by Bella Falls
“I don’t understand. How am I involved at all?” I asked, waiting for either Dash or Elodie to make some sense.
“Because Silas is sticking to his claim of being innocent of what he’s being accused of.” Elodie set her fork down on her plate with a little too much force. “That stubborn fool is pushing his luck.”
“He’s doing what he thinks is right, Mama,” Cameron countered. “And technically, he’s following pack rules.”
Dash paced behind my chair. “That doesn’t mean she has to be dragged into this.”
Elodie sighed. “Unfortunately, your little white lie of who she is to you opened that door.”
I glanced around the room at the other three. “Are you saying that implying I was connected to Dash in a certain way makes it possible for Silas’s challenge?” My eyes landed on the pack leader, who avoided my gaze. “I thought you said the whole point was to protect me.”
“It was to help explain why you needed to stick by me and not have to reveal our magical bond.” Dash cursed loud enough for the rest of us to wince. “I never intended for anything like this to happen.”
I pushed the remnants of a blackberry around my plate with my fork. “Well, if I’m being dragged into this whole mess, then you better prep me for what’s to come.”
Cameron pulled up a chair and sat down in front of me. “Silas is asking to face his accuser. If Max didn’t know about your powers, we could have hidden your part from everyone.”
“But he’s the biggest rule follower of them all,” Elodie complained, slapping the table with her hand. “So, let’s stop crying over spilled milk and get on with it.”
“Fine.” Her daughter scooted her chair a little closer. “There are two things open to Silas with his claim. One is that in confronting you, he’s forcing you to provide proof of your accusation for everyone else to see.”
My mind tried to grasp her meaning. “I’ll have to show them how my magic works?”
“In a fair world, yes.” Dash stopped pacing and stood behind Cameron’s chair in front of me. “If our pack members trusted witches, then that would be the best way to show proof of the accusation.”
My heart sank into my stomach, souring it. “But you’ve been keeping my status as a witch pretty quiet on purpose. So, I’m guessing showing off any of my magic would make things worse, not better. Then, I’ll have to go for option two.”
“Right.” Cameron glanced away and blew out a big breath. “Except that means that the two of you fight each other.”
My mouth gaped open. I waited for someone in the room to start cracking up and explain that it was a joke. Nobody laughed.
“When you say fight…” I began.
“It means an actual physical confrontation,” Dash confirmed. “And there’s no way I will let that happen.”
“Whoa, pack leader.” Elodie scooted her chair away from the table. “I get where you’re coming from, but you’ll get yourself into a mess of trouble if you try to declare Silas’s challenge null and void.”
“I don’t care!” he barked, pointing at me. “There is no way I’m putting her in any danger like that.”
Cameron got up from her seat and approached him, putting a hand on his arm. “Sorry, but you know my mother’s right. As the leader, you have to uphold our laws and rules.”
Dash yanked himself out of her grip. “I made a promise to protect Charli, and I mean to keep my word. If there are those who want to challenge me for position, then let them. I will take any one of them on.”
I watched the exchange between the pack members with a mix of awe and terror. Whenever Dash had talked about life in the mountains, not once had he described anything as volatile and dangerous as this situation. But there wasn’t much I could do to change a lifetime of traditions.
In that moment, I wanted nothing more than to call Mason and ask his advice. I reached into my pocket and fingered my spell phone, imagining how that conversation would go. If I told him the truth, he’d rush up here to stop things, and that would create an even bigger problem than the one I found myself in already. My heart ached to be comforted by my boyfriend, but I knew I needed to figure out how to deal with things on my own.
The arguing between the three pack members grew louder, and it took me clearing my throat a couple of times before they stopped fighting and paid attention.
“I appreciate what you’re saying, Dash, but it sounds to me like I don’t have a choice. Either I can convince your pack with my magic or I’ll have to fight,” I said. My hands gripped the side of the table to keep them from shaking.
“That’s not gonna happen,” he repeated, planting his feet firmly and crossing his arms across his chest.
“What, you think a witch like me can’t take care of herself?” Wanting to ease some of the tension in the room, I scooped up the leftover blackberry from my plate and lobbed it at him.
The mushy fruit hit him in the middle of his forehead. It stuck there for a second before sliding off, leaving a dark trail of juice in its wake. The whole room remained quiet, and I held my breath in anticipation of an explosion from him.
“You. Are. So. Gonna. Pay. For. That,” he gritted through his teeth. The corner of his mouth quirked up.
I squealed and bolted into the living room. My body tingled all over, and I sensed he was approaching on my left, so I maneuvered around a chair to my right. Right after that, the buzzing continued, and I switched directions, causing Dash to run past and just miss catching me.
“If you get one drop of blackberry juice on my furniture, I will skin both your hides,” Elodie threatened.
I stopped in front of one of the large picture windows, recognizing at the last second what the tingles and buzzing meant. Listening to my heightened instincts, I ducked to the left at the last second. A gloopy blackberry hit the glass with a thud.
“Dang it, I missed,” Dash groused.
“No, you didn’t. I mean, you did, but I think I figured something out.” I captured the berry before it dropped to the floor, turning around to face my friend. “How long did you say we had until the challenge?”
He frowned at me. “Forty-eight hours. Why?”
I stared at the glob of fruit in my hand, a plan formulating in my head. “Because we have some work to do tomorrow if I’m going to be ready for it.”
“I am not going to try and hit you, so stop askin’.” Dash shook his head and glared at Cameron.
I bounced on my feet and punched the air like I was Rocky. “Come on, how else are we going to test my theory?”
“That’s just it. A theory. Based on an idea you formulated after dodging a glass of water once and a tiny little blackberry,” he dismissed.
“Not just those. My instincts were on point last night when you were chasing me around Elodie’s living room. I knew exactly what direction you were coming from and the second you launched that piece of fruit at me.”
“You threw one at me first,” he said with a slight pout.
Cameron, who had stayed quiet and out of things while Dash and I bickered, stepped in between us. “So, you’re saying that you’ve got the power to know when something’s coming?”
It surprised me that her alpha hadn’t filled her in on my little gift from the Gray sisters. “I think so, but I won’t know if I’m right or if it will work in the way I think it will unless someone tries to hit me.”
Cam bit her lip as she considered the proposition. “Hmm.”
“No way. Uh-uh. This is completely crazy,” Dash countered.
“But what if this is the reason why the Gray sisters gave me the extra ability? Not to necessarily warn me when something big is coming but to use in a situation exactly like this.” I looked between the two of them. “Come on, how often do you get a free pass to hit somebody?”
Dash growled and his eyes lit up. “I won’t do it.”
“Then it’ll have to be me.” Cameron shook her hands out and bounced on her feet like I had been. “This is really weird.”
“Tell me about it.” I struggled to stay in place, knowing that at some point, she was going to act on my crazy demands.
“Here goes.” She reared her arm back and pushed her fist forward in what felt like slow motion. The lackadaisical swing missed me by a couple of inches.
I groaned. “Come on, if we’re going to test this, you have to hit me for real.”
“I don’t think I can,” she protested. “Dash is right. It just doesn’t feel right. Why don’t we just throw things at you instead?”
We’d already had this discussion twice, and it was getting old. “Because if I have to actually fight Silas, I truly doubt he’s going to be throwing anything at me other than his fists.”
Cameron kicked at a rock underneath her. “You know, she’s right,” she directed at Dash. “We can stand here all day wishing she wasn’t being put in the position that she is, but that won’t change anything. We really do need to prepare her as best we can for what’s coming.”
“Maybe it would help if I closed my eyes. That way, I’m not looking at you directly, and then we could really test out this premonition thing.” Even I hated my own suggestion, but I was running out of ways to convince the two of them.
“Yeah, that might be better,” she admitted. “But please don’t hate me if this doesn’t work.”
I clenched my hands into fists and planted my feet in a wide, firm stance. “Let’s do this.” Closing my eyes, I waited. Seconds ticked by, and I suffered in an agony of anticipation.
My muscles ached to run away from the situation, but I kept myself right where I stood out of sheer determination. Just when I thought Cameron must have given up, the same tingles from before prickled all over my body, and I ducked my body to the right.
“Whoa, that’s wild,” she exclaimed.
I opened my eyes to find her staring at me in shock. “Did you actually take a swing?”
She nodded. “I gave you a pretty decent right hook. Would have given you a shiner on your left eye if you hadn’t moved. It was like some kind of move from one of those old martial arts movies we used to watch as a kid, Dash.”
“If Charli were an experienced fighter, she would be able to read where you had telegraphed your punch and move.” He took a step closer. “I guess this could be a decent shortcut to those skills.”
I rocked on my toes again. “Let’s try it again.”
The last thing I saw was Cameron cracking her neck and holding her arms up in a fighter’s stance. “Ready?” she asked.
I nodded, keeping my eyes shut tight. “Whenever you are.”
The same sensation overwhelmed my body, and I ducked to the right and then threw myself backwards. My eyes flew open. “What was that?”
“I combined a straight punch to your head and added a left uppercut. And you avoided both.” Cameron held up her hand to high-five me.
“That’s perfect,” Dash complimented with a frown. “So, Silas can throw punches at her, and she’ll be able to just dance around and miss them all she wants. Which others will see as a show of weakness, not strength.”
“Hey, I just proved that the stupid magic those crazy sisters gave to me actually has a decent purpose,” I complained. “How about you let me celebrate that for a second before raining on my parade?”
He held his hands up in surrender. “Fine. In any other circumstances, I would find it very impressive. But you’re not going up against any regular mortal. We’re talking about a fight between you and another shifter.”
His words chilled my mood like a bucket of ice water. In all of my excitement, I had forgotten who Silas really was. And Dash was right—all the avoidance in the world wouldn’t make me win in a fight against one of the pack members.
“Does that mean he could just wolf out at any moment and tear me apart?” I asked after a huge gulp.
“Now you’re starting to get it,” Dash grunted.
Cameron snapped her fingers. “You know, there’s a way to prevent that. After Silas declares his challenge formally in front of the pack, then Charli will get a chance to set terms.”
“Can I demand that we talk things out?” Even I knew how weak my suggestion was.
“No.” Dash took a step towards his third-in-command. “But Cam’s right. You would have the right to ask to prove your magic at that point.”
“But I thought you said the pack is less likely to support my claims due to their lack of trust,” I clarified. “And if that’s the case, then what’s the point in asking?”
“You should try, nonetheless,” the leader said. “It’s worth trying. But if it doesn’t work, you have one more thing that you can do. You can ask for the fight to be skins only.”
“Exactly,” Cameron agreed.
“What does ‘skins only’ mean?” The rules of their lifestyle continued to befuddle and frustrate me.
“It means Silas would be forbidden to shift. He would have to stay in his human form the whole fight,” Dash explained.
“So, he wouldn’t be able to shift into his wolf.” I thought about it for a second. “Does that make the fight fair?”
“It’s actually a typical tactic in a challenge like this, so you dictating that term would be more respected than you trying to prove how your magic works.” Dash’s lips thinned as he pursed them while thinking.
I thought about how my meager education in fighting would stand up to a shifter who’d grown up in a pack that had rules like duking out their grievances. Sure, Matt had taught me how to punch properly and “not like a girl” when we were growing up. And as I got older, he did train me a little in self-defense. But neither of us had ever imagined I’d get myself into this kind of trouble. Maybe we should have based on past experiences, but I couldn’t go back in time and change things now.
“I know how to throw a decent punch, but that’s about it. Even if we can keep Silas from wolfing out, he’ll defeat me pretty quickly.” The thought of the pain coming my way made my stomach curdle. “Maybe I should just declare defeat immediately.”
“If you do that, then he can get off without any consequences. Which means, if he was the dealer of the drugs that got Zach killed, he can’t be punished.” Dash’s tone rasped as he got more upset.
I captured him with an accusatory glare. “Your system is all kinds of messed up. You do know that, right?”
“It’s our way,” he answered without an ounce of apology.
Cameron blew out a long breath. “I don’t suppose you know any magic that would help you learn how to fight really fast? Something like that movie where the guy plugs himself into the internet and downloads the information?”
I knew exactly what movie she meant, even though it took a while for the film to make it to Honeysuckle Hollow. “While I admire Keanu, I don’t think there’s a shortcut to real-life experience.”
Dash’s head snapped up. “Wait. There actually is. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this.”
“Of what?” I asked.
He glanced at me. “Remember what Lucky said about the bindings that used to happen way back in his past days? He said that sometimes good fighters would bind themselves together so that they could fight better together. What if we used our binding in the same way?”
I tried to comprehend what he meant. “But you’re not going to be in the fight with me.”
“No, but remember how when the binding was fresh, and you said your senses were heightened more like mine?” He tapped his nose.
I recalled the moment in the field by the Founders’ tree when we waited for Lorelei to show up. Dash was right again, but I didn’t see how that memory could help.
“I think if we stopped fighting this magical bond between us and instead used it, you might be able to tap into my own experience of fighting,” he proposed.
I started to counter his idea, but a little of my own curiosity stopped me. “You mean, you think I could basically download your fight skills using the binding?”
He tilted his head with an
amused grin. “You were willing to risk getting hit in the head by one of us. Pretty sure seeing if I might be right will be less harmful in the long run.”
Lucky had told us that it wasn’t solely couples who had gone through the binding process back in the day, which had been one of the reasons I had chosen to go through with it. Now, I wondered whether or not we could have beaten Lorelei in some other way, but hindsight wouldn’t keep my behind from getting beaten tomorrow.
“I guess that makes sense,” I admitted. “Although I have no clue how we would go about testing things.”
Dash snorted. “You’re the witch. Don’t you have any…woo woo ideas?” He wiggled his fingers out in front of him to emphasize my powers.
I flipped him the bird. “This isn’t a normal situation, is it?”
“Can’t you just cast a spell or something?” Cameron asked.
It had been magic that had gotten us in the bind we were in, so it made sense that it would take the same to try and affect it in some way. “I could try.”
Cameron took a step away from me, and I shot her a questioning look. She held up her hands. “Hey, while I respect what you do, it doesn’t mean I’m completely comfortable with it.”
“I am.” Dash moved closer to me. “Tell me what you want me to do.”
“I’m kind of shooting from the hip here,” I said, hoping I wasn’t making a big mistake. “I guess just stand there and be still.”
Closing my eyes, I composed the best spell I could under the circumstances. I spoke in a steady voice and cast with intent. “The connection that between us binds us to each other by heart and mind. Tear down the wall, resistance done. Help both of us to act as one.”
It took less than a second of waiting for me to doubt myself. “Do you feel anything different?”
Dash glanced down at his body and back up. “Not really. What about you?”
I sniffed the air but didn’t smell anything distinctive. “I’m not sure.”