“I can’t do it on my own,” I confessed, even though I wasn’t one hundred percent on that. With all my powers, maybe I could.
But how many times now had I tried and failed?
“We couldn’t fight them before when I didn’t have my powers anymore, but I think now, maybe? We can.” I met his gaze, trying to put all the love and reassurance into my look as I could.
There was something inside me that felt grounding. I knew if I had to, I could tap into that soul magic, bring up the earth again, do what was required of me.
And I could also bring the storms. It fluttered inside of me, full and ready to bursting. Clouds felt like they were gathering under my breastbone, prepared to unleash their rage and pain all over my father and his minions.
Even if it meant wrecking my family. No, I had to stop thinking of them in those terms. They weren’t my family anymore. I reached over and took Finn’s hand in mine, lacing my fingers between his.
“I’m not corrupted,” I said, “I’ve never been more powerful. Ever.” I got to my feet, legs unsteady, but that core of strength inside me was so stable and intense. “Let’s go inside.”
Finn gave the roof of the carriage house an uncertain look before smiling at me, the warmth reaching his eyes.
“Wherever you go, babe, I’ll follow,” he promised. I reached up, rising on my tip-toes, to kiss him slowly. It went from innocent to heated so quickly, my fingers bunching up in the front of his t-shirt. My breath stuttered when he broke away from me. “Not now,” he muttered, although there was a grin haunting the corners of his mouth.
“I’m not doing anything,” I insisted, giving him a glare as I walked toward the house. He followed me, a half-pace back.
“Doesn’t take much of your attention to drive me crazy,” he admitted, “and I hate to say it, but we’ve got bigger things right now than uh-” He paused.
“Then your raging erection?” I asked, feeling the urge to tease him rising inside of me. It felt good to laugh and poke fun, even flirt a little. It felt like things were on the edge of ordinary. He snorted and swatted at my ass.
“Brat,” he said, getting to the front door, and pushing it open. It was one of those little Tudor-style cottages, all white-washed walls and dark wood trim, low ceilings. I wasn’t sure how old it was, but it probably had predated Wolfe’s mansion, which was saying a lot.
The scene inside instantly chilled me, chasing away any good humour that had been growing inside of me. Wolfe was by a small fireplace against the living room wall, talking heatedly to Charlie. Eli stood close, arms crossed over his chest. They all looked toward us as one, Ace coming into the room, his face angry like a storm cloud, followed by Daria, a small bag packed and slung over her shoulder. It was all she had left in the world in the way of possessions.
“What’s going on?” I asked in the steady, oppressive silence that followed our entrance.
“We’re leaving,” Wolfe said, his voice tight as a tick’s asshole.
“He thinks that he doesn’t need to stick around and see this through,” Charlie snapped, glaring at Wolfe, the angriest I’d ever seen Charlie with the old vampire. Daria cleared her throat, Frank dogging her steps after a moment to push by her and Ace.
His face was tired, large circles moon-downing under his eyes. The last few days had been hell on him, and guilt ate at me.
I couldn’t save him for you. I looked away.
“We’re not safe here,” Frank said, his voice deep in a way I hadn’t ever heard before. “Daria’s not safe here,” he clarified. “Her family is going to be looking for her, and-” He shook his head and made a noise of frustration in the back of his throat. “Wolfe offered to take us away. And I said yes.”
“Daria?” I looked at her, surprised. She didn’t meet my eyes.
“It’s not that I don’t want to support you,” Wolfe said, and Daria’s eyes were wet as she stared solidly at the ground. “But you endanger everyone around you.” He sounded… disappointed and sad, a combination of things that I couldn’t stand. “The decisions you keep making, I cannot, will not stand by and watch you fall down again and again.” He huffed out a breath and walked to Daria, taking her bag from her. “Is this it?” His voice was low, burnished with a warmth that he’d once only reserved for me.
Me, his favoured student. Me, his almost-daughter.
Betrayal washed over me, and I took a shaky breath, trying to cope with the warring feelings of hopelessness and anger.
“So you’re just leaving us. Leaving the fight, because-”
“You will destroy us all with your reckless choices, Darcy,” Wolfe said, each word slow as if I was stupid. Charlie growled. Where was Cash? I glanced around the room, but he was missing.
Eli put a hand on Charlie’s chest, and it was then I realized how close the other wolf was to launching himself at our old friend.
It felt like my chest was being ripped open, but I needed to handle the situation before it devolved into more arguments, or worse, a physical fight.
“Okay,” I said, staring at Wolfe, lifting my chin. “I don’t need you.” I wanted to hurt him like he was hurting me. “And if you think I’ve made one too many mistakes, I can’t blame you. I’ve always done what I thought was best, and no, I was wrong a lot of the time. But I can defeat my father, even without you. I will do it without you.”
Wolfe’s mouth quirked, like he wanted to smile but didn’t want to. That just made me angrier, and I bit down on the urge to spark up right then and there.
It was a relief to even feel like I could light him up. The flickers of my power inside of me, the magic rolling in me, stretched through me like a sore muscle being pulled in the right direction for once.
And even as I’d gotten it back, I was losing him.
Well, the universe had been pretty good at giveth-ing and taking away so far in my life, so how was this new? How was this any different?
“Do you really want to go, Daria?” I asked her. She didn’t meet my gaze still, her face shuttered.
“I want to live,” she said quietly. Frank’s face set into an expression of determination, and he wrapped her in his arms, pulling her into his chest so he could hold her tight.
“Fine,” I said, stepping aside. “Then go.”
The wolves were silent, their stares on Wolfe accusing as he walked toward the door, toward me. He paused, lifting his hand, almost like he wanted to caress the top of my head.
“You’re going to find that I can do alright on my own,” I said to him. His eyes searched my face.
“I could only hope,” he replied. “Come, Daria, Frank.”
Daria followed him out without even a glance back at me. My heart ached for that, and when I looked for Frank, he was standing off with Charlie, the two of them eye to eye. When had Frank gotten so tall?
“You sure you want to leave the pack?” Charlie asked, his voice guttural. Beside me, Finn was so tense, it felt like any moment his bones were going to snap.
“She is my pack,” Frank’s words were firm, determined. An electric vibration hummed right through the wolves, and they shifted their weight like Frank had slapped them all at the same time. There was something in the way he’d said it that meant so much more than I thought it did.
“Then go, find your own territory,” Charlie snarled. Frank didn’t even flinch, not a flutter of his eyelashes, nothing. He lifted his head and left, closing the door behind him.
The room was a fire about to combust, and I glanced around.
“Well?” I breathed out. “What now?”
Eli met my gaze for a second and then shook his head.
“I don’t fucking know,” he said. “I don’t have a single fucking idea.”
Twenty-Two
The house felt empty, even if there were five wolves and me in it. Landon and Levi had pissed off at some point, probably when we’d been busy talking to Wolfe. I wasn’t sure if I was grateful for them leaving without saying anything or not. Seeing them wa
s like sun on my burnt skin, still hurting from Max’s loss. I could never forgive them for what they’d done to her.
The guys decided to hunt down dinner since we started from scratch again and needed to eat.
Only Eli stayed back with me as I curled up on an old couch in front of the unlit fire.
Eli sighed and sat down next to me, bumping my hip with his.
“So?” The word hung in the air, bouncing around in my mind for several moments after he said it.
“Do you think he was right?” My voice sounded so folded down and soft on the edges. I was scared to hear what he really thought.
“I think he’s trying to protect Daria and Frank. Losing Luka…” He paused and sighed. “Y’know, Wolfe’s been a legend as long as I’ve been alive, as long as my father was alive before me. Meeting him, knowing him, hell, my father would have lost his shit. But I think he’s wrong. I think you’ve got everything in you right now that you need to take your father down. What I also think you got in you that’s hurting you is that you still love him.”
“Who, Wolfe?”
“No.” Eli gave me a side-long look. “Your father.” My throat closed up. No, I didn’t. I hated him. Why were tears biting at the corners of my eyes? Blinking them away, I chewed on the inside of my cheek to try and bury my feelings. But deep down, it burned inside of me. Had I really faced my father down so many times and failed because I loved him?
After everything he’d done to me and put me through?
“You can love someone and hate them at the same time,” Eli said, taking a deep breath. “Fuck if you didn’t teach me that lesson from the beginning.”
“Wh-what?” I jerked back, startled, staring at him. He looked… sheepish.
“That sounds worse than it is,” he admitted.
“It sounds fucking terrible,” I said, but I waited for him to explain himself. I wasn’t going to jump to conclusions, not now. I needed to give him a chance before jumping down his throat over it.
“When I first realized I loved you, it’s because I hated you. I hated the way you infiltrated our pack, made the rest of those fucking idiots fall all over themselves for you,” he paused and rolled his eyes. “Of course, Finn was first. My brother lost it in those pretty eyes of yours that first day we met you, but I was holding out. Being a stubborn ass, Charlie said, which was true.” He made a face. “And I hated you for being the kind of woman that I wanted so badly, that I loved so much, I was willing to overlook that she was a witch and all of the blood on her family’s hands.” He let out a breath. “If you’re mad about that, you have every right to be. I haven’t always been the best person in how I handled my feelings.”
I sighed and leaned into him, letting his bulk take my weight.
“You have a weird way of telling me that it’s okay to love the man who’s tried to murder me at least three times,” I said, “I hope I’ve never tried to murder you.”
“If you have, I’ve forgotten about it.” The corners of his eyes crinkled, about as much of a smile as I was gonna get out of him. He put his hand over mine, squeezing gently. “I want you to know that I think that you have everything it takes to take out your father, and we’ll have your back, each one of us.”
“But without Wolfe-”
Eli snorted.
“We’ve been holding our own, with no heartstone, no mate, and no Wolfe, for decades. I think we’ve got it in us. We’ve just got to believe.”
“I believe in fairies, I do, I do,” I whispered. He kissed me, the warmth of his mouth on mine filling me up. I reached up, wrapping my fingers in the front of his shirt, holding him close as I kissed him back. There was something urgent inside of me that had me pushing up against him, my tongue slipping between his lips to tease over his. He growled, and the sound vibrated right through my chest.
“Anyone ever told you that you’re ridiculous?” Eli asked as he pulled away, his lips kiss-reddened.
“Just you,” I said and smiled. He was always such a light in the dark for me, even when he was the grouchiest of my wolves.
“Nah, I think Ace has said it once or twice, but then he would know since he’s the king of idiots himself.” Eli’s eyes were lingering on my lips, and I knew he was thinking more about kissing me than our current problems.
“Don’t talk about Wesley like that,” I said, and he scrunched up his face.
“You know he hates being called by his pup name,” he murmured as he bent for another kiss.
“Are you two gonna make out all day, or are you gonna actually figure shit out with us?” Finn sauntered up to us, reaching down to scoop me up to my feet. I yelped softly.
“I thought you were going hunting,” I said as he planted a soft kiss on the tip of my nose.
“I was, but Cash said the wonder twins needed to stick around and make sure you were alright, and since Eli here was already looking in on you-” He shrugged. “Y’know, I don’t blame him for fucking off on us,” he said. He was talking about Wolfe, of course.
I glanced at him, hurt for a second.
“What does that mean?”
“It’s just the way it was always going to be,” he said, throat rough as he spoke. “You, the five of us? This is how it’s meant to be. Sometimes the world gives you the scenario you’re supposed to be in. Maybe you learned everything you needed from Wolfe. Maybe he had nothing left to teach you. Maybe it’s more that than anything else.”
“It mostly feels like I’ve been abandoned,” I commented softly, “but I’m trying to deal with that.”
It did make sense, I guess, deep down inside me, why Wolfe had left and taken Daria and Frank with him. I wanted them to be safe. This wasn’t their fight. It was my blood relatives, and my pack, and we’d take them all down.
“I know I keep fucking up,” I said, and Finn cut me off with a roll of his eyes.
“This shit again? Do you know how many times I messed things up with you? And before you, there’s been a whole long line of mistakes we’ve all made, as wolves, as men, as a pack. Life isn’t about being perfect, Darcy; it’s about doing a little better each time and…” He shrugged. “You took down the house you were born in. You destroyed it. He can’t go back; he can’t suck up that magic for himself anymore. That’s something. He’s hurt now, your old fucker of a father, he’s half-dead, and the people around him that have supported him all this time in his insane quest to kill you are probably questioning themselves. Is this the right path? They’ll be asking that. Is this really the hill we want to die on? Because if you haven’t noticed, sweetheart, you’re pretty fucking good at making people un-alive.”
His last words took my breath away, and I sat there, stunned.
“Well, now you’ve done it, asshole,” Eli growled.
“No.” I held up my hand. “What he’s saying is making sense to me.”
“Good thing somebody’s on the crazy train with him.” Eli stretched out and leaned back on the couch, making it sag under him. It wasn’t as old as the house, obviously, but it had done its time on this planet, and it was about ready for early retirement.
Finn’s words filled me with something: hope. I could, maybe, do it myself, with their help.
“I don’t want to risk losing you,” I said to Finn, being as honest as I could. Enough with lying to myself and lying to them, and hiding what I wanted to do. “And it feels like such a risk, to go after him-”
“He’s running scared,” Finn replied. Eli was frowning and then nodded.
“I’d agree with that sentiment.”
“He’s terrified; his baby girl is coming to get him and make him pay for all the evil he’s put into the world. Think about all the poor mundanes he’s ensnared and made do his rotten bidding? All the wolves he’s-” Finn’s voice broke down into a low growl, “he’s murdered for not another reason other than he was afraid of us.”
“Well, you can-” I paused, and my eyes widened. “I mean, could you sing?”
“Can I?” Finn reared b
ack, and I flapped my hands as Eli snorted.
“No, I mean, could we, could you, all of you, when we go to find him, could you hum, or something, command him, to stand down?” I paused and waited for this information to sink into both of them.
Finn gazed over at Eli like the thought hadn’t even occurred to him before.
“I… guess.” He shrugged and frowned. “Why?”
“As far back as I can remember, the witch’s council always spoke about werewolves being corrupted because you could command us.” I lifted an eyebrow. “Like y’know, you’ve tried to do a few times.” Finn flushed, and Eli grumbled, shifting his weight. “Because there’s something about your voices that, I dunno how to put it, it entrances us, right? And that, I think, was the weak spot we always had. I’m convinced it’s why we’ve been hunting werewolves for forever. The only creatures on the planet that had a chance to stand up to us… was you.”
“Something to think about,” Eli said and glanced at Finn. “With all five of us-”
“We could just stop them. Demand they stand down, but Darcy, it won’t be enough,” Finn said. “Just tell them what to do? A command only works for a certain amount of time.”
The next thought that washed over me was horrific, cruel, but abjectly necessary.
“Then command them to stop. And I’ll take them out. Every last one of them.” I meant each word. The guys stared at me, unsure if I was being serious. But I was. This was life or death for us. No mercy was being shown to us.
None would be shown in return.
“They started this,” I reminded them.
“You can’t kill every witch,” Eli said, “some are children-”
“The rot goes right to the root,” I argued, and he growled.
“I will not be party to the murder of children.” His eyes flashed with anger, and it shook me deeply. He was… right. I had to rethink things.
“Just the ones who refuse to stand down,” I said. “Just the adults.”
And leave orphans? There were no easy answers. Plus… the only thing I could think of was to exterminate every single witch alive and to breathe. But not everyone was evil. Not everyone was complicit.
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