by LJ Swallow
"We have spare clothes," says Amelia as she sits opposite and smiles. Matt brought us some clothes to the Winterfall place, which are fine for Jamie but the jeans didn’t fit me and the blue T-shirt is too tight. "You can change."
"Not until we've spoken," says Alaric gruffly. "Sorry."
Maeve's hands shake again, and she tucks them under her arms. She’s dressed in Amelia’s simple blue shirt and tight black jeans borrowed from the taller Izzy. Last night, Maeve freaked out about the amount of blood on her clothes. We found a tap with cold running water at the Winterfall house and scrubbed off what we could in silence, before handing her Jamie’s blazer to keep her blood away from Andrei.
Maeve knelt by the sink and endured me washing blood from her hair with cold water and her hair returned to blonde as it dried.
Her need overcame my dumb fear of blood.
"Amelia told me a little when she called," Jamie says. He sits stiffly with his fists balled on his knees. “She wouldn’t tell me much in the car.”
“Sorry,” she mumbles.
"What else do you know?" he asks.
Matt speaks. "More than a dozen kids died and some are missing—such as yourselves. The damage to the building revealed the tunnels and a body was found close to the entrance."
Maeve's shoulders tense further.
"Theodora," says Amelia softly.
"And the others?" asks Jamie, avoiding names again.
"Nobody has broken through the rubble in the cavern yet. Earth-attuned elemental witches are on their way to clear the site.” Matt pauses. “If anybody below Petrescu survived the rubble from the collapse, they wouldn’t survive the fire."
“I failed,” says Maeve, voice as dull as her face. “People died.”
“But without your vision, we would never know the plans to release the First.” Jamie strokes Maeve’s leg and she looks to him. “How many more people would’ve died?”
“You can’t save everybody,” says Alaric and I glare at his nonchalance.
"I won't believe my mother is dead until I see her body," says Andrei flatly.
"Was Tobias with Gabriella when you left?"
I tense at Alaric's blunt question and Jamie hugs Maeve closer as she chokes back a sob.
"Could he have escaped?" asks Amelia.
"The place was collapsing when Jamie performed the spell. He was holding Gabriella off us,” whispers Maeve. "She wanted to kill me, and Tobias saved my life. The curse succeeded."
I'm no empath but I feel Maeve’s anguish as powerfully as if it were my own, and I ache to wrap her up and take her away from the horror, even if only for a few hours.
"And the First?" Alaric presses. "Did she escape?"
"No."
"You know about the First?" asks Andrei in surprise. “Why didn’t you say?”
"I know hidden history,” he retorts. “Her existence is steeped in myth, because how else could something as powerful exist but remain hidden?"
"Obviously, she could," I mutter.
"Theodora and her allies did the right thing keeping her locked up, albeit in a misguided way."
“Misguided?” chokes out Jamie. “People died—and we don’t know how many!”
“My blood triggered the fire and cavern collapse," says a pale Maeve. “I think Theodora knew that would happen.”
“As did Anastasia. She tried to kill Gabriella and the rest of us by ensuring we’d all be there when the pit collapsed,” says Andrei. “That’s why her spell only delayed me and Tobias, I think. Anastasia was ready to use a spell to escape at the last minute.”
“The situation with Anastasia intrigues me,” muses Alaric. “I did wonder how the Dominion and Blackwoods managed to reforge after their feud. Taking on Gabriella was ambitious, even for her.”
Again, Amelia looks confused. “But how would Anastasia know?”
“If the Blackwoods and Winterfalls sealed the pit, she’d know,” Alaric says and nods at Maeve. “She wanted to stop Gabriella releasing the First, not help her. Your vision was only half-right.”
"Can the First still escape?" asks Amelia in a small voice.
Alaric bites his lip and shakes his head. "We don't know whether the First escaped before the final destruction.”
“We never saw anything,” says Maeve. “The presence grew but still felt distant.”
Alaric rests against the wall and crosses his arms. “The magic surrounding this appears complex, as it should be, to restrain the creature."
"Fuck." Andrei stands. "That thing could escape?"
“Or already has,” I mutter.
“We can’t rule this out, but unless the First finds strong blood, she'll stay weak.” Alaric nods at me. “If Tobias hadn’t stopped Gabriella throwing you into that pit, the world would face a bigger threat. If the First managed to escape before the fire took hold, she’d have strength from your blood.”
We drop back into silence.
"I'm a fugitive now, aren't I?" Maeve whispers. "Both Confederacy and Dominion want me."
"They always did, Maeve," says Alaric. "At least we know why now."
"Wow. Well that makes everything better," retorts Andrei.
“The Dominion have suffered a setback now Anastasia and Nikolai are dead. Nobody could match Maeve, but the shifters aren’t the only army the Blackwoods are creating." Alaric gestures at Matt. “As we know.”
“Gabriella won't give up," Jamie says.
"She's probably dead," I say helpfully. "And now the Confederacy know, there'll be extra guards."
Alaric snorts. "The academy is indefinitely closed. What else could the authorities do? The place will always hold the horror of what happened."
"At least we beat the shifter army," says Matt.
Alaric shakes his head. "Those shifters, yes. There'll be questions asked and more discord between the races, as the Dominion planned. I don't believe the trouble created by the massacre will fade, and neither will the manifesto planted in young shifters’ heads. That wasn’t magic—the witches encouraged something that already existed in their minds. Whatever elders decide, the young shifters will replace them soon."
"Shit," I mutter.
"You're something of a hero, Ash," says Matt with a wry smile.
"What?" I rub my head.
"You saved a lot of kids," says Amelia. "You've always been earmarked as a leader; now the shifter council will want you as an example of how they can beat the uprising."
I tense. "No. No fucking way. I'll hide for the rest of my life rather than be dragged into shit again."
Alaric scratches a brow but doesn't speak.
“Andrei saved Yvette’s life,” says Maeve and we all look at him.
“Wow.” I’m genuinely impressed. “The girl who tried to kill you?”
He shrugs and stares at his shoes. “Nobody deserved to die.”
“Apart from Vince,” I growl. “Amelia. Do you know if Clive survived?”
“I don’t. There isn’t a full list of victims yet.”
Alaric waves a hand at us. “Once somebody discovers your names aren’t on the list, the search for you becomes serious.”
"Then what do we do now?" asks Maeve. "Hide?"
"Until I fully gauge which Confederacy members are leading the investigation and their intentions towards you, yes." He finally sits in the spare wicker armchair. "I have people working on the inside as pen-pushers rather than soldiers. They can advise me."
Soldiers. I tip my head at Amelia, who gives me an uncertain smile.
"Where do we go? How long for?" Jamie asks. "How warded is this place?"
"Honestly? You’re safest at the Winterfall estate, but that's hardly habitable and you're lucky the renovators never turned up this morning. We'll look at other options until we figure out what to do."
"I want to go back there." Maeve's tone loses the meekness, replaced by determination. "I need to go back."
"I agree with Alaric—the house is uninhabitable, Maeve," says Jamie, stroking her h
air.
"That's where he'll come." She sits forward, back suddenly straight.
"Who?" asks Alaric.
"Tobias."
Fuck. I close my eyes. Is that why she’s distant? Because Maeve refuses to accept he died in the fire with Gabriella? If Amelia’s explanation is right, we could never find a body to give Maeve closure.
But nobody challenges Maeve’s belief. She's too fragile and we can’t risk breaking her apart.
"I need to go back," she repeats. "I'll wait for him."
"Maeve." Amelia crosses and crouches down to take both her hands. "Tobias isn't coming back."
"How do you know?" Maeve stands almost knocking Amelia over. "Nobody saw him die!"
"And nobody has seen him or Gabriella," says Alaric flatly.
"So? It's only been a day. They could be anywhere."
Amelia stands and holds Maeve close. "How about you take a shower? You must be desperate for some hot water. We can talk about this later."
She pulls away. "I know what you're doing, but I won't drop this. Alaric even says I'm safer there!"
Again, nobody argues with Maeve, but is it fair of us to let her hold onto this delusion? I experienced the denial caused by grief when we thought Vince had died, and that denial helped me cope with the devastation before I accepted the harsh truth. I'll support Maeve in what she wants to do, even if nobody else does.
Chapter Seventy
MAEVE
I step from the shower back into the luxurious bathroom where the white tiles gleam above the square sink and soft grey towels hang from silver rails. A world away from the single tap of cold water last night.
Wrapping one towel around my head and another around my body, I glance at the pale girl in the mirror, but don’t want to look at her for long. She’s haunted and unrecognisable. Red marks on my arms and hands prompt a sudden reminder of yesterday and I slump onto the edge of the oval bath swallowing down tears.
I’m unsure how long I sit, lost in my memories, picturing the last moments in the cavern over and over and creating scenarios where Tobias escaped. He threw Gabriella in the pit and ran out with vampire speed. That’s what happened. But as the water dries and my skin cools so does my hope.
Somebody raps on the door and I jerk my head up.
“Maeve?” Jamie’s voice, louder and urgent. “Are you listening?”
I stand and tighten the towel before unlocking and opening the door. “What’s wrong? Has something happened?”
An exhausted Jamie wearing unfamiliar clothes smiles with relief when I open the door. He bites his lip as he attempts not to look at where the towel barely reaches my knees. “Didn’t you hear me knock?”
“No. Sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry,” he whispers and his face pains.
“What for? What did you do?”
Jamie closes the door and sits on the edge of the bath, barely able to look at me. “Do you hate me for leaving Tobias?”
My heart lurches. “Jamie. No.” I crouch down in front of him and place both hands on his knees. “No.”
“But you’re in pieces,” he says hoarsely and lifts his eyes to mine.
“Everybody is. If you’d hesitated, we’d all be dead.” My moisten my dry lips. “Yes, it hurts unimaginably that Tobias isn’t here, but we knew this might happen.”
The words come robotically, as if saying them would convince me everything will be alright. I can’t tell Jamie that I left a piece of myself behind with Tobias; one that I’ll never find until he comes back to me.
“I’d practiced the blood spell,” he admits. “I knew that might be our only way, but then Theodora—”
I swallow. “I’ll never understand how she could be so blind to what was happening. Everything she did threatened the academy, instead of protecting it.”
He shakes his head. “I think once she lost her grip on what was happening, she lost a grip on herself too.”
“On reality,” I mutter. “The deaths. Why didn’t I stop them?”
“Maeve. Again. You did what you could. You’re not a superhero who can save the world.” I dip my head and he lifts my chin to meet his eyes. “Anastasia and Gabriella are dead. Vince is dead. Yes, things are fucked up and the world remains dangerous, but you made a difference last night.”
“We, Jamie.”
My lips meet his and I tease a kiss from him. Jamie’s hand slides behind my neck as his lips move gently against mine. Our tender kiss becomes stronger and I push my hands into his hair, pulling Jamie close. His soft cotton shirt is warm against my cool skin, his embrace the comfort I need as I press myself closer.
Jamie breaks away and moistens his lips. “Talk to me about something.”
My brow tugs down. “What?”
“There’s only a towel between you and my hands.” His mouth tips at one corner. “Distract me.”
I laugh and kiss him again, amused the situation is a big deal after everything we’ve gone through. The towel slips from my head and I shake my damp hair at him. “Oh, Jamie. You’re funny.”
He kneels on the floor beside me and untangles my hair with his fingers. “Are you okay? You didn’t answer the door.”
Tears well and I swallow. “I was lost in thought, that’s all.”
“I’ll go with you to the estate, Maeve. Whatever you need to heal.”
I shake my head. “Don’t talk. Just kiss me. I don’t care about the towel.”
“I do.”
“Are you offering your distraction services again?” I ask with a small smile.
Jamie’s tired mind doesn’t manage to block his thoughts the way he normally might, and I catch several strong images of us on the floor in the bathroom, with no towels involved.
“The tiles are a bit cold for that,” I whisper and brush my lips on his.
“That obvious, huh?”
I tap the side of his head. “Perfectly.”
“Damn,” he whispers against my lips.
This time, when Jamie kisses me with a restraint opposite to the one I saw in his head, I love him even more. His touch is tender and comforting as he draws me away from some of the memories that overwhelmed me before he walked into the bathroom. I don’t know if this is because of the witchbond, or because he’s Jamie, but kissing him always feels like coming home and closing the door on the world.
Chapter Seventy-One
MAEVE
I stand on the steps outside the Winterfall house entrance, the place I spend much of my days, and watch Ash walk along the driveway towards me.
The guy is unmistakable, especially now he’s taller and more muscular than he was, but he’s still Ash. My rock—my mountainous guy who protects me and understands my situation in a way that’s strange for a guy who’s not a witch.
Since we arrived several days ago, Ash, Andrei, and Jamie have barely left my side, almost as if they're guards who swap shifts. When he's not 'on watch', Jamie heads to the local town for supplies, often staying away for hours. He finds the situation here difficult and I swear he’s meeting Amelia and Matt to monitor if and when someone approaches. Ash left once, but I stay at the estate, never leaving my phone out of sight.
Steve allows us to stay as long as we don't go into the house. If only he knew a vampire hides in the cellars. Okay, that 'allowing' and him not questioning our weird hanging around may've been encouraged by some mental magic on my part, but at least I'm here. We pretend to leave at sunset, but I refuse to set foot off the estate. Once, Steve returned and Ash spotted him walking up the driveway, sending us scattering and into the cellars. Was he checking up on us? I heard him walking above us in the house, but he left without going far.
Ash reaches the house and holds me in a strong, silent hug. I tiptoe to kiss him and he responds gently, stroking my hair as he does. The sun shines on us, but we're not at the academy on the lawn; I've no daisies to make into chains—and he's not the Ash I knew. I see the physical change in him, but does he realise he feels different now too? He's qu
icker to challenge in an argument; more alert than ever to noise. The trauma of our night, or more?
“Where did you go?” I ask as we sit.
“Walked around the estate.”
“Again?”
He smiles. “Yeah.”
Even though he doesn’t say anything, Ash wants to leave. He supports me but never wanted to come here. He never joined in Alaric’s insistence we’re safer if we’re somewhere nobody would expect us to be, because he knows I won’t leave.
Not until I’ve no other choice.
“I don’t mind if you want to stay with Matt and Amelia for a few days,” I say.
He tips my chin and looks at me with earnest eyes. "I'll stay here, with you, as long as you want. We all will."
"You're not sick of sleeping bags and no electricity?" I ask.
“Steve is connecting up the west wing," he says and points at the white van with a local firm's name painted on the side. "The electricians are here today."
"Oh!" I brighten. "That's awesome news."
"Sure is." He hugs me closer and kisses the top of her head but he doesn’t sound convinced.
"Thank you,” I whisper. “I worry I’m making life harder for the three of you."
Ash moves to tip my chin and his eyes fill with concern. “We stick together, always. From now on, we’re unbreakable. When the time is right, that’s when we’ll leave.”
Ash’s gentle kiss starts a familiar fluttering in my stomach, and I move my hands to run them over his broad back, pulling him closer. His mouth moves softly over mine, his love tender, but even the gentlest kiss from Ash snatches my breath. As I deepen the kiss, the possessive Ash takes over and he holds my head, parting my lips to slide his tongue into my mouth. I kiss Ash back, fall into him, allowing him to catch and protect my heart in the way his arms surround me with safety.
ASH
Maeve’s kiss still buzzes on my lips as she snuggles closer and wraps her arms around my waist. She gazes along the driveway. "You ask how I feel all the time, Ash. Tell me how you are. It's been three days and you've not mentioned how the shifting affected you."