“Take your pills, Fergus. They’ll make you feel better. And then I’ll give you the book, and we’ll be together.” Caitlin fingered the leather around her wrist. The runes flared, the power prickling along her skin. Electricity permeated the air. She reached for the second piece of quartz in her own pocket, sending the same energy against the raw stone. She thought she felt an answer, the subtle vibration of the rune brought to life. But her nerves dulled her senses, and she couldn’t be sure.
Fergus withdrew a small bottle from his right pocket, and she exhaled. He shook several pills free and stared into his palm, but movement out of the corner of Caitlin’s eye drew his focus, and he tossed the pills away.
With a wild, desperate snarl, he sent some of her stolen element hurtling towards the two wolves approaching from the north. Tierney and Peter crashed into one another and yelped as they slid and rolled down the hill, back towards the parking lot. He spun to her, his gaze menacing. “Give me the book, Catie.”
“No.” Her power lifted the small tome, tearing out the pages and shredding them in mid-air. Mara sent a blast of fire over the scraps of paper with a satisfied grin.
In Caitlin’s periphery, she caught sight of Farren’s wolf slinking along a stone barrier and up the hill again. She’d be hidden from Fergus’s view until she was almost within striking distance. Caitlin could only see the tips of her ears.
“Ya fuckin’ bitch!” Fergus flew at Caitlin, tackling her around the waist and knocking her to the ground. His fists found her stomach, then her face, and she let him, needing the pain. A blast of heat hit Fergus in the shoulder, and his black shirt caught fire. He bounded away and smothered the flames with a guttural scream.
Caitlin activated the stone in his pocket. The runes she’d painstakingly carved into the quartz burned as she surrounded them with energy. “You don’t control me anymore.” Her power gathered within her, filling the hole Fergus carved out years ago. Tongues of Mara’s flames danced along the grass.
Fergus attacked again, hauling Caitlin up by her hair and flinging a charm wide. The ground’s subtle tremor grew until bits of the cliffside broke off and crashed into the sea below. Mara screamed as the vibration reached her and stole her balance. Cade howled, his anger shattered by the currents of power buffeting them.
Held by her braid, Caitlin reached back to claw at Fergus’s hand while Cade bounded for Fergus.
“No!” Caitlin shouted. She struggled against Fergus’s grip, on her knees as he towered over her. Her charm faltered on her lips when Fergus wrapped his other hand around her throat.
A chunk of earth the size of a small animal flew towards Cade and landed with a sickening crack against his chest. The wolf yelped and fell. He struggled, got his front legs under him, but collapsed again. Mara sent a twisting mix of fire and water towards Caitlin and Fergus. Her green eyes glowed silver, then amber, and flames flared along her hands.
Caitlin wouldn’t use the quartz’s power until she had to for fear he’d discover her subterfuge. As Fergus countered Mara’s fire and water, Caitlin used his distraction to compel his hold around her neck to weaken. She gulped a breath. As Mara pulled back to release another blast, she caught Caitlin’s gaze. A slight nod gave Caitlin only half a second to draw her element, allowing air to fill her every pore, to sing along every nerve. Mara’s fire and water hit Caitlin in the chest, catapulting her into Fergus. They stumbled towards the edge of the cliff.
For one brief, terrible moment, fire, water, and air lived within Caitlin. They twisted her insides into knots as they battled for dominance. The quartz whispered to life, an answering harmony as she channeled her energy into the hidden crystal. “You…can’t…have…me.” Whether her words were meant for Fergus or for the elements warring inside of her, she couldn’t tell. Perhaps both.
Her world exploded into light and sound. Flames blackened the grass all around them. Fergus dragged her backwards, his manic laughter mixing with the roar of the wind and the hiss of the rain that fell onto the burning ground.
Caitlin pulled the three elements closer, twisting in Fergus’s grip and slamming her hand against his hip. The quartz between them helped serve as a conduit, and a tiny piece of his element seeped in alongside the other three.
For a single breath, all four elements embraced, but the agony overwhelmed her. Caitlin sagged against Fergus’s hold, and fire, water, and earth slipped from her grasp. Mara ran towards them, with Cade limping behind her, howling. His desperate vocalizations pleaded for her to stop, but the look in her eyes hinted at a need for more. For Fergus’s earth, for Caitlin’s air.
Air doomed her once, and air would save her now. Caitlin called as much power as she could muster, twisted the charm around, and knocked Fergus off his feet.
He released her, and she landed hard. “You can’t hurt me anymore.”
Farren’s wolf sailed over the barrier. She crashed into Fergus’s chest with a growl, and the earth elemental rolled with her. Her long nose aimed for his throat, but his arm got in the way. Fergus shouted in pain, then his hand dug into his left pocket. Caitlin’s gaze glued to his fingers as they withdrew, a strange relief invading her as the glimmer of a blade whipped into the air. Then she screamed.
“Farren!”
Blood gushed over Farren’s silver fur. Fergus’s knife glinted in the newly born light, dark teardrops falling from the edge.
Caitlin pushed off the ground, her fear no match for her fury. “Enough.” With a final glance at the wolves and at Mara, she took off at a run. Calling upon her element, she landed on Fergus as she released the charm, launching both of them over the edge and tumbling through the air.
Mara’s scream carried after them.
Fergus had chosen his location poorly: the same cliffs where she’d once thrown her life into the sea. She knew the landscape well. Thirty feet below, a plateau jutted over the churning waves.
Her charm slowed their descent, but the bone-jarring impact left her disoriented. Caitlin struggled upright, stumbling forward and shaking her head. One solid opening and she could send him into the sea.
He stared at her as though seeing her for the first time. Then he pushed himself to unsteady feet, backing away from the plateau’s edge. “That was foolish. Ya cannot wish to hurt me, do ya, Catie?” He extended his hand and lowered his voice. “Ya want to stay with me forever. Come to me.”
The compulsion charm soothed, and her will slumped into desire. She could step into his warm embrace, be with him for the rest of her life. He enveloped her in the comforting numbness, his solid element promising no more confusion. One step, two, and she wavered. The rich, earthy scent, at first welcoming, turned bitter and harsh as another, more powerful aroma of spice and freshly cut wood called to her. Fergus’s dark eyes held hers, but as she looked deeper into them, she realized that they should be clear emeralds. Love, not possession, should be reflected back to her.
As though a guillotine had severed their connection, her head snapped back, jarring her reality. “Once upon a time, Fergus, I was yours. And I would have stayed with you. I loved who you were.” She lowered her voice to a dagger’s edge. “But not anymore.”
He stalked towards her, attempting to strengthen the charm. The dissonance of his elements slid like sandpaper over one another. The harder he pulled, the deeper she could reach. When he lunged for her throat, she smiled.
Her hand held the other quartz, and the runes drew her air and his earth from a swirling melody he attempted to tame into his own song. Her imbued symbols trapped the discordant notes, sending a small snap of power over her skin.
His fingers tightened, severing her ability to breathe. Shadows swirled in her vision before an anguished scream pierced the morning. Time slowed, then stopped.
Neither of them blinked. Fergus’s wild eyes, which had so often scared her into submission without him raising a hand, clouded, then cleared. Silence descended, a calm in the center of a hurricane. Caitlin couldn’t breathe as her element flowed into h
er and restored what had been missing for so long.
Fergus’s hand fell away, and the two of them flew apart. Suddenly blinking up at the indigo sky, Caitlin drew her first free breath in years. Can you suffocate on too much air? she wondered as a bird flew overhead, skimming the clouds.
Mara called Caitlin’s name, wolves howled, and a few feet away, Fergus stared at his hands in horror.
“Catie. Help me.”
Fergus’s whispered words brought her back. A single tear carved a trail through the dust on his cheek. Losing her element had left his skin leathery and worn, aging him a decade in the space of a few seconds.
“I...” He glanced at her, but just as quickly looked away. Waves crashed below, a solid, irregular rhythm that filled Caitlin with peace, though she knew the illusion would soon pass.
Pain and reality lay on the other side of this moment.
“You need to take your pills,” she said, surprised at the softness in her voice. Digging into his pocket for the bottle, she shook two of the white spheres into her hand.
“No. I don’t need them now.” His gaze sought the horizon. Where the water gave air elements a boon, earth scrambled away from the sea’s ambivalent power. “Nothing can help me now. My worst fears have come true.”
Caitlin sat beside him in silence. Who he’d once been, the boy who’d stood between her and bullies in their small town’s back alleys. Who’d written her letters when he’d moved far away with his father. Who’d come back to her when he turned eighteen because he thought he’d found an answer to a world that beat him down and tried to convince him that what couldn’t be explained should be expunged. She saw so much of who he’d been. Yet as he curled in on himself, a fractured shell, she knew Farren had been right.
“Killing is not always an act of retribution, luv. Sometimes, it’s an act of mercy.”
“Please, Catie. Ya have to kill me.”
Emotion burned her eyes, thickening her voice. “I don’t want to kill you, Fergus. Haven’t we seen enough death?”
He forced his gaze to hers, revulsion and disgust curling his lips. “I have. By my own hand. I made ya. And I see in yer eyes that ya blamed yerself. It wasn’t yer fault.” His eyes were dry, his timbre ragged as he spoke. “I sought to fight a wrong, but I didn’t realize what I’d become. So much worse than my da, than anyone who opposed me. Stop me, Catie. Ya cannot let me go—ya cannot heal me, as I know ya might wish.” His lips tugged into a small smile, sadness tempering any cheer. “Yer heart was the purest I’d ever known—that’s why I wanted ya so badly. I always hoped ya’d ward off the demons—and as it turns out, I created them myself.
“Please. End this. End me. I don’t deserve yer mercy—but I’m asking for it.”
Her hands shook as she stood and backed away, tears coursing over cheeks. She lifted her element before her, the soft wind a balm across her wounds. “I loved you once, Fergus. For that, I’ll honor your request.” She called down the clean, pure air, the fullness of her element a rush across her senses. As she sculpted the fine notes into potency, Fergus narrowed his eyes against the whipping wind and raised his hand.
“He’s alive.”
Caitlin’s charm faltered. “W-what?”
“I didn’t kill him. I couldn’t. Ya loved him, and though I hated him for takin’ ya away from me, I couldn’t end him. Ya’d never forgive me.”
“Where is he?” Her hands fell to her sides, her element dissipating into the sea’s gale.
“Promise me you’ll finish me off. I’m too much of a coward to crawl over the edge on my own.”
Caitlin looked up to the sky. The full moon would fade to a memory in a few hours, and her soul longed for her mate. “I promise. I’ll end your suffering.”
Fergus shook his head. “My life. Don’t just make me forget with a compulsion.”
She nodded. “Your life.”
His shoulders slumped with the relief of a condemned man. “The observation tower at the top of the hill. There’s a trapdoor. Stairs. At the bottom, there’s a door. Here’s the key.” He met her gaze, pain and regret shaking his head as a trembling hand offered her the rusted metal. “I hurt him. Badly. Compelled him so he couldn’t shift. I’d say I’m sorry, but that’s not enough.”
Her lungs constricted in worry and elation. They had a chance.
“Thank you,” Fergus whispered as she leaned down to take the key. She brushed a final kiss to Fergus’s cheek and rested her hand on his chest. She called her air to her, his eyes rolling back in his head as his body relaxed beneath her palm. He didn’t fight, accepting the compulsion charm easily. When his body stilled, she stood over him. “Find peace,” she whispered, and used her element to send his body crashing into the sea below.
Then she ran.
Pulling her air with her, she scrambled up the steep embankment. Mara caught her hand and pulled her the rest of the way. But before Mara could open her mouth, Caitlin shook her head and wrenched free. “Liam’s alive.”
Her exhaustion faded into hope, and Caitlin pushed herself towards the observation tower at the top of a long set of stairs. Soon, bounding footsteps, elemental and wolf, caught up with her. “He’s underground,” she gasped.
They burst through the tower door, and Caitlin scanned the room. “There!” Along the far wall, a metal square three feet on each side darkened the floor. Mara hooked her fingers through a ring on the edge and yanked the trapdoor open.
Dimly lit steps brought a wave of fear, but also the vague scent of Liam—and his blood. She descended quickly and a bright construction lamp at the bottom blinded her. She tripped down the last three steps, rolled, and slammed her shoulder into a heavy metal door.
Cade helped her up, and her hands vibrated so hard she could barely get the key in the lock. The door swung open with a deafening screech.
“Oh God.”
Liam fought for each breath, lying on his side, his eyes swollen shut. Purple and blue bruises covered his face, and dark, dried blood stained his gray shirt. His leg stuck out at an odd angle, and red glistened above his belt. He flinched when she touched his wrist, and a weak moan tightened a vise around her heart.
Caitlin laid her hand against Liam’s cheek. “Liam. I’m here. Can you hear me?”
His fingers twitched against her knee. “…aitli…?”
“Yes.” She lowered her head and brushed her lips to his.
He forced one eye open a sliver. “You…found me.”
“You need to shift. Please. There’s so much blood.” She pressed her hand to his side, and he groaned.
“Charm,” he whispered, barely able to get the word out before his eye closed again.
“You’re free. Fergus…is dead.”
From behind her, Cade cleared his throat. “Help him get his clothes off.”
His shirt ripped under her desperate fingers. The belt gave her trouble for a breath, but she tossed the leather across the room seconds later. The pants…she didn’t want to move his leg, so she did her best, ripping them at the zipper and freeing his good leg. “Shift.”
Grunts and agonized whimpers escaped his lips as bones cracked, his skin darkened into a deep, red pelt, and his bruised face transformed into that of his wolf. He crouched on the dirt floor, his breathing stilted with pain, but he raised his head and nuzzled her hand.
She didn’t need Mara to translate his vocalization. “I love you too.”
She rubbed his fur with cautious strokes, the thick coat disguising his injuries. “I thought I’d lost you. Don’t leave me again.”
The complex whines and yips didn’t make any sense to Caitlin, and she looked to Cade. “Shift back, man. I can get you out of here.” He turned his gaze to meet Caitlin’s. “He’s in pain. When we’re hurt, holding onto our wolf can be hard. The human form is easier.”
Liam whined and started the agonizing shift back.
He didn’t look much better. A mass of bruises covered his bare torso, and the break in his leg left a deep purple
swelling. A trickle of blood at his waist and a jagged line along his collarbone marked the remains of the gashes, and only one eye opened fully.
“You’re still in pain.” Caitlin eyed his wounds with worry.
“Too weak to do more yet. I’ll live.” He blinked up at her. “Ye’re really here.” He gripped her hand, and the strength of his fingers soothed her concern.
“Caitlin?” Cade rested a hand on her shoulder. Liam managed a weak grunt, and Cade snatched his fingers away. “We won’t be alone here much longer. Farren said the cliffs open in half an hour.”
“I—” She looked back to Liam. He tried to raise himself up on an elbow, failed, and settled for curling his arm around her thigh. “I don’t think he can walk.”
“I can carry him.”
“Relax, luv. The sooner I’m alone with ya, the sooner I’ll be steady.” Liam released his hold on her. “Let Cade help.”
Caitlin nodded, brought his hand to her lips. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.” Reluctantly, she moved away so Cade could lift Liam to his feet.
“Shit, man. You weigh a ton. You’re damn lucky the moon’s full, or you’d be crawling out of here.”
Liam managed a hoarse laugh. “Shut it. Ye’re all okay, yeah?”
“Save your strength.” Cade lowered his voice as he struggled up the stairs with his beta leaning against him. “You’ve got a few hours until the moon sets. You’re going to want to make the most of them.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Caitlin shut the door of their room, leaned her back against the wood, and watched Liam’s steady breathing. He’d passed out in the car—or fallen asleep; she didn’t know which—and hadn’t woken again. Cade assured her that wolves healed quickly, but that didn’t soothe her when she observed Liam’s multitude of contusions.
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