by Holly Hook
"But once we face the cult, I can't guarantee I can keep the curse off you or Cayden. Or Callie, for that matter," Karina says. "I'll be up against Artemis and the others she controls. But I will make things as painful as I can for them."
"You have to promise you won't run off," I say with a wink.
Karina's not to the friendly point yet, so she nods. "I won't run off, yet. But once all of this is over, IBrett and I need to get away from everything."
I swallow. I knew it would come down to this. "When this is all over and if we survive, you may leave," I tell them. As I speak, power sweeps through me, but also that warmth that tells me I'm doing the right thing. It's going to be my friend.
Brett nods. "Thank you."
"Oh, and another thing," Karina says. "I don't know for sure what the cult's going to do now, but it might have to do with Callie. If you two fight, then all the magic in the world might not stop you from going dark. That's on you."
Chapter Seventeen
The second night in the hotel is even harder than the first. While I can't believe we've been in Rome for over two days now, I also can't believe we've taken so long to go out to the victory site. My stomach turns and I feel like I'm going to throw up every time I think of Cayden, probably in a cage or in chains, unable to help me or get free. He must be dying inside a little at a time, knowing I'm going to walk into danger for him when I could turn back, go home, and get away.
Karina's words swirl through my head over and over, even though I don't need her to elaborate. She's sleeping again on the bed while I lie on the floor, staring at the ceiling. Every time I close my eyes, I try to reach out to Cayden, to feel our connection, but there's nothing. I feel the same as I did before we even met, as if he was never there in the first place. What has the cult done? I should be able to dimly feel his presence, even if he's hundreds of miles away.
I'm going to kill them.
Karina snores and I get up, unable to take the suspense anymore. I eye my phone. One in the morning, at least here in Rome. It must be daytime by now in Breck, so I leave the hotel room and tuck the key card in my pocket. Once I'm out on the dark sidewalk, with nothing but distant, drunken laughter to keep me company, I call Aunt May. She deserves to know what's happening.
"Brie?" Her tone tells me she's been beyond worried sick for me to call.
"Why didn't you call?" I struggle to keep my voice calm.
"I've been busy working with the Hunters," she says. "I also didn't...I also didn't want to know if you were dead. I know you're not possessed because I've felt fine and the Colling Wolves have all felt fine."
"If I died, the whole pack would feel it," I told her, anger cooling a bit. I let out a breath. Aunt May feels alone, too. Too afraid to face the truth. Maybe she's been too scared to face the truth for a long time and this whole time I thought she was the adult.
"I know, but you're so far away. Brie, I never should have worked with that terrible man, but I felt I had no choice at the time. I didn't know what to do and I was lost."
"Edwin."
"He always felt off to me, even while I was hiding my Wolf nature, but when I was younger and had just lost my parents, and your father, I was desperate to do anything to help. Anything that didn't involve me facing my nature. So I was a coward, Brie, and it all fell on you in the end. I'm sorry."
My knees shake as I absorb her words. Aunt May's been suffering over something that isn't her fault, over the fact that she hid while I stepped up to my duties and her attempts to take the torch from me once I turned failed. Plus I was a complete jerk to her before I left. "Look. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you. And you know how I am. I'm just as much of a fixer as Cayden is."
"You've always done too much," Aunt May says. "I wish I could be in your place. But I'm here to listen."
That's more than enough for me. Pacing, I tell her about everything that's happened since we got here, even though I know some of it will make her feel worse about all of this. But she has the right to know in case she's the only Noble Royal left. Then I finish with, "This isn't your fault. We got dealt a horrible hand but it might almost be over. You were right to stay home. If I fail, then there's still hope." My vision blurs and turns wet as I blink.
"You're always so self-sacrificing, Brie. You're much stronger than me." In the background, the tea kettle whistles, and a wave of nostalgia sweeps over me with so much intensity that I end the call before I lose it.
* * * * *
I manage to get some sleep once that's off my chest, and our phone alarms collectively go off the next morning right at sunrise. Pink and orange light spills through the window as we groan, get up, and get dressed. Karina's gone silent again, back in her own world. She and Callie are opposites this morning. Callie dresses before the rest of us, like she can't wait to go and fight some cult members and maybe even some Savages, but I gulp as she pulls on her leather jacket and packs her weapons into her rolling suitcase.
Our gazes meet. "I don't want to fight you," I say.
She frowns like she's been thinking the same thing. That Romulus will use her to fight me and send me back into darkness, just as he did to his brother. It's the only reason the cult could have attached him to her, because nothing else makes sense now. It might have even been the plan all along.
Neither of us say a word as Leonora heads into the bathroom and Everly, with Karina, go downstairs to grab us some breakfast. Only when the room's empty except for us does Callie say, "Brie, if you have to fight me, do it. You have my permission."
"I can't do that."
"Mr. Hayde was one thing, but I'm another. He deserved what you did and I don't, and Karina's right that the cult might be counting on me to show up. But you still have my permission."
My words will be useless, but I have to say them. "Stay here," I demand. "That way, they can't use you against me."
"Not when I can fight," she says.
"But you could put us all in danger," I tell her, advancing on my distant cousin. "It's better if you stay here. And you can tell the others what happened if we all die or something. For all I know, we will."
But Callie furrows her brows, not taking no for an answer. I wish, in that moment, that she was part of the pack, but he's still human and I have no command over her. Callie squares her shoulders and glares right into my eyes. "What's the point of family, then? I didn't come all this way just to stand aside. If I stand aside I'll never live with myself. What am I supposed to do now? Go back to serving pancakes?"
She's worse than what Noah used to be. I keep forgetting that Callie's just like me, like how my mother must have been, and there's nothing I can say to stop her. "You have Earl back home, waiting for you." Doesn't she realize how lucky she is?
"I didn't tell him I left until I was on the plane. And then I didn't tell him where I was going," Callie says. "We'll fight when we get home, I'm sure--"
"You left your husband?" I ask.
"He wanted to pull out of the Hunter life after all this started happening," Callie says.
"But he loves you," I say.
"If the Savage King takes over, there won't be anyone left for me to love back," Callie says. "I couldn't ask for a better man than Earl and staying might have doomed us both."
We're more alike than I ever believed. "Are we related or something?" I ask as Leonora emerges from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around het wet hair.
"I've already talked to her about this," Leonora says to me. "My parents and I have done so many protection spells on Callie that it's ridiculous. She's not completely defenseless."
I force a smile. Leonora wants to believe she's more powerful than she is. That yearning is there in her eyes and in Callie's, too. I'm not going to stop these two.
And how can I? They're just like me.
"I hope so," I say.
"We've been doing magic on all of you," Leonora says, slapping me on the back. "Look, we've got a team, and you have to trust us. Pretty please, Brie?"
&n
bsp; I sigh. "With sugar on top, I take it?"
Callie grins. "With a red cherry, too."
Shaking my head, I pace around the room. "Fine. Just try not to get killed out there."
* * * * *
Brett and Karina are talking in low voices as our big group walks towards a bus stop, having left the hotel behind for the last time. They walk ahead and enter a glass box.
"Artemis will expect us at night," Brett's saying.
"She also knows we're with them," Karina says, thumbing in our direction without looking back.
"True. But we have you and you're a better witch than any of those idiots. Including me," Brett says with a grin.
I poke my head into the glass box. "How long of a journey do we have to the site?"
Brett checks his phone. "About an hour? The field where it all went down is an hour out of the city, near a private mansion. I don't know who owns it now, but I'm willing to bet it's someone who's sympathetic to the cult, since they let them use the back of their property."
I think of the Savage Wolf in the apartment complex. "The cult could have enslaved whoever was there. If there's a house out there, I bet there's security, too."
"In the form of more dark spirits," Karina adds, twisting on the bench to face me. "Artemis did mention once they were out there, too. The cult's not out there to maintain them as much as they are back in Colorado, but we can't be too careful since they've been operating out there for longer. I'll do what I can."
"Are you sure you have the right place?" I ask Brett.
"Here's the map. It looks just like the satellite map our DNA donor used to show us," he says, handing me his phone.
I take it. In fact, there is a map of a large house's stone roof, surrounded by open fields and patches of forest. Tension fills my chest and I swallow as I survey it. Though I've never really seen the fight between the twins from above, I just know. They fought in the field farthest from the house, near the edge of the screen. The field, now perfectly green and full of tall grass, can only be accessed through the surrounding woods. It's cut off from the rest of the property, hidden from the public.
And there's a telltale, round clearing in the center.
"I don't like this," I tell Brett, handing him back the phone.
"Neither do I," Everly says, looking over Brett's shoulder at the screen. "If we die out there, no one is going to find us."
"That's the house our donor described to us," Brett says, pocketing his phone. "And no, he never told me who lived there. Like he didn't want us to know just in case he couldn't control and twist us enough. But we have to expect the worst."
"I will," I say. Artemis will be there. So will the cult, and maybe even Cayden.
The bus arrives and we board without a word, with Brett paying our fare. I watch the rest of the city roll past, and smell nothing out of the ordinary among the other people, mostly locals, who get on the bus. No one speaks to us or looks at us. Not that I care. I already feel like we're separate from the rest of the world.
Callie doesn't look at me, either. We both know what could happen.
"We're working for you," Mrs. Russell whispers in my ear from the seat behind me. He plucks a hair off my head. "Remember that."
I nod, even though I know they'll be nothing compared to whatever we face out there at the site. I can't bear to tell them that.
Tremors flow through my body and intensify the closer we get to the edge of the city. The bus pulls up to a stop, lets the last of the oblivious people out, and continues to roll past apartment buildings that become more scattered and eventually, open fields. It's beautiful country out here, but I can't enjoy it. This world is separate from me, too. Me, and Cayden. We both might die today. Or turn evil.
The closer we get to the victory site, the less warmth I feel in my chest from the Noble King. Or the idea of the Noble King. Maybe his spirit is gone, torn apart like his body, and I'm just having some wishful thinking.
The bus ride stretches out for minutes, even though it feels like hours. Buildings get farther apart. Brett keeps looking at his phone and out the window, maybe trying to see a landmark, and the driver, an older man, looks back at us like he's not sure what we're doing. But the glint in his dark eyes tells me we're not the first strangers he's seen on his bus, riding away from all the tourist areas. I know who he's encountered before, and the way he hikes his shoulders towards his ears as he speeds up tells me he hasn't had good experiences from strangers in the past.
After what must be an hour, the bus finally rolls to a stop near a concrete slab. A trail leads to several low buildings and more trees. It reeks like metal and chemicals. A factory. The driver pops open the folding door and waits, shoulders still high, as Brett waves to us to get off.
Once we're all on the concrete slab and Alex finishes rolling his luggage off the steps, the driver closes the door, turns around in a dirt lot nearby, and trucks it back towards the city, which I can no longer see among the rolling hills in the distance.
"You can tell he's met the cult before," Brett says as the bus rounds a curve.
"No kidding," I say, trying to lighten the mood. I sniff, but I smell that the distant buildings are full of chemicals, sweat, long hours, and other nastiness. The inside of my nostrils burn and Leonora frowns at me, pulling her shirt over her nose. While the landscape around us is hilly and beautiful, covered in wildflowers, the area just feels...off in a way that has nothing to do with the facility. I expected this uneasiness. It's as if the whole area around the victory site has attracted negativity.
And Cayden's out here somewhere.
For the first time in days, I feel our connection sparking to life, as if it's woken from a long hibernation. Tension flows between us as I close my eyes and pace along the concrete slab. Cayden's energy feels tense. Dark. Full of anger and helplessness. But as soon as I feel it, it's gone, leaving me with a racing heart. Opening my eyes, I catch my breath. "We're close. I feel him. He's out here and he's trapped, maybe in more ways than one. We're not waiting any longer to get him out."
Everly and I look right into each other's eyes. Longing fills me--the longing to feel Cayden's hand in mine, to take him home, to make love to him for the second time in my life. Anger follows. Darkness keeps wedging itself between us.
"Breathe, Brie," Everly says. "We all want to get him out. The cult's reeling us in."
"I agree," Mr. Russell says. "It's possible they're allowing you to smell him, now that we're close."
"I didn't smell him. I felt his presence and he's not in a good place," I say, shifting leg to leg. I want to give in to the animal inside and run to him right now, to tear out the throats of the other cult members before they can hurt or damage anyone else. "We're not close enough to pick up his scent yet." I look to Brett with a silent question.
He checks his phone. "We're still a few miles away from the victory site. But it looks like we're in the area of influence. I don't feel good in this area."
Karina looks to the facility. "Neither do I."
That's saying something. But I don't dare say that out loud. Karina's still not our friend and probably will never be. "Everyone," I say. "Let's get moving. We'll walk around the site before we go in. And we'll be patient and come up with a plan." And it kills me to add that last part.
Chapter Eighteen
The walk, even with the Russells, Callie, and Alex slowing us down, doesn't seem to take that long. Of course, having them with us means we can't shift and leave them behind, but it doesn't matter. The sun rises higher, making sweat roll down the back of my neck as we progress down the curvy road, towards an orange stone roof that pokes above some trees twenty minutes into our walk. The house is still a couple of miles off, and just as I realize this, a stench hits me.
Rotting wood.
I groan, as does Remo and Everly at the same time. There are, of course, Savage Wolves out here, maybe a whole pack that helps the cult guard their stupid, sacred clearing.
"Yuck," Karina says,
holding her nose. "They're going to kill us."
"Only if they're in the area right now," Brett says.
"What are the chances of that?" Remo asks with sarcasm. "I bet it's much higher than fifty-fifty if they have Cayden."
I sniff again, and just underneath all that decay is a glorious forest full of divine nature. Cayden. My heart swells. Being around him so much has made me forget how amazing his scent is, like a piece of light shining through all the darkness. But along with his scent is that of burning hay and poison. The cult.
Brett curses and I know he's just smelled them, too.
The wind shifts, taking the preview away. I whirl and face Brett right there on the dead, deserted road. "Well, they must have expected us to show up during the daytime. We'll have to find the weakest point and then go in there."
"No kidding," Brett says, but at least he adds nothing sarcastic. "I smell them too. We should circle around and stick together, if you're finally accepting others' ideas. They probably have your mate in those silver chains they came and took, so he'll be weakened and unable to fight back."
I know that, and the thought makes my skin itch with a coming shift. But I breathe out and tell myself the truth. Cayden wouldn't want me to charge in there and attack. He'd never forgive me for it. But I'll have to do it. The cult won't keep him alive forever, and even if they did, what kind of life would he have? Cayden would eventually fall completely into the dark, and the cult will let him drag me down into that hole as well.
No matter what I do, things probably won't end well.
But we have to try something.
"I like Brett's idea," I say to the others. "We should circle around the back. The nasty smell tells me the Savages are probably near the house."
"But that means Cayden might be, too," Everly says.
I read the desperation in her eyes. She's seriously missing her twin. I can't imagine the bond they have, never having siblings myself. But it must be almost as strong as the one I have with Cayden.
