‘Because you refuse to do what is yours to do.’
‘And what is that?’
‘Help us. If you helped us, we might be able to help you,’ Blondie said.
‘You’re holding back help because you’re miffed at me for protecting myself?’
‘No,’ the brunette said. ‘You are the conduit. It is your duty to help as it is ours to help in return, and yet your refusal to do as your position decrees has caused harm, to you as much as us.’
‘We want to help. We have always wanted to help,’ they intoned together.
‘That’s not true. Any spirit who’s ever come to me has just wanted to take. Wanted me to do things for them.’
Grey-hair nodded. ‘It is true some spirits are like that, but the fault is partly yours. You surrounded yourself with the sick and dying in your work. It is only natural that in their confused state, the recently departed would flock to you, seeking guidance. And yet, you rebuffed them.’
‘I let them in when I was younger, but they hurt me. They often took me over and forced me to speak for them. It was beyond my control. I could feel myself going insane.’
Blondie shook her head sadly. ‘You could have learned so much from us if you’d only kept yourself open, especially once you were free from the influence of your family. They were wrong in what they taught you, what they allowed to occur.’
‘We would give you all that we are, all that we were,’ the brunette said. ‘And yet, since coming to live with the pack, you continue to rebuff us. All of us.’ She gestured with her hand at the spirits standing around.
‘I want to learn now. I’m willing to learn now.’
‘Not with your shields still in place. We cannot share with you what we must if you have them raised.’
‘Why? Why can’t you simply tell me?’
‘There is more to share than words.’
‘You know something that can help me?’
‘We do. However, we can only share with you what you need if you lower your shields. All of them.’
Shelley stared at them. What they were asking … could she do it? What if they were wrong? Or tricking her? But they looked so sincere. So hurt. And they were from covens attached to the pack, otherwise they wouldn’t be here. There would be no reason for them to want to harm her. Besides, she could see from their expressions that they wouldn’t bend to her will. She had to bend to theirs. She didn’t think she could do it.
‘What are they saying?’ Adam was beside her. The hopeful look on his face, his trust in her … she couldn’t let him down.
Shit. She was going to do this. Was going to drop her shields. It was the only way to find information that might help get him back.
Closing her eyes before she could think twice about it, she went into the part of her mind where her shields were and stripped them away in one, wrenching burst of power.
‘Oof.’ She swayed on her feet at the impact of the shield breaking apart in her mind. There was a whooshing sound, followed by silence. She took a breath in. Perhaps the spirits weren’t going to rush her. Perhaps they were going to help her this time. Perhaps their needs wouldn’t pull at her and push at her, battering at her emotions, threatening to tear her sanity apart. She began to open her eyes.
They surged towards her. All of them. The noise of their entreaties made her slam her hands to her ears and curl in on herself. More and more of them appeared, rushing towards her.
‘Shelley!’
She heard the cries of Adam, Bron, Jason, River, calling her name. Their hands on her, holding her steady, pulling her back.
‘Why did you drop your shields? Skye cried.
‘They won’t talk to me otherwise.’
The three ancient witches were calling to the spirits, asking them to stop barraging Shelley. Some were paying attention, others still came at her, their needs pushing at her, making her head pound, her breath come in gasps. She opened her eyes, looked at the ancient witches, having difficulty keeping accusation from her face. ‘This is why I have shields.’
‘This is what your shields have wrought. You have made them too desperate.’
The noise, the pressure of all of them was too much. Too much. She couldn’t stand it. Felt herself slipping. She tried to grab for her shields, but was too overwhelmed. They wouldn’t respond. All she could do was clutch her hands to her ears to try to block out the noise of them. But it was no use. She could hear them anyway. Feel them.
‘Enough!’ Adam roared, suddenly standing in front of her, the purple of her power pulsing around him like a beacon. In the corner of the room, his body jerked on its bed. ‘You will not hurt her anymore.’ His eyes blazed, filled with the amethyst fire of her power.
‘Adam!’ she cried.
But he didn’t seem to hear her. ‘Piss off. Piss off all of you.’ The purple power pulsed out, moving in waves that pushed the spirits back. On the bed in the corner, Adam’s body jerked again.
‘Adam, stop!’ Shelley said, reaching for him. His body was vibrating on the bed now as if he was having some kind of fit. ‘You’re hurting yourself.’
‘I’m helping you.’ He closed his eyes. The purple power vibrated, then shoved outwards in rippling waves. It grabbed all the spirits up, tossing them about, sweeping them all before it, taking them away, out of the room.
All except the ones she needed to speak to. It moved around them, like a current around a rock.
When they were all gone, Adam collapsed to his knees, shaking. He smiled up at her. ‘I did it.’ Then he fell onto his back.
‘Adam!’ She went down on her knees, cradling his head in her lap. He seemed colder than before and not as solid. ‘Hell, Adam. What did you do?’ She blinked back tears. Angry. She was so angry with him. ‘I told you not to endanger yourself.’
‘I’m okay, Kitten.’
Her fingers trembled as she stroked his hair back from his face. ‘No, you’re not. You collapsed. You don’t feel the same as before.’
He shook off her help and pushed himself up to sit beside her. ‘I’m fine. See. I just got a little dizzy.’ He stroked his thumb across the back of her hand then reached out to cup her face, tipping her chin up so that she had to look at him. ‘See. I’m fine. I promise. You were wrong.’
‘I’m not wrong, you fucking idiot. Can’t you see?’ The words came out husky and without a shred of the anger she was sure she should feel.
His smile widened and his thumb stroked across her cheek, making her want to lean into him. ‘I see fine. It’s you who has the problem.’
‘What’s going on?’ Jason asked. He was standing over by the bed where Adam’s body was. It had stopped jerking and was still now. Bron was by his side. They’d both turned to stare at her. ‘What’s happened to Adam?’ Jason’s gaze was skirting past where Adam sat.
Shelley frowned. ‘Adam used the power he’d taken from me to make all the spirits go away.’
‘I assume from you swearing he’s still here?’
‘You can’t see him?’ She looked at Adam again. Her power was still there, but only in the centre of his chest as a flicker around his heart. The sparkling purple that had tinged his skin, allowing the non-mediums to see him, was gone. ‘Adam, what did you do?’
‘What I had to.’
‘But only I can see you now.’
He smiled at her, and the smile wasn’t sad at all. ‘That’s all I need right now, Kitten.’ He gestured to the witches. ‘I don’t know how much time I bought you, so you better hurry up. I don’t think I can do that again.’
The witches! She’d completely forgotten about them. She turned to face them, scrambling to her feet, her anger with Adam now aimed at them. ‘I told you! I said that would happen. It always happens.’
They’d moved closer together, their attitudes completely changed from the haughty, slightly pissed-off attitudes of before. There was now a wariness about them, their gaze flickering from her to Adam as he stood beside her.
She took a deep, shu
ddering, chest-hurting breath, then lifted her chin. She should probably find out why they stayed when all the other spirits had been pushed away by Adam, but instead she said, ‘What he did just then is nothing compared to what I’ll do if you don’t answer my question and help us. Help the packs.’
‘Ask us what you wish to know,’ Grey-hair said.
‘You know what I want. Adeline’s asked around. So has Adam.’
‘We need you to ask us.’
Shelley rolled her eyes. ‘Fine. Do you know the witch who spoke to Adam the night of Ostara and do you know how to find her?’
‘That is two questions,’ Brunette grumbled.
Shelley glared at her.
Blondie nodded. ‘She is one of those who tied us to the packs. One of those who saved us all from our excess powers.’
Shelley looked at Adam and then across at Bron, River and Jason. ‘You can’t mean Bridgette Colliere.’
‘No. Her spirit resides in the one just recently joined to your coven.’
‘Eloise.’
‘Yes. The Nexus,’ they said together. ‘It is not her of whom we speak. It is her friend. The sister to the one you fight.’
Shelley’s gaze met Adam’s. ‘They’re saying your mystery woman is Morghanna Cantrae.’
Adam shook his head. ‘But she cursed us. Her sister is seeking revenge on us because of her death. Why would she help us?’
‘Good question.’ Shelley turned back to the three witch-spirits. ‘Why would she help us?’
‘Ask her yourself.’
‘I would if I could, but she’s not here.’
Blondie smiled. ‘With your shields down, she has been able to focus in on your power and come to us again.’
‘Your shields block more than us from conversing with you.’
‘She has arrived.’ The three witches gestured behind them.
She turned.
A doorway of light had opened in the wall between the beds where Adam’s body and Cordy lay. Standing in that doorway of light was a slight figure. She looked around and then walked a few steps forward allowing them to see more than a shadowy figure.
She was tiny, her heart-shaped face sweet and youthful looking, but at the same time giving an impression of an old, old soul. Her dark hair moved in a fae wind as if alive, tendrils flying back from her face. Her eyes were so blue, they were almost purple—just like Shelley’s eyes—and they darted around as if she was looking for something. No, not simply looking. Guarding.
‘You must come.’ She looked right at Adam, gesturing for him to follow her.
‘You’re Morghanna Cantrae?’
She darted her head to look to the side, then looked back at him. ‘Yes.’
‘Well, isn’t that just a kick in the gonads?’
Morghanna blinked at him. ‘I beg your pardon?’
‘I was prepared to go with you because the Goddess said I must, but now I’m not going anywhere until you answer a few questions, lady.’ He folded his arms.
‘We do not have time for this.’
‘Make time. You betrayed my kind. You cursed us. Why on earth should I trust you?’
‘Adam!’ Shelley said.
‘What? She can’t expect me just to follow her without any questions.’
‘Yes, she can. The Goddess told you to do it.’
‘What’s happening? What’s going on?’ Jason asked.
‘Morghanna Cantrae is here.’
‘Bridgette’s friend.’ Skye looked shocked.
‘Morrigan’s sister?’ Bron choked out.
‘Yes.’
‘Is she the one Adam saw?’
‘Yes,’ Shelley said.
‘Fuck.’ Jason rubbed his chin, his fingers rasping on his bristles. ‘What does she want?’
‘She wants Adam to go with her.’ Shelley frowned as Morghanna looked around again, as if she was worried she was being followed.
‘And I’m not going,’ Adam said at the same time Jason asked, ‘Why? Why does she want him to go with her? Where’s she been? Can we trust her?’
Adam pointed at his brother, face triumphant. ‘My question exactly.’
Shelley glared at him to shut up. His interruptions added to the crawling feeling that had been climbing up and down her spine ever since Morghanna stepped through the door acting all twitchy. ‘I don’t know. She only just arrived.’
‘Is Adam going to go?’
‘Not right now he’s not. He’s being belligerent.’
‘I’ve a perfect right to be.’
‘Ask her why she wants him to go.’
‘She can hear you.’
‘Well, what’s her answer?’
She put her hand up. ‘Just give me a moment to sort this out, okay?’ She turned to Adam, who was still glaring at the woman and the other spirit witches in front of him. ‘The Goddess did tell you to trust Morghanna. If she wants you to go with her, you need to go.’
‘Listen to your friend,’ Morghanna pleaded. ‘We need to go.’ Her gaze was darting around again.
‘I’m not leaving here. Not with someone who cursed my kind.’
‘I did not mean to curse all Were. I had no idea my curse would have those ramifications when I canted it. I had been beaten and starved and tortured, had seen my husband killed before me and knew I would never set eyes on my baby son again. I was being tied to a stake to be burned alive. I wanted revenge on the Were who had brought me to this point because he could not face that I loved another. I wanted his pack to pay for not looking out for me when I had sacrificed so much for them. I never intended for my curse to manifest the way it did. I was horrified when I saw what my moment of grief and pain and loss had wrought. Especially on the McVales. Your pack is more special to me than you could know.’
‘We know. We carry your blood,’ Adam scoffed.
‘I am eternally grateful to the McVales because you took my child in, kept him safe. You helped him to grow into the adult he was always meant to be and to father a dynasty of strong witches and warlocks that has made me so proud to watch.’
‘Your curse almost brought that dynasty to an end.’
‘You cannot know how sorry I am for it. My curse was meant to safeguard my kind. To ensure my child would always be safe within the pack structure. I never wanted what happened to me to happen to another witch or warlock.’
‘Our pack has held sacred to our pact to keep our coven safe and happy and secure, and yet your curse still enacted through no fault of our own. It was because of the actions of your sister that Skye and River were taken from us. Morrigan killed their parents. Not us. And yet we still suffered.’
Morghanna took a pleading step forward. ‘You cannot know how sorry I am for it. They had you to help them through though. Your Trickster powers buoyed them until I was able to help Jason find Skye.’
‘What?’
Shelley felt as shocked as Adam sounded. ‘You helped them? They found each other because it was destined to be so. They’re mates.’
‘Yes. But it was I who made Skye’s father bond them when they were children. I whispered to him in his dreams, knowing what my sister planned.’
‘Why didn’t you warn him? Why didn’t you stop Morrigan?’
‘I could not stop her. I may be an agent of the Goddess, working to defeat her enemy, but I do not have her power. Besides, Morrigan shut herself off to me centuries ago when she allowed the Darkness to wrap around her so completely. I did what I could. I warned Skye’s father through his visions so that he would ensure Jason and Skye would one day find each other and bring coven and pack back together when it was most crucial.’
‘Oh, my god.’ Shelley couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
‘The Goddess helped me guide them back to each other. Now she wants me to guide you as only I can. Please, let me do it. Come with me.’ She held her hand out again.
Adam swallowed hard as he stared at the woman’s hand. Then he glanced at Shelley, his gaze piercing through her to grab at her
heart. ‘How long will we be gone?’
‘That is not certain. Time runs differently where we are bound.’
‘Then I’m not leaving. I’m not leaving my pack, I’m not leaving Shelley. Not for some unknown time. Not when I feel they need me so much.’
‘Adam! You have to go.’
‘I’m not leaving you.’
‘You can’t sacrifice yourself for me. I won’t allow it.’
‘I can, and I will.’
‘Adam. This is madness.’ Morghanna stepped a little further out of the light from the doorway she’d come through, one hand stretched behind her keeping touch with the light, as if anchoring herself to it. ‘You will be of no true use to Shelley or any of the others until you have learned what I am bound to teach you.’
He rounded on her. ‘You don’t know what happened, what I did for her.’
‘You mean the beacon? The way you pushed all the other spirits away that were clamouring at her?’ She waved her hand in a tight gesture that seemed confident, but betrayed her nervousness because her fingers were trembling. ‘I was able to follow those emanations to you.’ She flinched, her eyes widening as she looked around again. ‘Emanations that are still embedded here and will draw other, far more frightening things than me to you if you do not leave with me right now.’
Her fear reached out to Shelley, making her skin twitch and goose flesh rise on her arms and neck. ‘The thing that’s chasing you?’
Morghanna’s gaze met hers and an understanding passed between them.
‘It’s the Darkness,’ Shelley said. ‘It’s chasing you.’
‘Yes. It has always chased me because of what I know. Because of what I can teach. Because of my link to both witches and Were through my bloodline all the way to River and Skye. It would use me to take power that does not belong to it.’
‘As it’s used Morrigan.’
‘Yes, but far worse, for my power is kin to yours and would give the Darkness the dominion over death it has always craved. I have spent centuries trying to help your pack but being hindered on this plane because I have to constantly run, constantly hide from it.’ She turned back to Adam. ‘I came out of hiding for you. Because of what you are and what you can do. I have waited a very long time for you, Trickster.’ She turned to Shelley. ‘As I have waited a long time for you.’
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