by May Dawson
“Fine.” Echo said.
I sagged against the bonds, thinking that maybe the worst of the agony was over, if the witches had grown bored with watching Echo torture me.
Then Echo added, “The girl and I will still be here playing if you want, when you’re done.”
Once they’d left, Echo’s boots padded closer to me. “So you came here to stop the Day from using the Cure, and just in case things went south, you wanted to be sure your men couldn’t follow you.”
“No,” I said.
“You betrayed your friends,” he murmured into my ear. “You had no right to take their own feelings away from them. To replace the way they loved you with hatred. How arrogant are you, thinking you could steal part of their identity for their own good?”
I shook my head.
“Unless you had a mission, you would never hurt them so badly.” His voice was low in my ear. “Always the hero, aren’t you?”
He put his hand on my shoulder, and I almost cried out before he swept his hand across what should’ve been flayed skin and the tattered remnants of my blazer.
“It just hurts,” he told me. “It doesn’t break your skin. It doesn’t leave a mark. It’s all in your head.”
His magic was warm, sinking into my skin, and the pain faded away. I twisted, trying to get a look at his face.
I knew that magic, didn’t I? It had the warm, golden feeling of Silas’ magic. Unless healing magic always felt like sunshine. I’d never been healed by any other witch to compare.
“You aren’t going to die,” he promised me. “No matter how much it hurts. No matter how you might wish you did.”
I heard his footfalls as he took a step backward, then another.
For a second, I’d thought he must be Silas, using some kind of enchantment to change his face.
Whoever he was, maybe this had been the only way he could stop the witches from killing me tonight.
But when I heard the whip unfurl again, I suddenly wasn’t sure.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Please don’t,” I said. My voice came out steady.
“Funny how imperious you still sound when you’re begging,” he said, his voice mild. “One more time. Tell me what you’re looking for.”
“Why don’t you believe me?”
“You cursed the people who love you the most,” he said, his voice amused. “You betrayed your friends. And I’m supposed to believe you?”
“I just wanted to find my father,” I said frantically. “I’ve always wanted to find my father.”
“Why?”
“So I can know who I really am.” My voice came out in a broken gasp. I was saying anything I could think of to delay the next lash of the whip, but once I said it, I realized it was true.
“Don’t you mean what you really are?” Echo asked, his voice curious. “You’re the same person, aren’t you? That’s the line you started with. I’m Madeline Northsea. Nothing else matters.”
Maybe that was what I wanted to believe.
I’d been taken from my parents when I was just a little girl. I’d been raised by a monster, betrayed by my mother, abandoned by the man I thought was my father. I’d been loved by my sister and her pack fiercely, but they couldn’t change the fact that I was a witch’s daughter, too.
Most of all, even their love couldn’t undo the tangled knots that trauma had woven into my past.
It was up to me to unwind those knots and weave them into something new.
“Echo!” The furious male voice was a whip crack itself.
Something slammed into the tree trunk beside me, hitting with a thud that shook the branch above me. I turned my head to one side to see Echo thrown against the tree trunk.
He groaned in pain, and then his arms jerked up above his head, as if he were possessed. He was pinned to the tree branch alongside me. His head lolled forward for a second helplessly, before he raised his head.
Then Winter was there, in front of me. Over his shoulder, I could see Indy, the man from the photo with my mother. Winter studied me for a few long seconds, his eyes livid with anger, his brows drawn together over his weathered face.
Then Winter touched my cheek. His fingers were tender, and it took me a second to realize he was stroking away a tear.
“He hurt you,” Winter said, his voice soft. “I’m so sorry.”
“We need her,” Indy reminded Echo, sounding exasperated. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“I was finding the cracks in her story,” Echo said weakly. “We can’t trust her.”
“I know,” Winter said. “It doesn’t matter. She came to me.”
He caressed my face, and unfamiliar healing magic soaked through my skin, curling through my every limb, leaving my muscles feeling heavy and languid. My head ached vaguely as the pain faded, as if I just needed to curl up and sleep for a week.
“Where are Tritan and the Everly sisters?” Winter demanded. “Did they know what you were doing?”
Echo was silent. He raised dark, rebellious eyes to Winter.
“How many times did you hit her?” Winter demanded, his voice dangerous.
“I lost count,” Echo said, his voice tart.
Indy sighed, raking his hand through his hair. “Winter…”
“I know,” Winter said. “I need him too. I value him, for that matter. But Madeline Northsea is a guest in my home. He shouldn’t have hurt her.”
Echo gritted his teeth, as if he were waiting for a blow.
“Feeling better?” Winter asked me, his voice gentle. He ran his fingertips over my wrists, muttering a word in Latin, and suddenly the bonds on my wrists released.
My muscles were all heavy and weak, and my legs couldn’t hold me. As I stumbled, Winter caught me.
“You’re going to be all right,” he whispered to me. He lay me down on the grass. “Bennett, get her water.”
“Don’t hurt him,” Indy—or rather, Bennett, I guess—warned Winter.
“I won’t kill him,” Winter promised, which was an entirely different promise. “Bring Tritan and the sisters back here with you.”
Bennett gave Winter a long look, but then headed for the house.
Winter left me to collect the whip from the ground. He wrapped it around his hands as he returned, furling it again, as if it would be unused.
Winter hung the whip like a garland around Echo’s neck. Echo stared at him rebelliously.
“How many times?” Winter asked again.
Echo didn’t answer. Winter whispered a word in Latin, and Echo’s body jerked, as if he’d been struck by a phantom lash.
Winter left him, coming back to me. Echo jerked against his bonds again, his teeth gritting, his lips peeling away from his teeth.
The third time, he screamed.
“They were going to kill me,” I whispered. “Echo stopped them by torturing me. They were going to kill me.”
“I see,” Winter said. “That was very poor judgment on their parts.”
“Don’t kill them,” I said.
Winter’s lips quirked in amusement. “Of course not, child. We’re not cruel. Despite the unfortunate welcome you’ve had to our ways.”
Bennett returned with three young witches, their faces a mix of rebelliousness and terror, and a bottle of water, half-frozen. Bennett crouched beside me.
Winter incanted a spell to erase their memories, then banished them from the property. They began sleep-walking toward the road.
He caught me watching them go. “They’ll be fine,” he promised. “I wouldn’t hurt them. They just aren’t worthy to be part of the Day.”
I watched as the three of them reached the road and turned jerkily, until they were lost to the bend of the road and the pines that spread around us.
“Why are you here, Maddie?” Winter tilted his head to one side, studying me.
“I came to find my father,” I said. “Are you my father?”
He regarded me steadily. “I am, yes.”
“How? How did you
meet my mother?”
“She was a kitchen witch before she was turned. Not a lot of power, but a lot of curiosity.” His lips quirked. “Like you, I suppose. We were good friends.”
“Can you prove it to me?” I asked.
He stared at me for a few long seconds, then sighed.
“I’m not proud of this,” he admitted. “It was a scheme of another time. We thought that we could create a new species: half witches, half wolves, loyal to both kinds. We thought we could bring peace.”
“You though you could bring peace between the supes through sex?” I demanded.
“We were young,” he said dryly. “It didn’t turn out to be much of a plan.”
As Echo screamed again, I shuddered. “Please stop.”
Winter’s brows arched. “You want to protect Echo? After what he did to you? You’re awfully tender-hearted for a wolf, aren’t you?”
“He kept them from killing me.”
“Then he tortured you.”
“I’m not one to hold a grudge,” I lied. I had a feeling that Echo had been playing a larger game tonight. I didn’t entirely trust him, but I wanted to understand his plan.
Winter regarded me skeptically, but over his shoulder, I saw Bennett smile faintly.
“All right,” Winter said. “You need rest tonight. You’ve been through hell. Tomorrow, we’ll talk more.”
I nodded.
Winter hesitated. “I don’t want to do this, Maddie, but until I know I can trust you… you need to sleep under lock and key. But I’ll be in the house. I’ll never let anyone hurt you again.”
He sounded fierce, protective.
“Why do you care about me?” I asked, thinking of the first time I saw Winter, in the cell at the lab. “You didn’t care when…”
“I cared,” he said, as if he was thinking of the same moment that I did. “But it wouldn’t have done either of us any good then for me to be sentimental.”
“You were trying to destroy my wolf,” I said. “Did you know I’d survive?”
“Of course I did,” he said. “Killing your wolf doesn’t hurt you. If anything, Maddie, it would have made you more whole. More powerful.”
I scoffed. I couldn’t believe that.
He paused. “I just thought you’d hate me for it. I never thought you might come here willingly…”
“Now I’m here,” I said lightly.
Winter smiled, slowly, wonder brightening his eyes.
“Now you’re here.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Winter left to check on the witches he had banished, after promising me that I was in good hands with Bennett.
“Wait,” I said, hearing Echo cry out behind me. “You can’t leave him like this.”
“Right,” Winter said. “My kind-hearted girl.”
He murmured a word, snapping his fingers.
Echo sagged forward, his face white. Then the bindings on his wrists disappeared, and he hit his knees. He didn’t manage to get his hands up before he fell on the ground face-first.
“I’m looking forward to getting to know you,” Winter told me, his voice fond. Then he headed toward the road.
I stared after him, trying to reconcile the way he acted with the man I’d met in the cage. Alice had obviously been awed by him.
“He’s easier to get along with when you’re a witch than as a wolf. At least, a little bit,” Bennett broke into my thoughts. “But are you sure you’re ready to be a witch?”
“I don’t seem to have a choice in that.”
“Not for long,” Bennett said. He turned and headed toward the house. “Tomorrow, Winter will expect you to surrender your wolf. If you’re going to stay.”
“Wait!” I said. “Aren’t you going to help me with him?”
Bennett looked over his shoulder at me. “No. You wanted him—you’ve got him.”
Cursing, I got my arm under Echo’s armpits and half-dragged, half-carried him toward the house. The two of us lurched together across the grass. Bennett made much better time than we did, his white shirt catching the moonlight as he outpaced us to the house.
Every step was a reminder of how terrified I’d been, choking on my own blood, on the original journey. I’d been so desperate to see Echo. I’d been so sure he’d save me.
“Why are you helping me?” Echo muttered, his voice ragged. I tried to avoid his back; Winter had used a different spell on him, because Echo’s back was in tatters. There was a bleeding welt ruining his handsome face, as if one stroke of the lash had gone awry; it ran across his forehead, his cheek, but thankfully had missed his dark eyes.
“Thoroughly Stockholmed, apparently,” I answered.
I finally managed to maneuver him across the porch and through the front door. Inside, there were a lot of candles burning. He grabbed the railing, but he still needed my help as he reeled back and forth up the stairs.
“Which one is yours?” I asked, facing the row of doors. “Which one has my closet?”
He smiled faintly as he pointed. “I had to keep you close.”
“Were you trying to keep them from murdering me?” I asked.
“Maybe I was trying to keep you from murdering them,” he muttered. “You ever think about that, Maddie Northsea?”
“You would think you were drunk, not half beaten to death,” I said. “You don’t make any sense.”
Together the two of us staggered into his room. The moon still hung full and bright inside, making my heart lift a little. I’d made it through the torture that I’d known to expect when I came here. Winter seemed fond of me. I was on track for my mission.
Everything was going to be fine.
Then I thought of the faces of my men when I left them, and Echo’s cruel words about how I’d betrayed them ran through my mind again.
The mission was going to be fine. And that was what mattered.
As I let him down onto the bed, he groaned out loud in pain.
“Can you heal yourself?” I asked.
“I’d have done that already,” he told me. “It took… I’m tired. I don’t have that much magic left.”
“Oh, did you use up all your magic flogging me?” I asked, my voice tart.
He put his arm over his face as he lay on his side. I wasn’t sure if he was trying to block me out, or block out the light.
“I’ll heal you,” I said.
“Why?”
“Don’t ask me.” I ran my fingertips just under the wound across his cheek. “Actually, I can tell you when it comes to this one… your face is too pretty to ruin.”
“You like me,” he accused.
“I shouldn’t,” I said. “I guess I’m just reckless. That’s what you said, isn’t it? Move, so I can fix you.”
I forced myself not to react to the tattered shreds where his back had been; his skin had been flayed open, and there were spots where I white bone glimmered through the muscle. My stomach hardened, as if I might throw up, but I focused on raising warm, golden magic and caressing it over his skin. His muscle grew back first, his flesh knitting together. Then his skin began to close again, pink as the first few layers went on, then fading back to the natural pale color of his skin.
I ran my hand over his shoulder. “Better?”
He rolled over and regarded me curiously. “You shouldn’t be so quick to think the best of everyone.”
“You tell me that after I heal you. Nice timing.”
He reached up and stroked his hand over my cheek. His eyes were half-lidded, as if he were fond of me. “Your kind heart will be the death of you.”
“Maybe dying of a kind heart is better than living like an asshole. You ever think about that?”
His eyes crinkled at the corners, as if he was about to smile, even though his stern lips didn’t part. “You should kiss me.”
“I’m not going to kiss you.” I caught his hand, only to pull it away from my face.
“You’re going to be loyal to the men who hate you now?” he asked. “The n
ihil spell… you destroyed their love quite thoroughly, didn’t you?”
“I don’t want to talk about this with you.” I was still exhausted, bone tired, and I let myself fall onto the bed beside him. I didn’t want to go back into that closet where he had kept me. “You made me talk to you for quite a while. I’m not answering any more of your questions.”
“You put up quite the fight, rabbit.”
“Shut up, Echo. Wait. Where’s your cat?”
“She ran off when I hit you. She didn’t like watching that.”
“Yeah, I wasn’t too keen on it either.” I rose to my elbow, studying him. His eyes were closed, his dark lashes resting above the curve of his cheekbones. “I begged Winter to stop hurting you. Aren’t you going to apologize for hurting me?”
“No,” he said. He didn’t bother to open his eyes.
“You’re an asshole,” I told him.
“And yet, I’m the best of them,” he said. “Don’t you forget that. You can’t trust anyone here.”
I snorted, and yet, I didn’t doubt him.
He shifted, resting his head on my shoulder.
“You’re a presumptuous bastard, too,” I said.
But we were both so tired that I let him fall asleep like that, the two of us curled up together.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Lex
On Saturday, I slipped out alone, knowing I’d be in trouble if I were caught.
Dani Hedron waited for me in a diner downtown. When I walked in, I looked around, searching for her, and her face brightened when she saw me. She flashed me a grin and a wave, as if she weren’t the most dangerous person for miles.
I slid into the booth opposite her. “You shouldn’t have come out here.”
She rolled her eyes. “Lex, I can’t tell if you’re cursed or not over the phone. Not even over Skype.”
“I don’t want you to be in danger,” I said.
She waved it off. “Give me your hands.”
I started to reach across the table for her. Then the waitress came over, and the two of us hastily pulled apart. Dani turned that bright smile on the waitress, and we each ordered a cheeseburger and a milkshake.