. Maybe breaking spells took more energy than she thought. Either way, as Zara led her into the kitchen, Chelsea imagined the cold power encompassing Zara.
She couldn’t wrap her mind around it. The cold barrier wouldn’t close around Zara even though it was all in her imagination. Over and over, she tried closing it, but a gap always remained. Baffled, she tried to force her way through it. How could this be so difficult if it was all in her mind?
Frustration made it all come loose. The shield in her mind shattered, and she slammed her fist on the table. Jude appeared in the doorway. Chelsea tried to control her features, but she couldn’t keep back the anger filling her all over again.
Her breath hitched when she thought of Alistair. How he tried to steal her away from Zane. They were doing it all over again. Instead of Alistair grabbing her, she was being held hostage by a witch and some very subtle magic. Chelsea wished she could just run through the room and break the ties the witch had on everyone.
“I don’t like this,” Jude announced.
Zara didn’t turn around. Normally dour and pessimistic, Zara was quiet. Chelsea hated that the most. She wanted her goth friend back to normal. Where was the snark? The only one besides Chelsea who had any sense about them was Jude.
Chelsea tilted her head. “You aren’t enchanted.”
“Nope. Which might be a nice side effect of the pregnancy. Two gold dragons packed into one has made me stronger.”
“You’re pregnant?” Chelsea couldn’t keep the alarm out of her voice.
Jude shouldn’t be here. She should be home, doing whatever pregnant women did in their free time. This mess was dangerous. A witch hovered over their heads while a dragon that Chelsea assumed was very powerful stalked the world outside.
“This is a nightmare,” Chelsea bemoaned before dropping her face into her hands.
“Everything will figure itself out.” Zara gave a warm smile as she set a kid’s packaged lunch down in front of her.
“Ugh, no. My best friend would never say that. She would kick Alistair’s ass then tell her mate to kick his ass.” Chelsea looked at Zara in horror. The spell changed nearly everyone. It was muting their personalities. Chelsea had a feeling that if she ran for the door, Zara would stop her.
If Chelsea couldn’t protect her friend, then she would go to the source. She pulled her rage tight around her and stomped back into the living room. A bit of vodka would make this easier. The cold made her limbs grow numb. She could barely feel her nails biting into her clenched fists.
Sybil grinned the whole time.
Chelsea didn’t need vodka for what she did next. She put her shoe on the edge of the chair and shoved. Sybil tumbled out of her seat. The room filled with cries of outrage. Chelsea didn’t wait for the shifters to descend on her. She grabbed the woman by the collar of her shirt.
Death’s clammy fingers brushed against her hands. She nearly retched in Sybil’s face. This was too much for a single human. She would never save anyone. The others could do that because they were made for great things. Chelsea was just a fuck up of a human.
A rumbling growl forced the others back. Jude took up place beside Chelsea and reminded her of what she was doing. Once more, Sybil had almost enchanted Chelsea. She wasn’t just a human, though. She was a spellbreaker.
If the witch wanted this to be easy, she shouldn’t have said anything. Now, Chelsea threw the cold rage at Sybil. She entombed the woman in it, like packing unbreakable ice around her.
Sybil’s voice was choked, but she seemed undeterred. “It doesn’t matter if you can
overpower me. It’s almost all over anyway. All Alistair needs to do now is pick you off. One. By. One.”
“Where’s Zara?” Asher crashed through the living room, uncaring of whatever stood in his way.
The others shook themselves. They looked to each other; confusion obvious.
Chelsea didn’t feel so out of place. She might be breakable, but in her was an ability that could save everyone. From the witch, at least. That was only half the problem. Chelsea looked to the window and the lake outside.
Where was Zane? Had Alistair found him?
Someone stood on the shore, but it wasn’t Zane. Chelsea lurched, a name on her lips.
The spell shouldn’t have a hold on Zara anymore. Chelsea had cut Sybil off.
The lake rose into a great wave. Chelsea’s core trembled. It was like the day at the beach all over again. The water towered over Zara.
It wasn’t possible. Zane would never do such a thing. He wouldn’t hurt Chelsea’s best friend. He promised.
Everything was cold.
His heart.
His rage.
The chill consumed him until there was only the voice of the beast. No matter what the beast did, it could not wake the human. It screamed. It thrashed. It struggled to no avail. A spell had silenced the human. It sank their body to the bottom of the lake until there was nothing left but magic.
The beast had been here before, but it didn’t have what it had now. Before, there had only been rage. Betrayal cut deep because the beast hadn’t understood. Now, the beast had a reason to survive. It wanted to live for her.
For Chelsea.
The beast liked her. Small and human, she was never daunted. She was his, and he belonged to her. There was nothing that would stop him.
But when the beast swam close to the shore, the wrong woman stood on the dock. Dark hair fluttered around her pale face. Recognition sparked in the beast’s mind. This was his mate’s friend. And so, the water rose. Just enough to get her attention. Nothing crossed the woman’s face. She didn’t yell and jump back. She didn’t even tilt her head back to watch the wall of water growing in front of her.
Something was wrong. He could feel it like a sour current. Something warm in the water, not meant to be there. Still, the wall of water kept rising and rising. Rage pierced him, and a howl ripped out of him. The rage claimed every part of his body. It claimed his soul and the magic that bound him to the lake.
The water climbed higher. And higher.
He would slam it into the ground and wash away the evil festering here. He would wipe away all that would take him from his mate.
15
Chelsea tripped over herself to get out the door. Sybil warned them that Alistair was coming, but there was nothing Chelsea could do to stop him. She wasn’t a shifter, even if a part of her felt guilty for running out of the room. Her focus was on Zara.
And Zane?
For a brief second, Chelsea thought the witch had bound Alistair to the lake once and for all. There was no way that would work, though. Zane and the Lake were one. It would take a tremendous amount of power to break them apart, power that Chelsea didn’t think she had as a spellbreaker.
The wall of water ahead trembled. She flinched. Cold fear brought her to a halt. She was at the beach all over again. The water would crash over her head and drag her along the rocky ground until she was nothing more than a pile of meat and bones.
No. This was her mate. He would never. She needed to save him. That meant possibly doing what she was so terrified of. Cursing at herself, she pushed herself into action once more, stumbling down the last few feet to the dock. She grabbed Zara by the shoulders and pushed her back onto the shore.
Zara blinked, as if coming back to herself. Chelsea offered an apologetic wave and watched Zara’s lips stretch into a scream. The sound was swallowed by the wave once it fell over her. Her world became cold and dark. She should have taken one last breath. Under the pressure of the water, she desperately wanted to fill her lungs with air. She fought the urge to open her mouth and twisted to get a better look around her.
Had she made a mistake? Was Zane not here? Doubt slithered into her thoughts. It shook her and welcomed fear. She needed to find her cold rage if she was going to break through the spell on Zane. Sybil must have found a way to bind him to the lake again. It wouldn’t have been easy while Sybil was enchanting the clan, but Chelsea recalled the man whose breath smelled like ash.
Alistair had held her. He nearly stole her away from Zane. And he was still somewhere close. While Chelsea had been surrounded by the clan, Zane had been alone. She wanted to believe that her mate could overpower Alistair, but the wave made her think Zane lost. If he had, then it was to trickery.
The spell that confused her and Zane that day at the bar must have clouded Zane’s mind. It gave Alistair an opening, one that he used to send Zane back to his enchanted prison. Chelsea had broken the spell once. She didn’t know if their mate bond would break it a second time, but now she had a power.
The witch never should have said anything. That was her mistake. Chelsea wielded her rage like a sword. Her lungs began to burn from the lack of air. Dark shapes darted around her, large and just out of sight. Her heart thumped nervously. She tried to quiet it, knowing that it would use too much oxygen if she let it get out of control.
Thanks Bio 101, she thought.
The shapes twisted in the dark water, closer and closer. She reminded herself that she was here to save her mate. Zane was her other half. The universe might have handed her some crap in the past, but he made up for all of it. She hadn’t thought of her ex’s engagement once.
What would have bothered her for weeks was just a blip in her day. Zane’s presence washed everything bad away and reassured her that there was always something good on the horizon. All they had to do was keep moving toward it. There was a future for the two of them.
She wished she could snap something sarcastic at him and get him to stop moving so menacingly. Why did he have to be such a creep? This wasn’t her mate though. At least, not all of him. This was the part she hadn’t seen much of, the beast.
The dragon was the source of his nightmares, wreaking havoc all along the coast. Would his beast recognize her? She didn’t know if all of a shifter fell in love when a mate bond was in place. In fact, she knew squat about the dragon half. If only she’d thought to ask Zara or Jude about their beasts.
There was only one dark shape now. It swam for her. Her chest was on fire. It burned unlike anything she’d ever felt before. She needed to breathe but didn’t dare move in case it startled him. In case he attacked.
She couldn’t let go of her rage. If she lost it, she would have nothing. But the closer he came, the more she ached. Not just her chest, but her heart. Zane had been through too much. The world asked everything of him, shoving him into this curse not once but twice.
Could she break it twice? She had to believe it was possible.
Especially as the maw before her opened and sharp teeth reached for her. Heart in her throat, she flinched. But something around his neck caught the light. It was just a glimmer, but instinct propelled her forward.
The edges of her vision were blurring. She didn’t know how long she had left. All she knew was that she needed to grab whatever it was around Zane’s neck. Time slowed, teeth all too close to her face. But they didn’t close around her. Instead, the great beast’s head zoomed past hers. The fin spine along his neck grazed her cheek and blood danced in the dark water.
She bent, ignoring the burn in her chest and the sting of her cheek. She closed her fingers around the small pendant at his neck. Zane never wore any jewelry. She’d seen him naked enough to know he never had anything like this. When she touched it, a sickening feeling grazed her hand and made her stomach churn.
She didn’t need to choke on vomit right now. She wrapped one arm around Zane’s neck and tried to hold on. There was no power left in her body. Her lungs were rebelling, her body giving out. She cou
ldn’t yank the pendant from Zane’s neck. She could barely even tug it.
If this was it, she wanted to go out knowing she saved her mate.
Great, clawed hands pulled her into his body. Bubbles escaped her lips, but she forced her rage at Sybil, at Alistair, at her ex all into the power at her fingertips. Cold and unforgiving, her frustration sliced through the spell. There was a great crack and the lake shook.
The last thing she did was let out a victory cry.
The beast whimpered. It flicked its tail and swam as fast as it could toward the water’s surface. He raced toward the surface, beating the little bubbles that had been the last of her breath. Yet, when he escaped the water, she didn’t move.
Inside the beast, the man was waking. The fog that had addled their minds slipped away. It had put the man to sleep and left only the beast as the fog infected its mind with rage and torment. The man urged the beast to take their mate to shore. She needed help that they couldn’t provide.
The beast could help. If they changed Chelsea, she would survive. The beast was impatient. Panic made its heart thrash uncomfortably. Zane growled in frustration and forced them forward. Once the beast carried Chelsea ashore, Zane took back control and brought back his human body.
It felt strange, like the first time the curse broke and he walked on human legs again. Each step was wobbling, but he refused to fall so long as Chelsea was in his arms. He regarded her with awe as he set her on the grass.
She broke the spell. He could tell it wasn’t the same kind of spell as the first one that trapped him. The means of casting it had been different. It put the human part of him to sleep but didn’t sink him to the bottom of the lake. It made him a roving monster.
All it had taken was one touch. Chelsea grabbed the amulet and the spell shattered.
He put his lips on hers and blew. His CPR skills were rusty, but he had to try. For her. After she did so much to save him. He recalled the terrified and quite drunk woman he met on the lake’s shore, screaming her head off. Despite her fear, she jumped in after him. She did everything in her power to save him.
Zane (Keepers Of The Lake Book 6) Page 12