“Are you telling me my father was a werewolf?”
“It explains why you were able to talk with me in wolf form, while others, like your mother, was not. Although just the fact that you have the mark tells me that, because there has never been a person to receive the mark who wasn't that particular lineage.”
“I guess that is something we will have to ask my mother about when she returns. She never spoke of my father, not once. Eventually I quit asking because it was obvious that it upset her greatly when I wanted to talk about it. I have no idea if he is alive or dead even.”
“Even if she won't tell you, we may be able to find out. The elders have kept genealogy records for many generations. If she didn't keep your birth a secret from your father, it may have been recorded somewhere.”
“Wait just a minute. How do you know all of this all of a sudden?” It dawned on me that he was giving me information he'd been unable to provide every other time we had talked about my situation.
He paused. “My memories are clear. I can remember everything. You did it. The curse has been removed. Leah, you did it!”
His excitement was contagious, in spite of how terrible I felt at that moment. Knowing that my sacrifice hadn't been in vain, and I had returned the shifters to their true forms, restoring their abilities. And I had learned something about myself already, even if it meant that I had to accept the probability that my father had known he had a daughter and yet never once showed any interest in getting to know me. That cut deep. Of course, I had known that to be a possibility to begin with. Perhaps he had been the one to leave us, and not the other way around.
“I didn't actually need the talisman to perform the spell, did I?” Sadness almost smothered me, knowing I had severed my connection to nature, and possibly lost my ability to do magic forever.
“No. You had more than enough power to perform it on your own. But we'll get your magic back. And your mark fades slowly. We need to banish the spirit before it is erased completely. We also need to put this thing somewhere safe, where something like this won't happen again.”
“I can't believe she betrayed me.” My heart shattered at the thought that she would deliberately sabotage my effort to complete the very thing she had been working toward. The cause she had died for.
“Are you sure it was actually her?”
His question brought more confusion than clarity. “What? It certainly looked and sounded just like her. Although, she didn't seem to have any emotion at all. Even as I cried and begged for her help, she just kept directing me to where the talisman was hidden, saying I needed it to remove the curse.”
“The evil spirit is powerful. Perhaps she pretended to be your aunt to trick you into touching the talisman. She knew you would trust your aunt's image before you would ever listen to a stranger.”
“That bitch.” Now I was pissed off. How dare she?
“If she did, it means that her powers are growing, and we need to end her quickly. If she breaks that containment spell and regains her full strength, we will have an even bigger fight on our hands. We need to get moving, but you need to rest. There is no way you can go up against her in this state.”
“I can do it. We need to go.” I struggled to stand.
“You've lost a lot of blood and you need to eat and rest, at least for a couple of hours. Let's get you back to the house and replenished. Then we will go, I promise. We need to check in with the others as well and make sure the removal of their curse didn't do any damage.”
“Two hours. Then we are getting rid of her once and for all.”
He grinned down at me. “Yes, ma'am.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Oh man, that smells delicious. I just might keep you around if you can cook like that all the time!” My stomach growled in agreement.
Since I refused to sleep, Isaiah took on the job of feeding me while I reviewed the spell to finally banish the evil spirit for good while I “rested” at the dining room table. A veritable buffet of smells wafted from the stove as he cooked, interrupting my ability to concentrate.
With a flourish he set a steaming plate in front of me, piled high with eggs, bacon, sausage and hash browns. To the side of that lay a saucer with English muffins slathered in butter. He refilled my coffee mug, adding a perfect mixture of cream and sugar.
Ensconced in the chair next to me, he brought himself a plate with much smaller portions on it. A single glance at it and I raised my eyebrows.
“Wow. Way to make a girl feel self-conscious about how much she eats,” I teased him between bites. Not that it would stop me from devouring every last morsel on my plate. My appetite demanded to be appeased in a way that brooked zero arguments.
He laughed. “Hey. After shifting, I eat like a starving bear too. Magic drains a lot from the human body, and that's nothing to be ashamed of.” He followed his verbal reassurance with a wink. “And it's not like you have anything to worry about, anyway.”
A blush stole up my cheeks. Warmth that had zero to do with my hot breakfast or scalding coffee curled in my midsection.
A faint itch nagged at my palm. The crescent mark was nothing more than a pale representation of what it had once been. My ability to do the powerful magic was fading faster than we realized. If I didn't get to the temple before the dark spirit broke free, she would have free rein throughout the sanctuary, and we would be helpless to stop her.
“We need to go. I don't know how much time I have left before the mark disappears completely.”
He glanced at my half eaten breakfast, then up at my face. “Already?”
I held out my hand to show him the mark. “It's itching faintly, which means there is growing magic around, but it's fading so fast. We don't have the time to dilly dally. Whether I am ready or not, we have to go. We can rest later, if we live through this.”
He grabbed my outstretched hand. “Don't say that. We will live through it.”
Standing, he pulled me up with him. “I've asked the pack to surround the temple and stay nearby. As alpha, I can pull power from them to bolster me, which I can then share with you if needed. It's the best I can offer you as assistance.”
My fingers curled around his. “Thank you.” My words were soft.
Without another word, we exited through the back door. Dishes were left on the table, evidence of our hastily eaten breakfast. Half-empty, the coffeepot sat on a trivet between the two place mats. Thoughts flitted in and out of my head. Would I ever see that kitchen again? In my heart, I knew that the likelihood of me failing, and possibly dying, today wasn't necessarily small. We hadn't even heard from my mother since she left. At least if I died, I'd be with Aunt Aimee.
Dark gray thunderclouds covered the sky above, blocking out the sun. They danced and swirled on the unnatural wind, churning and frothing like ocean waves. An eerie silence filled the air. No birds squawked, and the ever present chipmunks made nary a chatter, although I could attribute their absence to our earlier incident. Even the wind blowing through the trees made almost no sound.
Walking the path to the temple took longer than expected, thanks to the resistance the dark spirit had sent out. Instead of an easy walk up the clear trail, my legs fought for every inch forward like I tried to wade through thigh high wet cement. Even Isaiah struggled. But we never stopped.
As we drew closer, we were able to spot some of the pack members as they paced nervously. Sam, Isaiah's new beta, met us at the entrance to the ruins in his wolf form.
“Are you guys sure about this?”
I snorted, a very unladylike noise. “No. But at this point there are no other options. I am simply going to do my best. Pray to your goddess, or whoever else you look to for guidance, because I am going to need all the help I can get.” A clap of thunder punctuated my sentence.
Isaiah sent out a final message to the pack, knowing that once we got inside there would likely be no way for us to communicate. Hands clasped, we stepped over the crumbling wall and into the temple yard. A fee
ling of sorrow and dread swamped us both like a rogue wave. It took an immense effort to move forward, shuffling instead of walking because I could barely lift my feet off the ground.
Before stepping through the doorway, I took one last inhale of fresh air into my lungs. The air inside was sure to be heavy and dense, just like before. As we entered the doorway, the inner sanctum was bathed in blue light. It pulsed into the room from the hallway that led down to the room where the spirit fought to break out of her prison.
“She must be close to breaking free of the spell. We need to hurry.”
I crossed the room to the destroyed alter. Common sense told me that if my aunt had been paying homage to it, and the evil spirit had chosen to destroy it, whoever the alter was meant to honor must be on my side. It couldn't hurt to spend a few seconds asking for their help.
Kneeling on the step, I righted the heavy metal bowl that had once sat front and center. From my pocket, I took the key that had once opened the door to the cell below. That door no longer existed, so I couldn't see needing to keep it. Crafted from magic, it represented a part of this temple that I now returned to whomever created it.
“I have very little to offer you at this moment, but I come humbly asking for your help. This evil cannot be allowed out into the world. Please, if you have any way of aiding me to defeat her, I ask that you do so.” My voice could barely be classified as a whisper, but I knew the deity would hear me if he or she was there to listen. Whether or not I would receive their assistance was another matter entirely.
Isaiah helped me to my feet, and we walked silently toward the hall that led down into the earth. Instead of the long, spiral walkway I followed on my last trip, this journey took only seconds. We rounded a second curve and came face to face with the spirit, standing in her human form, pressing against the boundary that kept her ensnared.
“I knew you would come, and you brought your little puppy along as well. But you're too late, and too weak to stop me now.”
Her cackle grated on my ears, making me wince. Isaiah stood solidly next to me, not even gratifying her with a response. He put gentle pressure on my fingers, subtly reminding me of his support. It bolstered my confidence.
“You will not be free.”
“This spell has been crumbling and weakening since Aimee drew her last breath right above me. At this point, there is nothing you can do to keep me here. Not without your connection to the sanctuary to give you power.”
“You pretended to be Aimee just to trick me. You're a monster. You killed your own daughter.”
“And as soon as this final remnant of the dungeon breaks, I will kill you too. I will drink down your power for my own and leave you nothing more than a lifeless husk on this dirty floor.”
The venom in her voice pierced me. The figure before me was of my own family, had been my flesh and blood. And to her, I was nothing.
The words of the incantation began falling from lips without conscious thought. The blue light dimmed as the spirit laughed. Still, I continued.
As I spoke, the floor began to tremble. Dust and pebbles began to rain down from the ceiling. It seemed like only seconds before I felt the first trickle of blood drip from my nose. My eyes remained trained on the blue bubble in front of me. Using my hands, I mimed as if making a snowball compressing it tightly. A shriek rent the air as I managed to force her from her human form back into the misty vapor encapsulated by the orb.
My entire body began to tremble as I used up every ounce of force I possessed. Isaiah took that to be his cue and began feeding me his own strength. It worked, temporarily. It gave power back to my voice, and I continued reciting the words I'd memorized from the journal page. Over and I over I fed them with my magic, forcing the orb to grow smaller and smaller.
I registered the difference in energy when Isaiah exhausted his own and began drawing from the pack. In order to conserve every last ounce of my strength, I sank to the floor, kneeling and motioning Isaiah down with me. Tears poured down my cheeks from the effort. Sweat gathered on my forehead, running down and mixing with the tears. Wiping them away, my hand came back crimson, covered not in salty clear liquid, but more blood.
My arms ached, as if the weight of the world rested on them while I tried to force the small orb to shrink away into nothing, taking the spirit with it.
Isaiah's body brushed against me as he fell, face first, onto the floor and out cold. My concentration broke as I screamed his name, giving the spirit an opportunity she wasted no time in taking. Cracks appeared in the orb, allowing the inky black mist to swirl through them.
Her voice echoed through the chamber. “It's over, little one. You have lost.”
Screaming with the effort, I regained my focus. “No!”
I began the chant again, giving it everything I had. At that moment I knew I fought for my life, and the life of every inhabitant of the sanctuary. If she escaped, she would drain them all dry. In a battle of words versus wisps, the black vapor fought to reach me. If it did, I would be done for.
My voice faltered, lowering to a whisper, but still I continued. Every bone in my body ached and cried out for respite. Blood dripped down onto the cellar floor, settling on the surface of the packed dust. As I focused on the droplets, a searing headache brought stars into my vision, and still I murmured the spell. But the evil vapor grew even closer.
The moment it reached me, its icy fingers trailed over my cheekbones, causing me to shiver so hard my teeth clattered against themselves, interrupting the flow of words. Taking a deep breath in an attempt to begin again, I choked as the haze wound its way through my lips and down into my lungs, forcing out the much needed oxygen. It wrapped around my throat and crawled into my nose, blocking my only other way to get a breath.
A sharp pain stabbed my palm, and a final look showed that the crescent mark had disappeared from sight, no longer marring the skin where it had existed my entire life. Another tear fell, this one at the loss of a piece of my identity. My vision narrowed as the lack of life-giving air began to shut down my systems.
In the last seconds, the spirit retook her human form, striding from the center of the room to stand before me.
“I told you that you weren't strong enough to defeat me. Now look at you. Seconds left in this life and your final sight will be of me, right before I waltz out this door and back into the world you tried so pitifully to protect.”
Rapidly blinking in an attempt to clear my vision, the next thing I saw was a flash of white hot light. A scream echoed in my ears as the smoky substance retreated from my lungs, giving me the ability to breathe for the first time in what felt like very long minutes.
The blue light shot out the doorway and disappeared. After that, there was nothing but blackness.
“Leah. Leah, honey, can you hear me?”
Warm hands pressed against my shoulders, shaking me gently, as a voice filtered into my consciousness. As much as I wanted to open my eyes, the lids felt like they were cemented shut. Pain raked through my body like bolts of lightning. With great effort I managed to roll onto my side before every last morsel of the breakfast Isaiah had cooked for me fled my stomach.
“Isaiah!”
What I'd intended to be very loud came out as a whisper, but fear forced my eyes open as I looked for him. My struggle to sit up proved useless against the hands holding me down.
“Shh... he will be okay, please rest for just a minute.”
Recognition dawned as I drug my eyes from Isaiah's prone form to the face above me. “Mom?”
Tears streamed down her face. “Baby, I'm so sorry. I got here as quickly as I could.”
“You? You defeated her? What happened to having no magic?” Anger spilled over into my voice.
“Please listen. I returned to the place I had hidden my magic so that I could take it back, so that I could help you. It proved to be more of a struggle than I had anticipated. And no, I didn't defeat her. I stopped her from killing you, but she escaped.”
E
scaped. The word was bitter to my ears. Everything I had just endured was all for nothing.
“So I failed.”
My mom shook her head. “No. Not completely. I couldn't keep her from breaking the binding to the temple, but she is tied to the sanctuary, she cannot leave this chunk of land. We still have a chance to prevent her from having free rein of the world.”
“We? Excuse me?”
“I've regained my magic and accepted my place in this world. I will teach you anything you want to know. Everything I've ever learned.”
“Are you kidding me? Now? Now you all of a sudden want to help me? When you spent my entire life hindering me? If it wasn't for you trying to keep me from learning about magic in the first place, this never would have happened. I would have been strong enough to defeat her, she said so herself.”
“I'm sorry. I was wrong, and I know that now. I want to help you. Please.”
“GET. OUT.” Anger gave my voice strength as I screamed the words at her. “I don't even want to look at you. This. Is. Your. Fault.”
She gasped, the hurt evident on her face. She reached out and touched my hand. I felt the power crossing from her to me. “At least let me heal you.”
I snatched my hand from her reach. “Get. Out. I don't need your help.”
She paused, then pivoted away from me, tears running down her face. Stopping for a moment, she reached down and touched Isaiah's shoulder. In spite of wanting to yell at her not to touch him, I knew he needed her help. I couldn't heal him, so if she was willing to do so, I would let her. But that would be the last thing.
His chest lifted as air filled his lungs once more, and I crawled to him, paying her no mind as she backed away from us. I didn't see or hear her leave the room, as I focused entirely on Isaiah. His beautiful eyes opened, looking up at me.
“Oh thank the goddess.” I laughed through the pain, thrilled to see him conscious. I hadn't gotten him killed after all.
Crescent Marked: StarHaven Sanctuary Book One Page 15
