“I need you too.”
“I know. I feel the same.”
He touched my face. His eyes were sad and his eyebrows hooded.
“Let me deal with Laird on my own.”
He shook his head.
“Yes.”
“No,” he said. “He won’t disrespect you again. I promise you that.”
“What are you going to do? Fight him?” I said with a halfhearted smile. He wouldn’t do that. We both knew it.
“He could never beat me. He knows it. I challenge him, in private. He’ll back down. I promise he will, because he won’t want to give up his role when I win.”
“You don’t want to be leader,” I said.
“No, I don’t. But that’s the thing: no one will ever know. He’ll do what I ask because he’ll fear what will happen if I don’t.”
I kissed him softly. My lips lingered near his as we broke away. Without saying it, he’d finally told me, that he would put me above the pack. That he loved me enough to make that choice. “Stay out of trouble,” I whispered, my lips brushing against his as I spoke. “Promise me.”
“You know me.”
“I do. Promise me.”
He nodded. “I need you to do the same.”
My stomach ached like I’d been kicked in the gut. I couldn’t do that. If I did, it meant I would stay in Clover, away from the hunters. There was no way that would happen. We’d finally found our way back to each other, and I couldn’t lose him now. For the first time in my life, I did what I had to do: I outright lied to my best friend. It nearly broke me.
“I promise,” I said softly.
Twenty-One
Noah dropped me off at Mom’s house after six. I waved goodbye to him at the door as he pulled out of the driveway. I worried about him meeting Laird. For one, I had no idea what Laird wanted him for. He’d made it clear he didn’t want Noah around the pack, so what could possibly have made him change his mind? And two, Noah was going to stand up to him. He believed he could. I did too. I just worried that the outcome might not be as neat as Noah hoped.
But he was safe. He was here, and he was occupied. And so was Laird. It gave me time and space to do what I had to do. I glanced at the old clock on the kitchen wall. It was nearly nine o’clock. I would have to leave soon to make it to Gravewood in time to meet the hunters.
Mom wasn’t home. I wanted say goodbye. Just in case. She’d left me a note tacked to the fridge with a magnet.
Lasagna in the fridge. Won’t be home until late.
Mom.
I looked around the kitchen and out the back window. Leaves littered the yard. I grabbed the marker she’d left on the counter and added a note under hers. I simply said: I have to go. I love you and I will see you soon. She’d assume I went back to Gravewood and back to my life. And she’d be fine with that. In fact, she’d rejoice at the news. I wanted her to think that. In case things didn’t go as planned and I ended up being gone for much longer. Or maybe didn’t come back at all.
How could we want such different things? But I knew it was because—though I was like her in some ways—I was the opposite in many others. I had fire and magic inside of me. It called to me. It wanted to be free. Yes, it scared me, but it also emboldened me. I stood a chance tonight because of those gifts. And for tonight and the possibility of other nights where I might find the people I love in danger, I knew without a doubt I wanted to use my magic, all of it.
I held up my hands. I took a deep breath, and I simply thought of flames and of the heat inside of me, and my fingers caught. Just a little flicker. Then a golden crimson curl waved above my fingers like they were lighters.
“I got this,” I told myself.
When the fire died, I gripped my necklace and said a quiet prayer. I spoke to my dad. “Help me,” I said with my eyes closed, imagining him a ghost watching over me. “Give me strength.” When I opened my eyes, the gem in my necklace glowed. I couldn’t help the smile on my face. It would be okay. I hurried to my room and reached between my mattress and box spring. I pulled out the hard edge of the dagger Dad had left me and I held it tight in my hand. Then I tucked it in the back of my jeans and I left my house.
I sped the whole way to Gravewood. I wasn’t familiar with the trails by the pier, but my GPS easily led me to the parking lot by the road. It was laid by gravel. A few cars sat there with no one inside of them. A big board sat near the start of the trails. When I got out to see it, I found it mapped out each trail, showing each snaking route as it led through the woods and returned back to the parking lot. I pulled out my phone and snapped a picture in case I forgot. Amira had said I needed to follow the one that led to the clearing near the water. I found it and jogged to the gravel path.
The trees blew with the whistling wind, and the sound of the crinkling leaves came from all sides. I kept thinking I heard someone following me, and I’d stop, waiting to hear gravel underfoot. I never heard it. So I continued. The stakes made me anxious. I couldn’t slow my heart no matter how much I tried to calmly breathe in and out.
“This is a bad idea,” I whispered. I felt it, but I didn’t listen. I kept going. Sometimes, all your options sucked, and you had to figure out which one was best. Which one you could live with. This was the only one that I could. I pulled out my phone when I reached a fork in the path. The phone lit up with the image I’d snapped, and I turned left. After another few turns, I reached the small clearing that edged the beach. There was no one here. In the distance, I saw colorful metal containers and the cranes that loaded and off loaded them from massive ships.
Was I to wait here, biting my nails and wondering how this night would end?
I glanced up into the sky at the brilliant and solid moon. I hadn’t known it would be full. The pack would change tonight, unable to fight its pull toward their animal nature. Noah would be in wolf form right now. Which made it even worse that he wanted to confront Laird. It would be harder to hide his feelings from the pack when they were all changed. Harder for him to control his emotions.
I hoped he was okay.
My phone rang. It was Mason, the first time since we’d broken up. This was such a bad time, and even though I knew he was likely hurting, I couldn’t answer. Not now. About ten minutes later, I got a call from Noah. His call, I couldn’t ignore.
“Hello?”
“Where are you?”
“I’m fine, thanks. How are you?” I said, not hiding my sauciness.
“I came to your house after I saw Laird. Your mom was there and she said you left. After all this, you leave? Again?”
“No, no. It’s not what you think.”
“I saw the note. When did you decide?”
I flinched at the hurt and anger that bled through his tone. “You have it all wrong,” I began. “I had to do something. And it had to be just me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Noah…I’ll tell you everything. Just not right now.”
“What did you do, Maisie?”
I bit my lip and shook my head.
“What did you do!”
“I told you I’d save you. I’m going to make that happen.”
“Goddamn it, Maisie!”
I pulled the phone away from my ear and heard him scream my name. Tears gathered on my lashes, but I couldn’t let them fall. I had to be strong—for him. For Rex and maybe even for Marco. And I did the most awful thing, because I knew staying on the phone would not make what I did better. I hung up on him. When he called back, I saw shadows in the distance and the sound of my phone was drowned out by the pounding of my heart.
I stood rooted to the sand as three hunters broke through the darkness and sauntered toward me, swords in hand. Their tall, foreboding presence both scared and mesmerized me. People didn’t get an audience with them and live to tell about it. They were legends. Ghosts.
When they were about twenty feet away, they finally stopped. I could almost breathe again.
Amira, a woman who looked
too much like me, was on the right. In the middle, an older man of about forty or so. He was tall and lean under the long trench coat he wore. His dark hair fell to his shoulders, but his facial hair was trimmed. On his left stood another man I’d never seen before. He had short blond hair, and like the others, his eyes glowed crimson.
The man in the center, the brunet, tipped his head and regarded me from my toes to the tip of my head. He scratched at his wide jaw and then smiled. It seemed almost genuine, though it didn’t make me feel less scared or intimidated.
I trembled and balled my fists to try to hide it. Every muscle inside of me vibrated to the tune of fear.
“I’m here,” I told them.
The brunet took several steps forward, his sword still firm in his hand. Would he kill me? Had I made the right choice? Would I do it again?
I only knew the answer to the third question. Yes, I would do it again. For Noah, there was no limit to what I’d do. Give up my life? Gladly. Like I knew he’d give up his.
“Where is your father?” the brunet asked.
I swallowed hard, and it only made my mouth drier.
“Answer me.”
I sighed. There was no telling how they’d respond. “He’s…he’s dead.”
The man shut his mouth tightly and narrowed his eyes. His hunter friends raised their eyebrows in disbelief. The sound of the waves lapping at the shore became deafening.
“How?” asked the brunet. I heard the suspicion in his voice.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d meet me when Amira asked for the both of us to come. And I needed to meet with you. The truth is, he died a very long time ago. It was stupid. He was strong and powerful, and one day he stepped out onto the road and was hit by a car.”
“Impossible,” said the brunet.
I nodded. My eyes prickling with the memories. He was gone, but I felt him here with me somehow. Like a presence behind me, over my shoulder.
The man raised his hands. Balls of white light ebbed around them. Was this the end?
No. I didn’t accept that. I raised mine, too, though my light was weaker and less brilliant.
“She’s weak,” said the beautiful blond. She’s not worthy.
“Silence,” said the brunet. He took in a deep breath and opened his hand, palm side facing me, like he meant to surrender. “I need to be sure.”
“How?”
He nodded to Amira. She shoved her dagger in the sheath on her hip. In her tall boots, overlapping her tight jeans, she clicked her heels in my direction. I feared her, though it was weird considering I knew deep down she was connected to me in a way I had yet to understand. Over her shoulders she had the leather braided handles of two swords. She didn’t move to grab them.
I tensed, my hands up and ready.
She tsked at me. “I won’t hurt you. That’s not why we’re here.”
“I’m not sure I believe you.”
“You can fight us. Well, you can try. But even if we were here to hurt you, you couldn’t defeat us. We’re too good at what we do.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better.”
Her lips quirked into a smile. When she was only a few feet from me she stopped. She stood a few inches taller in her heels. “I’m going to touch you. As I said, I won’t hurt you.” She reached out and pressed her hand to my forehead. I wanted to move away, but I didn’t dare. She closed her eyes.
“What are you doing?”
“Reading your memories.”
“What?” I tried to move away, but my body wouldn’t budge. I struggled, and she growled at me.
“Don’t struggle. I’ll be done in a minute.”
When she finally removed her hand, I almost fell over onto my behind. I caught myself just in time and took several steps backward. I felt as if someone had reached their hand into my stomach and pulled something out. A piece of me felt empty.
“Light, Elizah,” the man said to the blond.
The man called Elizah nodded, and when he closed his eyes and held his hands out at his sides, the clearing lit up like a chandelier had been hung above us. I watched in wonder. I’d seen limited magic. My father taught but rarely practiced around me. I couldn’t help but both fear and admire them.
Amira sauntered back to her friends and turned on her heel back to face me. “She’s telling the truth.”
The brunet sighed. “That is unfortunate.”
Amira bowed her head as if the news affected her. “She was taught theory.”
“No magic?” the brunet asked. He scrunched up his face but his eyebrows lifted high.
“His wife didn’t approve,” Amira said.
“Anything else?”
“She didn’t know about us.”
He folded his hands over his middle and took a moment. “This is not ideal.”
“What do you want to do?” Elizah asked.
He ignored his friend. Instead, he talked to me. “My name is Logan. This is Elizah.” He pointed to the blond. “And you’ve met Amira. We have a lot to discuss. I didn’t think I would have to explain all of this to you.”
“All of what? My dad died, and I never learned a lot about magic. Not really. He certainly didn’t tell me about hunters or whatever relationship he had with them. I’m in the dark right now, and I can’t make sense of all of this.”
“Of course.”
He approached me. The light above continued to shine brightly. Then he stopped. He put his hands into the pockets of his jacket and tipped his head to look down at me.
“My father was hiding us from you. Why? Why shouldn’t I be afraid now?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Please help me understand. I feel like my whole life is unraveling. And I have no one to help me work thorough it. No one to give me answers about my father and my gifts.”
He nodded. “He didn’t want to be one of us anymore.”
I let out a gasp. “He was a hunter?”
“Yes. And then he met the woman he loved, and this life didn’t work for him anymore. Well, in all fairness, he did try to leave her, but then he found out she was pregnant. He asked for permission to leave, but you can’t leave this life. It’s in our blood. It’s a curse and a gift. And it’s in your blood too.”
“He left hunting for my mother?”
“Yes. He moved her halfway across the country to leave us. We tried to find him but his magic kind of fell off the map. Then we found him again. In the form of his heir. And then she—you—disappeared from our sight too. Leaving us is a death sentence. In doing so, your father forfeited his soul.”
“No. I don’t accept that. He can’t be in hell.” I touched my necklace. He was here, I could feel it.
“He doesn’t have to be.”
“He doesn’t?”
He shook his head. “No. The contract his ancestors made was forever. It followed him until he passed it on or gave up his soul. You could take his place. Save his soul, like all of us have saved the people who came before us.”
“Collect souls for demons? Work for demons?”
“Their souls are forfeit anyway because of the deals they made or the choices they’ve made in life. We only collect people who deserve to be sent to hell.”
“That’s not true,” I said with conviction. “My friend Marco wasn’t evil and you or people like you took him. My friend Noah made a deal to help a friend. He did something selfless, and yet you’ll send him to hell, too? No, I don’t believe you, because I know what you’re saying is wrong.”
“You’re here to save your friend? Noah, is it?”
I steeled myself. For all I knew, these people were demons like the one Noah made a deal with. They were here to trick me, to take my soul too. I couldn’t believe them. I needed to be sure.
“Prove you’re who you say you are!”
Amira grinned at me. She ripped off the tight sleeve of her body-hugging shirt and I saw words on her arm. Many, many words. Some of the them were glowing. She started toward me with her arm so I
could see. Then I saw his name: Noah Rake.
“He’s my charge. When his name glows, it’s time to collect him. His name lit up last night. And I saw you with him. I knew who you were. We’d finally found our sister. I could have killed him last night, but I hesitated out of respect for you. It was obvious you love him. Join us, and I can give his name to you. You decide when he dies. You can help him ascend. But only if you’re one of us.”
I dropped my head. Accept a deal with the devil? One that was made centuries ago? Everything inside of me told me this was wrong. I would regret it. But to save my father? To carry his burden? And to save Noah and maybe even Rex? What choice did I have?
“When Noah dies, can I send him to heaven?”
Logan took a breath. Let it out. “You could stop him from going to hell. Whether or not angels come for him is entirely on him.”
“What about the Dosifine? It burned a friend of mine. Can I save him too?”
“You have a long list of requests.”
“I’m giving up my soul, aren’t I?” I snapped back.
He shook his head. “No. You’re living up to your responsibility. Your soul is yours unless you leave. Or you fail to pass your duty on.”
Pass it on? To a child? Bind them to a contract they had no part in? My father found a way out for me. He obviously didn’t want this for himself or for me. I had to believe I would feel the same.
“We will train you. Make you stronger than you can imagine.”
“And I’ll kill people.” I hung my head, resolved. Then I let out a slow sigh and put my hands on my head. It ached. This was too much. Yes, way too much. Because everything they told me was new and surprising and it challenged everything I’d always thought to be true. I felt so many emotions that I couldn’t sort through them all. And I didn’t even know how to navigate this complicated, eye-opening discussion. One thought stood out though. It nagged at me more than the jumbled mess of all the others.
Amira closed her eyes and then flashed them open. “We have company,” she said simply.
Noah, as a wolf, sprang from the woods to stand in front of me. He roared at the hunters and bit at the air, snapping, snarling. I knew his ginger fur and the shape of his snout anywhere. I touched his hind and drew strength from being near him.
Pack Witch (Captured Souls Book 1) Page 21