by KT Strange
“Good,” I grumbled, and crossed my arms over my chest. “Haunted, huh?”
Cassandra looked at me out of the corner of her eyes before gazing across the smooth lake surface.
“Very haunted.”
“Well that’s gratifying.”
“You’re not at all sorry for him? He slept in the cold.”
“Nah. He earned it. He keeps avoiding me? Well then maybe he gets to wake up with dew on his face.” I huffed out a breath as Cassandra laughed.
“I had not expected you to have such fire in you,” she said. “Our lore paints witches as such cowardly creatures, hiding behind the mundane and sending them to do a witch’s dirty work.”
“Well I’m not your average witch. I never really wanted to be one. I guess magic ended up finding me, even if I was running from it as hard as I could.”
“We often run from the things we fear most. Elias is learning that as much as he runs, every corner he turns you will be there, waiting for him.”
“Can we talk about something else beside him? I have five guys in my life, and I’m not spending the rest of it failing the Bechdel test,” I said.
Yeah, I got it. Being near me terrified the living shit out of him. Cassandra may have not meant to, but she’d hit at the soft, sensitive, sore spot inside me.
“Tell me of your family.”
“Assholes. But my best friend Max is pretty awesome. She’s my chosen-family,” I said, relieved to be talking about anything else. “Turns out she’s kind of a phoenix. Crazy, right?”
Cassandra’s laugh rang out and she linked her arm in mine again, turning me so we could walk back to the fire.
“It is not so surprising to me that you would attract such a friend. I am grateful to hear that your pack has their phoenix.”
“So um, how does that work? Because I’m their mate—”
“Are you jealous of her position with them?” she asked, giving me a measuring look.
“Oh god no, she’s my best friend, and it seems she’s like a sister to them.”
“That would be the best way to view it.” Cassandra gazed across to the fire pit, where the pups were frolicking, in shifted form, hopping through the long grasses and growling at each other as they play-wrestled. “I am here for their protection. Although some alphas would mate with their dragon, phoenix, or even unicorn, it is not… it is not advisable,” she said.
I raised an eyebrow.
“Does Redric…?” I asked, not even wanting to put it into words.
“He would not dare try,” she said, although from the tone of her voice I got the impression that he wanted to. So apparently the guy was a bigger asshole than I’d first imagined.
“Riiiight,” I said as we walked up to the fire. “Ryatt seems nice.”
“He is a true wolf, sweet to the bone, and not a bad intention in his heart,” Cassandra said. “Sometimes I wish that he had been first born, but I do not tell him that. He might get the idea to challenge his brother, and he is not so ruthless… Redric would rip his throat out without a thought and go about his business.”
Hanging out with Dragonpack was making me look at werewolves a lot differently than I had before. Phoenixcry had shifted my worldview entirely, but Dragonpack were giving me a different perspective as well. There was infighting. They weren’t perfect, and they were way more blood-hungry than the guys of my pack. I wondered how Eli was doing with them, out on the hunt.
Calen, Cassandra told me, had taken some of the kills from yesterday into town for trade. He’d be back after the hunt returned, and I hoped he’d bring me a coffee. Whatever had passed between us the night before at the bonfire...well, I was just going to ignore that when I saw him. The way Eli had grabbed me would make Calen realize that whatever torch he was carrying for me wasn’t going to go anywhere. Even if Eli refused to make a move on me, I had my guys, and there was nothing inside me that could ever make me want to betray them.
The darkness fell on another day out in the woods with Dragonpack, and the hunting wolves returned, more deer on their shoulders. Eli changed into fresh clothes before sitting next to me on a log by the fire.
“Hey,” he said.
“Uh huh,” I replied, toasting a long stick in the fire. One of the older pups had given it to me, saying that it helped him relax and that I looked ‘stressed’ and did all witches look stressed out? The memory made me smile.
“Last night—”
“Not really in the mood to talk about it,” I said, heat creeping up my neck that had nothing to do with my proximity to the fire.
“I’m sorry I disrespected you,” he continued. “That’s… all I wanted to say.”
I swallowed and looked at him. His eyes were in shadow, his lips pulled into a flat line, but for once he was frowning at himself, not at me.
I tried to put away my anger and hurt.
“Just don’t… don’t do that again if you’re going to run off on me,” I whispered, very aware of the presence of wolves all around us. “I…”
He reached out, taking my hand in his and squeezing it.
“I never want to hurt you like that again,” he swore, his gaze intense. I closed my eyes hard and nodded. He really was sorry. The anger ran out of me. I’d get him back when we were home with the pack again, maybe get Cash or Ace to help me prank him. That would be enough. Maybe.
He slid along the log, slipping beside me. His arm wrapped around my shoulders and I let him pull me into his side.
He let out a sigh and rubbed his cheek on the top of my head. I inhaled his scent and just sat with him, needing the quiet more than anything.
My eyes had been shut only a moment when a shout rang out. Eli tensed and looked over his shoulder.
Calen was running toward us, alarm written all over his face. Ryatt followed a few footsteps behind. In his hand he had a newspaper, opened up to an interior page.
“Your brother,” Ryatt breathed hard, “your brother has been arrested.”
My eyes fell to the headline of the article, my stomach icing over.
It read LEAD GUITARIST OF ROCK BAND ARRESTED ON ASSAULT.
Below it, a photo of Finn, being handcuffed.
Thirteen
Darcy
“We need to go back.” Eli’s eyes were wild, red-rimmed after he’d tugged me away from the bonfire. Moonlight glided over the ground, splashing across the long, thick blades of grass, turning everything to silver frost.
My mouth opened and closed. What was I supposed to do? Tell him no? I wanted to go back too.
But what would that mean for Finn? For any of this?
“What are you going to do, break him out of jail?”
Anger flashed across Eli’s face.
“He shouldn’t be in handcuffs. That should be me. It’s my fault—””
“Jake Tupper has been asking for someone to feed him a fist sandwich for months,” I said, “probably longer. We both know you lost control, but you were just trying to protect me.”
“Even more reason I should be in there and not him. I’m not going to let him suffer because I couldn’t stay and face the consequences of my actions.”
I huffed out a breath.
He wasn’t wrong.
“What if he doesn’t want us coming back? What if he did this on purpose? The article said he gave himself up.” God, the pack must’ve been freaking out. Cash, Charlie, and Ace, all without their two unofficial leaders there to take care of things. My heart ached for them. And Finn making that kind of sacrifice?
“My brother would never let me pay for his crimes,” Eli said, stabbing the air in front of me with his finger. “You give me one good reason that we shouldn’t go back right now.”
“They’ll know he lied about who he was. I’m pretty sure that’s a crime,” I said. “I’m not sure what kind of laws he broke, but he broke something. They can’t know. Ever. He’s got to see this through, and I’m sure he’ll be released, and then no one will ever realize you pulled a Parent Tr
ap on the justice system.” I crossed my arms over my chest and refused to be swayed by his emotions or intimidated by the way he glared at me.
Because he knew I was right. He had to know. Eli wasn’t an idiot. Okay, he was an idiot for bailing on me in the middle of what had been looking like some pretty awesome sex. He wasn’t an idiot when it came to protecting his brother.
Eli’s shoulders slumped and he hung his head. I was grateful we’d walked away from the firepit so we could talk without being overheard, or have his emotions on display for the whole of Dragonpack to see.
“Tell me what to do,” he said after a few moments of quiet. “If you tell me what to do then I feel less like...”
“Like you’re making the wrong decision? So if it all goes south, you aren’t responsible?”
He shot me an evil look before closing his eyes.
“Sounds about right.” He looked miserable. Being apart from him physically hurt, and I stepped up and threw my arms around his waist. He grunted in surprise, but then he wrapped me up in his grip, his hands sliding along my back. The soft puff of his breath on top of my hair warmed me, and we stood there, clinging to each other tightly.
“See it’s not so hard to consult other people before you make decisions for them, right?” I asked. His muscles went tense under my cheek as I leaned into his chest.
“I beg your pardon?” His words were so frosty they dripped icicles.
“Well you can’t just make decisions for everyone. Finn chose to do what he needed to do in order to keep you safe,” I said, swallowing when he pulled away from me, a frown on his face.
“I do what’s best to keep the pack alive,” he said, voice cutting. “Are you questioning that?”
“No!” I gulped a breath of air. “No, I just meant, you can’t keep doing whatever you want, because there’s other people—”
His eyes flashed in the moonlight, and I knew I’d pushed him too far, had misspoken. My mistake careening toward me out of control, and I couldn’t stop it.
“You think I don’t consider everyone else before I make a decision?” His voice had dropped half a step, so low that it bottomed out. His lip curled and I could feel the anger rolling off of him in waves. “Little witch, you’ve been around me for months, and you don’t—”
“Eli, stop,” I said. “Stop. Can we just, take a breath? I’m not fighting with you right now. Your brother is in jail, and you’re not thinking straight.”
His expression was still angry but he at least he seemed to be listening to me.
“Look I know I said some things just now that weren’t fair. I know that you are thoughtful, and you always think about the pack before your own self. Everything you’ve ever done, I’m sure, has just been for the benefit of the pack. Right?” I looked at him with earnest eyes and hoped that he saw that I hadn’t meant to be rude to him just now. Communicating with him sometimes was like talking to a brick wall. I just had to get better at it, if I wanted this to work. I swallowed hard and closed my eyes, trying to think of what exactly I wanted to say to him that wouldn’t make things worse.
“Darcy, it’s okay.” His warm hands came up to cup my face. My eyes fluttered open, and he was right there. His expression had morphed from frustrated and angry to loving, and my heart squeezed in my chest. God, I loved him.
I loved him so much. It had snuck up on me, not tapping me on the shoulder like it had with Finn. Just all of the sudden he was everything that I could think about and all that I wanted. I was done fighting him at every turn. If we didn’t come up with a solution together, then what was the point?
I shivered when his fingers dragged down my neck, his thumb resting in the hollow at the base of my throat.
“I’m sorry, I meant what I was saying but not how I said it. I mean I didn’t mean it—I meant something else but it came out all wrong.”
He grinned at me and laughed low.
“I’ve been around Cash enough to know when someone’s talking out of their ass.” His face drew closer.
“I wasn’t talking out of my –”
His lips on mine silenced me. There was no way I could ever be mad about it though. The warmth that spread through my body when he held me and kissed me? It was enough to make all my concerns and worries fly away. We’d get through this together. We’d save Finn. I melted into him, my fingers fisting the front of his shirt. When he pulled away from me I was dizzy and he was smiling broadly, like he’d figured everything out.
“Let’s go home,” he murmured. “We’ll deal with it when we get there.”
It was all I could do to just nod, my head spinning from his slow, intense kisses.
“This is such a bad idea,” I said.
“Then let’s fuck up together,” he replied.
The quiet around us was broken by the soft thud of approaching footsteps. I looked up, Eli’s arms around my waist as he held me close.
Cassandra, her chin held high, walked toward us.
“I suppose your time with us is coming to an abrupt end after today’s news,” she said.
“Looks like it,” Eli said, his hands warm at the base of my spine as he stroked me there. “Think we could get a ride down to the border, and an all clear if it’s good to pass?”
Cassandra glanced at him and then settled her gaze on me.
“There is the matter of the heartstone,” she said. I raised an eyebrow at her.
“What about it?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know how to create one for your mates?”
My chest panged.
“I was told it’s not possible, not without me dying or becoming undead,” I said, feeling like it was safe to confess these things to her. Wolfe had been pretty clear about my life expectancy once I started to try to make one.
Eli let out a soft rumble of displeasure.
“It’s not worth the risk,” he said. Cassandra tossed her head.
“You are young,” her voice was irritated.
“So are you,” he countered. “You’re not as old as you hold yourself, and maybe you’ve never been in love.”
My breath caught in my throat at his admission and I glanced up at him. He stared Cassandra down.
“Maybe you ought to hear me out before you shut down the future of your pack, wolf.”
I glanced at her, surprised. She’d never sounded so angry. Her lips pressed together, thin and bloodless.
“I was about to suggest I take her to the heartstone. She might make a map of it in her mind, and speak to it. Such practices have helped other witches to create them, far before either of us were born.”
“Well?” I asked. Eli was tense but he sighed.
“I guess it can’t hurt.” His arms stayed around me, even as Cassandra looked pointedly toward the small clearing where the heartstone lay.
“You will stay here,” Cassandra said. “Your heart is not confident, and it will interrupt the flow of power.” She raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at Eli and he let go of me with great reluctance.
“I’ll be nearby.”
“By the fire,” she corrected him. “Ryatt wanted to speak to you.”
She held out a hand for me and I took it, leaving the safe comfort of Eli’s embrace. It wouldn’t hurt anything to just see the heartstone again. Already I could remember the soft waves of power radiating from it that had washed over my senses, making me feel at ease as soon as I stepped into the clearing.
Eli grunted and then walked off toward the firepit. Cassandra shook her head.
“Men are stubborn, wolves doubly so,” she said, patting my hand. “Come.”
Fourteen
Darcy
The heartstone seemed to glow in the dark, the small dots of crystal inside of it lighting up as I stood in front of it. Those dull, ebbing wavelets of its power were soothing, and I sighed, almost feeling like I should kneel.
"Who made it?" I asked as Cassandra came to stand next to me.
"A great witch of the true north," Cassandra said. Her
eyes were closed and she moved to sit down on the grass, her hands resting palm-up on her knees. "Before I came to the pack. She sang the wolfsong in her heart, no prejudice clouding her mind. Much like you."
A thought prickled at me.
"Did she mate with wolves? Did she... have mates?"
"No, but I am told that Ryatt and Redric's ancestors were quite taken with her. She was a traveler, and would not stay long in one place. I think it has been one of the vulnerabilities of wolves, that they must stay close to their heartstone or suffer the consequences."
I sat down next to her as she spoke, her voice like liquid amber, dripping into the back of my mind.
"Do you feel the land, and how it connects to the stone?" she asked.
"Mmhmmm." I could. Almost at the edge of what was me and was the rest of the world, I could feel the old power of the heartstone in my bones as it fed into the land, pulled from it.
"It sits and waits for more wolves to be born, pups with their eyes barely open, to continue singing the packsong, running across the land,” Cassandra said, her words almost sighing out of her. “Is it not magnificent?”
“It’s something alright.” I knelt in the grass and sighed.
“That tie to the land, the witch that made it, she bound a piece of herself to the earth here. Sometimes I pretend I can hear echoes of her voice.” Cassandra looked over at me with a smile. “Can you hear her?”
Deep down inside of me there was a place of stillness. I held my breath, hoping that I would be able to hear the voice of the witch who'd made this heartstone. Maybe it could bring me closer to her, or understand how to make one without dying or ending up like Wolfe. I had absolutely no intention of spending the rest of my life as a vampire.
The chatter in my brain overwhelmed me, and I tried to focus on nothing at all, letting my thoughts fade into the dark as I closed my eyes tight.
There, at the edge of my awareness, I felt something strange, the echo of a witch and the mark that she had left on the land. Something about being near the heartstone made my magical awareness so much stronger, like I could focus deeper and harder, and after a few seconds of deep breaths that sent oxygen rushing to my brain, I heard her.