Shaking off the strange feeling, she lifted the window and whistled softly. With a whoosh, a tawny owl landed on the window sill. It’s big orange eyes glowed brightly. She’d just left the screen off the window now that it was visiting regularly. It was a pain to put it back on.
“Welcome back,” she said with a smile. Being near the owl filled her with a sense of well-being, especially after the help it had given her when she had been…well, that didn’t bear thinking about anymore. Now or ever.
The owl hooted in greeting, puffing its feathers up as it settled itself on the windowsill.
After a few interactions with the spirit, she’d learned to just go ahead and lay down so she didn’t end up with weird bruises. It waited patiently for her to get comfortable.
She relaxed into the little cot she’d made of blankets, pressing one hand against the floor. The house –– it was still hard to think of her as Illya –– warmed in greeting and strengthened her wards. Illya would keep watch while she was unconscious.
With deep, even breaths, she met the owl’s eyes and sunk into the spirit realm.
The snow was deeper than usual today. Dark, heavy clouds drifted overhead, dimming the normally bright sky.
“That can’t be good,” she said with a sigh as her ethereal feet moved over the snow.
Just like last time, she traveled up for a while before the wind grabbed her and carried her to the top of the mountain. She shut her eyes and let it carry her. Looking around while she was flying just made her dizzy.
She landed in a soft pile of snow. A breeze ruffled her hair in greeting.
“You were much braver this time,” the spirit said in amusement.
Ceri smiled. “I’m getting used to it. I can’t get hurt here, can I?”
A shimmery creature with a body like a ribbon materialized in front of her. “You certainly can but I would never hurt you.”
“Ah,” she said, looking over her shoulder with worry. Of all the things, she hadn’t really considered that coming here might be dangerous. She’d blindly trusted the spirit.
“No need to worry yet. I’ll let you know if danger is coming.”
“Alright,” she said, still skeptical. “There isn’t another sorcerer, is there?”
“There are many, but that isn’t why I brought you here today.” The spirit unfurled and swam through the air away from her. “Follow me.”
Ceri hurried after the spirit. They stopped at the edge of the mountain. A sheer cliff extended what must be thousands of feet downward. They were above the clouds so she couldn’t see the ground.
“Why are we here?” Ceri asked, staring down at the dizzying height.
“There’s something you need to get that I can’t get for you,” the spirit said forlornly.
“What is it?”
“The missing half of something.”
That wasn’t what she expected. It was also vague. “The missing half of what?”
The spirit shuddered and floated a little closer. “I can’t say,” it whispered.
“How far is it? My pack will worry if I’m gone a long time.” She was putting off the inevitable but the darkness down there scared her. It felt alive. The last time she’d sensed something similar, the sorcerer had been attacking the house.
“It’s not that far, but it will be very hard to get to. The darkness doesn’t want you to reach it.”
“Will I have to fight something?” Ceri pressed, determined not to walk into some kind of trap.
“I don’t know.”
This was stupid. Possibly suicidal. But she had to at least get closer and feel it out. If she needed to leave she could jump back to her body at any time. “How do I get down there?”
A gust of wind hit her back and flung her off the cliff. A scream tore from her throat before she could stop it. Abruptly, her descent slowed. The wind tearing at her hair and ethereal body disappeared and she found she was floating down slowly now.
Blinking rapidly to try and clear the tears from her eyes, she saw the darkness wasn’t as dense as it had looked from the mountaintop. It was also growing warmer the farther down she got. Snow was replaced with dense, green foliage. They weren’t so much trees as they were very large plants that parted as she drew near, pushed aside by the wind that carried her.
The warmth down here didn’t seem to reach her, much like the cold. There was also something…disquieting about the silence. She landed near a tall, narrow plant with a trunk similar to a palm tree. However, instead of rough brown bark, the trunk was a deep, emerald green.
As she walked farther into the strange jungle, uneasiness crept up her spine. Her movements slowed until it felt like she was trying to swim through molasses. Walking had never been difficult in this place.
She stopped and looked around. There was no magic holding her back that she could sense.
“Hello?” she whispered, her voice shaking a little.
There was no response but the pressure around her increased. Her vision swam and she tried to move away but found herself stuck.
“What are you doing to me?” she demanded, hoping she sounded more confident.
A shudder ran through her physical body as her spirit was squeezed. There was nothing attacking her and it wasn’t painful, she was simply crumbling. She lifted her hand and watched it fade away in confusion. Her arms followed and the forest began to fade from sight.
Weak, a deep voice whispered, the word floating through her as if to emphasize its point.
“No,” she retorted through gritted teeth, but it was too late. The last of her ethereal body faded and her eyes snapped open in her work room, breaths coming in sharp pants. She smacked her hand against the floor angrily. “Dammit.”
The door to the room flew open and a bleary-eyed Derek stood in the doorway. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothi––” she stopped herself from dismissing his question and pushed up into a sitting position. It wasn’t fair to him, and the pack would need to know what the spirit had asked of her. They’d also need to know she’d completely failed at it. “I’m fine. Not hurt or anything, just frustrated.”
“Ah…” Derek wavered for a moment before walking in the room and claiming the chair by her desk. “With what?”
She glanced at the window, not surprised to see the owl was gone. He came and went as he pleased, and whatever he’d wanted to share with her had already been shared.
“The owl –– the spirit that’s been helping me –– took me to the place it always has, but this time told me there was something in the spirit realm I needed to get. Something important –– it said was the missing half of something.” She ground her teeth together as she stared blankly through the window. “I went to the bottom of the mountain but I didn’t even get close to finding it. There’s some kind of…darkness down there. It ripped through me. I just disintegrated and got tossed back here, into my body.”
“You’re sure it didn’t hurt you?” Derek asked, his shoulders almost hunched over with tension.
“No, just pissed me off. I don’t usually fail like that. I didn’t even get a chance to fight back.”
He was quiet for a moment as he thought something over. She could see the wheels turning in his mind. “Could the pack bond help? Hasn’t Amber used it to make you more powerful before?”
“Maybe. I’ll have to ask. I’m not even sure when I’ll have a chance to go back.” She shivered a little at the thought of returning and tucked her arms around herself. “It’ll have to wait until after The Gathering. Honestly, I should have bailed before even attempting it with Amber leaving this afternoon. This isn’t the week to take risks.”
Derek chuckled. “Not sure the pack has had a week where it was a good time to take risks.”
She couldn’t help but smirk at that. “That is so true. It’s been one thing after another, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it has,” he said softly. “You’re…not really doing well are you?”
“I survived. We su
rvived.”
“You died.”
His words made her want to throw up. She’d wondered then if she’d actually died, or if the demon had healed her before she had passed. She chose to believe the latter for the sake of her sanity. “Almost died.”
“Close enough to be terrifying, and I wasn’t even the one laying on that slab.”
She curled her hands into fists. “What do you want me to say? I’m not doing well. I can’t sleep. I have nightmares. I’m terrified that demon did something to me when he healed me that I don’t know about. Happy?”
“I’m happy you’ve finally admitted it.” Derek stood, his expression conflicted. “Are you blocking your emotions from Amber?”
She snorted. “As much as I can. I don’t want to be distracting.”
He dragged his hands down his face, for a moment looking as tired as she felt. “After The Gathering, talk to her. Please. I don’t know how to help, and I don’t think you even want me to try. But stop lying to her.”
Ceri stared at his chest, unwilling to look him in the eye right now. She didn’t want to see his worry. “What can she do?”
“I don’t know, but she always seems to figure something out. Maybe that’s why she’s the alpha and none of us are.”
“Okay.”
“You mean it?”
“Yeah.”
Chapter 12
Amber
Amber had ended up in a car with Shane, alone, while Genevieve had gleefully skipped off to Paul’s truck. She could still feel the smugness in the pack bond over two hours later.
Rain splattered against the windshield as they sat in traffic on the highway that led toward downtown. Despite her irritation with the delay, she knew it was probably her last moment of peace for the next two days.
“Have you ever been to Seattle?” Shane asked, fingers tapping out an impatient rhythm on the steering wheel.
“Nope. Portland was as far north as I made it. I meant to find a job in Los Angeles when I graduated nursing school actually, but it didn’t work out.”
“It’s a pretty interesting city. Elliot Bay is full of mermaids. They have a floating market out there.”
“Huh, that would be interesting to see. The mermaids in the Gulf were pretty antisocial.”
“Maybe we’ll have time after the conference to visit it,” Shane said with a smile.
She leaned against the window, watching him out of the corner of her eye. He’d dressed up a little today. Nothing crazy, but his hair was tamed with something that smelled elf-made and he was wearing a button up shirt over his jeans instead of a plain t-shirt.
Attraction curled in her gut and the wolf didn’t seem to mind her choice. They’d chatted off and on during the drive. Her favorite part had been the comfortable silences though. It was hard to find someone where lack of conversation was just as good as the conversation itself.
Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out to find a text from Tommy.
We’re going to some kind of super secret troll thing the day of the full moon?? Some kind of coming of age ceremony. Idk. Don’t freak if you get weird vibes through the bond. I get the feeling I might be involved somehow.
She snorted. Of course Tommy was going to be involved somehow.
Don’t let Deward knock you out again. Have fun.
“Everything okay?” Shane asked, glancing at her phone.
“Yeah, it’s great. Tommy is just going to a party the day of the full moon and didn’t want me to worry.” She put her phone away. “We almost there?”
“Actually yes.” He pointed straight ahead to a massive building that towered over the street. “That’s the hotel The Gathering is always hosted in.”
“Will the Trials be held in there too somehow?”
“Nah, they do that a little ways out of the city in one of the national parks. It’s not really something that could, or should, be done indoors. Just feels wrong.”
The wolf stirred grumpily inside of her at the idea of having to shift and run indoors, away from the sky. “It really would.”
There was finally a break in the traffic and they made it to the hotel. Their caravan drove down into the parking garage. The whole council had decided to arrive together. She and Genevieve had carpooled with Jameson’s pack, but Alphas Lawrence, Salazar, and Bennett, as well as their betas, had all driven their own vehicles.
Packs were limited to three members; the alpha and one to two betas. That had been a relief to her since she hadn’t wanted to have the whole pack in one place like that. Especially a potentially unwelcoming place.
A valet met them and they hopped out of the car. Amber bristled when she saw someone was already pulling her bags out of the trunk but resisted the urge to growl. It was technically nice of them, but she didn’t like people touching her things, and she could carry it just fine without help.
Shane chuckled at her. “It’s supposed to make you feel pampered you know.”
“Well it doesn’t,” she muttered, following close behind the bellboy who had her bags on a cart.
He laughed and shook his head. “Try not to eat anyone. I have to go meet up with Jameson.”
She waved him away. “I’m not feral. Go take care of your alpha.”
There was a line to check in, so Amber filed into place at the end of the line and looked around the room. She’d been so distracted walking in that she hadn’t noticed how grand the place was. The atrium was dozens of stories high. If it had been sunny, the tall windows would have flooded the place with light.
Even without that, the slick marble floors and elegant gold decorations left her feeling very out place. This explained why the rooms had been six-hundred dollars a night even with the conference discount rates. They were normally double that.
Over the cleaning products and perfumes, she could smell the other werewolves. Some were in line ahead of her and others milling around chatting.
The pack bond warmed as Genevieve drew closer. She looked over her shoulder and nodded at her beta who quickly joined her in line.
“Good drive?” Genevieve asked nonchalantly.
She rolled her eyes. “It was fine.”
Her beta only pouted for a moment before grabbing her arm. “Up ahead and just to the right is Ellie Parker. She’s bitten friendly. I think her beta is bitten, actually. If the rumors are right, it was her childhood friend that she turned after they got sick.”
“Seriously? That’s normally a death sentence,” Amber said with a frown. Ellie Parker was a little taller than average with slightly broad shoulders. She was talking to someone with a smile that lit up her face.
Genevieve shrugged. “I guess if you’re terminal, it’s worth the risk.”
They lapsed into silence and Amber waited impatiently. She recognized a lot of people from Genevieve’s binder, though she couldn’t remember all their names.
Her wolf abruptly rose up in her mind and it took all her control to keep her eyes from turning red. They were being watched.
Slowly, Amber turned to her left. The man staring at her hadn’t shown the same control, and she met blood red eyes from across the room. His lip curled in distaste and he turned away with a huff, walking away with his companion.
He looked like a grumpy Viking with his shaggy blonde hair, massive build, and permanent scowl.
“Who is that?” Amber asked quietly, nudging Genevieve.
Her beta looked up and immediately frowned. “Bad news.”
“He was staring at me.”
“His name’s Jason Carter and he is the alpha of one of the few packs to not have a single bitten member. He’s all born, all the way. Avoid him if you can.”
As Amber watched, he paused and glanced back over his shoulder, a sneer still on his face.
“I don’t think that’s going to be possible.”
Chapter 13
Amber
Amber tossed her and Genevieve’s stuff in a pile on one of the beds. Genevieve had decided to hunt down dinner for them fr
om a restaurant Steven had recommended, which she had encouraged. A little time alone to get her bearings was much needed.
One consolation for the exorbitant price was that the rooms were really, really nice. Unlike your average motel room there was space to walk around, a closet, and both a bathtub and shower in the bathroom. It also smelled insanely clean. Whatever they used had removed the previous customer’s scent entirely. It had to be magic-based, probably elf-made. She grabbed the pillow and sniffed it carefully, but there was nothing. Not even the smell of cleaning products.
“I need to get some of this for home. Maybe that’d solve the cat smell,” she muttered to herself.
“Talking to yourself even when I’m not here now?” Angel said humorously from behind her.
She tossed the pillow back on the bed. “I’m starting to think you’re always here.”
“If only you could be so lucky.” Shadows merged into a human form against the wall and the demon pulled a chair out of thin air, settling in it and crossing his legs. His features were a little clearer today. Red eyes gleamed in a handsome face with a sharp jaw line and aquiline nose. His hair was smoothed back in a polished style.
“What do you want?”
“Perhaps I’m just checking in on my favorite werewolf,” he said with a grin.
“I doubt that.” She grabbed her bag and started unpacking the stuff she’d need in the morning. Hopefully they had an iron. Her shirts had wrinkles despite the short drive.
“This conference is going to be pivotal for your pack,” Angel continued, unabashed.
“Yes, I’m aware.”
“People will have questions about what happened with the sorcerer.”
She stopped what she was doing to look him in the eye. “Kadrithan, get to the point.”
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