“Guys!” I yelled, not tearing my eyes from the glowing amulet in the bowl in front of me. “It’s doing something!”
It was Sam who reached me first, slithering out of fuck-only knows where to peer into the bowl. “It’s glowing,” he observed, and I rolled my eyes.
“No shit, Captain Obvious,” I retorted. “You also want to comment that it’s red?”
Sam turned his head from the bowl to peer up at me and flash some fang. “Work on those comebacks, moron. They suck.”
“Sam, leave Kitty Kat alone,” Caleb snapped, coming to join us. “Or I’ll let her put one of those hats on you.” During the past few days of waiting for the amulet to do something, we had been making friends with the locals in Harrow. One of them, an older lady named Mabel, had taken to knitting funny hats in the hopes that Sam might humor her by wearing them.
She wouldn’t think that if she could hear what he was saying every time she dropped by.
“Fuck you all,” Sam hissed, slithering back under the table to curl up on a chair like a damn cat.
I arched a brow at Caleb. “Oh, those hats will happen. It’s only a matter of time.”
He snickered a laugh and winked. “I know. I’ll hold him down for it.”
“Is it done?” Wes panted, like he had just run in. His eyes were lit with excitement, and I couldn’t help grinning at his enthusiasm.
I peered down into the bowl where the glow seemed to be subsiding and all the blood was just… gone. “Looks like it?” I tentatively reached out for the gemstone, then hesitated. What if it exploded when I touched it or something? Or worse? Call me crazy, but Bridget had given me a certain dose of caution around magical jewelry.
“It should be okay to touch,” Wes encouraged. “It was made for Ban Dia, remember? Besides, how else would we use it?”
“So practical,” I muttered, then pulled up my big girl panties and picked up the red gemstone out of the bowl.
I held my breath, tensing for something magical to happen.
“Anything?” River prompted, and I released the breath I’d been holding.
“Uh, no. Just feels like a stone.” I shrugged, turning it over and inspecting the etchings on the back, which mimicked the runes on my ring somewhat. There was a loop attached to the top where a chain was probably supposed to go through but had been long since lost. Why bother keeping a chain if it was only the stone holding magic?
“Here.” Vali held out his hand and deposited a gleaming gold chain into my open palm. “I noticed the loop on the back when you were trying to piece it all together. Figured you’d be needing a chain for it.”
“Thanks.” I beamed at him and threaded the metal through the back until the amulet hung in the center of the chain. “Can you…?” I indicated for him to clasp it for me, which he did with deft fingers after I moved my hair out of the way.
The heavy stone rested against my chest and seemed to warm almost instantly—not to an uncomfortable heat, but just enough that it felt like a living being sitting on my skin. It was… unnerving. But not totally unpleasant.
“So that’s that,” I murmured, peering down at the destruction amulet, which hadn’t been whole for thousands of years. It was a bit surreal, if I was being honest. “Where is Vic at, do we know?”
“Annaliese said he should be arriving this afternoon,” River replied, and I rolled my eyes at his use of Granny Winter’s first name. He’d been filling his time—while I sat there staring at a bowl full of blood—by learning everything he could about being an Alpha from Cam and Granny Winter.
Cam had offered the support of his pack if we needed it but couldn’t speak for other packs—even if he had still been top dog. As Granny had explained, the position of Supreme Alpha was more of a figurehead thing now and held no power over other packs. Not unless River wanted to challenge every Alpha individually and absorb their packs into his own, which sounded like a headache no one needed.
“Cool.” I nodded. “I might get some fresh air in that case. Tyson, want to come for a walk?” The big tiger raised his head from his paws where he had been pretending to sleep in the corner, and his ears twitched forward. “Yeah, I figured you were up for it.”
“He just wants to terrorize the wolves,” Austin warned me, and I smiled.
“I know; it’s kind of funny. We will just head down to the docks and hunt for any unsuspecting fish, won’t we buddy?” I cooed at the tiger, and he dipped his head in acknowledgement. “If Sam is a very good boy while we’re gone, we might bring him back a mouse or something.”
“A fucking mouse?” Sam’s muffled voice came from under the table loaded with indignation. “That big oaf gets a walk and fish, and all I get is a stinking takeaway mouse? This trip blows.”
One of the best results of our completed bond—in my opinion—was that now all of the guys could hear Sam’s amazing personality firsthand. As far as we could tell, it had to do with everyone sharing just a fraction of each other’s magics now, but I was so damn glad they were all getting subjected to the verbally abusive snake too. Sharing was caring, and all that.
“I might come with you,” Austin announced as Tyson and I were heading out the front door. “I could do with a break from Captain Sarcasm in there.”
“Hah!” I laughed at the irony. “Coming from you? Gold.” Tyson gave a purring sort of laugh that showed he also appreciated the situation.
“Shut up,” Austin growled, storming out of the house ahead of us. “Let’s go and grab you a coffee so you stop trying to be witty.”
“Trying,” I snorted. “Please, I’ll only be more witty after a coffee. Right, T?” I held my palm out to the tiger, and he slapped it with his paw. It was a trick I’d taught him yesterday, and we were both pretty proud of it.
Austin just sighed and shook his head at our antics, but he still grabbed my hand and stuffed it into his sweater pocket as we walked down the street toward the docks. Sometimes he could be too damn adorable.
Of course, other times I wanted to punch him in his smart mouth. But that was all part of the fun.
For the next hour or so the three of us had a sickeningly nice time playing down past the docks. Something about being around Tyson brought out the big kid in both Austin and myself, and before long we were all drenched from kicking water at each other. Or in Tyson’s case, just jumping straight into the freezing bay.
Once Tyson had managed to snatch up and eat more fish than I could count, he let out a loud belch and licked his whiskers happily.
“Guts,” I teased him, scratching behind his ears while he purred. “We should head back; Vic will be here soon, and I want to call Finn to update him.” I paused, looking up at Austin, who was skipping rocks across the water. “Do you know if Vali has been in touch with Elena?”
He grunted a noise that said what he thought of Cole and Vali’s little sister, then skipped another stone. “Yeah, I think they have been in touch every now and then. She’s single-handedly running his little empire now, so she’s needed a bit of guidance.”
“Does she ever…” My mouth suddenly felt dry, and I licked my lips. “Does she ever mention Lucy?”
Austin shrugged and tossed his last rock into the water, then turned to pull me up from where I sat on a flat-topped boulder. “I don’t think so,” he told me with a small scowl. “I guess everyone grieves in different ways, but she had no right to say what she did to you.”
I sighed and brushed the dirt from the backs of my legs, dodging his intense eye contact like a damn coward. “No, she was fine. She was entitled to that opinion; I would have said the same if the shoe were on the other foot.”
“Bullshit, you would,” he snapped, wrapping his arm over my shoulders and pulling me in to his side as we made our way back up to the main town with Tyson following behind. “For all your rough edges, you’re too nice to say something like that. Not to mention too smart.”
“Awww, Austin, did you just compliment me?” I tried to lighten the conversation by teasing him. After fishing around in my pocket, I pulled out my phone and opened the camera app.
“What are you doing?” he demanded with suspicion, but I quickly snapped a selfie of the two of us before he could protest any further.
Grinning up at him, I tucked the phone away again. “Just documenting this momentous moment,” I informed him. “Who knows when the next compliment will come? Maybe in a hundred years I might have enough of these photos for a collage!”
“I take it back.” He scowled at me, and I grinned wider.
“Too late,” I sang. “You think I’m pretty, smart, and nice!”
His scowl deepened, but I could see how hard he was fighting a smile. “I never said pretty.”
Gasping dramatically, I touched a hand to my chest in mock offense. “You’re saying you don’t think I’m pretty?”
Stopping in the middle of the path, Austin gripped my shoulders and spun me to face him. “Not even slightly,” he confessed with honesty. “I think you’re the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.” His strong hand grabbed me back the back of my neck and hauled me in for a searing kiss, devouring me like I was the only woman on earth. It was both exhilarating and damn addictive, and when he released me, my knees were weak.
“Hey, is that your… uh… cat?” someone called out, jolting us both from the sexually charged haze we were lingering in.
“Excuse me?” Austin frowned at the man crossing the street toward us. “Oh, cat. Tyson. Yeah, he’s with us.” He looked around for the big cat and must not have spotted him. I sure as hell couldn’t see him anywhere nearby. “Where is he?”
The man glowered at us, folding his arms over his chest. “He’s pissing on my rose bushes. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get the smell of feline out of plants?”
He was clearly angry as hell, so I tried super-hard not to laugh. But come on…
“Tyson!” Austin yelled out, sharpening his tone to promise bad things if the big cat didn’t respond. Luckily for his striped ass, the tiger in question came happily trotting around the corner of the guy’s house, holding a squirming rat in his jaws.
“Sorry about him,” I apologized to the local who glared at Tyson like he’d quite fancy a tigerskin rug in his house. “He has the manners of a Neanderthal.” I grabbed onto the scruff of Tyson’s neck to keep him with us as we headed back to Vic’s house, but the man called out again to pause us.
“Hey, I heard you lot are planning a bit of a battle soon”—his words struck ice into my spine, and I froze—“with that Ban Dia bitch who scarred Vic. Is that true?”
I turned slowly, scrutinizing the man carefully before replying. “Where did you hear that?”
“Just word about town,” he shrugged. “Small places like this, people love to gossip. You’ll need some pretty good firepower on your side if you want to stand a chance. That woman is some kind of crazy powerful, you know.”
Beside me, Austin parted his lips to say something, but I laid a hand on his arm to silence him.
“We already have some, actually,” I responded, lowering my voice like I was confessing a secret. “We have one of her dianoch on our side.”
“Really?” The man’s brows shot up in surprise, and Austin’s forearm tensed under my hand.
“Yes, it’s still top secret. But I know no one in Harrow would be working for Bridget, so I don’t mind talking about it here. We tracked down Lachlan, her third guardian, and he has agreed to help us. Come next Saturday, this fight is as good as won.” I gave the man a bright smile and squeezed Austin’s arm. “Anyway, we’d better get back. Nice talking, and sorry about your rosebushes!”
Tugging both Austin and his tiger along, I hurried farther down the street before the stranger could engage us in any more conversation. I wasn’t in the mood, and discussing Bridget with him had just reminded me how close we were to D-Day. All of the happy buzz I’d attained over the last few hours was fizzling away fast, and I just wanted to crawl into bed and hide.
“Hey,” Austin called out, grabbing my arm as I tried to half run into Vic’s house when we arrived. “What was that all about back there? We haven’t found Lachlan yet…”
“I know, but there is nothing wrong with the power of positive thinking, right?” I shrugged, dodging his eye contact. “Besides, if the wolves think we have this fight won already, they might be easier to sway into helping us.”
“I guess,” he muttered with a frown. Whatever else he was going to say got interrupted by the front door opening, though, and his attention shifted over my shoulder. “Vic, you’re back.”
“Vic!” I exclaimed, spinning to face the scarred man who filled the doorframe. “How was your, uh, trip?”
“Same old,” he grunted his response. “I hear you’ve been dabbling in some ancient magics, little Kit.”
Instinctively, my hand clasped the amulet at my chest. “Yeah, something like that,” I admitted. “Inside?”
My maybe-bio-Dad nodded, stepping back and holding the door for us to enter through. “What’s the big cat doing here?” he asked, eyeing up Tyson, who strutted past with Sam’s rat still held proudly in his jaws, “And was that a rodent in his gob?”
“Yes, sir,” Austin replied respectfully. “That would be my familiar. He’s bringing a snack for my brother’s familiar.”
“Ah.” Vic nodded. “The mouthy snake.”
I snickered a laugh. “How do you know he’s mouthy?”
Vic shook his head, scratching a scarred patch on his cheek. “You can just tell. Come on then, let’s get on with whatever you’re hoping to try out on me. Can’t make things much worse than this stupid geas that—” He broke off with a cringe, and I understood his meaning. The geas was still firmly in place and had just caused him pain to say that much.
My bio-Mom was a real fucking piece of work.
“Well, hopefully this will help that too,” I suggested hopefully. “Sit?”
In the living room, only Caleb, Cole, and Vali remained, watching some team sport on TV again. Ugh, men.
“Where are River and Wes?” I asked them, and Caleb grabbed the remote to turn the screen off.
“Talking wolf politics again,” Vali replied. “Want me to go and grab them?”
“Uh…” I hesitated, pondering if I really needed everyone present for this attempt. Probably not. Chances were, it wouldn’t work anyway. We really were flying blind on this seeing, as Yoshi’s notes were limited to just how the amulet broke and how to reassemble it. Beyond that, it was Ban Dia lore long since lost. “No, don’t worry about it. Better they learn stuff than sitting here watching me fail at magic.” I laughed nervously and perched onto the edge of an armchair. I stroked the amulet around my neck, and I chewed the inside of my lip.
Now or never, sunshine. No harm in trying, right?
Sucking a deep breath, I allowed my eyelids to flutter closed and opened myself to the amulet’s powers. Curiously, despite its reputation as being this big, bad destructive artifact that could destroy the world, it didn’t rush in to consume me like I might have expected.
Instead, it sat politely at the edges of my own magic, offering the boost of its unique abilities but not once trying to overstep its bounds.
Not letting my guard down, I searched through the glowing aura of Vic’s natural magic until I found something that couldn’t be anything other than his bond with Bridget. It was a ratty, colorless rope that seemed to almost wrap around Vic’s throat in a stranglehold, even though the rope itself appeared neglected and frayed.
“Okay, so uh… really wish there was an instruction manual with this thing but…” I muttered to myself out loud, using the sound of my own voice to calm my nerves. “I guess I’ll just…” Reaching out with my mental fingers, I gripped the cool thread of magic tethering Vic to Bridget and shuddered at the instant feeling of dirtiness and evil that swept through me. It was so intense that I gagged a little and needed a few deep breaths before I could be sure I wouldn’t vomit.
“Ugh, how do you stand it?” I grimaced, cracking an eye to look at Vic.
He shook his head with a sigh. “It didn’t used to be like this.”
“What changed?” I couldn’t help myself asking as I gave the thread a few experimental tugs to see if it was as simple as just unraveling it.
“Something you, little one, should never forget. Absolute power can corrupt even the most well-meaning of people.” He grunted. “Not that Bridget was ever particularly well-meaning, but she didn’t used to be this bad. Or… if she was, she put up a damn good show of hiding it from us.”
“What about N?” I murmured, curious as all hell, even though the majority of my focus was on the magic at hand. The amulet was prompting me toward something, and I needed to pay more attention, so I missed whatever Vic’s response to this question was.
Fire?
That seemed to be what the amulet was pushing me toward, so I pulled on its assistance to create a magical flame below the ratty bond. Instantly, the rope went up like dry kindling, and my ears were assaulted by the blood-curdling sound of magic dying.
When the sound faded and my eyelids reopened, I found myself staring back into Vic’s familiar blue eyes—the exact same shade as my own.
“Did it work?” I breathed, bracing myself for disappointment. It never came, though, as a wide grin spread across Vic’s scarred face and he grabbed me in a huge, crushing bear hug.
“You did it,” he whispered into my hair. “You did it, little fox; I can’t believe you really did it. I never thought…” Whatever else he said was lost into a mumbled mess as he clutched me tighter, and I awkwardly patted his back.
Now is probably not the time to mention I’m not really a hugger. But holy shit, it worked! I broke Vic’s dianoch bond! That means…
“So, you’re free? Bridget can’t control you anymore?” I had to say it out loud in case I was just totally misreading the situation. “The geas, the bond… it’s all gone?”
He pulled back to smile at me with an expression that was dangerously close to tears. “It’s all gone. You did it, little fox.” He was choking up now, so I didn’t complain when his arms wrapped me in another stranglehold hug.
Truthfully, I was too stunned to do much more than hug him back. I’d freed him from my evil mother. Did this mean I now had a father?
