The prophecy tickled the back of my mind. What was his endgame? “Why burn me up in one night if I’m that valuable?”
“I have no choice.” She frowned, seeming unhappy at the prospect. “All that remains of your sister is a shell, which suits my purpose, as sharing one body with two minds gets rather tiresome. My hungers are aroused by an active mind, by emotion, the darker the better, and she possesses neither.”
“Leave her out of this.” Hearing him dismiss my sister raised my hackles.
“That is an impossibility, I’m afraid.” She studied the star-studded sky. “Your pain, your anger—your self-loathing—will enable me to salvage what you cost me when you ended the kelpie too soon. I would have taken you once completing the circle, but perhaps this was all for the best.” She gave a decisive nod. “The sterility of Lori’s shell will make claiming her much simpler than my possession of you.” She pressed me back another step. “You’ll fight me. I can read it in the set of your shoulders and that smoldering fury in your gaze. Eating you from the inside out would sate me for some time.”
“It would?” Nothing she said made sense. “Why not it will?”
Harlow advanced another step on me, and I eased back only to realize I had run out of pier. The only escape now, if I took it, was the water.
“I might have been hasty allowing you the full credit for my actions.” She traced a finger down my forearm. “I came to this world with a goal. Marshal Ayer granted me a gift beyond compare, the knowledge of your species, and evidence the gods were rewarding my efforts by granting me that which none of my kind have ever possessed.”
“A body,” I surmised. One capable of sustaining one of Faerie’s many bizarre creations.
“Yes,” she hissed, fingers circling my wrist. “I will become singular among my kind—an Iezu made flesh. All will fall on their knees and worship me.”
Iezu? Is that what Charybdis was? From what I recalled during my training, those were a rare subclass of fae skilled in illusion. What Charybdis did was no mirage. Perhaps the truth of them had been as lost to us as the existence of Gemini had been to them.
I eased my hand into my pocket, talking over the crinkling of foil. “I want to say goodbye to Harlow.”
“Speak, and I will allow her to hear.” Her grip tightened. “I will not leave this form yet. I need my strength for what is to come.”
“Cam?” Comprehension widened her gaze. “You can’t be here. Don’t do this. Get out while you can.” Harlow cried out, releasing me to clutch her head. “Kill me. Kill him. You can’t let him complete the ritual.”
I gripped her shoulders. “What ritual?”
“He’s coming back. He’s coming…” She doubled over. “Run. Please. Run.”
Ignoring her struggle, I brought her in for a hug. “You’re going to be free, Harlow. Everything will be fine.”
The fight drained out of her, and I knew before I withdrew that Harlow was gone. I peered down at the fragile teen, and malice slammed into me as solidly as a fist. She raked her nails down my arms. Her fingers snagged the pearl bracelet, and the string broke. Beads rolled across the dock, dozens of tiny plip-plops sounding as they hit in the water.
“No,” she slurred. “What…have you…done?”
“I just returned what you stole from my parents.” The gem rested precariously in the tiny pocket of her barely there jean shorts. It was a hip wiggle away from falling out and thunking into the water too.
As much as I hated to lose the bracelet, I hoped after tonight I would no longer require the talisman.
Dark eyes blazing hatred, Harlow bared her teeth. Her lips slid together as her lids began fluttering. The last I saw of Charybdis was the seething vengeance in Harlow’s eyes before the charm snared her an instant later. Grunting under her sudden weight, I held her until she slumped against my chest.
Booted footsteps pounded on planks, growing louder. Thierry rounded the corner, runes casting soft peridot shadows, with the tranq gun primed, ready and aimed at Harlow.
“I wish I had thought to ask for life vests while I was at it,” I admitted. Thierry had called in a favor and gotten a johnboat delivered. I didn’t know much about watercraft, but Graeson had talked me through operating this lightweight aluminum one. Its neighbors dwarfed it, but I wasn’t comfortable handling one of the larger vessels. “This is going to be one of the less-fun things I’ve ever done.”
Driving a boat. On open water. Sure it was a lake, but its mean depth was fifty-two feet. Near the dam that plummeted to two hundred and sixty-five feet. Considering the Tennessee River was a bare twelve feet deep, I got hives thinking about navigating the Watauga.
“Are you sure you want to do this? We’ve got your friend sedated. There’s a decent chance Charybdis didn’t have time to jump.” She held the gun steady. “We could walk away.”
“I can’t back down now.” We might never get this far again. “I won’t know if he’s in there until I remove the gem, and I need to be dead center when that happens.” I settled Harlow in the boat as best I could, and joined her before flipping on the spotlight mounted to the front of the boat. I fumbled with the trolling motor until it caught, futzing with the controls until I felt confident. “We couldn’t have made it this far without your help.”
“Don’t make it sound like goodbye, Cam.” Thierry’s aim never wavered as she shouted over the noise. “We’ve got your back. You’re coming out the other side of this. That mate of yours won’t have it any other way.”
I raised a hand in farewell, the engine’s roar too loud to fight, then gripped the edge of the boat until the metal bit into my hand. Mindful of Graeson’s instructions, I maneuvered us toward the center of the lake. Fifteen minutes later, a quick check of my phone’s GPS told me we had reached our destination. I flipped on the spotlight mounted to the rear of the boat and dialed Thierry. “Have you cleared the marina?”
“We found three fae and two humans, all unconscious. The pack volunteers are here, and they’re moving the bodies out of range. I’m going to run the heartbeat spell one more time to make sure there aren’t any more hosts tucked away, but I think we got this. He cast an erasure spell, but that can’t hide an active pulse. The area should be clear in about ten minutes.”
“I’ll give you twenty.” I hung up the phone and set a timer, gut churning at her mention of pack volunteers. I hated to think of the wargs so close to Charybdis, but we needed the manpower to make sure the sweep was successful. Illuminated by the spotlight, Harlow’s pale skin drew my eye. “This is not how I pictured our friendship going, Flipper.”
I patted under the bench seat she occupied and located a built-in drawer that pulled open to reveal a tray of tools. I selected the ones I needed, then set to work removing the motor from its mount. Thank the gods breaking equipment was always easier than assembling it. Once I had the unit clear of the boat, I dumped it backward into the water and sat down to rest and give it time to hit bottom.
The temptation to reach out to Graeson buzzed in my head. Good thing the tag was running interference. I was too weak to resist temptation. Knowing the pack was close, being certain that meant he was too, had me itching to touch minds with him one last time before—
The timer clanged.
Unable to find my voice for a second call, I shot Thierry a text. She replied seconds later. All clear.
Leaning over Harlow, I shifted her weight enough to remove the stone from her back pocket. It too hit the water with a plop. As much as I wanted the insurance, I couldn’t afford to risk Charybdis using it against me.
Several minutes passed before Harlow’s eyes sprang open. She woke slower than Aunt Dot had after being exposed to the gem for days, meaning Harlow was far weaker than she appeared. The shine from the spotlight forced her to squint, but there was no hiding the feral presence moving behind her eyes.
Harlow lunged, hands circling my throat with inhuman strength, and flung me onto my back. Crawling up my legs, she settled her hips over
my waist and pinned me. Torn between clutching the edges of the boat to stabilize it or prying her fingers off me, I lay there while her chest heaved and obscenities poured over her lips. My fingers found the tray beneath the bench I had been sitting on, and I tugged it out, fingers tickling over Dr. Wayne’s contribution to our operation. One with less-permanent results than the gem.
“Take me back.” Her nails pierced my skin. “Return me to the shore.”
“Can’t,” I wheezed. “No…motor.”
Stars danced at the corners of my eyes, and I struggled to stay conscious.
Relaxing her fingers, she leaned back and oriented herself to our surroundings. “You will not cost me that which is owed to me.”
“Yes.” High on the rush of oxygen, I grasped one tube from the tray and fisted it. “I will.”
With my thumb and finger, I shoved the plastic cap off the needle tipping the syringe full of Propofol. I slammed it into her exposed thigh, readjusted my grip and depressed the plunger.
“Jump into me,” I ordered in my best co-alpha voice. “Or this is goodbye.”
Harlow began relaxing muscle by muscle, her chin dropping to her chest. Only Charybdis’s will kept her upright. For a span of several heartbeats, I thought he would stick it out, cling to her until I had no choice but to deliver Harlow to the conclave and let them figure out how to extract the crazed fae living inside her.
Unseen force punched me in the chest, and I gasped, all the air I had sucked in expelled on a scream of shock. I bolted upright, arms flailing, and Harlow crumpled in a tangle of limbs.
“Let me in,” an alien voice hissed on the periphery of my thoughts. “You invited me. I am here.”
“No.” His was not the warm caress of the pack bond. His invasion turned my veins to ice, glazing my brain in hoarfrost until he gained a toehold in my shivering psyche. Was this what he had done to the others? This frigid paralysis? How cruel that the only treatment up to this point had been further sedation. What a special hell that must be for his surviving victims. “You don’t get me too.”
Needles of ice skewered my mind, ripping it to shreds. Tattered remnants of my careful plan fluttered out the window of my thoughts into an arctic storm I had no hope of surviving. It hurts, became my mantra. Make it stop, my prayer.
I was forgetting something. The plan. Remember the plan. There was something…
“Surrender to me,” he screamed, crystal fissures crackling, exposing the raw core of my tender mind.
Fear of the water abandoned me on that first brutal assault. Now the gently lapping waves offered me comfort. All I had to do was reach their embrace before he took full control of me and swam for the shore to escape capture yet again.
I couldn’t let that happen. Not after what he had confided. All those deaths, those ghosts, howled for justice, and once upon a time I had worn a badge, hadn’t I?
Gripping the boat’s edge, I hauled myself to my feet.
“No.” His horrified screech raked nails down the blackboard of my mind. “Stop this. I command you.”
Already his strength suffused my fingers, making them harder to pry up one by one until I stood tall in the boat. The urge to wave farewell to those watching from the safety of the shoreline was strong, but I wasn’t about to blast up a signal flare now.
Head pounding, I jumped.
“No.” Charybdis flung himself against my skull, but the bars of his cage held strong. “Stop.”
Water shot up my nose. I didn’t fight it, I embraced it. I couldn’t rescue myself without saving Charybdis too, and I had come too far for that. The fizzle of bubbles rushed from my lungs to tickle my cheeks. Pressure filled my ears with the sound of my frantic heartbeat, muting the vitriol my parasite spewed.
“Cam?”
A shocked laugh teased my eyes open onto darkness. Moonlit waters folded over my head while grim depths swirled around my toes. Caught somewhere in the middle drifted a familiar ghost.
Blonde hair floated around her head as she cocked it at me. “What are you doing down here?”
Gone was the sallow child of my nightmares. This Lori appeared healthy, a glowing reflection of her adult self. The nightgown that had haunted me for so long had been replaced by a shorts and camisole set in baby pink, an outfit I must remember from her closet.
Serenity ebbed from her, encapsulating me, my own struggles forgotten. Charybdis scurried to the far reaches of my consciousness, a cockroach exposed to light. Lori drifted forward, following the same ebb and flow as me, embracing me in arms that were both solid and warm.
“You have to take better care of yourself.”
I held on tight, squeezing until she chuckled, so damn glad not to be alone.
“You did it.” Her form splintered, shattering into a million fragments. “We’re free.”
The vise clamping my brain eased enough she might have been right.
“I love you.” Her fractured voice faded.
I love you too, I thought, before the tension in my body burst like a bubble.
No, that’s not right. Magic exploded from me, an atom bomb detonating, leaving me in the eye of a great and terrible storm.
Chapter 20
I jackknifed in bed, bolting upright on a gasp that sucked antiseptic air into my lungs. Lakes were many things, but chemically sanitized they were not. Or, you know, oxygen-producing. Afraid of what I might find on the other side, I opened my eyelids…onto a hospital room.
“She’s awake,” Graeson whispered at my elbow. I hadn’t even seen him there. He shot to his feet and leaned over the bed. “Sweetheart?”
I smiled at him. I’m pretty sure I did. I couldn’t feel my face.
Turning his head, he bellowed louder, “She’s awake.”
Two nurses decked out in vibrant yellow scrubs with black seams running down the sides burst into the room and began checking my vitals. Dr. Wayne strolled in on their heels, hands shoved into his pockets. Exhaustion cast dark shadows under his bloodshot eyes, and his bedside manner left me wishing my vocal cords were online.
“You can turn down the drip,” he instructed Banana One. To Banana Two, he said, “Get her a cup of ice chips and a pitcher of water. She’ll need it if she wants to talk.”
The good doctor pulled out a pen. “Camille…”
“No.” Graeson stepped between us. “She doesn’t need to hear this now.”
“Believe me when I say the last thing I want to drop in the lap of a trauma patient is more trauma,” he argued, “but not telling her doesn’t make the threat any less real.”
The growl leaving my mate’s throat lacked heat, meaning he agreed on some level. He just didn’t want to admit it, even to himself.
Doing my best with the saliva I had, I forced out, “Charybdis?”
“Shh.” Graeson covered my hand with his. “The nurses will be back in a minute.”
On cue, Banana Two arrived with the promised drink. She stuck a bendy straw in a small Styrofoam cup and poured water to the top line before passing it to Graeson. I’d meant to reach for it, but my hands weren’t working all that well. Had I been sedated too? Just in case?
Graeson removed a plastic bottle from his pocket and squirted a few drops of berry flavor enhancer into the cup, stirred and then held it, positioning the straw at my lips while I drank.
“I have distressing news to share,” Dr. Wayne resumed in a calm voice.
I hit the bottom and indicated I wanted more, which Graeson was happy to provide.
“We’ll talk to her.” New voices entered the fray. Mom spoke again. “It’s our place.”
Finding strength to twitch my fingers, I got the message across to Graeson, and he set the cup aside and hauled me into his lap, tubes and all.
Dad lumbered in behind her, and they stood on the side of the bed opposite Graeson.
I did my best to curl tighter against his side. “What’s…wrong?”
“What you did was a very brave thing,” Dad soothed. “Your mother and I are
so proud of you, and we’re so grateful the gods returned you to us.”
When he stalled out, Mom took over for him. “You died, honey. You drowned.” She ducked her head. “It wasn’t for long.” Pride filled her gaze when she looked to Graeson. “Your mate had the forethought to bring a doctor with their team, just in case.” She must have meant Abram. “He was able to revive you within minutes.”
Minutes.
I had been dead for…whole minutes.
“Charybdis is gone” was my first coherent thought after that. Why that merited an intervention, I had no idea.
“Yes,” Graeson rumbled, forcing another cup of flavored water into my hand. “He is.”
“The plan worked?” I sipped and sipped until my straw made sucking noises.
“A plan worked,” he confirmed. “Not the plan, the one I approved before letting you out of my sight.”
“Cord,” my father warned. “Now is not the time.”
“You’re right.” He reined in his wolf before his eyes did more than flicker with a promise of gold. “I apologize.”
“I don’t understand.” The drugs keeping my brain hazy refused to connect the dots for me. “What happened?”
“The plan,” he grumbled just shy of a growl, “was to get Harlow isolated in the boat on the lake, wake her up and then force Charybdis to take you as his avatar.” Metal groaned where his fingers left indentions in the bed’s chrome railing. “You theorized that you could metabolize him, the same way your body responds to all foreign magic, and we decided it was worth a shot if the right conditions could be met. Thierry was instructed to tranquilize you after one hour unless you showed signs of distress, so we could reclaim you and evaluate your success.”
Bits of what he said sank in and tickled distant memories. Whoever had dreamed up that plan, it was a good one from where I was sitting—laying.
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