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‘I didn’t do it. I tried to save her. She was going to die. I couldn’t let her die.’

‘Enough!" Mariella snapped. ‘We don’t have time now for twenty questions. We have to get them back to Iris and Abby as quickly as possible. Maybe together we can stop her giving her lifeforce to save him.’

‘How do we do that if we can’t separate them?’

‘Lift them carefully. Tony, Frankie and I will create a cushion of air around them as you lift. Josie, can you please monitor their auras? Let us know if there are any unexpected fluctuations.’

‘I don’t know what I’m looking for.’

‘I think you will know if you see it. Now, on three. One, two, three.’

Paul wanted to help, but he was unable to move, unable to use his powers. Magic sparked around him and Ivy as the McClune Pack Witches wove a spell of air around them, a bubble of protection to make certain they weren’t jolted as Stellan and cohort lifted them and carried them down the hill.

Ivy was semi-wound around him now, almost lying on top of him as they were carried, her arm lying across his chest where it grabbed his forearm. He curved his free arm around her back, gripping tight. Her free arm lay across his stomach, her fingertips grazing across his abdomen, the hard muscles under the firm skin twitching. Her head lolled on his shoulder, tucked under his chin.

It felt so right to have her there. But it was wrong. So wrong. He wanted to stop her from what she was doing, but didn’t have a clue how.

It was too difficult to get them onto the back seat with the way they were ‘attached’, so they ended up in the boot of one of the 4WDs after Siobhan and Chloe had laid the back seats down flat. Stellan, Luke, Tony and Mariella crowded in with them to keep them from moving and to keep the bubble of cushioning air around them.

The car moved off over the bumpy dirt road. Ivy moaned as they were jolted.

Mariella said, ‘We have to float them.’

‘Okay.’ Tony’s voice sounded strained, but a moment later, they rose to float a few inches above the carpeting of the boot.

‘Can you keep that up?’ Paul asked them.

‘We have to,’ Mariella said, her voice as strained as Tony’s had been. ‘But you need to hurry,’ she shouted over her shoulder at Jackson.

‘I’m trying,’ Jackson called back.

Ivy muttered something and Paul bent down to listen. ‘… in your arms. Warm … right … like way you smell.’ Her head lolled on his shoulder and her eyes rolled up into her head.

He tightened his arms around her. ‘Ivy. Ivy. Stay with me.’

‘What’s wrong?’ Stellan said, voice panicked.

‘She’s falling unconscious. Can’t you do something?’ he asked Mariella.

‘I don’t know what to do.’

‘You have to stop her from doing what she’s doing.’ His gaze searched for his friend’s, begged.

Stellan reached for Ivy’s hand, but Mariella stopped him. ‘Don’t.’

‘But he looks more stable now.’

‘That’s only because of whatever she’s doing. I have no idea what will happen if you take away the link between them. I haven’t ever seen anything like this before.’

‘But it’s making Ivy weak,’ Paul muttered.

Mariella’s chin wobbled, her facial muscles twitching as if fighting back tears. ‘I am sorry to say this, but she is one wolf in a pack of many. You are the one and only heir to the Collins line. I cannot stop her from doing whatever she’s doing if it means you die. Not even if it means she will die.’

‘No. She can’t die. She was supposed to live.’

‘What did you see, Paul? What did you do?’ Stellan asked.

He shook his head, firmed his jaw. ‘It doesn’t matter. I can’t take it back.’