Cam sucked in a shocked breath as understanding crashed into her. “You’re talking about us taking on an aspect for Thierry and joining our power with hers.”
Gently, Zed curled a wiry arm around my waist, prepared to yank me out of harm’s way if Cord snapped.
“Us?” Cord snarled. “No, Ellis. Put it out of your head.”
“Even if it could save us?” Her arms tightened around him. “Isn’t it worth trying?”
He didn’t pause to consider his answer. “Not if I lose you.”
“It’s not the worst idea I’ve ever heard,” Shaw allowed, as though just considering it when he’d had hours to mull over our conversation.
“You’re siding with Dell?” Muscles ticked in Cord’s jaw. “You’d let Thierry walk out there alone—?”
“We’re mated, bonded.” Shaw dragged a knuckle down her cheek. “We’re a package deal.”
Misery tightened my throat. I wasn’t just sending Thierry off to face possible death, but I was signing off on two-for-one specials left and right today.
“We can do power exchanges,” she explained. “It’s how he taught me to survive my…gift.”
After witnessing Isaac’s brush with her magic, I had new respect for the man by her side. Too bad we didn’t have time for him to give the guys lessons. Cam… I hadn’t even considered her contribution. She was a Gemini, sure, but her gift was so much weaker by comparison without a twin to anchor her. Her strengths lay in other areas. But Gemini stood firm by their families the way wargs protected pack, and now that she had the idea in her head, nothing short of Cord chaining her up in the cave with Leandra would stop her from standing with her cousins.
“Let’s fall back,” Cord muttered. “We need to sit down and discuss this before anyone runs off half-cocked.”
“The mountain is still untouched,” I found myself saying. “I have a cave up there stocked with food and water. I’m not sure how much is left since Leandra has been holed up there but—”
“What?” Four stunned voices overlapped.
“Did I forget to mention the part where Tibs mated his girlfriend?” I winced away from their shocked expressions. “Turns out he wasn’t mourning her, he was guarding her. That’s why he vanished.”
“No.” Isaac pushed himself upright with a grunt. “He wouldn’t thank us for leading them straight to her, and a party this size can’t be hidden.”
“He’s right,” Zed agreed with his usual reluctance where Isaac was concerned. “We have to be smart about this.”
Considering the leaders of the resistance were all huddled here in one spot, I couldn’t argue with the truth. We were being watched, of that I had no doubt. No matter if Tibs removed the immediate threat to Leandra, there would always be another opportunist lurking in wait.
With few other choices available to us, we compromised and retreated to the base of the mountain. The stream would provide clean drinking water and fish, and there were enough thickets to make hiding for a few hours doable.
Good as his word, Rook returned in time to steal one of the fish I’d caught and prepped for a meal. Theo landed with him, so tired he didn’t say a word as he collapsed on a bed of pine straw near where his brother sat. For this to work, they would have to be as close to fully recovered as a stomach full of protein and a few hours’ sleep could get them.
Isaac ate without prompting, but we had to hold Theo upright and force bits of raw meat down his throat. While Cam and Cord huddled together in private conversation, Thierry contented herself with curling up on Shaw’s lap and letting him stroke her hair. In that moment, she looked so young. She looked like Cam or me and not some long-lost daughter of a fae legend about to make history or die trying.
It would be nice, when this was over, if we all survived, to have a girls’ night out where we could pretend, just for a little while, that that’s all any of us were.
Theo collapsed into a snoring heap while Isaac fought against heavy lids to keep me company.
“Sleep,” I urged him. “I’ll keep watch.”
“I think watch is covered.” He got comfortable and opened his arms in invitation. Unable to resist, I snuggled against him, breathing in his familiar metallic scent that always soothed the wolf. “You should rest too.”
“I’ve done all I can do,” I reminded him. “I’m not Gemini. I can’t lend you strength the way Thierry and Shaw…”
The spark of an idea drew me upright, and I turned over what Thierry had said about how she and her mate completed power exchanges. Gemini didn’t work that way, but wargs…we kind of did. During my convalescence, Cord and Cam had channeled the pack bond through me to give me a boost of healing energy, and they’d done it a few times since then.
“Be right back.” I hopped to my feet and scrambled toward the alphas. Inviting myself into their private moment, I singled out Cord. “You were poisoned about a week ago, right? On the same day as the magic surge?”
His eyebrows climbed at my sudden appearance, but he didn’t send me packing. “Yes.”
“The surge erased wards, disabled spells and fried electronics.” A rush pumped through my veins. “Is it at least possible the pack magic linking us was affected too? Could that be the real problem? Not the manticore venom?”
Cord’s face went slack, and Cam sucked in a breath near my ear.
“There’s one way to find out.” He hiked up his pants leg and withdrew a long dagger. It wasn’t the ceremonial blade we’d used the night he cemented the ties between the original Lorimar wargs, but it would do. “Here goes nothing.”
Crimson welled across his palm as he sliced deep enough to scrape bone. Cam took the next slice, and hers was no shallower. They clasped hands while I cut myself then closed the circle by joining with Cord.
A flare of light ten times brighter than the sun flashed behind my eyelids, blinding me to everything but the incandescence emitted by the alphas on either side of me. The ache in my chest eased for the first time in weeks as white-gold threads spun with silver stitched my soul to theirs.
“Graeson.” Cam’s mental voice rolled through my head, loud and clear.
Cord’s reassurance came seconds later. “Right here, sweetheart.”
I rolled my eyes at the heat in their matching expressions. “I’m here too, thanks for asking.”
“Everything okay here?” Isaac’s voice intruded on our conversation. “Dell?”
“Your girl here fixed the pack bond,” Cord said, casting him a speculative glance. “You want to join in the experiment?”
A thrill swept through me that had nothing to do with the wolf’s joy at being bound to her alphas once more. “What do you say, Isaac?” I was only half kidding when I asked, “Can you handle me being in your head all the time?”
“There’s no place I’d rather you be,” he agreed with a quick smile.
The four of us repeated the ceremony a second time, this time giving Isaac the last turn with the blade. The alphas wielded the power of the pack, the magic that bound us all together, but doing this together felt right.
A second blast of energy seared through my retinas, and I got my first look at Isaac as he appeared to my mental eye. Radiance coated his outline, silver light and swirling motes of magic. He was beautiful like this, burrowed deep in my soul, linked to my people and me. He was everything I had ever wanted, and I had never let myself scarce dream I would ever possess him.
Mine.
“Isaac.” There was no question in my voice, no hesitation. He was right there, with me, under my skin, where he was always meant to be. “Hi.”
He gave a small, stunned laugh while blinking away the glare. “Hi.” His fingers moved in the air around me, inches away from my cheek, as though each golden fleck in my aura was one he might catch between his fingers. “This is nothing like the Huntsman’s bond.”
“This is pack, this is family.” I placed his bloodied palm over my galloping heart. “This is right.”
“Can Cam hear me?
” He scrunched his face while glancing between the alphas like that might help his thoughts pierce their brains. “What are they saying?”
“Think of this as me keeping us on our own private channel.” I wrinkled my nose at the lovebirds. “Trust me, you don’t want to know what they’re saying. I almost gagged on the first thought. I don’t want to imagine where they’re at now.”
The temptation to fill his head with my own dirty thoughts just to see the heat rush to his cheeks had me forming a scandalous mental picture to share, but our little display had garnered attention, and that meant we had to stop being rude by ignoring those not bound to Lorimar.
A wistful sigh escaped Cam’s parted lips as she turned her focus back to our gathering. “Okay, Dell, I’ll bite. What’s on your mind?”
“Thierry mentioned power exchanges between her and Shaw. What if you could do the same?” I clenched my fingers around Isaac’s. “You’re our alpha. If we get enough of the pack folded back into the bond, then she can draw on our strength. It shouldn’t hurt the pack, since the effect would be spread over so many of us.” The same as we had spread Graeson’s pain across the pack to allow him to function while his heart ached for his sister. “The risk decreases the more members we pull into the pack. There are at least a dozen Stoners who have been with us since the start. Offer them full membership in the pack. They’ll make us stronger.”
“Will I be able to do the same?” Isaac asked, not realizing I was reading his thoughts.
I thumped him on the nose. “Use your words, Mr. Cahill.”
The heat in his mock growl really shouldn’t have given me chills. “I’m your mate. Will I be able to pull strength through the bond too?”
The alphas stared into each other’s eyes, a private conversation rattling through their brains, while the rest of us waited on the verdict.
“Cord is an alpha,” Cam said after a few minutes slipped past. “The influence I wield over the pack is drawn through him, through our bond. You’re mated to Dell, and she’s the marrow of this pack too. Our beta. Factor in your bond with Theo, and you’re substantially more powerful than I’ve ever been. So…” She shrugged. “I’d say it’s possible. Very possible.”
“That leaves Theo limited to his own power unless…”
Isaac was already shaking his head. “He would have to swear loyalty to Cord in order to join the pack, and he would never do that.”
Gemini valued their independence above all things, and Isaac had taught my fragile heart well that only a greater love could sway them to anything resembling permanence.
“He might not have to,” Cam allowed. “He’s the strongest of us.”
Having seen Theo in action, I couldn’t disagree. Isaac was spectacular, but Theo was a law unto himself.
The ability to mimic anyone was sort of terrifying when you thought about it.
And I couldn’t think about it too long without attracting Cam’s attention through the bond. Theo had entrusted me with a few of his secrets, and my loyalty to him in that regard trumped all but my bond to Isaac. Theo was his other half, their lives intertwined, and one wrong yank would unravel them both.
“Where do we attempt to set the new threshold?” Cord rubbed his jaw. “The rift isn’t contained now. Does the location matter?”
“The rift site would be best since that’s the origin of the spell,” Thierry decided. “When it comes to magic, sometimes that matters. Power can be cyclical, you know? The whole beginning-and-end thing.”
“On the shore or on the water?” Cam posed the question to her. “Wouldn’t the water disrupt what we’re about to attempt?”
A low growl rumbled from Cord at the word we, but he choked it down, and we all pretended not to notice him unraveling. He had lost more than anyone should be asked to sacrifice, a beloved little sister he had raised on his own, and the threat of losing Cam was fraying the control that made him an alpha.
That she had offered to use the lake, as terrified as she was of water, proved how dedicated she was to this plan.
“It would do more harm than good,” Shaw interjected. “Water and magic don’t play well together.”
A frown plucked at Cam’s brow. “The original spell Charybdis used to create the rift was activated on the water, below the water, actually.”
And she had almost drowned during its culmination.
“Water would dilute the blood,” Shaw insisted. “Thierry only has so much.”
“I didn’t realize,” she murmured. “Will we all bleed?”
“I…will have to get back with you on that.” Thierry massaged slow circles on Shaw’s back that did nothing to relieve the tension ratcheting him to a breaking point I didn’t want to be around to see. “I need to ask Gramps. He’ll probably have some idea of how Dad did it.”
“Probably.” I hadn’t meant to say it out loud, and I hadn’t meant for it to come out with an edge, but this wasn’t a hypothetical anymore. This was a last-ditch effort I had strung together using bits of information and hope, and that meant the blame for what happened next would land square on my shoulders. All the shrugging in the world couldn’t dislodge that weight. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap.”
“We’re all on edge,” Shaw allowed when Thierry couldn’t meet my eyes, not when she must be thinking the same thing, that no matter how this went down, it was her power that would save or damn us all. “You got your free shot.” White rimmed his irises, and a vicious hunger stared out at me. “You won’t get another.”
“Don’t threaten my mate,” Isaac rumbled, his skin rippling with the urge to change into God only knew what.
“I was out of line.” I eased between them. “It’s fine, Isaac. You’d do the same for me.” I perched a smile on my mouth. “In fact, you just did. See? You proved my point.”
A sigh parted his lips, my touch soothing him, and the worst of the tension dispersed.
“We’ll have to split up if we’re going to induct so many pack members. We have a lot of ground to cover if we want to locate everyone in time.” Cord stepped into the uneasy quiet. “Dell, you’re with me.” He pressed a lingering kiss to Cam’s lips. “You’re with Zed.”
“Dell,” Cam all but whispered. “Protect him.”
“I will,” I promised then looked to my own mate. “Stay safe.”
“You’re the one heading into the hot zone. You stay safe.” He sat next to his brother. “I’ll try to push more food down him before you get back so he’ll be ready to go.”
“Guess this means Shaw and I get to go hunting for Gramps while the alphas do their thing.” Thierry’s smile gave me shivers, and I don’t mean the good kind. “Running with the hounds. Just like old times.”
“Except this time…” Shaw pinched her chin between his thumb and finger, “…promise me you won’t end up married and crowned?”
Rook chose that moment to reappear, and Shaw snapped his teeth as the king landed beside me. Considering his sordid history with Thierry, and her mate’s violent reaction to his presence, factor in the fact he hadn’t met the alphas under the best circumstances, and I must be the closest thing to a friend he had. Talk about your scary realizations.
Feathers shed as the bird swelled in size, morphing from a rook into the Rook. “The Bloodless have sequestered my sister. I have posted Bháin as her private guard.” He raked his long hair over one shoulder and began combing his fingers through its length. He twisted it into a tight braid, the better to fight without getting scalped, and I made a mental note to plait my hair before the next skirmish. “We can move forward with your suicidal plans now.”
Either someone had tipped him off that his mother was itching for a family reunion, or he had figured out on his own that the only way to protect Branwen was to hide her. As the general of the Bloodless army, she might hiss and spit at the coddling, but she would listen to his counsel. Considering how her mother had sold her out to a monster as punishment for disobeying her the last time, she would be a fool not to fea
r the Morrigan’s maternal instincts.
“Thanks for the support.” I snorted. “Good to know which side of the divide you fall on.”
“That’s not a bad question.” Thierry speared him with a searching look. “Which side will you fall on, King Rook?”
Once he tied off his braid, he swung it over his shoulder to fall down his back. “That is the question, isn’t it?”
Oy.
Chapter 19
I bled for my alpha until I wobbled on my feet and only the connectivity of the pack bond, that joyous emotional fountain that kept the wells of our souls full, lent me the strength to keep going. With Faerie playing havoc with our magic, inducting pack members required two anchor points instead of one. Cord must have suspected this would be true since he’d split from Cam and each of them had taken the next highest-ranking wargs in the pack for assistance.
Much to my relief, the original Lorimar members, those who had survived Charybdis, had been located and brought back into the fold. Haden had broken a leg and was recovering in a makeshift clinic Abram had erected on the other side of the mountain. Job, looking fierce in his button-down shirt and torn slacks, was guarding the wounded despite being one himself. Moore was in the thick of the battle, barking orders to the Stoners and keeping the newest recruits close. Nathalie wasn’t far behind him. And Aisha, who now occupied space in my head, was spluttering stunned joy into the pack bond that almost made sharing blood with her worthwhile.
Maybe the magic of Lorimar, the beauty of receiving a second chance, had worked on her too.
Given the ease with which we traversed the killing field, I had to wonder if Lorimar’s magic hadn’t stretched even further. Perhaps Tibs had been successful in his coup. Or maybe Rook, who had broken his alliance with Rilla in a public forum, had attempted to rein in his people before he lost control of them altogether.
Over the Moon (Gemini Book 6) Page 18
