by Celia Kyle
The plans laid, she fell into step beside Dane. He had fallen silent again, and she joined him in it. Grim determination settled into her bones, and she felt like she could crack the pavement beneath her with each step. Anger spun inside her like a top, gaining momentum until it felt like her skin might split.
By the time Paul’s house came into view, Aurora was livid. Betrayal had hardened the underside of her skin and transformed into blistering rage. She wasn’t one to open up easily to anyone, but the filthy jerk had wormed his way past her defenses. The fact that she was so careful with her trust only made being taken advantage of sting all the more.
“Wait, what are you doing?” Dane asked as she started to make her way up the front steps.
“I’m starting this.” It was unlike her to dive in, but she felt so empowered she couldn’t stop herself. In this instant, she was ready to leap into the abyss and claw the sides on her way down.
“We should wait for your brothers.”
“They’ll be here.” What she needed most was to look Paul in the face and have him know it was her. The others would be there to help take him down, but this was her show. She’d earned it.
Reaching up, she planted three solid knocks in the center of his door. Dane fell into place beside her just as the lock turned and the door swung open. The pleasant smile on Paul’s face faded almost immediately, and Aurora could see in his eyes that he knew. They had him and it was all over.
All the hurt and anger inside Aurora coalesced into a blinding ball and thundered up toward her lips. It seemed as if she’d denied herself thousands of words. All the ungenerous, spiteful, vulgar invectives she kept within her were bursting to flow in a torrent, and this bastard was about to catch every single one.
But before she could open her mouth, Paul put up a hand.
“I’ve been expecting you.”
His hand snapped into a wicked-looking position, and the air behind them tinkled with malevolent vitality. Turning around, they saw what must have been a thousand daggers hanging in space. Aurora barely had a moment to wonder how Paul, a tiger shifter, had learned to cast a spell. All at once, the knives surged forward in a terrible wave, directly toward Aurora.
Gripping her firmly, Dane shoved her through the doorway, bowling Paul out of the way. Diving in after them, he slammed the door with startling force. Nearly a dozen blades shot through, digging deep into the wall, but the bulk of them hammered into the door with a thunderous racket. Here and there, points poked through the wood, gleaming malevolently.
She looked down and was stunned to see not a single knife sticking out of her chest. Just before the door had closed, she’d felt a stab as clearly as anything. Rubbing her hand over the spot, she marveled at the mystery of it.
“Gosh, that was close,” she murmured to herself, but there was no time to puzzle over it.
Paul scrambled up from where he had fallen, seething with rage. She started to get up herself, but Dane slumping to his knees arrested her attention.
“Dane?”
He fell onto his back, and Aurora caught sight of three wooden handles sticking out of his chest. One was lodged right in the same spot where she felt like she had been hit.
Time stopped.
The whole world stopped spinning, and her mouth dropped open. Her throat was taut with her scream, but her ears were ringing too loudly for her to hear. Dragging herself across the floor, she clutched at him to see if he was still breathing.
He was. But it was shallow.
“Serves you right, you meddling little bitch!”
As she gaped up at him, paralyzed with horror, Paul threw something onto the floor, which simultaneously exploded in shower of sparks and opened a portal. He was about to vanish to who knew where. Taking one last look at the woman sobbing in his entryway, the hateful bastard pulled a crooked smile. If Aurora could have killed him on the spot, she would have, but she was far more intent on keeping Dane alive. Coiling up for his escape, Paul dove for the portal, only to be knocked aside from it by some unseen force.
“Nobody calls my sister a bitch.” Onyx stepped into the hallway from somewhere deep in the house.
“What the fuck?” Paul was hunkered back, bewildered by the black-clad stranger.
“Your back door was unlocked.”
Just then, the front door burst open, the outside of it glittering like a steel porcupine. On the other side stood Rhys and Lock, glowering like the apocalypse. Moving as one, they rushed into the space, Lock kneeling beside his sister when he saw what had happened.
“Holy shit. This is bad.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Dane said through gritted teeth.
“Show me your warrant,” Keenan bellowed. “You can’t just storm into someone’s house!”
“You can’t just go slitting people’s throats, asshole,” Rhys spat back at him. “I think we’re in the right on this one.”
“Sorry I’m late,” Duval said, stepping up behind Onyx and patting him on the shoulder. “Thanks for leaving the door open.”
Lock stood and the four brothers moved as one, surrounding the criminal in their midst. He let out a snarl bordering on a roar, hinting at the tiger lurking just beneath the surface. His skin began to pucker, but nothing happened. Paul looked wildly, and his eyes ultimately came to rest on Rhys.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
“I’m casting a prevention spell. You can’t shift while I’ve got you bound.”
Paul hissed through his teeth, spinning like a caged animal. Making to leap for his portal again, the four necromancers shot out their hands and locked him in place. Paul howled in frustration, but that was all he could do.
Aurora barely registered any of it. On her little patch of floor, it was as if hell were opening up beneath her and she was in danger of toppling in forever. Dane had put himself between her and danger, and now he lay there paying the price. He had lost consciousness and was growing very pale.
His chest continued to rise and fall in short bursts, but the cruel daggers buried in his torso were making each pant an effort. She pressed her hands to him and could almost feel the life ebbing out of him. Aurora was blind with misery. If Dane slipped away from her, despair would swallow her and never spit her out.
Twenty-Two
“Tell me it’s working.”
“Let me concentrate.” Tiffany had been frantically casting spells since Aurora had apparated Dane back to Hollow House. The dark stains on his shirt looked wildly out of place against the summery yellow of Aurora’s sheets. But thanks to her roommate’s magic, the last of the daggers had come out cleanly.
He was still ashen, but his breathing was less ragged. Thankfully, the blades had missed his heart, but there had been some pretty nasty damage.
“At least they were steel,” Tiffany murmured. “If just one of those daggers had been silver, we’d be singing a different song right now.”
The very thought made Aurora shake so hard she had to sit down. Still, the events of the night had taught her a lot about gratitude.
For Dane and all the faith he had in her.
For her brothers, who’d dropped everything to help her.
And for her roommate, whose powers Aurora had always underestimated.
Most of the time, Tiffany conjured up puppies and other cuddly little critters, but that was just the superficial side of what she could do. In truth, the petite goth witch was a powerful healer. And that’s exactly what was needed to pull Dane back from the brink.
“Aurora, run downstairs and see if we have any yarrow. It should help with the bleeding. And my medium cauldron.” There was a metallic thunk, and the very cauldron she was after landed next to the bed. “Thanks, H!”
In response, the house let sprigs of yarrow flowers rain from the ceiling onto the bed.
Even Hollow House apparently had a vested interest in keeping Dane alive. Grabbing a fistful, Aurora dropped them into the cauldron and cast a fireproofing spell on the floo
r before starting heat under it.
“What else?” she asked, her heart in her throat.
“Gim leaf, some water of Albion, and three drops of blood. He’s lost a lot, so we’ll need to infuse the elixir with it.”
Aurora set to work. She had some gim leaf in her cupboard, and just enough water of Albion to coat the bottom of the cauldron. Mixing the ingredients together, she took up one of the daggers that lay on the floor. It was still flecked in places with Dane’s blood. With the point of it, she pricked the back of her hand, milking three drops into the pot.
When the last one hit, the liquid began to foam and turn a rich golden color. Tiffany heard the sizzle and looked down.
“Perfect. Get some on your fingers.” Aurora did, and rose to stand next to her friend. Tiffany was busy brushing at Dane’s wounds with the yarrow, her focus intent on her work. “Brush his lips with it.”
“But you’re the one casting.”
“Maybe, but you’re the one he loves. It has to come from you. He needs to feel the call.”
As she was told, Aurora ran her fingers across his lips. Nothing.
“Again,” Tiffany said, her voice tense.
Aurora followed her instructions, and on the seventh anointing, Dane’s tongue flicked out and tasted his lower lip. Then, his chest heaved its first full breath since he’d crumpled to the floor in Paul’s entryway.
“That tastes good.” His eyes cracked open and immediately sought Aurora. When he saw her, he broke out into the most radiant, if weak, smile she could imagine. “Hey, babe.”
“Hey.” She took him by the shoulders and bent down to kiss him, holding back tears of joy.
“This stuff’s not bad, right?”
“It’s pretty good,” she said with a relieved laugh. He looked at her as if he would walk the earth to hear her laugh like that. “Want another taste?”
“Yes, please.” She bent and kissed him again, deeper this time.
He was going to live. But he’d been close enough to death to let Aurora know exactly how she felt. To lose him would be to lose herself as well.
“Okay, buster. Get up.” Tiffany stood with her hands on her hips, looking as official as her tiny frame would allow.
“What?”
“You gotta get up. The sooner you move, the sooner you’ll feel better.” Sitting up with Aurora’s help, Dane was clearly still sore from his brush with death.
“Man,” he said as they got him to his unsteady feet. “I feel like I’ve been stabbed in the chest.”
“Not funny,” Aurora quipped.
“Eh,” he shrugged. “I thought it was.”
Stripping off his bloody shirt, Aurora took a second to rub a finger over the angry, healing scars on his chest, grateful for the magic Tiffany had worked.
“Those should fade in a few days,” Tiffany said. “I’ll make up a balm to put on them.”
“Maybe I’ll keep them,” he grinned. “They make me look kinda badass. Is there a robe or anything? If we go downstairs, I don’t want Nathan to think I’m trying to infringe on his shirtless territory.”
The only one they had was Aurora’s lavender lacy one, and she took great relish in draping it over him. Hollow House chipped in, shortening the stairs so the slow trip to the first floor was easier. The trio slipped into the kitchen, and Kelly smiled at them from the table.
“Oh, shit, thank god!”
“Language.”
“Yeah, yeah, sorry. And, Dane? Sorry I couldn’t stay in there with you guys, but the sight of blood really freaks me out.”
“It’s all good,” he said, wincing his way into a chair.
“Is it too soon to start giving you crap? Because I really like your new look. It’s so encouraging to see a man in touch with his feminine side.”
Dane laughed at her joke, furrowing his brow and pressing his hand to his scars.
“Yeah, I’m thinking about making this my new thing,” he said with a light cough. “That is if Aurora will let me out of the house.”
“I think it’s very fetching,” Tiffany said in her typical impish tone. “You’ll get all the ladies dressed like that.”
“The heck he will,” Aurora chimed in.
“Oh, for sure!” Kelly laughed. “And some of the boys too.”
They all had a good chuckle. Dane betrayed how sore it made him, but he was clearly happy at the good humor of it all.
“By the way,” Kelly said, pointing toward Aurora’s phone on the countertop. “I know it’s been a big night, but you’ve been blowing up over there.”
“Thanks.” Aurora unlocked it to find texts from her brothers. The last one was from Rhys.
Paul is in custody, but he’s not talking. I’ll let you know if there are any developments.
She texted her thanks and joined the others at the table. The whole house breathed a sigh of relief, and Aurora felt a tiny pang of guilt. If she had just waited until her brothers got there, maybe they wouldn’t have had such a close call. It was a lesson in not letting her anger get the better of her.
That was the danger of keeping so many things pent up inside. When they finally cut loose, she got reckless, and that was no way to be. The fireworks when she first saw Dane were another reflection of that. It was a lesson she kept learning. Hopefully it would stick one of these days.
“Hey, guys,” Ronun said as he stepped into the kitchen. “Looking good, Dane. Very chic.” He made his way around the table to kiss Kelly, and she kept a hand on his arm.
“What are you doing home so early, lover?”
“I had to make sure everyone was okay. The news is all over the place.”
“Already?” Aurora was slightly stunned, but she had been too preoccupied to consider the waves such a scandal would generate.
“Oh, yeah,” Ronun said, sitting down. “And I can tell you something else. Before it all went down, I went over to the Treasury to see what I could find out.”
“Good idea.” Why hadn’t she thought of that?
“All the guards are gargoyles, you know. I was their king for a hot second, so I figured I’d be able to get the full story. Turns out, I was right.”
“Anything useful?” Dane asked.
“Oh yeah. They said whoever tried to break in had come shaded, which is no surprise really. It’s not a tough spell, but it does seem a little odd that Paul was able to work it out.”
“Why’s that?” Tiffany asked.
“He’s a shifter, not a warlock. Witches and fae would also be able to make it happen, but a shifter?” He shook his head.
“What about the knife spell he almost killed you with?” Ronun pointed out.
Tiffany sniffed. “Psh, they teach basic conjuring spells to freshmen at OCU. It’s harder for shifters, but not out of the realm of possibility.”
“What about the portal then?”
She didn’t have an answer for that, but Aurora did. “He threw something that opened the portal. He must have bought a charm on the black market. I can’t explain the shade he cast at the Treasury though.”
Kelly leaned in. “If he hired someone to steal the potion and create a portal charm, he probably hired someone to cast a shade over him too.”
Everyone agreed it made sense, but somehow the explanation sat wrong in Aurora’s gut. However, she dismissed it when Ronun picked the story back up.
“Anyway, even with the shade, they could tell whoever it was had to be pretty powerful. Like, he had an aura of power around him.”
“That sounds about right,” Aurora said, thinking back to their encounter. Paul was certainly powerful.
“It appears he used Abernathy’s potion, but didn’t use a fog spell to spread it, so he only managed to knock out a couple of the guards, nowhere close to all twenty of them. When that didn’t work, the guy took off.”
“See?” Dane said, looking at Aurora. “You were right.”
“About what?” Kelly asked.
Aurora’s cheeks heated at Dane’s adoring star
e. “I thought the cases were connected. It just seemed to me that whoever wanted that potion was probably the same person who tried to break into the Treasury. Finch was just some guy Paul hired to get it for him.”
“Paul was at the bottom of it all,” Dane explained. “She’s got a real noggin, this one.” He reached over and squeezed her knee.
“You got that right,” Ronun said. “Well done.”
Aurora was never one to toot her own horn, but it felt really good to be the point of praise. She blushed and tucked her chin, as was her way.
“You know something,” Kelly said, slapping her palms to the table. “I think we should celebrate. Dane pulled through, Tiffany made that happen, and Aurora broke open maybe the biggest case Othercross has seen in a thousand years.”
In answer, all the cabinets swung open of their own volition, and inside were rows and rows of glistening bottles. It was as if the house had been waiting for someone to make the call, and the whole place sprang to festive life.
“Now you’re talking!” Kelly was on her feet in a flash, uncorking bottles and spilling generous helpings of booze into glasses. She may not have been one for the sight of blood, but she knew her way around red wine. Everyone raised their glasses and the party started in earnest.
It was funny. Aurora had never been a drinker, but the last week had seen her shedding her prim and proper façade a bit. Not that she would ever become a party girl, but living with these two marvelous young witches was getting her to come out of her shell.
And she liked it.
“Are you sure I should be drinking?” Dane asked Tiff, looking askance at his glass. “I mean, after losing half my blood?”
“I’d say you deserve it,” Tiffany said. “It’s not gonna kill you.”
“That’d be the first thing tonight.”
It was a bit of a morbid joke, but Aurora laughed along with everybody else. Now that he was out of the woods, the adrenaline was starting to settle a bit. She kept looking at him, filled with gratitude. If anything, he seemed even more handsome than before.
Not only that, but his unfailing belief in her helped her face the darker corners inside her. She’d always believed in herself, but he was showing her the ways she could be kinder to herself as well. And kindling her sense of adventure. Everything about this captivating wolf seemed to complete her, make her more whole.
