by Charlie Hart
I turn in Cody’s arms and blink up at him. “What do I do?”
He frowns, closing his eyes briefly, before saying, “If there’s even the slightest chance that it’s true. That being here in Diablo Falls will kill you, then you need to go, now.”
“But what about you?” I glance over at Gage and Huck, who are both frowning, worry making their expressions tight.”
“We just found you,” Huck says, stepping toward me, and pulling me into his arms. “We’re not going to let you go that easy. But you do need to get out of Diablo Falls until we figure things out. If there is a curse—”
“There is a curse,” my dad, or rather my uncle, says, and I hear the edge in his voice, see the anger when he looks between me and Huck. He knows exactly what’s happened between us. “You can see the mark on her arm.”
Huck cups my face, then kisses me softly. “We’ll figure this out. We know people who will know things. Whatever this curse is, we’ll get it removed.”
I suck in a shaky breath. “And if you can’t?” I’m terrified. But not for my life, but because I might lose them.
“We will,” Gage says, his voice rough with conviction. “Trust us.”
“I do.”
More than I’ve ever trusted anyone or anything before. Because I feel their hearts, like they beat with my own. And I know my mates will do whatever it takes to keep me safe. I just hope it doesn’t mean being away from them for good.
Chapter Eight
Gage
“How do we even know that her leaving will stop the mark from spreading?” Huck mutters as we drive into town.
“We don’t.” I pull the truck into the parking lot of Bishop Magick and Apothecary Shop and get out of the truck.
“We should have taken her somewhere ourselves,” Cody growls. “I trust the old guy. But he’s weak. He can’t protect her—”
“Nothing will protect her if we can’t stop the curse,” I tell them.
“We don’t even know what we’re dealing with,” Huck says, clearly as frustrated and worried as I am.
“That’s why we’re here,” I say, hoping to hell we can find answers before it’s too late.
Hazel Bishop is behind the counter when we walk in, and she raises a brow at us. “From your auras, I can tell this isn’t just a friendly visit,” the witch says.
“No,” I tell her, taking out my phone and pulling up the photos I’d taken of Ruby’s arm. “We need to know what this is.”
Hazel’s brows scrunch down as she zooms into the picture. “I haven’t seen that before, but...” She chews on her bottom lip.
“But what?” Huck demands.
“It looks angelic.”
“You’re saying the dude in the hood was an angel?” Cody asks, placing his palms on the counter, not looking satisfied with that answer. “Aren’t they supposed to be good, or something? Why the fuck would he put a curse on Ruby?”
Hazel frowns up at him. “Who’s Ruby?”
“Our mate,” I tell her.
That has her eyes widening, then a smile spreads across her lips. “You three finally chose a mate? That’s great!”
“It would be if she wasn’t in mortal danger,” I tell her. “You’re sure you don’t know what that symbol means?”
Hazel shakes her head. “It looks angelic, but at the same time these runes...they’re not ones I’ve seen before. But...” She stands up and disappears in the back, returning a few minutes later with an old book that looks like it hasn’t seen the light of day for a hundred years.
We all start coughing when she places it on the counter and a cloud of dust fills the room.
“Here,” she says after flipping through the yellowed pages and pointing at one of the markings in the book. “There’s your symbol.”
“So, what is it?” I ask, feeling hopeful that we’re on the right track.
“I can’t read most of this,” she says, running her index finger across the ancient text. “But I can make out angel, mating...” She taps her finger on a symbol. “I think this here means witch, and this...something about a change...or...dying—”
“Fuck,” Cody growls.
“So, it is a curse?” Fear trembles through me.
“I don’t know,” she says.
“Well, what do you know?” Huck demands, then shakes his head and starts to pace. “Shit. Sorry, Hazel. I’m just—”
“Worried for your mate. Yeah, I get it.” She gives him a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful.”
“We appreciate you trying,” I tell her.
“It would be helpful if I saw her, talked to her. I might be able to get a reading, or a sense of what’s happened to her.”
“She’s not in Diablo Falls.” I rub the back of my neck, wondering if Cody was right, if maybe we should have kept her with us.
“Do you have anything of hers? An article of clothing, jewelry?”
I shake my head, getting that helpless feeling again.
“Well maybe...” Hazel’s eyes light up. “Give me your hands. You’re her mates, which means you’re connected. I should be able to get a reading from the three of you.”
We put our hands on the counter, side by side, and Hazel, stretches her two smaller ones over ours and closes her eyes. I catch Cody’s uncertain gaze when she starts to chant something in a different language.
The chanting goes on for a few minutes, and I’m starting to give up hope when Hazel gasps. Her eyes are still closed when she says, “You didn’t tell me that your mate’s mother was a witch.”
“Is that important?” I ask.
Hazel shivers, her eyes fluttering, and when they open slightly, all I can see are the whites of them. “There’s powerful magic here.”
“Can you see the hooded man?” I press her, my words coming out forced, because energy zaps and sizzles around me, and it’s like I’m being stretched and bent from the inside out. “The one who marked her?”
“Yes.” Hazel is trembling now, her body starting to spasm. “Danger.”
“What do you see?” Huck demands.
Hazels eyes fly open, pupils so large they’re almost black, and I see the fear there. “They have her.”
“Who?” I demand, terror filling me.
“The grey guardians.” Her words are forced, like she doesn’t understand them herself.
“Who the fuck are they?” Huck yells.
She shakes her head. “I... I don’t know. But your mate is in danger. Can’t you sense it?”
It’s then that I realize what I’m feeling - all of Ruby’s thoughts, her emotions, her pain.
“She’s hurt,” I growl, my bear already pacing to get out.
“How do we find her?” Cody demands.
She frowns at him, like he’s clueless. “She’s your mate. You can sense her. Just allow your animal to lead you.” She winces, and I feel the same pain - Ruby’s pain. “Go,” she tells us. “You don’t have much time.”
She doesn’t have to say anything else, all three of us are rushing out the door, shifting into bear form.
We have to find our mate.
Chapter Nine
Ruby
“Ow,” I hiss in pain, grabbing my arm and pulling my sleeve up to see the mark on my arm.
My dad looks away from the road and frowns. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s just...” The mark is shimmering, the skin around it seeming to glow, almost translucent. And I swear I feel it deep inside me, like the curse has entered my blood and pours through my veins. I’m dying. I know it.
“Ruby?” my father demands.
I pull my sleeve down and push my fear down too. “How long until we’re outside the city limits?”
“We’re almost there.” His forehead creases with the same worry I feel. I know the man loves me, whether he’s my biological father or not, he will always be my dad.
“I’m sorry for running off,” I tell him. “I know you were just trying to protect me.”
> “Not that I did a good job. Maybe if I’d told you—”
“No.” I place a hand on his arm. “You know how stubborn I am. At one point I would have come here searching for answers.”
He gives me a forced smile. “You’re just like her, you know.”
“My mom?”
“Yeah.” His eyes go misty for a moment, full of emotion.
“What happened to her?”
“I don’t know.” His fingers go white around the steering wheel. “But I think...”
“What?”
“Whoever your father is or was. I think he broke her heart. She was a mess the day she left you with me.”
I frown, wishing I understood, that I knew more.
“So, tell me about these...men of yours.”
A small smile tugs at my lips as I think about Gage, Cody, and Huck. “They...well...” How am I supposed to tell my dad, that I’m mated to three alpha bear shifters? “They’re...my mates.”
My dad makes a small choking sound, and briefly closes his eyes, then sighs. “Yeah. I had a feeling.” He glances over at me. “And you’re happy?”
“What, no lecture?” I ask him, one brow raised.
“Would it matter?” He shakes his head. “You forget that I was raised in Diablo Falls. I know what it means for a shifter to take a mate. And if you’re happy, then I’m happy for you.”
“Thanks, Dad,” I tell him. And for a moment I feel like maybe everything will be alright.
But then I turn my attention back to the road.
“Dad,” I scream, pointing ahead of us.
My father swerves when he sees the hooded figures blocking the highway. There are at least ten of them, and I hear their chanting as the truck spins.
I don’t have my seat belt on, and when he slams on the brakes, I hit the dashboard, hard.
Buzzing, shimmering lights, someone yelling, I can’t focus, not even when I hear voices around me, or hands lifting me up.
Get off of me, I want to shout, but a tunnel of darkness squeezes in on me.
When I finally come to, I hear chanting around me. My head throbs, and it takes me a minute for my vision to return. But even when it does, everything around me is glowing, a weird golden haze wrapping around me.
Hooded figures circle me, their voices one, their words flooding through me like a current of electricity. My arm doesn’t hurt anymore, but my whole body feels like it’s on fire.
One of the hooded figures kneels down next to me, his eyes glowing like blue flames, and mutters a connotation.
“Stop,” I say, trying to sit up, but I’m weak, so damn weak.
“You must accept the cost, Ruby,” the hooded man says.
The sky above me has turned dark, and thunder crashes in the distance. A storm is coming. Or maybe it just rages inside me. Wind whips in a frenzy around us, and a buzzing so intense makes my ears feel like a million bees are inside my head.
“Make it stop,” I scream.
“Accept the cost,” the man says again.
“What cost? Who are you, and what do you want with me?”
“We are the gray guardians. Protectors of this realm.”
“Protectors?” I scoff. “Then why are you trying to kill me?”
The man tilts his head, those eerie blue eyes studying me. “Death is only a doorway. Submit, Ruby. Allow the celestial fire to burn through you. Let it cleanse you. And if you are worthy—”
I scream in pain when burning starts in my chest, and blaze so intense I don’t know how I don’t combust.
Thunder rumbles and lightning cracks above us.
“Help me,” I cry out, lifting my hands and seeing patterns of moving tattoos glowing on my skin.
“Submit,” the man says again. “Do not fear the fire. Let it consume you.”
I have no other choice. Fighting it is useless. It blazes like a wildfire through my soul, my body, my mind.
I scream out again. “It hurts.”
The hooded man’s eyes hold a sympathy I don’t expect. “Because you’re still fighting it, Ruby.”
“How...” I wince and say through the pain. “How do you know my name? Who are you?”
“I’m the same as you. Born of mortal flesh, by angelic intervention.”
“I don’t...don’t understand...”
His hand rests on my head. “Your mother ran from these hills because she didn’t understand the prophecy. She didn’t understand how special you are.”
“I’m not...I’m just me. I have no powers. Nothing. Please...” My skin feels like it’s being incinerated. “Stop.”
“I’m not doing this, Ruby. This is your birthright.”
Birthright? I don’t understand. But before I have the chance to ask, growls reverberate through the air and the chanting stops. A second later, all hell breaks loose as three giant Kodiaks bound from the forest.
Chapter Ten
Huck
I’ll kill the bastards. Every single one of them. I can feel my mate’s pain. Feel the way her skin burns. Feel the fire that ravishes through her.
I bound out of the woods, my teeth and fangs bared, and attack. I don’t think, I just do - just protect.
But the fucking cowards disappear before I can sink my teeth into them. I can still hear their chanting though, and I glance over at Gage. What the fuck? I push into his head.
Gage just growls, and shakes his massive head, then shifts into human form.
I do the same, rushing to Ruby, who cries out when I pull her into my arms.
“I’ve got you,” I tell her, trying to be gentle, but I can feel how every touch hurts her.
“We need to get her out of here,” Cody yells.
“It doesn’t matter where you take her,” a man says, and when I glance up, I see the hooded man who had been in the forest with Ruby when we first found her. “The process has started. All you can do now is wait.”
“What did you do to her?” Gage is on the man, his fingers curling into the man’s cloak.
“Huck,” Ruby whispers, and when I glance down at her, I can see the life fleeting from her eyes.
“Just stay with me,” I tell her, my heart hammering in my chest. I can’t lose her. Not now. Not when I’ve spent my entire life waiting for her.
“I didn’t do anything,” the grey cloaked man says. “She’s becoming what she was born to become.”
“She’s dying,” Cody yells, then he’s on the man, fist in his face. “Fix her now. Or I swear to God, I’ll send you back to whatever hell you came from.”
The man’s eyes glow, and his skin shimmers. “I am here to help her transition.”
“What fucking transition?” Gage yells.
I can feel Ruby slipping away, her energy slowly leaving her body. “Stay with me, sweetheart,” I beg.
She lifts her hand and places her palm on my cheek, a small smile touching her lips. “I...”
“Don’t talk. Save your strength,” I tell her.
“I love you,” she says, her words a whisper. “All three of you.” Then her eyes close and her breath becomes so shallow I wonder for a moment if she’s stopped breathing.
“Ruby,” I cry out. “Wake up. Please.”
“Save her,” Cody screams, pushing the hooded man toward Ruby. “Whatever you did to her, make it stop. Now.”
The man just shakes his head. “I can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?” Gage growls out.
“Both,” the man says.
I place Ruby in Gage’s arms, then wrap my hand around the man’s throat. “Lift the curse now, or—”
“It’s not a curse. It is her destiny.” The man’s eerie glowing eyes focus on me. He doesn’t flinch when my fingers tighten around his throat, and his calmness makes my anger grow.
“What the fuck does that mean?” I growl out.
“Like me, Ruby is half witch, half angel.”
I hear Gage and Cody inhale behind me, and I know they’re as shocked as I am. “Her destiny is
to become a Grey Guardian, a protector of this world. Only through death, can she—”
“Ruby,” Gage shouts, his hand cupping her jaw, shaking it gently. “Fuck. No. She stopped breathing. Someone help me.”
But I feel it inside me, she’s already gone. It’s like part of my soul has been stripped away.
I cry out, an agonizing, tortured sound that vibrates from the very depth of my being.
“It has begun,” the man says.
I punch him then, square in the jaw and he falls backward. I’m about to pick him up and hit him again, but the man disappears just as my fingers are about to wrap around his cloak.
Not knowing what else to do, and feeling empty, broken, like a shell of the bear I was, I kneel beside Gage, who still cradles Ruby against his chest. I see the horror in his eyes, the pain that mirrors my own. Cody joins us, and places a hand on her head, and lets out a choked cry.
“This isn’t right,” I tell them, unable to believe that our mate is gone. But her lips are already turning blue.
“Fuck,” Cody yells.
Time passes, moments where I feel like the world has stopped turning. And maybe it has because everything is eerily silent around is. There’s no noise. No birds chirping. No wind rustling the leaves of the trees. Just silence.
And then...
“What the hell,” I breathe out as Ruby’s skin starts to glow. A golden light illuminates from her, the markings on her body shimmering with activity.
Gage places her on the ground, gently, and we all have to shield our eyes as the light intensifies. And then she’s being lifted by some invisible force. Light, energy, warmth, they wrap around her like a cocoon.
“What’s happening?” Gage asks.
“I don’t know.” All I know is we have to scramble back to not be burned by the light.
And then Ruby gasps, her eyes widening, her gaze focused on something only she can see. She’s still floating, her dark hair whipping around her body from an unseen force. Power emanates from her. And I have to suck in a breath at how beautiful she is.