by Holly Hook
Alex doesn't respond to that. He merely nods at me, indicating I'm to continue interrogating Brett. As much as I don't want to turn my back on him, I force myself to. I'll trust the others to keep him off me.
“I figured out the whole feeding Romulus with negative crap thing on my own,” I say to Brett, struggling not to snap at him. “I didn't know about the dark spirits attached to me, too. Can't we get rid of them? And the ones who attack Cayden? If we can do that, we'll be on our way to defeating the Savage King. And saving your sister for good.”
“Maybe,” Brett says. “But my magic can't heal. I only know how to destroy. After what you did, my mental state won't let me work any light magic.”
Translation: I'm too damaged and it's all your fault. And my father took all the light out of me. It's a terrible way to raise a kid. My chest hurts with that realization.
“Maybe if you stay out of the Savage territory long enough, you can learn to. Leonora here would help you,” I say, gesturing to my friend.
Leonora grimaces and shrinks back. Clearly she doesn't like that idea. But I nod. Brett needs help just like we do. In fact, he needs even more help than the rest of us. It's the key to everything. And with that thought, the warmth I felt at the pond fills my chest again. It's nowhere near as strong, but it's there, and it's enough to chase away the waiting pressure.
“I don't know if I can learn that goody magic,” Brett says. “I've never been exposed to it in my life.”
Hey, that's a start. I think for a minute, and I know how to reach Brett. “I was raised as a human,” I say. “I had to learn how to take control of a whole pack in just a few months. Talk about being thrown into a weird situation. You're not a bad person, Brett. You just got put in a horrible situation you don't know how to get out of. We can help you. Your father did some terrible things to you and that's not your fault. And he did them so you'd turn dark like your sister. I'm learning pretty quick that being happy isn't good for doing dark magic. I bet the whole cult is messed up.”
Brett stays silent for a while, turning his gaze back to the floor. But then he faces all of us in turn. No one speaks. “I thought you guys were a bit below that, but maybe I was wrong. And yeah, being twisted comes with the territory. What did you expect?”
I'm reaching Brett. Just listening to him is getting us places. Maybe. “Sounds like your father favored your sister to make you feel like crap. And it made you better at dark magic. Then you joined the cult because you didn't know what else to do.”
Then he hardens. “You're not my therapist.”
“Maybe you could get one? It might help. And I don't mean that in an insulting way.”
Brett's putting up a wall again. I can feel it. He stiffens. But at least it's cutting down on the feeling of being drained. He has his man pride, too. Maybe Cayden should take the wheel on this. I look to my mate. He steps out from behind Alex and nods, already prepared to take over. And for a moment, I regret ever sending him away in the first place.
“Hey, man,” he says. “It's a crappy feeling. I know.”
Brett snorts. He's closing back up and I know it's my presence. He let his guard down in front of me—a girl like his sister--and now he's humiliated. I can smell something metallic coming off Brett now, but it's not quite fear.
I get up and turn away. I hate to leave Cayden down here with him, but so far, the dark spirits aren't attacking. I sense no pain and Cayden keeps his shoulders down as he paces around the stairs, eyeing Brett. The warm feeling in my chest remains, and I focus on sending some of that to him, to protect him while he talks to Brett.
Then I clear my throat. “We should give Brett some room to think about things,” I say.
“Leave it to me to keep an eye on him,” Cayden says. “Why don't you guys go up and cook everyone a meal? And deal with Edwin if he gets back?”
For now, sticking with gender roles might be the best thing to do. Cayden will take the hard part and finish reaching Brett. I'll man the stoves and cook us all a great meal.
Chapter Nine
It takes a while to get stuff together for breakfast. I send Leonora out to the store to pick up supplies. Edwin gets back just as Leonora comes back with pancake mix and a ton of sausage and bacon. Already the breakfast food smells great.
“I almost got caught by the cops,” Leonora says as she and Edwin come through the front door. “They would have given me a ticket for truancy, wouldn't they?”
Her grin makes me smile. She's so come out of her shell since all this started. “Maybe.”
Edwin gives me a glare at first as he steps into the kitchen. “Confronting the dark warlock?”
I listen for a second, but Brett and Cayden go for minutes without speaking to each other. Sometimes, Cayden paces. Other times, Brett snorts. It's going great down there.
“Well, we're listening to him,” I say. Edwin's gait tells me he's not surprised we came here. After all, we went missing at the cabin and where else could we have gone? Edwin walks with purpose as he paces around the kitchen table. Maybe he's thinking about how to kill me if things go south. Maybe not.
“Unless you can manage to get the answers out of him, he has nothing useful to say. It's not as if we're lining up to learn dark magic.”
I hold back a snort. Edwin seems well versed in the dark arts himself. Is this another threat or reminder to not mention it to anyone?
At least he sits in a non-threatening manner beside Alex at the dining room table. Neither of them speak. And if Alex tells Edwin my secret, it doesn't matter. Edwin's already had a front-row seat.
We go to work cooking breakfast right there in Edwin's kitchen. Remo works magic with the pancake mix on a griddle. Leonora gets out plates and Everly the silverware. I man the stove. Instead of helping, Edwin sits back and watches the rest of us scramble around the kitchen, opening drawers and firing up the electric stove. We make progress, but the whole time I'm cooking, I feel for Cayden downstairs. Since we're not right next to each other, the connection is stretched and weaker, but still unbreakable and there. Every once in a while, I feel a twinge of tension. A shot of darkness that's gone as soon as it came. Brett can still do a number on Cayden and by extension, me, but at least when Brett closes off (as he seems to be doing right now) his effects aren't quite as bad. Or Cayden's just better than me at shielding himself.
And silence drags out. Sometimes, Cayden whispers, but I can't make out his words.
“I can't take it anymore,” I say to Everly once I finish cooking the sausage.
“We have to wait. If Cayden can reach Brett, that will help all of us,” she says. “He's a guy, and guys don't like to look vulnerable to girls.”
“He was calling me the psychologist,” I say.
“It's just an observation I've made. Cayden's always wanted to be the strong one. You know, when he was growing up, he knew he'd be the alpha of the pack someday. Even after he turned Remo, he knew it would fall on him. He's the oldest biological male in the family.”
“What am I? Chopped liver?” Remo asks.
“And then I unseated all that,” I say.
“You had to. Cayden's been trying to take it well because he loves you.”
A pause stretches out and I listen to the basement again. Cayden and Brett mutter now. Something's happening. Curiosity grows and my legs itch. I move on to flipping over one of the bacon slices. The sizzling sound the food gives off doesn't help me listen in. What is Cayden saying?
I turn the heat all the way down and the sizzling dies.
Then I hear his faint words, not meant for my ears.
“Look, I know what it's like, having a girl make you feel like less of a man. It sucks.”
“You're telling me?” That's Brett.
“I've been dealing with it for a while. When my mate bested me in that fight it was not a very masculine moment. I mean, I know she's a Royal, but still.”
I swallow over a painful lump in my throat. I have made him feel like less of a man. Maybe I'
m like Brett, having taken and taken from Cayden without realizing it. Brett's just bringing out the wound when Cayden's around him, but it's been festering for a while.
“Brie?” Everly asks. Her eyes tell me she's heard.
I turn the heat back up to mask my words from my mate. “Leave me alone.” Then I turn away from the stove and stalk past Edwin, who's still waiting for his breakfast, and out the front door. Remo reaches out for me, his gaze questioning, and Leonora watches with discomfort as I go.
Cayden might love me but he also hates me. I thought we were past this. That I wasn't the one making him miserable.
Pushing open the front door, I burst into a run.
It has to be Brett doing this. He's making Cayden face how he really feels about me. I run down the street, towards downtown, and I don't stop or care about the stares I'm drawing from an old couple coming out of a restaurant. I don't care that everyone can see me running at a supernatural pace.
This is reality.
Reality is dark.
“Brie!” Everly shouts.
And now that my own pain is open, the pressure's starting in my chest. The Savage King is there, salivating. And it's building with even more ferocity than ever before. Terror grips my heart and I know he's going to win this time. He's going to possess me and run free right here in town, killing everyone he meets, human or Wolf.
I veer through a yard as a final instinct to protect sweeps over me. I'm just like Callie, dangerous and vile. A victim. A predator.
I vault over a wooden fence, shaking, as my vision dims and warps. Everly calls my name again, but I'm already lost, consumed by the truth. Love is just an illusion. Fighting and blood always win, just as it did back in Roman times, and it's going to win again.
Trees spread out around me now, but even the buds and the small flowers coming from the ground turn black. The colors warp, turning to bloody reds and toxic purples as if I'm in an underworld. Ice fills my body. I pump my legs faster, putting distance between me and Everly. Her shouts grow faint. I hope she has the sense to get away.
I've let this happen.
Cayden, too.
Pain rips through my insides. An ocean of lava seethes in my chest. Even shifting has never brought this amount of agony. I collapse on the ground, sucking in ragged breaths, and the sun twists over my head, hot and full of burning pain. This is hell.
And then I feel the connection from Cayden seize in pain. As I blink, the cord comes back into view, gold and shivering in terror. It extends back through the woods, towards Edwin's house, and a pulse of darkness ripples down the cord like a hungry snake.
A roar fills my head, and a dark curtain sweeps over me, taking me away.
* * * * *
I suck in a gasping breath as the world shifts back into place. I grasp a tree as I stand. My ripped shirt sleeve hangs from my arm. The lava pain remains and the darkness tries closing in from the corner of my vision, but with a breath, I push it back out again, clearing my view. The trees snap from purple and red to green. With each breath, the darkness clears a bit more.
I'm shaking.
What just happened?
Why am I standing out in the middle of the woods?
With another breath, I cast the darkness away completely. I'm in the middle of the woods. I've been gone for a long time, perhaps an eternity, and my brain is just starting to work again. I've been nonexistent for a gulf of time and now I've snapped back into existence, where everything from love to pain exist.
“Cayden,” I gasp, my voice stretched and strained.
Of course he doesn't answer. Cayden's back at Edwin's house, telling Brett how horrible I am.
With the thought, a fresh wave of pain fills my chest and crashes into my heart. I grasp my chest and claw at the fabric of my shirt. With that awesome realization, I let the Savage King take over for who knows how long.
Wait.
I'm grasping my shirt.
I look down to find that I'm still clothed—mostly. My pants have a new rip near the shins that spreads up almost to my knees and I'm still wearing my shirt, of course. My sleeve on the same side of my body is ripped as if I shifted partway and then decided not to go through with it. But other than that, I'm unscathed.
“Brie!” Everly shouts.
Footsteps. I straighten up. She and Remo are both coming. I smell them and hear their feet crunching leaves. The tone of her voice and the quick pace of their steps tell me they're running as fast as they can. Adrenaline mixes with the foresty scents of my pack mates. Everly and Remo step around a clump of trees and close the distance to me.
“I'm fine. For now,” I say.
Everly's more serious than I've ever seen her. She holds me in her wide-eyed stare. What if they smelled...what if they sensed...
“She looks okay,” Remo says to her. He's shaking. The big guy must have been ready to fight the Savage King and I don't blame him.
Everly stops fifty feet from me, afraid to come closer, and she holds out a hand and stops Remo from advancing. Their eyes are wide and full of terror.
“I'm seriously fine,” I lie. “I just had another episode, is all.”
“You were screaming.” Everly's voice is hollow. “We stayed back for a few minutes, and you just kept screaming out here. I know Cayden can be a jerk sometimes but I know those weren't heartbreak screams.”
So she heard him, too. Everly knows what I'm facing.
“I don't know what happened,” I say.
But I do know. Somehow, I fought of Romulus while I didn't even exist. Or he met some kind of resistance while trying to possess me. Maybe he has more trouble possessing females, but that doesn't make sense either. Callie was able to hold him off somewhat, but not like this.
“You suffered a partial possession,” Everly says. She's dry, like she's trying to keep her real emotions from me.
“Thanks, Debbie Downer,” I say.
But she doesn't soften or smile. None of us have reason to.
Then she crosses her arms. “Cayden's problems are Cayden's problems. Do not let yourself feel bad for what he's going through. Most of it is because of what happened to our family and not you. He just said those things to get close to Brett, I'm sure.”
“Wyatt,” I say. Cayden will never stop mourning his brother. I can't fix that or bring Wyatt back.
“Yes. I'm still grieving him, too. Cayden has to be the fixer.”
“I took that away from him. Maybe I should let him become alpha again?” I stare at the tree trunk. The alternative is too horrible. If I can't let him become alpha, and we stay mates, what's going to become of us both?
Would we have to find a way to split apart forever?
No. My heart races as if trying to escape my ribcage. I want to escape from myself.
“You can't do that. He would have to beat you in a fight and it would have to be real.” Everly finishes that sentence with a nod.
“Maybe we can help him,” I force.
Everly lets out a breath and steps towards me, breaking the invisible wall she's put between us. “It won't be easy. It'll be as hard as reaching Brett.”
“Great. I shouldn't have left him down there with that guy.”
“You didn't have a choice. Brett put up a wall. I don't think the guy realized it or even meant to attack you. He's so ingrained with darkness by now it'll be hard to get him out.”
I have to think positive. The memory of the attack is shaking me. For a few minutes, Romulus had control, even if my body didn't approve. “It'll be hard, you say, but not impossible.”
Everly frowns. “You might have to make some tough decisions, Brie. I know you're alpha and I'm just the fun killer, but we're talking about the fate of all the Nobles here. When you were down, Remo and I felt...we felt strange in ways we've never felt before.” She looks to Remo, silently asking him to explain.
Remo swallows. “I felt dark. Like I wanted to lash out at someone.”
I gulp. “You felt Savage. So he can poison all
of us, and it won't take long at all.”
* * * * *
We walk back to Edwin's house together and it's the longest walk of my life. Cayden's waiting there and I have no doubt he felt what Everly and Remo did. I even saw Romulus's darkness spreading from me to him. If anything, he would have felt it first. Though I should hurry back, I drag my feet through the woods and later, through downtown Breckenridge. I look at the families eating inside the restaurant. A small child. A baby. Had the Savage King taken over, he might have ravaged town, infected people, or more likely, killed them.
I want to throw up.
And I can no longer blame Edwin for having that magical dagger ready to slice me to invisible pieces. That might be mercy. Maybe if I just die, I'll just end up as a spirit and the Nobles can think of some other way to stay together. But if Romulus possesses me, I might not experience anything else ever again. Not life and not Cayden.
Cayden's sitting on the porch of Edwin's house like he wants to catch me before I go inside. I rush over to him, but he rises and holds up his hands.
“We need to leave,” he says.
Leonora steps out but Alex doesn't follow her. I've never heard Cayden so serious in my life.
“Now!” He slams into me, shoving me towards the road.
I hear everything I need to know in his voice. Edwin knows what happened to me and if he finds me again, he's going to end it. And, most likely, so will Alex. They must be conspiring against me right now, just feet away.
Footfalls thud inside the house. They know we're here and Cayden couldn't stop them. Why hasn't Edwin just done his dark magic on me before I got here? He has my blood.
Cayden wraps his arms around me, shoving me farther from the house. Warmth covers me for a moment. In our terror, we've forgotten about those hurtful words.
The front door bursts open. I smell Edwin, full of adrenaline and duty, in the doorway. The air slices with the swinging of that silver blade. He mutters low words as his harsh gaze lands on me. Then I understand. He has to see me to make his magic work.