by Jayne Hawke
“We need as strong an image of him as possible,” Sky added.
I settled myself down in my usual stool and looked at the empty one where Cole should have sat. I could see the bright blue-green of his eyes, the dark hair that was the perfect length to run my fingers through. Slowly the image solidified in my mind. The tip of his dragon peeked out from under the sleeves of his t-shirt, and the constant sense of frustration tugged at his pretty mouth.
Sky and Amy both whispered while I held onto that image with everything I had. We were going to get him back.
Amy spoke in soft elegant tones that sounded almost lyrical. The language flowed from her tongue and brought a smile to my face despite having no idea what she was saying. I glanced over and saw the slight glassiness to her eyes as she worked. Her hands remained flat in front of her while she stared into a space only she saw.
Sky was the opposite. Her face was one of a vengeful warrior as she made big slicing motions with her hands as though hacking through time and space to reach Cole. Where Amy was gently reaching out to discover a location on a map, Sky was tearing down everything standing between us and them.
My image of Cole began to fade as I watched the witches work, and I immediately tried to pull it back. That was all I could offer them. I needed to focus. I remembered the feel of his strong arms wrapped around me and his clean lupine scent as I laid my head on his ribs. There would be many more runs to come.
Cole had given me so much. I had fought him at every turn, but I couldn’t imagine having been brought into this world by anyone else. His frustrating insistence on testing me and pushing my every limit had turned into a game that we both enjoyed. I’d have laughed if someone had told me I’d fall for the grumpy brooding alpha a few months ago, and yet there I was.
Briar was pacing in the hallway. I heard the change in footsteps as she shifted her weight, and it became something more. Adam was hidden away in the living room, likely looking through books. We all had our ways of coping with difficult situations.
“I can’t find anything,” Amy said as her eyes cleared.
I frowned, allowing the image of Cole to slip away.
“There’s so much magic wrapped around him. It’s dark chaotic magic - the Apophis witch has hidden him too thoroughly for me to be able to dig through and find him.”
“I’m not getting anywhere either,” Sky growled.
The Morrigan witch paced back and forth in front of the kitchen sink while muttering obscenities to herself.
“This is what I was made to do,” Sky said.
“He is far stronger than we realised,” Amy said.
Sky’s nostrils flared.
“That is no excuse. I should be able to find my way through his darkness and pinpoint Cole.”
I raised an eyebrow. There was far more going on there than Sky’s not being able to get Cole’s location. I decided not to push it, but if it interfered with our need to get Cole back I’d be left with no choice.
“If you can’t hack through his magic, can’t you slip between it or something?” I asked.
“Perhaps if he were using another form of magic. Apophis’ magic is dark and chaotic, though, it’s like trying to slip through every changing darkness. One second it’s a light mist, the next it’s thick tar. There is no way to work through or with it,” Amy said.
I ground my teeth. We weren’t going to give in that easily.
“What if you held onto one of his t-shirts or something?” I asked.
Amy smiled.
“Yes. That would help anchor us.”
I ran up the stairs to Cole’s room. I’d never stepped foot in there. Pausing in front of the door, I knew this was a turning point. A moment when I had to accept what had happened. That room was his sacred space that no one was allowed to enter.
Opening the door, I stepped inside.
It was perfectly neat and tidy. A white bedspread covered the bed with a perfectly folded black silk blanket covering the foot of the bed. There wasn’t a single piece of mess or clutter in there. My heart ached for him.
I went to the closest closet and opened the door. The rails were full of suits in various dark colours, the silver one at the end stood out in stark contrast. I knew he’d look good in that suit and made a mental note to make him wear it for me. He was going to return.
I grabbed the closest dark t-shirt, sitting upon a shelf full of other similar dark t-shirts, and hugged it to my chest. The scent of our detergent removed any trace of him from it, but it was his. I ran back down the stairs and handed it to Amy.
Amy gently took it from my hands and closed her eyes. Sky wrapped her hands around my upper arms and looked into my eyes.
“You are an anchor to him,” she said firmly.
I swallowed as I braced for whatever aggressive magic she was going to throw at me.
Briar moved to stand at my side. I was aware of the growl in her throat and the glare on her face without looking at her. I could feel it hanging between us. Sky ignored her entirely and maintained her eye contact.
Something crackled and I heard the distinct sound of wings. A soft caw echoed around the back of my mind, but it was there and gone.
Sky pulled away and cursed in a variety of languages.
“I can’t do it. I can’t get through or around the magic.”
“Neither can I,” Amy said as she gently placed the t-shirt down on the table.
I rolled my jaw. We weren’t going to give in. Not that easily.
3
THE WITCHES HAD ALREADY tried tracker spells, so it was on me to use my bonds with Cole to find him. I went up to my room for some familiar peace and quiet while trying to shake off the feeling of dread. Amy was convinced we had a few days to find Cole, but no one was certain. I would have known if they’d already sacrificed him, wouldn’t I?
It took me a few minutes to make my bed and try to get my head straight. Images of Cole sprawled out with his insides spread around him haunted me. If he didn’t make it, his death would be on me. I should have pushed far harder to remove Natasha from the situation.
Settling myself down in the middle of my bed, I pushed it all aside and tried to find my inner calm. Cole’s voice replaced the awful images and brought a sad smile to my face. I could see the scowl on his face and hear the matter-of-fact tone he’d use to tell me to find that inner calm. It had always seemed so easy to him. His constant frustration with me had become endearing in a weird way.
Pressing my fingers to the tattoo marking our shadow bond, I tried to reach through the bond and get a feel for him. I knew it could be done, but my mind was fighting against me. The anxiety and worry were there, acting as a dam blocking my ability to really let go and focus. The more I pushed it, the more I saw Cole’s familiar scowl in my mind’s eye. That had to be something. I just needed to push harder. The witches didn’t have a real tie to Cole; my bonds would act as a tether or something. They had to.
Slowing my breathing, I tried to open my mind and feel for Cole. It felt like the right thing to do. My mind stretched out around me and felt as though it were racing down a weird invisible tunnel. There was nothing but darkness and the sensation of moving through space. Cole should have been at the end of that tunnel, but there was a pitch-black wall instead. I pushed against the wall and looked for cracks or ways around and found nothing.
The more I poked at the wall, the more I got flashes of a large snake and primordial chaos. A shiver ran down my spine at the thought of being dragged into that chaotic darkness. I got the impression that was where Apophis had been, and possibly where Cole would be sent.
The tunnel gave me hope. Amy and Sky had talked about hacking through mist and tar, and yet I had a nice clear tunnel all around me. If I could just break through that final barrier I’d be able to find him. I knew it.
I banged against the wall with my mental fist and threw everything I had against it. They were not going to take him from me.
“ROSALYN. ENOUGH,” SKY said firml
y.
I reluctantly gave up on my assault against the black wall and opened my eyes, feeling the tunnel and my chance at finding Cole slip away.
“You’ve been trying this for an hour. You’re exhausted,” Amy said softly.
“You’re trying to headbutt your way through a wall of magic,” Sky said.
I frowned as I realised my hands were shaking from exertion and there was a soft darkness at the edges of my vision.
“I brought Pop-Tarts,” Briar said as she held out a plate.
“There was just a black wall and a feeling of dark chaos,” I said as I took the plate.
Amy sat next to me and put her arm around my shoulders.
“He’s a very powerful witch. This isn’t unexpected.”
I bit savagely into a Pop-Tart, trying not to wallow in the feeling of frustration and helplessness. I had little magic of my own, and no way to find Cole. If I was in a movie, I’d have some awesome hacker friend who could track Natasha’s car by her number plates or something. Maybe I could find someone like that on the Grim.
Amy pressed down on my shoulder when I went to stand.
“Eat and rest,” she said firmly.
“She’s right. It takes a long time to build up to that kind of magical exertion,” Sky added.
I huffed and finished the Pop-Tart. There was no way in hell I was going to sit around and let the witches do the heavy lifting. I was going to get my Cole back and make Natasha wish for death.
4
EXHAUSTION CLAIMED me before I could try and find Cole again.
My dreams were full of Cole, hazy flickering images of his beautiful smile and the deep chaotic darkness. Every time I reached out to grab him and pull him to me, he slipped between my fingertips, nothing more than a thin image cast against the dark backdrop. I woke up feeling frustrated, with my wolf barely below the surface. Nothing would be able to contain my wrath if they sent Cole to that awful place.
When I went downstairs, I found that Sky had camped out in the living room and someone had made up the spare bedroom for Amy. Seeing my little pack bustling around the kitchen smoothed out the sharp edges of my mood and gave me a little hope. Briar was flipping through a textbook full of technical diagrams relating to cars while Adam tried to make himself useful with breakfast. Amy shooed him away and sent him to the table before she flipped the pancakes.
Sky brought everyone fresh coffee, and for a few short minutes everything felt normal again. I found myself waiting for Cole to make an entrance with his usual brooding scowl on his face. Of course, he never came.
“Adam’s taking Briar to work, and then he’ll be back here ready to begin looking for information on the Apophis witch,” Sky said as she handed me my plate of pancakes.
I raised an eyebrow, feeling my hackles rise at her taking control of my pack. She smirked at me.
“Relax, we all know who’s alpha,” she teased.
I knew that I should relax and roll with it, but my sense of humour was lacking that morning. I smiled tightly and wrapped my hands around my mug of coffee.
“Where are we looking for information? Who can we lean on?” I asked.
“I’ll speak to my coven and see where things stand there. You should start on the Grim, and we’ll see what we can do with the witch library,” Sky said.
I remembered the witch library. Last time we’d been there, we’d only had a few minutes and then needed to escape. There was a huge wealth of information there that the witches hid away. I hadn’t been all that happy about that from the moment I found out about it, but it really irritated me in that moment. As they loved to remind us, garou couldn’t wield magic, so what reason did they have to hide it away from us?
The Grim was easier. I turned my thoughts away from the aggravating arrogance and closed nature of witches to the Grim.
I nodded, feeling better with something to do. The Grim was familiar. I could look for any gossip or signs of where the witch might be hiding out.
“We might be able to get you a temporary pass to the witch library,” Amy said around a bite of pancake.
The potential for progress lifted my spirits. Spending the day looking through books wasn’t what I’d dreamed of doing, but I’d do whatever I could.
“That’ll depend on my coven, though,” Sky said.
I wrinkled my nose. The Morrigan witches hadn’t exactly been my biggest fans.
UNSURPRISINGLY, THE Morrigan witches had laughed in Sky’s face when she’d asked for a temporary pass to the witch library for me. It had been a long shot. I wasn’t a witch, I was a lowly garou, but we had to try. Particularly given the situation with Cole, I’d held onto a small sliver of hope that they’d make an exception.
“They were very... loud and firm in their decision to ensure that you never step foot in such a sacred and important building,” Sky said.
I rolled my eyes at the melodrama of it. It was a library full of magical information I couldn’t use. What was I going to do, sell the information to another witch?
“They threatened to smite you if you so much as looked at it,” she said with a shrug.
For a brief moment I wanted to see them try. I was growing sick and tired of the witches’ view of the world and their role within it.
Amy had a twinkle in her eye, a touch of mischief.
“I might have a way around this.”
That sounded promising.
“You have some inherent magic, your guardian magic. So we could form a glamour from that to trick the library into thinking you’re a witch. It’ll be complicated. Your magic is inherently different to witch magic, the threads there are different. At its very heart, magic is magic, though, so if I dig deep enough, we can twist those threads to make a temporary glamour. I’ll need Sky’s weaving abilities to help me, though.”
“Sure,” Sky said without a pause.
I looked between them with increasing suspicion. Sky had taken to this plan far too quickly. If it was that easy, they’d have offered it before and skipped the Morrigan coven part. No, there had to be a big downside to this. Something they didn’t want to discuss.
“It’ll only last an hour,” Amy said as she began pulling bowls out of the cupboards.
“And?” I pushed.
“Oh, it’s nothing bad,” Sky said too quickly.
I stared her down.
She rolled her eyes.
“That alpha glare doesn’t work on me.”
I continued to glare at her.
She huffed.
“Fine. It’ll hurt a bit, and your hair might look a bit weird afterwards.”
“Weird how?”
I wasn’t particularly vain, but there was a large spectrum there.
“Don’t worry about it. I have lots of lovely hats,” Amy said with a smile.
I closed my eyes and reminded myself that the clock was ticking. We needed to get Cole back. My hair would grow back, and, if need be, I could dye it. And pain wasn’t a problem. I would handle as much of that as I needed to.
“How long will this glamour take to make?”
“Five minutes,” Amy said.
That seemed like a short span of time for something as complicated as Amy had mentioned. There was no way that this was as simple as changing my hair a little.
I sat at the table and watched as Amy mixed what I’d thought were perfectly normal spices into a bowl. A thin curl of emerald green smoke formed, and Sky began muttering under her breath while she made small delicate movements with her black sword. This glamour was looking less safe than I’d originally thought. They were supposed to be thin veneers. You did not need a sword to form a thin veneer.
Amy turned to me with a big confident grin. I did not echo her feeling.
“Close your eyes and try to breathe.”
Rolling my shoulders, I tried to relax as I closed my eyes. It was just a few spices. No big deal.
The pain began deep within my chest and rolled outwards until it felt as though someone was peeling t
he tendons away from my fingers. Breathing was entirely forgotten as a concept. My entire body was being stripped into tiny little pieces, and there was nothing I could do about it. The scream was lodged in my throat, choking me.
And then it was over. I gulped down air and tried to move. Everything seemed intact. Slowly opening my eyes, I checked myself over and found I was still human shaped. No blood. No shards of bone.
“There. Now you’ll pass as a witch. We need to go now, though,” Amy said brightly.
“Did you know how much it would hurt?” I hissed.
Sky shrugged and smiled.
“You survived.” She started to turn away. “Can you honestly tell me you wouldn’t have done it? Knowing that Cole’s out there preparing to be sacrificed?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. I was really starting to understand why garou and witches didn’t get along.
5
I could feel the glamour within me. The expectation had been that it would sit against my face or skin like an odd suit or mask. No. It was closer to a chestburster that sat deep within me, its claws wrapped around what I assumed was my guardian magic. There was a faint sensation of dread in the back of my mind as I tried to ignore it. Things hadn’t exactly gone well for those who had had real chestbursters. A magical one had to be worse.
Amy kept drumming her fingers on the steering wheel as we got closer to the library. She was driving just over the speed limit and took the corners fast enough that I was sure we were up on two wheels at least twice.
“This is our only chance to get into the library. The glamour won’t last long, and I’m pretty sure that I’ll be banned from the vicinity once we’re done.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. What on Earth could the quiet little witch have done?
She smirked at me.
“I’m not as innocent as people think.”
“Now I need to know.”
She laughed.
“Another time. So, let me do the talking and act casual.”