Page 23 of After Midnight (Skye Druids #7)

Chapter Twenty

Wariness shot through Kurt when he heard Sabryn’s questions over the howling wind. He stared out into the blackness, searching for movement, but couldn’t make out anything in the tempest swirling around them.

Suddenly , Sabryn whirled around and shoved at him. “ Get inside! Now ! Get inside!” she yelled urgently.

The panic in her voice propelled him into action.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her against him as he walked backward into the cottage.

The moment they were inside, they both reached for the door.

He put his foot on the wall for added leverage against the continuous onslaught of the wind.

Inch by inch, they moved the door until it was finally closed.

He was out of breath, his ears ringing from the abrupt dimming of noise after being in the midst of it.

Sabryn didn’t stop to rest, though. She locked the door and laid her hand against the wood, likely fortifying the wards.

Kurt didn’t know who was coming, but he understood danger was approaching and joined her as they moved about the cottage.

“ What is going on?” he asked as he leaned over the sink and placed his hands on the pane of glass before muttering the words that would reinforce the existing wards.

Sabryn didn’t answer as she raced from one room to the next.

Kurt was at the window in the bedroom he’d woken up in when he thought he saw a figure moving outside.

Icy fingers of unease slid through him, digging deep as he swiftly strengthened the wards.

Only when he was finished did he search the void outside.

The night thrashed and throbbed, sightless and savage.

The darkness screamed, but nothing moved.

He told himself it had been a limb or some debris caught in the storm.

But he didn’t believe it. Sabryn knew someone was coming. And it looked like they had arrived.

He backed out of the room into the hall, his gaze never leaving the window and the wind-torn blackness.

“ Done ,” Sabryn said as she rushed out of a bedroom.

He turned his head and met her gaze. They stared at each other and listened to the storm battering the cottage.

“ Who’s coming?” he asked.

Sabryn drew in a shaky breath. “ Edie .”

“ Fuck .”

“ Yep . Pretty much my thought, too.”

Kurt turned to grab his mobile and realized he didn’t know where it was. “ Call the others. We need reinforcements.”

“ Right . Of course.” Sabryn drew her mobile from her back pocket.

Her hands shook slightly as she tried Elias . The call wouldn’t connect. She then tried Finn . Same thing. She next attempted Carlyle without any luck.

“ Theo ,” Kurt suggested. “ Try Theo .”

She shook her head and lifted the phone to show him the screen. “ It’s no use. We don’t have a signal.”

He looked at the absence of bars and turned on his heel to grab his pack from the bedroom. Kurt yanked out his laptop and plopped down on the bed as he flipped it open. The internet was out, too.

“ Is there a landline?” he asked.

Sabryn pushed out of the doorway and ran to the kitchen as he jumped up and searched the living area.

“ Nothing ,” she called out a moment later.

He shook his head at her when she came into the room. “ Nothing here either. I saw someone outside a few minutes ago, but we might still be able to make a run for it.”

Sabryn leaned against the wall. “ The wind said we were out of time. Our best bet is to stay here.”

“ What could Edie want? You’ve been on Skye for weeks, and she’s not come after you.”

“ Maybe it isn’t me she wants. She did team up with Parker .”

Kurt jumped when something thumped loudly against the cottage again. “ You think she’s after me?”

“ Makes sense. Like you said, she hasn’t come after me.”

“ I’m not so sure. She didn’t do anything to me on the street.”

Sabryn shrugged. “ Who knows. Maybe she’s here because you survived.”

“ That certainly makes it seem like she’s working with Parker .”

“ Why , though?”

Kurt rubbed his forehead. “ I don’t know. If Edie is as powerful as Kerry , she doesn’t need my brother or the London Druids .”

“ I think Edie is more formidable than Kerry . Either way, you’re right.”

“ Let’s set the why aside for now. Edie is here, and we have no way of getting word to the others.”

“ Not exactly,” Sabryn said with an impish smile. In a steady voice, she called out, “ Balladyn .”

Kurt returned her smile. Thankfully , one of them was thinking clearly.

But with every second that passed without the Reaper appearing, their grins slipped.

It eventually became apparent that Balladyn wasn’t coming to their rescue.

Whether it was because he couldn’t or wouldn’t didn’t matter. The risks posed to them didn’t change.

“ Who picked this cottage?” Kurt asked.

Her face was tight with alarm when she shrugged. “ It’s one of many rented out on the isle. Kirsi’s parents know the owners and asked if we could use it.”

“ So , no connection to Edie ?”

“ None ,” Sabryn replied.

He looked out the window into a black so absolute it devoured everything. He couldn’t see what kept banging against the cottage. “ Do you think the entire isle is dealing with this wind?”

“ I didn’t ask, and the wind didn’t say.”

“ What did it tell you?”

Sabryn jumped at a repeated thumping on the roof. When it finally subsided, her voice was tight when she said, “ I’ve not been using my ability. When I got to Skye , the wind yelled danger in a continual loop. I couldn’t get it to say anything else or cease.”

“ So , you blocked it,” he guessed.

She looked away, shame furrowing her brow. “ Yes . Tonight is the first time I’ve listened to it in weeks.”

Kurt looked at the dark streaks of drying blood on her face and walked around her to the kitchen. He wet the end of a towel and returned to her. He gently moved aside her hair and cleaned her ears, cheek, and neck. To his surprise, she let him.

He asked, “ Was the wind angry?”

“ Very ,” Sabryn admitted in a soft voice. “ If I had been listening, I might have saved you from getting stabbed.”

He caught her gaze, the rich blue as deep as twilight over the ocean. “ Don’t go there. What’s done is done. We need to focus on what’s happening now.”

She was the first to look away. He moved to her other side and dabbed at the blood there.

“ I don’t know if the wind has forgiven me,” she told him. “ It warned of danger and that we weren’t safe. It said she was coming for us and that we needed to run.”

“ Is that all?”

“ Pretty much. Except for the end, when it said we were out of time and told me to get inside.”

“ The wind said we ?” he asked her. “ As in both of us?”

Her brow wrinkled. “ Actually , no. It said you .”

“ As in you,” Kurt said, nodding to her.

She shrugged indifferently. “ I’m sure it meant you, too.”

“ But what if it didn’t? What if Edie’s after you?”

Silence met his question. He finished cleaning her all too soon. He should’ve taken his time and let his fingers linger on her soft skin. Kurt had no choice but to step away from Sabryn . He folded the towel to give his hands something to do so he didn’t reach for her.

“ I don’t think it matters. We’re both stuck here,” Sabryn said.

The banging and thumps grew more frequent—some closer to them than others. It was unsettling not to be able to see what was out there. Kurt tossed the towel onto the sofa and was about to speak when the door started rattling like it was about to come off its hinges.

Sabryn whirled around at the sound. They both stared at the door, waiting to see if something would come through.

Their attention shifted to the violently shaking windows.

The wind had grown louder as a menacing air settled around the cottage.

Things were about to get much, much worse.

How long did they have before the windows burst or the door was ripped away?

How long until Edie walked inside? They had to get ready.

Because , like it or not, they were in the middle of a battle.

Kurt might have sat behind a screen for years, but he’d been trained since birth for just such a fight.

He took Sabryn’s arm and turned her to face him. “ Control the wind.”

“ I communicate with the wind. I don’t control it,” she stated as if he were a simpleton.

“ And most can only hear it, not be heard by it. Yet you can carry on a conversation.”

She glanced at the door and watched it bow inward from the wind. “ I apologized. Apparently , that wasn’t enough.”

“ Unless this has nothing to do with you being forgiven.”

Her head snapped to him. “ You think Edie is controlling it?”

“ What if it doesn’t have a choice but to obey? I think it’s worth finding out.”

She looked at him helplessly. “ I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

“ It doesn’t matter. All you have to do is try. If Edie is controlling the wind, then you have an advantage.”

“ I’m not following,” she said.

He couldn’t hold back his flinch when something struck the nearby window. “ You communicate with the wind. Who will it listen to if given a choice?” he asked crossly. “ Just try!”

She jerked out of his hold. “ Fine !”

After a scathing look directed at him, Sabryn closed her eyes. He moved closer to her, ready to spring into action should something come for her. He heard a window crack ominously. They were running out of time.

It was two against one. That would have given them an advantage if they were dealing with any regular Druid , but Edie was far from that. Some otherworldly power helped her, and there was no telling what benefits she reaped. And Kurt really didn’t want to find out.

While Sabryn continued to concentrate, he turned to the window cracking next to him and added another layer of warding to keep the split from widening. It was merely a bandage, but he didn’t know what else to do.