by Holly Hook
“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.
A stab of pain rips down my back and I gasp in Cayden's arms. I thrash and go down on my shoulder, sending another wave of pain through my arm.
“Brie.” He whirls and faces Edwin as I seethe, bend over, and grasp my back. The pain fades by the second. Everly and Remo jump in front of me, though Remo stares at me in confusion. Edwin stands in the doorway as Cayden advances on him at a supernatural pace. Alex lingers behind Edwin, trying to hide in the darkness of the house. Somehow, Cayden knows what Edwin wants to do. He's figured it out.
“Don't touch her!” Cayden shouts, raising a fist. “Whatever you did--”
Thunk.
Cayden decks Edwin so hard that blood flies from his nose. Edwin, stunned, slides down the edge of the doorway. Now Cayden and Alex stand face to face.
I can't get up. My arm screams and turns heavy, and the invisible cut rips my breath away. “Everly. Help him!”
But she and Remo are already moving. Cayden's twin yanks him away from Alex as he raises the blade in self defense. He doesn't want to stab Cayden, but the hardness in his eyes tells me he will if he has to.
“Let go of me!” Cayden shouts. He thrashes in Everly's grasp. And I notice the darkness swirling around him too late.
Edwin won't let his protective spirits shield Cayden anymore. We're no longer at the Russell cabin where the protection is at its strongest.
The dark spirits attack. Edwin slides against the door frame, muttering something, and Cayden goes down, shaking in Everly's hands, and I force myself up to help him. My shoulder screams, amplifed by whatever Edwin has done.
“Cayden!”
I shouldn't have run.
“Get him out of here,” Remo shouts. “L. Get the others.”
“We have to go,” Alex says to Edwin, pulling him back from the doorway.
Edwin groans as I throw myself over Cayden. Everly and Remo chase Edwin and Alex. I won't let him die here. I feel the darkness trying to invade the shield I'm putting over him. Closing my eyes, I focus. Edwin could kill me right now, but I won't let him get to Cayden.
Cayden continues to thrash under me. A motor revs somewhere and Leonora lets out a sob from the edge of the yard. People scuffle in the doorway and the two men backpedal through the house. Cayden groans in pure agony.
“I'm here,” I say, struggling to keep my voice level and soothing. I grip the grass, pinning him down. “I'm here. You don't have to protect me.”
“Come on!” Everly shouts. I've never heard her this full of panic in my life.
“I'm
going to die,” Cayden moans. “Brie, I'm sorry.”
“No!”
“Get away from them!”
Brett's voice booms over the yard, making me jump. Cayden freezes and goes limp under me.
The darkness is gone, no longer stabbing through me to get to my mate. Cayden breathes a sigh of relief. He's not going to die. Tears fill the corners of my vision, but I suck them down as I force myself to look up at the person who has control of these dark spirits. For a moment, I forgot about him.
Brett stands in the doorway, having taken the place of Edwin and Alex, and he holds both sides of the door frame with confidence and his usual cocky attitude. For now, he's taken the dark spirits off Cayden. He has some control. Remo and Everly duck out of the house under his arms. “Get up. If you want to get away from these psychos, we might want to take that vehicle coming into the driveway.”
He nods, and now that Cayden is no longer struggling, I hear the motor and the tires coming into the driveway. When I turn my head, it's Noah's car, and he and Olivia are still inside.
“Come on,” Brett says, stepping out of the house and shaking his wrists out. “You have a deal to fulfill. I keep the darkness off your mate, and you get me my sister.”
Chapter Ten
Clearly Brett and Cayden came to some agreement while I was gone but I can't ask about that now. Edwin and Alex are still in the house, somewhere in the back, and I hear the sound of a crossbow loading. Alex is going to attack us, probably at Edwin's insistence. And this is after I helped cook them breakfast.
“Not everyone can fit in the car,” Brett says. “Brie, you and your mate should go. The rest of us will fight off these two.” He motions to Everly and Remo. As he speaks, a glint of sunlight zips across his sunglasses. I imagine he has revenge on his mind.
I won't question this. Cayden and I are the targets. “Will you be okay?” I ask.
Brett nods before turning away from me. Of course he's going to be fine.
The weight of the decision lands on me. Remo and Everly look to me while Leonora backs off to the road. Noah honks his horn (I really wish he wouldn't do that) and waves me over to the car. Cayden and I rise and backpedal towards it.
“Don't put yourselves in too much danger,” I say.
“Get out of here!” Remo shouts, but more to Cayden than me.
The two men inside the house scramble out of the back room. I smell adrenaline. As they do, my shoulder burns, reminding me of my injury.
“I don't want to shoot them,” Alex says.
“Do it or we're all going to die.” Edwin.
Gripping Cayden's hand, I finish running to the car while Everly, Remo, and Brett square off with the still-open front door. The air thickens and my hair stands on end. This will be a war of light and dark spirits and I'm not sure who to root for.
Cayden and I separate and get into the car, slamming the doors. I beat on the back of Noah's seat, urging him to go.
He reverses and switches gears so fast I grab the seat, and as we squeal away, Edwin bursts out of the doorway, the silver dagger in his hands. His gaze searches for me. I duck out of his sight as he turns his head towards the car, but not before he utters some nonsense words. Hugging myself, I brace for more invisible cuts, cuts that will go to the core of my being and end me, but they never come. Instead, Noah squeals around the corner, taking me out of Edwin's sight. I see only Leonora, who's running down the road with her phone in her hands. Edwin's forgotten about her.
“What about Leonora?” I ask.
“She'll be fine,” Cayden says.
I hope so. She can't fight her great uncle. “We need the whole pack together before Edwin can talk to them,” I say.
“I agree,” Cayden says. “Brie, it's too dangerous for you to stay in town.”
Noah turns around another corner as if to throw off Edwin's magical trail even more. “What did I drive into?”
The cuts stay gone. So even though he has my blood, he needs to see me to make the cutting spell work.
“That's what I want to know,” Olivia says. She looks to me, fear shining in her eyes.
“Turns out the head of the Russell Coven knows some dark voodoo magic,” I say. “I bet he's kept that from the others. And he preaches all this light stuff.” What else am I going to learn? “Cayden, how did Brett get out of those chains?”
Cayden blushes. For now, we've thrown all the strain to the side. We're fine now that we're away from Brett. Now we're just running for our lives.
“I let him out,” he says. “It wasn't free. If he's going to help us reach Remus and drive off the Savage King, we have to get his sister away from the cult for good. Brett says he knows a spot where a bunch of Noble Royals are buried and that would be a good place to work sympathetic magic and reach his spirit, or something.”
“There's a place where a bunch of Noble Royals are buried?” I ask. My theory that Brett would be more open to a fellow guy is true.
“He opened up after...” Cayden swallows as the air in the car thickens. “...after I growled at him and almost snapped at his neck. Something came over me suddenly and all I felt was hatred. Brett felt it too. It scared us both.” My mate looks at me with wide eyes. “Brie, did the Savage King almost take over? Something affected all us Nobles for a second.”
Emotion wells back into my throat. I force a nod. “Everly and Remo will tell you about it later,” I say.
Terror comes over Cayden's face. He must know I overheard what he said. But instead of saying anything, he looks out the window at the passing houses and yards. We're driving out of Breckenridge. I see the wooden sign that welcomes tourists. Poor Noah doesn't know what else to do. He hikes his shoulders in discomfort, which is sure to hurt his injured one later.
“Cayden, it's fine,” I lie.
But thunder rumbles between us. We don't need Brett to help with that now. He won't look at me at all.
“Um, what do we do now?” Noah asks, trying to break the awkward silence.
We can't risk having the Savage King come back. Not with Noah and Olivia in the car. “Stop at that gas station outside of town. Leonora must be contacting everyone. I'll tell her to get everyone to meet us there, and then we're going to have Brett meet us there too.” A new wave of terror fills my body as I remember Everly and Remo back at Edwin's house. “I need to make sure Cayden's siblings are okay.”
That gets Cayden to turn his gaze from the window. He pans over the three of us, not pausing on me any longer than he does Olivia and Noah. “That sounds like a good idea. My siblings...if they were dead, I would probably feel it.”
“Don't say that. Please,” I say. I inject as much meaning as I can into that last word. Letting myself feel responsible for Everly and Remo, who told us to go, will only suck me into darkness again. How can I keep doing this without going insane? If I'm kind, I get run over. If I fight, then the Savage King wins.
Noah pulls into the gas station, which is almost empty except for a woman working behind the counter. Just woods spread out behind it. She smells completely normal, like tobacco and bacon mixed together with a hint of cheap perfume. In fact, she's thumbing through a magazine and doesn't even notice us. I get out and pace around the car, waiting for Cayden to wrap his arm around me. But he doesn't. Instead, he leans against the vehicle, staring down the trail we once took when rescuing Olivia's old friend from Matthew.
Then I remember that I have to message Leonora, and I do so. Since I don't know what else to say, I text, Hey. She'll get the meaning.
But Leonora doesn't respond for a few minutes. Edwin won't hurt her, right? All I can do is wait for word and the signal that they're okay. I watch as Noah and Olivia vanish into the gas station's snack shop and browse the candy inside. They maintain a grip on each other's hands. That makes me look at Cayden's, which curls and uncurls as he looks into the trees.
There's no way I can hold back anymore. “So I hurt your masculinity. I thought you were over that, Cayden.” Right away, I wish I
could take that back.
“I'm never going to be over it and it's not your fault. But saying that was the only way I could punch through to Brett. His sister hurts his masculinity. It worked, didn't it?”
The thunder rumbles again between us. I flinch at how much hurt hits me.
“Yeah, it worked. You were doing well for a while,” I say. “Brett drains everyone he's around and that's why you started feeling like that again. He sucks everyone down into the pit he inhabits. If you know what I mean.”
“I do know what you mean. Brie, I've been feeling like this since Wyatt. Some times I was just better at covering it up, but being around that warlock brought it all back to the surface again. And it's going to take me a while to get it to calm down again.” As he speaks, he refuses to look at me. “But it's not your fault and you can't fix it.”
“You said it was mine yesterday.” He knows what happens when I know things are my fault but that doesn't change the truth. And I didn't help him feeling this way when I jumped over him in Edwin's yard. It was just another kick to his pride. “And once the curse is removed, it'll be better. Brett ordered those dark spirits away from you and it worked. You'll be a lot more useful again. Then you can take revenge for your brother.”
That gets Cayden to look back at me. “I want some, believe me. All the Savages need to die.” His hatred fills me, but also a fierce protectiveness. That's the Cayden I know, that dedicated, guardian Cayden.
“You're the same guy I dated back before we lost Wyatt,” I say.
“You think so?”
“Well, without you, we wouldn't have gotten Brett on our side. And you faced him down when you knew he was going to make you feel like this. That's pretty brave if you ask me.”
“But it almost got you possessed, if you're right. So much for protecting you.” Cayden leans over the car and peers into the gas station, where Noah and Olivia have vanished among the shelves. He's deflating and that's worse than his anger.
“I'll let Everly and Remo tell you about it.”
