by Eden Butler
Could that anger and my giving away items that smelled of me have gotten both Freya and Wyatt killed? If that were true, why would anyone target me? Who was I compared to anyone else in the Cove, least of all Bane?
Bane had blocked me from the lines, but he hadn’t completely tempered my magic. I could still draw the lines toward me, though I suspected Bane would have to release the block for me to control its power. But I could still rely on my innate abilities—the power to focus, feel the remnants of magic left over from the Elam. It had been brought through the forest and as Bane debated with his cousin and Ethan, and Hamill guarded himself from my attention or the draw of the crowd, I let that small trace of remnant power slip into my senses.
And suddenly, I sensed it. The Elam.
It was close, closer than it had been in days and the moment I realized what I was feeling, the second I stepped away from the bustling crowd, Bane knew it too. He stood up from where others were now also comforting the still grieving Joe, and followed me as I walked into the darkness, feeling, listening for the Elam.
But this time when he followed me, he wasn’t alone. Hamill didn’t trust me for reasons that likely had more to do with my family than me. My brother didn’t trust Hamill to keep a civil tongue in his mouth, if his glares were anything to go by. Ethan seemed quite eager to remind me of my place and Bane of his responsibility. It was the makings of an argument of epic damn proportions.
I followed the remnant of the Elam.
Bane followed me.
Hamill followed me. Sam followed Hamill.
Ethan complained, bitched at losing Bane’s attention, but still followed the rest of us.
“Jani? You feel it?” Bane watched me standing in a small clearing, far enough away from the scene that the voices around Wyatt’s body were nothing more than a low hum.
“You can feel it?” Eyes closed, I stretched my neck, let the hint of magic that perfumed the air fill my senses. “Can you see it?”
“No. Not like you can.” He stepped closer, ignoring everything around us but the energy the Elam pulsed behind its trip within the trees. “It’s a damn whisper, as if your brain is muffling the song it’s singing. I can only feel what you do and you’re seeing it now, aren’t you? You’re hearing it?”
“A little. Yes.”
“A little? That’s muted? What the hell is the full force of it like?”
My eyes were still closed and the scent of the Elam, the heat of it still a distance away, yet so close, mixed with the warmth pulsing from Bane’s still hyped-up body and almost perversely, that sweet, honeysuckle scent coming off his skin.
“Full force it is like life itself. It’s a great piercing scream, louder than a crowd, penetrating through the thunder of a hurricane.”
“And you hear it all?” Bane asked, his voice sounding astonished and very close.
“No,” I said, blinking, smiling despite the circumstance, despite Wyatt’s loss. “It’s an aftershock. What was laid waste as the Elam travelled through the forest. It’s lesser but still damn powerful.”
When Bane only stared down at me with an impossible, amazed expression on his face, I took his hand, eager to let him feel more of the signature that crowded closer toward me the harder I concentrated.
“It’s like air,’ I told him, looping my fingers through his. “It’s just like the lightest, fiercest air burning your lungs, but you can’t help the sensation. You crave it.” He squeezed back when I fell silent and the action brought my attention to him.
“You know what that’s like? Feeling something that you know is horrid for you but you…”
“Still want it inside you.”
“Yeah. Well.” Bane didn’t stop me when I pulled my hand away. “That’s my gift. I feel what others can’t. Anything lost has energy. Hell, anything in life has it. Every single element on this planet, anything with mass, creates energy. It’s the energy I can hear. It’s the energy that calls to me.” I wrapped my arms around my waist, Bane’s gaze glowing hot against my neck. I continued, walking up the small trail set in front of us. “I just have to focus on the object. It’s the small details that no one pays attention to. That’s what I can sense.”
“Then that’s what we’ll follow. You just keep feeling for that energy, see where it takes us and I’ll get things sorted out here with…well, Wyatt.”
“Sorry, Bane, but that’s not gonna work,” Joe said, coming toward us, followed by two weres I’d spotted at Bane’s before we left but hadn’t seen much of on the trail. Bane, too, frowned at them, pulling Joe aside.
“What is it?”
“We’ll send a sonar charm to town to alert the Board of Covens. They’ll need to send Jani’s father and wizards to collect the body. We can’t have the mortals discovering an unmarked grave. Besides, I couldn’t let him…”
“Easy,” Bane stopped Joe when his voice cracked, squeezing his shoulder. “Send the charm. It will take some time for them to make the trail up. Until then, we’ll keep the search to the a few yards in this area. I don’t want to break camp just yet anyway.”
“Thank you,” Joe told him, nodding to me before he moved back toward Wyatt’s body.
From my peripheral, I spotted Malak and Ethan leaning against a tree, sharing what looked like a bit of jerky, and my brother, who seemed to scope the ground for plants, something he always did when he spent any time in the forest. Mainly, his attention was on Hamill as the man pulled out a pack of smokes and rested against a boulder.
I ignored them all, except for the wizard at my side and the growing sensation of the Elam as its song grew louder.
“There’s something you should know,” I told Bane, pretending to focus on the Elam as I shut my eyes and tilted my head back. My stomach knotted tight as dread and worry inched inside of me like a tapeworm.
“This is going to be bad…I can feel how bad this is going to be.”
I nodded, not bothering to confirm anything for him, and turned, folding my arms before I dipped my head, watching the ground. “Freya was wearing my sweater when she was attacked.”
“Yes, I remember,” he said, stepping in front of me, his voice soft, a little confused. “And?”
“It was ripped to pieces and my father took it from the scene.” Bane nodded, moving his head into a tilt that reminded me of a confused puppy. “And Wyatt…earlier, he got hurt. With the bobcat…”
Bane’s expression dropped, his mouth opening as though whatever he thought might choke him. “By Hera…your bandage…” He looked over my head, glancing at Hamill, then to where Sam and the others had taken their rest before he moved me out of earshot. “You believe its searching for you. Is that right?”
“It makes sense, doesn’t it?” I turned, making sure no one heard me before I continued with my theory. “If you’ve told anyone you’re hiring me, if anyone at all knows and thinks I can find the Elam, the common assumption would be that stopping me should be a priority.”
“And the creature is hunting your scent.” He caught my gaze, holding it as he kept whatever he thought to himself. Then, just as suddenly as he’d gone quiet, Bane grabbed my arm. “We’ve got to get you out of the forest. You and Sam, Cari as well.”
“Why?”
“You and your brother have similar scents and the creature might take Cari for you…”
I shook my head, ignoring the look Bane gave me. He was gearing up for an argument and probably knew what I’d say before I spoke. I did it anyway. “We’re not related…”
“Doesn’t matter,” he said, waving a hand when I opened my mouth to argue. “They smell pheromones and can only discern male from female. It may not be able to tell the difference.”
“I’m still not leaving,” I told him, moving nearer to the call of the Elam.
“Jani, be reasonable…”
“And you know that Cari won’t leave either.” I sat on top of the largest boulder near a clearing where I could feel the signature the strongest. “And Sam won’t leave
without me.”
“If you stay here…”
“You will protect me,” I said, covering the small flinch that twisted my mouth before I stopped it. It was too honest an assumption, but it was the truth. Bane had always protected me. Why should now be any different? I closed my eyes, inhaling, holding a breath when he knelt next to me.
“You’re so convinced I can do that?”
The smile came without a fight, but I didn’t open my eyes. There was no need. Bane’s breath was closer, moving the hair from my shoulder when he leaned down to hold my arm. It was a small comfort, perhaps the smallest gesture of appreciation that I’d take from him.
When he squeezed my fingers, I finally opened my eyes to look at him. “Of course I’m convinced, Bane Iles,” I told him, feeling drunk on the Elam’s power and the look in that beautiful wizard’s eyes. “It’s what you do.”
Two hours later, my father arrived with workers from the Board of Covens and two higher coven investigators who took control of the inquiry the second they came into the area.
“Max Wilson,” one nodded as way of introduction to Bane, barely looking my way when he greeted us. “This is Lyle Simms. Tell us what you know.”
“We have a lead,” Bane told them. His voice bordered on finality that would typically work on anyone. But the investigators were used to powerful wizards using their force and names to get their way. “And we need to get on the way before the trail runs cold for Miss Benoit.”
I ignored the stare my father shot my way and how his expression seemed to harden the longer he watched Bane standing next to me. It didn’t lessen until Cari joined Ethan and Malak near the small grouping of trees behind us.
The investigator called Wilson glanced at Simms but didn’t hesitate for long to answer Bane. “Sorry, Mr. Iles, but as the most senior coven leader here…”
“I’m not a coven leader yet, Wilson.”
“This is your investigation. It’s your case. Your blood took down the Elam. The Board chose you to provide the means to find it.” The investigator glanced at me, but his gaze didn’t linger. “Protocol dictates that you stay until we’ve completed the investigation.”
There was indecision, a little hesitation in Bane’s stance. He popped his neck, twisting away from the wizards, turning away as he came to my side. It was the second time his indecision seemed to crumble just by his standing near me.
“I can’t let you go on your own.” His profile was sharp, a stark silhouette edged against the moon as Bane looked out over the forest. “You’re vulnerable.”
“I can take care of myself.”
Bane glanced at me and debated what he would do as the guards took the opportunity to question Cari, Ethan, and Malak as Sam worked with our father to clean the field and tend to the body. When Wilson and Simms got nothing but bored attitude from the Rivers pair and little else from Malak, they moved on to talk to Hamill, making sure to stand downwind of his lit cigarette.
“If anything happens to me before I can unleash the block...” Bane almost whispered.
“What’s going to happen to you?” The idea was ridiculous and there was the smallest hint of frantic worry that made my lungs feel tight at the thought. “I know how magic works. That isn’t a higher coven secret.” Smiling helped. Him returning that smile eased some of the needless fear. “You die, your hexes and spells die, too.”
“I have no intention of dying, Jani.” The shadow of his famous smirk flitted across his face, as though the suggestion was insulting. How could the likes of Bane Iles die? Even he doubted that was possible. Still, he knew he wasn’t immortal. Yes, we supernaturals take a long time to get old. Still longer to die off, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t susceptible to disease, to decline, to decay. That doesn’t mean there isn’t ever danger. Bane seemed to know that well enough and the longer he watched me, the more that realization took away the smirk from his face. “But…if I’m not there...”
“You think there’s a traitor,” I realized. He glanced at me again, as though it took effort not to smile or control his shock. It wasn’t something I’d given much thought to, actually, but it did make sense. Bane was smart, calculating. He didn’t think like the others. He didn’t tackle anything without first analyzing the possible outcomes. I knew this because I knew him. No matter the time we spent apart, I still knew the wizard he was.
But I had managed to surprise him, if that slow-working, impressed grin meant anything at all. Then came out his devious secret. His body language changed, limbs and fingers heating with excitement—the swell of heat from his body, the drip of truth pulsing between his subconscious and mine.
“You know there’s one.” My voice was low, hissing. “You handpicked everyone, didn’t you? To draw out the asshole who did this.”
Bane waited and that headshake, that impressed, amazed look on his face was torture. Beautiful, but still torturous. “Either I’m losing my touch or you’re a lot cleverer than I gave you credit for.”
There was no need for flattery. I wasn’t the kind of witch that thrived on any of that. And when he kept smiling, and that small wedge of pleasure swept up my stomach, I decided that only Bane could make me someone who wanted to be complimented. “You got any prime suspects?” He nodded once, but kept silent. “Who?”
Bane cocked his eyebrow, but said nothing. “Okay, fine,” I said, tilting my head to make him look at me. “Anyone I should be wary of?” He rolled his eyes as though I was simple and stupid. “Ah, I forget. Everyone, right? Trust no one?”
“Me,” he said, reaching for my arm, but he dropped it when Cari called his name. We both looked up at her, and that simpering, put-upon glare, but Bane waved her off, asking her with one hand gesture to give him a second’s pause. Then he moved me away from the crowd, from my father and brother, from his grumbling fiancée and the investigators. “You trust no one but me.” He rubbed the back of his neck, watching me. “There was no way for me to guarantee a spell working before, since we were so close to the lines. The further into the forest we go, the less intense they become. A spell to draw out the traitor might work now, but I can’t do that and run an investigation at the same time.”
But I could. Bane didn’t have to say what he meant. He wanted me to trust him because he was trusting me.
And I did trust him. It was the melding, had to be. It was our two nexuses reaching out to the other, reminding us that there had been a moment when they’d touched completely. He had my trust because everything in me demanded that it be given to him freely.
The block had worked but had not hampered the call of the magic swimming in the wind or the low, still song of the Elam ahead of us in the ether. My eyes fell shut when a small bustle of wind brushed through the limbs of the trees around us to sweep the ground. The subtle smell of mint and honeysuckle hovered in the air, reminding me of the spicy brilliance of the life around us, pulling me closer toward it, wanting me to follow.
“Bane, it’s calling.” Reaching for him, the tension in my chest eased even as my pulse quickened to feel his fingers entwined through mine still. “If I don’t leave soon…”
“I know it.” He squeezed my fingers and the pressure in his knuckles shook his entire hand. “Damn it, I know.” He looked behind us, to Hamill and the small words he exchanged with the guards, then Bane’s focus was back on me. “Hamill…”
“You’re serious? He hates me. He attacked me. I almost…”
“No, you didn’t. As to his hatred of you, I get the feeling he’d rather parade you and your family around the Cove as traitors and hacks than try to do you any real harm.”
“You willing to bet my life?”
“No fucking way.”
“Then Hamill is a no.” I nodded toward Ethan, Cari, and Malak. “And them?”
“You’ll want to hex Cari and Ethan inside fifteen minutes.”
“Too late. My fingers are already twitching.”
Bane’s neck was corded with muscle, and the thick veins stood out
when he twisted his shoulders and his neck to work away the tension there. “I don’t like this, but Malak will be there. He’s my blood. He knows how I feel…” Bane looked away, staring at his cousin as though he needed an excuse to cover whatever it was he almost let slip. “And Sam. We’ll have them all go. Between Malak and Sam you’ll be protected, and Ethan will watch Cari.”
“I…suppose there’s no choice, is there? You have that mess to deal with and I have to follow the Elam.”
“Hamill will follow as well,” he finally said, as though sensing my need to get nearer to the Elam. “He doesn’t trust you, but he doesn’t like your father more, and I want to avoid a problem while he’s here cleaning things up.”
“I think you’re being optimistic about who will cause drama.”
Bane frowned, the muscles in his neck tightening. “There’s a liar among us, and I’m counting on you and your brother to sort out who that is.”
I shrugged, an idea coming to me. “I think I can manage something.”
Bane stared at me as though he tried hard to discern my thoughts but couldn’t quite get a read on what dominated them. “You want to twist a spell?”
It was amazing how well we’d both adjusted to his block, to that quick back and forth of knowing what the other needed.
“I want to find out who I can trust.” Stepping away was easy, ignoring him behind me, standing close, that voice and sweet breath right at my neck, wasn’t as simple.
“Do you need me to…”
“No.” Another step ahead and that time he knew what I was thinking. Stand back. Give me a little breathing room. Stop looking at me like that. The only thing I said was, “I got it.”
He watched me step toward the clearing again, the crowd behind me, the hint of the Elam ahead in the distance. And just one small chant, old, comfortable, easy, and a spell spun from my mouth, collected into the night, and twisted outward. Those words, the magic they invoked, would carry around me, around Bane. It was a Judas spell, and it would mark a traitor, show them for the lies they told and the truths they held close to the chest.
