by Bella Jacobs
“I’ve been racking my brain, trying to remember everything I know about ancient rituals like this,” she says, dragging a hand through her still miraculously untangled hair.
If only I emerged from sleep so unrumpled. Personally, I’m dying for a hot shower and a hair dryer, but the camp is far too primitive for either. Last night, Kelley offered to take me to bathe in the river later today, but I’m not looking forward to that plunge.
I’m sure the water temperature around here in late October is flat out icy.
“But I didn’t pay attention the way I should have when Dad talked about that kind of stuff,” she continues with a sigh. “I thought it was boring and so far in the past that it had nothing to do with me. So fucking stupid.”
“You’re not stupid,” I say. “You were a kid. Kids are all about the present and the future. That’s their job, to move society forward, no matter how hard it tries to stay stuck in the past.”
She stops several yards from the line of toilets to add in a softer voice, “But one thing I do remember is that they all involved blood in some way. Either the sacrifice of an animal or blood from the person working the ritual or both. So maybe they’re just trying to protect you from realizing how gross and painful it’s going to be until it’s too late. Like my friend Cassie. She had a baby last year, but she refuses to talk to any of her younger friends about it. Says she doesn’t want to scare us into celibacy.” She cringes. “Apparently childbirth is no fucking joke.”
My hand comes to hover in front of my belly. I took the morning after pill, but I know there’s a chance it won’t work. If I had already ovulated before Maxim and I had sex, then I could still be pregnant.
And if I am, I’ll be able to protect my child—and all the other people I care about—a hell of a lot better if I’m in charge.
“Maybe,” I murmur. “But no matter what they’re hiding, I’m not sure I have a choice but to go along. We’re out in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by people who aren’t going to make it easy to steal a car. At least Elsbeth and Kelley are acting like our allies.” I sigh. “And it’s not like we have any better options at the moment.”
“And their auras are solid. Helpful, sincere colors,” Diana says, nibbling at the edge of her thumb. “And Kelley’s going to make sure Bane doesn’t punish Jacob again for going behind their backs to help me, so…that’s good.” She shivers as her hand falls from her mouth. “He’s so fucking terrifying by the way. I can’t believe your sister’s been able to pull off pretending to be in love with him for so long. I don’t know what I’m going to do if Bane decides he has time to catch up with his little sister. Probably wet myself and then pass out.”
I take her hand, giving it a firm squeeze. “No, you won’t. You’ll play it the way Kelley said—like you’re angry at both your brothers and confused, but open to being a part of Bane’s court. That’s the safest bet.”
“Right.” She nods, biting her lip for a moment before she adds in an ashamed voice, “I feel so terrible, Willow, for thinking Maxim might be evil. Even for a second. I mean, he’s no angel, but compared to Bane…”
I tighten my grip on her fingers. “I know. But it’s okay. We’ll get through this, make sure Bane’s locked away somewhere none of his allies can find him, and reach out to Maxim when it’s safe.” My lips hook up on one side, “If I’m really going to be queen, he’ll have to make nice with me and behave himself, right? Stay on my good side?”
Diana huffs. “Yeah, he will. He’s going to hate that.” She smiles. “But he’ll make the best of it eventually.”
I nod toward the toilets. “We should go and get back.”
“Yeah, we should. And I really have to pee,” she says with a soft laugh before dashing through the still damp grass toward one of the empty toilets.
I turn to survey the glen and the camp beyond.
People are just beginning to stir, moving around their tents and small cabins, building fires and stepping into the surrounding woods for a moment of privacy. Most of the shifters and Fey here don’t use the port-a-potties. Only the handful of witches who’ve joined the cause make the journey all the way across the wide glen, which means the forest behind the row of johns is nearly deserted.
If Diana and I were going to try to escape, this would be the best direction.
I still don’t think escaping the camp would be easy—or maybe even possible—but there’s no harm in looking.
Taking advantage of the fact that we’re still the only people here this early, I circle around the portable facilities and into the thicker forest behind them. I’m only intending to walk a little way, but just a few yards in I see that the trees come to an abrupt end not much farther ahead.
I glance over my shoulder, debating whether or not to tell Diana where I’m going, but then decide it’ll be faster and safer for both of us if I hurry and finish my scouting mission alone. I break into a jog, moving as fast as my ill-fitting shoes will allow, and reach the edge of the timber line in just a few minutes.
I slow to a walk, propping my hands on my hips as I scan the cliff ahead.
A closer inspection reveals it shears straight down nearly five hundred feet before the rocks disappear into a wide mountain stream. On the other side of the stream, through a stand of trees, is a road.
It’s a thin rural highway, the asphalt gray with age and the yellow divider lines almost completely faded away, but it’s a real road, running east to west. If we can get down there and start east, we’ll eventually run into a larger road and potentially motorists willing to pick up two lost young women looking for a ride to the nearest city.
And from there we can call Maxim and have him send as much backup as he can spare down to…wherever we are now.
I’m still not happy with Maxim. I don’t know if we’ll ever be friends again, let alone anything more, but I don’t have the luxury of only working with my besties. Bane must be stopped before he takes control and destroys every spark of joy and fairness left in our world.
That priority trumps all others.
Right now, I’d make a deal with the devil as long as I knew he wanted Bane out of the picture as much as I do.
Which is probably exactly what Maxim was thinking when he made the decision to drug me. He wasn’t doing something he wanted to do; he was doing something he felt he had no choice but to do.
We really are more alike than I’ve wanted to admit.
I turn, my thoughts still full of Maxim’s face and his voice and the tortured look in his eyes when he finally started being honest with me that night in Diana’s kitchen. My head is so full of Maxim that for a moment I think I must be hallucinating the scent I catch on the breeze.
But if I were hallucinating my fated mate’s signature smoky, sunshine and cedar scent, it wouldn’t be tinged with blood and sickness.
I freeze and lift my nose into the air, every muscle straining as I will the smell to come again. My logical mind insists I’m crazy, but just when I’m about to give up and hurry back to the glen before Diana gets worried, I smell it again.
It’s Maxim.
No doubt about it.
But where the hell is he?
“Willow?” Diana calls my name from near the toilets, and I curse beneath my breath. I have to get back to her and we both have to return to the cabin before we arouse suspicion. But I also have to come back here and find the source of that smell.
Maxim is absolutely hurt and…maybe worse.
The thought of him dead or dying is so painful that for a second, I double over, clutching my stomach as agony courses through my core.
Losing Maxim would be like losing a part of myself, a part that torments and challenges me, but that also has the potential to make me stronger and more confident than I’ve ever been before. If Maxim and I can find a way to work together, to support and protect each other, there’s no doubt in my mind that there’s nothing we can’t do.
Including put a stop to Bane and his army without some
mysterious full moon ritual I don’t know nearly enough about.
“I’ll be back, I promise,” I whisper, wincing as the cramp in my stomach slowly begins to fade. “As soon as I can.”
Scanning the forest floor, I quickly gather an armful of sticks and arrange them in a starburst pattern by the nearest tree.
With a last glance around, doing my best to memorize my location, I hurry back to Diana.
But as I jog through the woods, I would swear I can feel Maxim’s energy calling to mine, begging me not to go, and warning me to be careful.
Chapter Twelve
Willow
Diana shoots me a “what the fuck” look as I circle back around the row of port-a-johns, but her lips are curved in a smile as she asks, “Hey there. I was wondering where you were. Off stretching your legs?”
“Yeah. Just needed to clear my head a little,” I say, very aware of the curious eyes locked on us from the mostly witch women making their way across the glen to the facilities. “And the air smells so…interesting this morning.” I nod back toward the cabin. “I’ll tell you all about it while we walk.”
“Great,” Diana says, falling in beside me, her hands tucked casually into her dress pockets. She lifts her head back to catch the early morning sun on her face and says in a soft, pleasant voice, “Really glad you didn’t run off without me, or I might have had to track you down and bite you a little.”
“I would never run off without you,” I promise, then amend. “Unless I had no other choice, and then I’d come back for you as soon as I could. I promise. And I expect the same from you. If you find a way out but coming back for me would put your window of opportunity at risk, I want you to run first and worry about me later. I can take care of myself.”
“No, you can’t,” she says. “None of us can. We need each other, now more than ever.”
Especially Maxim, I think.
He needs me, needs us, but for some reason I don’t want to tell Diana about the smell, at least not until I have something concrete to share. She’s already scared enough, no need to make it worse when there’s nothing either of us can do about it right now.
So, I tell her about the road, instead, and watch her features perk up.
“And you think you could make it down the cliff?” she asks. “In the dark? Because you know we’d have to go at night. It’s the only time Kelley and Elsbeth aren’t up our asses.”
“I think I can, yes. And the moon is nearly full tonight. As long as it doesn’t rain, we should have enough light.”
She exhales, shaking her hands loosely at her sides. “Okay. Nice. Good work, your majesty. Options are good. Options make me feel less like a rat in a trap, waiting for someone to feed me to their pet boa constrictor.”
I huff. “And if we run, I won’t have to become ‘your majesty.’ I honestly don’t know if I’m cut out for ruling thousands of shifters, Dee, especially considering at least half of them won’t want to be ruled.”
“Doesn’t matter,” she says, arching a wry brow. “If this prophecy is correct, they won’t have any choice. It’ll just happen. Like magic.”
Like magic…
The words echo in my head, setting my thoughts to spinning as we reach the cottage. I follow Diana back up the steps and through the door, slamming into her back when she stops so suddenly I can’t adjust my pace in time.
I laugh and hurry to apologize, “Sorry, Dee, I didn’t—”
“It’s fine,” she says, cutting me off in a stiff voice. “I just… I suddenly don’t feel well. I think I’d better go back to the toilets. I’m afraid I’m going to be sick.”
“You aren’t going to be sick. You’re the picture of health,” a deep, patronizing voice rumbles from near the stove.
The evil energy from yesterday wafts toward us along with the words, leaving no doubt who’s decided to pay us a visit.
I move to stand beside Diana to see Bane sitting cross legged on a pillow beside a large quilt spread out on the floor. It’s already covered with plates heaped with food and three other place settings.
I cut a quick glance Kelley’s way and she smiles, motioning to the quilt. “Go ahead, pull up a pillow and load up. The eggs are coming off now.”
“All right. Thanks, everything smells great,” I say, doing my best not to shiver as I cross to the quilt, feeling Bane’s creepy gaze on me the entire way.
“Good morning, Willow,” he says as I settle onto the pillow farthest from his, his voice alone enough to make my skin crawl. “I trust you slept well?”
“Very well,” I say. “Thank you.”
“I slept like shit,” Diana pipes up, playing the part of the bratty, betrayed sister we decided was the best call for her to a tee. “And I really do need to go back to the bathroom. Sometimes it doesn’t all come out the first time, you know. I might have irritable bowel syndrome. Even shifters can get that sometimes. The leading cause is bossy, violent older brothers who suck and are huge assholes.”
Bane smiles. “Noted. I’ll try to suck less, then. Meanwhile, you’re going to sit down and eat your breakfast like you were raised with some manners. Kelley went to all this trouble, and I won’t have it go to waste.” He motions toward the pillow between his and mine. “And we have so much catching up to do, don’t you think?”
Diana crosses her arms over her chest, not budging from her place by the door. “We could have started catching up yesterday, but you decided to lock me in a cage and beat up my boyfriend, instead. I could hear it, when the men were hitting him. I have excellent ears.”
Bane’s grin doesn’t waver. “Sit down, Diana. Eat. You’ll feel better after you get something in your stomach.” Her lips part but he cuts her off in a louder voice, “Sit down and eat like a lady, little girl, or you can go back to your cage. If you’re going to act like an animal, you’ll be treated like one. The only reason you’re here is because Kelley thought you’d respond better to kindness than discipline. If she’s wrong, I’m happy to return to my original plan. I will break you of the bad habits Maxim allowed to take root in your nature—one way or another.”
Diana’s jaw clenches and her hands ball into fists at her sides.
For a moment, I’m afraid she’s going to do something rash—like rush Bane with her teeth bared and land herself back in a cage, or worse—but after a beat her fingers uncurl and she whispers, “Fine.” Gaze fixed on the ground, she crosses to the quilt and plops down between Bane and me.
I wish I could reach out and squeeze her knee or pat her arm, but that’s not my part to play. I’m supposed to be coming around to the plan Kelley allegedly supports, along with her mate—serving as a surrogate for her and Bane in exchange for my freedom and a generous pension once I’ve produced an heir.
“Thank you,” I murmur to Kelley as she dishes steaming, cheesy eggs onto my plate.
I reach for the plate of bacon, taking two pieces before handing it to Diana and accepting a bowl of fruit from Kelley who has settled in on my other side.
“So, what’s on the agenda for today?” I ask, eager to find time to slip away to the forest again to hunt for the source of the Maxim smell. “It’s gorgeous out there. It’s been so long since I’ve spent time in the woods. I’d forgotten how light it makes you feel.”
“That’s the perfect way to describe it,” Kelley says, smiling warmly at Bane as he offers her a jar of what looks like homemade strawberry jam. “Just light and free. Natural. The way things are supposed to be. I keep telling Bane we should make this a permanent retreat, a place we can return to every fall to celebrate the moment everything changed for our people.”
Bane reaches out, brushing my sister’s long, sun-streaked brown hair over her shoulder. “And I keep telling Kelley we have to win the war before we make plans to celebrate.”
“But we’re so close now,” Kelley says, spreading jam on her bread, the chunks of red the same color as the blood I spilled yesterday.
The two people I attacked are fine—Kelley
said it only took a few moments to patch them up—but the memory is too fresh for me to feel comfortable with digging my knife into the sweet-smelling jar.
I wave the jam away with a tight smile and tuck into my eggs as Kelley adds, “Willow agreed to start the injections today. With a little luck, we could be ready to implant the embryos in a couple of weeks.”
My brows shoot up and I quickly swallow the food in my mouth. “Embryos? As in, more than one?”
“The doctor says it’s completely safe,” Kelley assures me. “And that way we’ll have a better chance of succeeding on the first try. Usually, it takes more than one round of IVF to achieve a pregnancy.”
I frown as I nod, hoping I’m doing a good job of pretending to be on board, but still a little torn.
It won’t be believable if I sign on to any of this too fast.
I glance up at Kelley from beneath my lashes, shifting my gaze to Bane—who is smiling, but still somehow manages to be completely terrifying—and then back to my sister. “And you promise, if I do this, once you have a healthy baby, I’ll be free to do as I please? I can go somewhere else and start a new life if I want.”
Kelley sobers. “If you want, yes, of course.”
“Of course,” Bane murmurs, less convincingly. But maybe he’s just busy making sure he avoids the grapes in the fruit salad or plotting ways to torture Diana for having bad manners or something.
Probably the latter.
I don’t have a hint of aura-seeing powers, but I swear I catch a glimpse of a dark, dangerous cloud surrounding Bane in my peripheral vision every now and then.
“But I hope by the time all that happens,” Kelley continues, “you’ll see how good things are and want to stay. Once Bane is king, everything is going to be so much better.” Her lips quirk. “And we do have quite a collection of frozen embryos. Though, of course, you’re under no obligation to be a surrogate for those children, unless you want to.” She reaches out, resting a light hand on Bane’s knee. “We just think it’s important that you carry our baby the first time.”
