Helping hands hauled us ashore next to the partially devoured kelpie corpse. The pack must have finished it off while Graeson shifted and came after me. “Bring us a blanket,” he ground out between his teeth, pain lowering his voice a register.
I ought to let go. Supporting my weight had to have been agony for Graeson with his busted leg, but I couldn’t release him. My muscles were locked. He was a safe harbor, and I wanted so much to remain in the shelter of his arms.
“Is that the Tanner girl?” One of the wargs opened his arms to receive me. “It’s all right, darlin’. I won’t hurt you.”
Graeson’s snarl reverberated through my bones. “Mine.”
The warg’s expression slipped, confusion knitting his brow until he leaned forward and inhaled. His eyes widened in recognition. “Agent Ellis.” The sound of my name ramped up Graeson’s anger. The warg held his hands up, palms out, and started walking backward until the beta calmed. “Call if you need anything.” He was looking at Graeson when he said it, not in the eyes, but at chest level, a height that wouldn’t instigate a challenge for dominance, but a wary inflection in his voice convinced me he was talking to me.
“Leave us,” Graeson grumbled then turned on his heel, not waiting to see if the other warg obeyed him, before walking into the shelter of the pines where he sat with me on his lap. Unseen hands wrapped a blanket around my shoulders. Stuck flush to him as I was, it made a heavy cocoon for us.
I rested my face against his neck, each breath drawing in the comforting scent of his skin. As my nerves calmed, prickles coasted down my limbs. His arms held me tight while my body juddered, and I lost my grip on Lori. Panting through the cocktail of panic, fear and hurt, I swallowed hard and pushed against his chest.
“I should…” Stand up, walk away, ask questions, anything but sit there and let him hold me like he cared I had almost died. The kelpie was dead. I had to touch the beast to confirm the magical signature before the wargs polished off the corpse. I shoved away from him, toes brushing the ground, but then Dell was there, and she put her hand on my shoulder.
“Stay.” The pressure of her fingers was enough to coax me back against Graeson. “His wolf needs to accept you’re safe.” His arms eased when I complied. Dell patted me. “Give Cord a minute to rein him in.”
Her warning drew my gaze upward. His eyes shined like golden beacons, with all the warmth of lighthouse torches. Now that I was myself again, his nose buried against my throat, under my ear, putting his teeth close to my pulse. I swallowed and let him drag my scent deep into his lungs. A long time later, his grip loosened enough for me to clamber off his lap.
Dell offered me a hand up and inched between us when Graeson growled like she had stolen a raw New York strip out of his food bowl. “Cam is not pack.” Her voice trembled. “You can’t hold her if she doesn’t want to be held.”
“Mine,” he warned her in a voice that was more beast than man.
“No,” Dell told him, stronger this time.
Graeson looked over as if leaving the matter up to me to decide. I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want to risk sticking my foot in it. He had claimed me when the Fury threatened my life. I fought him then, and it had done no good. His wolf wasn’t a fan of the word no. He had been protecting me from Letitia at the time, so I didn’t take the possessiveness too seriously. I was weaker than a warg, and Graeson’s inner beast was the next best thing to an alpha. Protecting those weaker than himself was instinct. It wasn’t personal. It was reflex.
“You should rest,” I said instead of any of the dozens of things whirling through my head.
The light went out of Graeson’s eyes, and he waved at us in dismissal. He bent his knees and let his head fall back against the tree trunk. He stared at the sky through the pine needles while a scowl cut his mouth.
With a fleeting smile meant to reassure, Dell wrung water from her hair. “Maybe you shouldn’t shift again around Cord.”
The weight of his disappointment chased me out of the trees. “Maybe you’re right.”
Chapter 17
I don’t know how long I stood there, feet planted on the first plank of the dock, staring at the water until my eyes dried out and blinking hurt. The kelpie was dead. Its circle would never set. I had touched its hoof and confirmed its magical signature as the one present at all the crime scenes. We had stopped it from doing whatever it had meant to do. The thought didn’t comfort. So many young lives had been lost for nothing. And now two more hung in the balance.
The skin where my shirt had dried itched, so I scratched my elbow. “How long has Harlow been down there?”
The sky had lightened, but the moon hung overhead as if unwilling to break its vigil. How long had the scuffle lasted? Five minutes? Ten? How long had it taken Graeson to haul Dell and then me out of the water? It was impossible to guess. At the time, terror had stretched each of those seconds into hours.
“Three hours all told is my guess.” Dell stood so our shoulders almost touched. “You said she thought there might be caves down there?”
“Yes,” I said for the dozenth time.
A note of forced cheer entered her voice. “Then three hours isn’t all that long.”
“No.” I sounded hollow. “It isn’t.”
A long howl rolled across the water. It was picked up and carried around the perimeter of the lake until it reached us. Dell clamped a hand on my arm, her face splotchy from concentration as she deciphered the howls. “Three black SUVs have been spotted on the road leading to the campground.”
“The conclave.” A jittery feeling took root in my chest. “How are we going to play this?”
Rolling up on a dead kelpie gnawed to bits meant I couldn’t cover for Graeson or hide the pack’s involvement. The conclave would demand answers, they would expect me to run into their arms, and we had to give them what they wanted in order to keep the peace between species.
“We’re pulling out.” Graeson’s voice came from behind me. “You’re coming with us.”
“I can’t run from them, or they’ll think I’m complicit.” I didn’t turn to look at him. Our moment under the pines lingered too fresh in my mind. I didn’t want to disappoint him again, which made no sense when his desire to use me was a perpetual disappointment to me. “I’ll lose my job.”
“Your job?” His bare feet slapped the compacted dirt. “Leaving with us, finding who wiped the scenes for the kelpie, that’s your job.” His voice came from right behind me. “Don’t you see? Charybdis sacrificed his pawn. We were too close. He gave the kelpie to us. He paraded it around the shack where we were staying to make damn sure we took the bait. He sent it back into that lake when he could have saved it to buy himself time to escape. He knew about the divinations, or he guessed we used a tracking spell to get in front of him. He knew we would dig in and find the kelpie and kill it.” He drew a ragged breath. “He wants the conclave’s Charybdis file closed. He wants a fresh start, because now he has to find a new way to accomplish his goals. We can’t stop now. Not when we’re so close.”
“I can’t leave Harlow.” I couldn’t tear my gaze from the water hoping she would appear. “She could be injured. If I’m not here when—”
“—if,” he corrected me, and I hated him a little for it. “The conclave will be here in fifteen minutes.” A hard note entered his voice. “Twenty if they check the other sites or hit the shack first.”
I rolled a shoulder. “Then you better go if you want to get a head start.”
“This isn’t over.” He grabbed my arm and swung me to face him. “You know there’s more to this.”
More to the deaths? Or more to him and me? The molten heat in his gaze caused my neurons to misfire.
“Don’t try to misunderstand me. You want to pretend there’s nothing between us, but damn it, Ellis, I can’t just let you go.” He shook me. “Not when my every instinct is telling me you belong to me.”
“You can’t believe that, and I certainly don’t.” A sad laugh
forced its way clear of my throat. “You kidnapped me. You earmarked me to use as bait. You took my deepest hurt and twisted it for your own use.”
“I fucked up, all right? Is that what you want to hear?” A growl entered his voice. “Yes, I drove you up here without your consent. Yes, I planned on using you as bait, but I didn’t, did I?”
“No thanks to you,” I growled right back. “The Garzas found him.”
“Who do you think called them here? Who do you think begged for their help? Do you think a couple of witches wanted to hang out in a bait shack with eight wolves for a long weekend? Do you know how much they cost me?”
“They’re your family,” I started.
“They’re also coven witches. They don’t work for free. Not even for blood.” He searched my face. “I had to pay them, because their priest expects a cut for their services. They’re the best, and they command a high price.”
“Your sister deserved the best,” I said numbly, disbelieving.
“Marie is dead.” His voice broke. “I couldn’t save her.” Desperation touched his eyes. “I did this for you.”
My heart skipped a beat. “They had no way of knowing he had already chosen a victim. If he hadn’t—”
“Then I would have found another way.” He cupped my face in his hands. “I’m messed up, Ellis. I know that. You know that. I didn’t expect to meet you. Not here. Not now. But I did, and I won’t let you go so easily.”
My resolve wavered. This thing with Charybdis was far from over. The kelpie had a partner, and he was still out there. Did I trust the conclave to finish the hunt? It was a hard question to answer when I had believed in their mission to help faekind enough to join their ranks. I was a Gemini first. Now the oath I had given rang hollow in my memory. There were layers to this case as yet unsolved, and handing the evidence over to the conclave meant accepting the possibility they might close the case and sweep their involvement under the rug. Graeson would yank the metaphorical broom from their hands and snap the handle. He and I would sift through the dust bunnies until every grain of truth was documented and the people responsible were disposed of like so much trash.
Was that what I wanted? Was he what I wanted?
“Uh, guys.” Dell hooked my arm and whirled me back toward the lake. “Do you see that?”
Being tugged between two wargs like a juicy bone left my eyes rattling in my skull. “What am I looking for?”
Dell pointed where a sheet of white fabric billowed across the gently bobbing waters, a stark contrast to the bleak depths of the lake. Bubbles popped and fizzled around its ragged edges as if it had been propelled to the surface and might sink again once the oxygen saturating it dissipated.
Taking the opportunity to step away from Graeson, I walked until the water licked the toes of my boots and gritted my teeth to keep the past at bay.
He grasped my wrist and held tight, a reminder our conversation wasn’t finished. “Is that…?” He snapped his fingers at the wargs closest to us. “Boots off. I want whatever that is retrieved.”
The female warg hit the water. She stalled out mid-stroke when she got near enough to touch the opaque spot. “It’s just cloth.” She lifted it over her head then let it slap the surface.
My head fell back on my neck. I searched the sky for signs, for hope, but it was as cruel in its indifference as always.
A wet explosion jerked my head forward as a massive sphere jettisoned into the air, clearing the water by several feet before it dropped like a stone, slapping the surface and settling in to rock on the waves its eruption had caused. Two figures huddled in its center, one curled in the bottom while the other sat upright. I glimpsed bright pink hair splayed beneath the resting figure, and my heart soared.
“It’s Harlow.” I wriggled away from Graeson and ran down the dock to its end. The murky depths below spun vertigo in my ears, and I wobbled, but I managed to stay on my feet. I cupped my hands around my mouth and called to the warg, “She’s with us. Bring her in.”
The female hesitated until Graeson threw his weight behind the order. “You heard her. Get them to dry land.”
Two more males dove into the water. The female circled the bubble while smoothing her hands along its sides. Whatever type of magic had constructed it, it was solid. Together the wargs rolled the bubble safely to the shore. I ran back toward them and leapt, meeting the soaked wargs in the damp sand. Inside the strange sphere a petite girl sat with her legs crossed. She wore a pair of blue panties, a matching training bra and one sock. Harlow curved around her, her head resting on the girl’s tiny lap while she stroked the pink strands as though soothing them both.
Relief wilted the girl when she spotted the mutilated kelpie. Tears sprang to her eyes, and her protective grip tightened on Harlow.
“Roni,” I said, voice thick with emotion.
The girl’s head jerked toward me. “Who are you?”
“I’m Camille Ellis. I work with the Earthen Conclave.” When that got me nowhere, I tacked on, “I’m Harlow’s friend.” I showed Roni my empty hands, hoping to convince her I meant no harm, but she cast me a shrewd look that said she knew sometimes the worst dangers were the unseen ones. Considering she had gotten into this situation by having a tender heart, I understood her hesitance to trust me. “You’re safe now. See those lights?” I pointed through the trees to the partially concealed road. “Once those cars get here, we’ll find you a phone and let you call your mom and sister, okay? They can meet us at the nearest hospital, and we’ll get you checked out.”
Or failing that, the nearest safe house with a fae medic on staff. Roni hadn’t been missing long, but she must be starving. Elizabeth McKenna escaped with her life but not without injury. I hadn’t been greedy then, and I wouldn’t be now. Roni was alive. That was all that mattered.
“You know Daphne?” Roni’s bottom lip trembled. “Is she mad at me?”
“No.” I sank to one knee and put my face at her level. “She’s worried sick about you. Your mom is too.” I touched the bubble’s spongy surface. “Did you make this? What is it?”
A sharp nod. “It’s just air magic.”
“That’s a very neat trick,” I praised her. “Maybe sometime you can show me how it works.”
A slower nod, one I could tell she didn’t mean but did all the same to be polite.
“I need you to let me in, Roni.” I touched the wall where Harlow’s head rested. “My friend doesn’t look well. She needs a doctor too.”
“I—I can’t.” Tears rolled down Roni’s cheeks to splash on Harlow’s chin as she slung her head from side to side. “The bubble happens when I get scared.” She trembled. “It won’t go away. I’m trying, but I’m stuck.”
Motion in the corner of my eye left me gritting my teeth. “Stand back.” I shooed the wargs away from us. They wanted to help, but half of them were still wolves, and it was obvious Roni wasn’t ready to deal with more animals. Eyes as wide as dinner plates, she was too frightened. “Go someplace and shift, or stick to the trees.”
The pack obeyed me without question, which appeared to please Graeson, and that worried me. Anything making him happy made me nervous. Being accepted by his pack, even for the night, felt like I had walked into a trap he was attempting to close behind me.
“What if we try talking first?” All I needed was for Roni to shift her focus enough that her magic weakened, then we could pull Harlow onto land and evaluate the extent of her injuries. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“I caught a fish yesterday, and he was hurt. Daphne threw him back in the lake, and I got mad.” Heat simmered in her voice. “She wouldn’t listen. He needed to see the vet. I sneaked out of the tent to find him.” As fast as her burst of anger came, it vanished, leaving her small and shivering. “I was walking around the edge of the lake. I was trying to find the fish when I heard it.” A shudder wracked her. “The horse was crying. Not like a person but... I wanted to help him, so I waded out in the water. He turned and kept going
deeper and deeper, and I knew Daphne would be so mad at me, but I followed him. I touched him. Right beside his tail.” Her eyes went liquid. “I couldn’t get loose. I tried, but I was stuck. I was so scared my bubble just… And then he dragged me under the water.”
Her breathing grew faster as she recalled how terrifying that experience had been. I didn’t press her for a timeline. When the kelpie hauled her out to parade her around didn’t matter now. Only the whys did, and she wouldn’t know those.
The air around her distorted, and I pressed her harder while a crack formed in her defenses. “Can you tell me what happened tonight?”
“He was mad. So mad.” She blinked and shed tears. “The merlady found where we were hiding. She attacked him with a knife.” Roni reached under Harlow and produced the slim dagger with a shell-encrusted handle she had tucked into her neoprene top. “This knife.” She gulped hard, shut her eyes and lifted her arm. “S-s-she did this.”
My gaze zeroed in on her elbow, slid down her forearm, and I braced myself for a weeping stump that ended at her fragile wrist, a brutal amputation to match the other victims, but Roni’s hand was whole. More than whole, a cut of raw meat stuck to her palm where Harlow had sliced her free of the kelpie.
I swallowed hard and tasted acid in the back of my throat.
“The horse—he had a tail like hers—like a fin. He hit her in the head with it, and it cut her throat. She couldn’t breathe, so I made her a bubble like mine. Then we hid in a tunnel the horse couldn’t fit into until he went away. I waited for a long time before…” Her gaze dropped to Harlow sprawled limp across her lap. “She was bleeding so much…and then it stopped.”
The faint rise and fall of Harlow’s chest gave me the strength to keep calm. She had survived the ordeal, and medicinal magic could work miracles…if we got her to a medic quickly. Roni might not be ready to trust me yet, but Harlow was human. She had healing charms, but those were patches, not fixes. I had to nudge the girl again and hope having someone to talk to calmed her enough she could relax the tension coating the surface of her bubble.
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