Page 15

FIFTEEN

Fiona

T he rest of the day passed in a haze of preparations. I was introduced formally to everyone, now that I was no longer fresh off a seizure and terrified by all the wolf talk. That included Karissma, the witch, who was Brielle’s adopted aunt.

She was… something else. The sparks of power I saw on Shay when she charged Brielle up? It was one sliver of the color spectrum compared to the rainbow of hues I saw if I looked too long at “Aunt Kari.” For all I kind of wanted to cringe back from the sheer intensity of her power, she seemed friendly enough. Except for the part where she’d studied me with one arched eyebrow for long enough that I thought she was trying to see through my bones. That was not the kind of special I wanted to experience twice.

By the time night fell and the moon was climbing toward its zenith, we were all behind the fortress at the heart of the enclave, following a tiny stone-marked path that twisted through wild forest.

Apparently, the reversal spell was most potent not only at night, but when performed in a natural body of water, and there was a spring-fed lake out here that was suitable.

But knowing that and seeing it were two different things.

Because the lake in question? It glowed . Emerald water, in the shape of an eye, lit the night at the end of the path. It also exuded warmth, along with a slightly sulfuric smell. Spring fed, most likely.

“What makes it glow?” I whispered to Reed, whose hand I was holding.

Ever since we’d started touching each other, I really didn’t want to stop. I was a ball of early relationship, gooey emotions, but on steroids. The only reason I was okay with it was because he was every bit as into me as I was him, if not more.

“I have no idea. Water is usually just water, even for werewolves.” He grinned over at me, his face lit with green from the water.

I nearly choked trying to swallow a laugh, shoving his shoulder lightly as we took a place next to Shay and Dirge.

The couple who would be my in-laws if Reed and I bonded. I wasn’t going to dig into that idea right now, though. That was about twelve thousand steps into the future. I only had a few days left of my week with Reed; in-laws weren’t even on the horizon yet.

Karissma, who I hadn’t noticed standing quietly off to the side, stepped out into the shallow lake, the water lapping around her thighs and sticking her long skirt to her legs. She didn’t say a word, yet she commanded all of our attention when she held out a hand toward Brielle.

Nervousness pulsed through me, though I had no real understanding of everything going on. Perhaps it was contagious. All afternoon, I’d heard people discussing tactics, how they’d handle what came next . And every time they said it, it sounded so ominous. From what Brielle had explained, her powers had been dampened in her mother’s womb to protect her from some ancient supernatural law.

I didn’t understand it all, but any time I’d looked worried, Reed kept reassuring me I had time to learn the details.

Now all my worry was for this new friend of mine, Brielle. She seemed so fragile somehow. Most of the wolves were strong, robust creatures. Even Leigh, who was several months pregnant, had picked up an entire suitcase with one hand and tossed it across the room earlier to clear out a chair she wanted to sit in. Like it weighed nothing .

But Brielle wasn’t like that. She never flexed any noticeable shifter power, and while Shay had shifted for me that first day, Brielle’s eyes didn’t even glow.

Frankly, I didn’t see what the big deal was about one weak wolf, but I’d never been much for politics. Let alone interspecies magical politics.

I watched with nervous excitement as Brielle waded out next to her aunt, the two of them exchanging a brief hug as Karissma whispered something into her ear, and she nodded. Brielle closed her eyes and faced Kari, and I could see the rise and fall of her chest as she intentionally calmed herself and shook her shoulders loose.

Kari rested one hand on each of Brielle’s cheeks and closed her own eyes as she began to chant. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, and my attention wandered a bit, scanning the rest of the pack and our two assigned maidens, Galyna and Elodie.

Everyone was tense, and in a strange way, it calmed my own nerves to see I wasn’t alone in the feeling, though I had no idea the background that had led them all here. It was important to the pack, to Reed , and that made it important to me.

I turned my attention back to the two women standing in the middle of the small lake, and to my surprise, the bright green glow of the water had winked out. Tendrils of power visibly wrapped around Brielle now, writhing and snapping around her body under Kari’s direction.

When I saw the nasty green sludge dripping out of Brielle’s fingertips into the lake, I gasped.

“What is it?” Reed asked, his pensive stance turning to high alert in a heartbeat.

“Her fingers, don’t you see it? It looks like radioactive sludge from a comic book.”

He furrowed his brow as he looked between me and Brielle’s hands. “I don’t see anything but Brielle standing there.”

I leaned closer to him, whispering what I could see. “Kari’s power is all over Brielle, flashing and buzzing, sparking this steely color. And there is green ick dripping from her fingertips into the water. Although, now that I look closer, it’s not making any ripples.”

Kari’s voice rose, the words in an unknown language now that I could hear them, and I watched as the tendrils of her magic doubled in size, speeding up as they magically scoured Brielle.

And that was when something changed.

It was subtle at first. One moment, they were standing still; the next, Kari released her grip on Brielle’s face, and Brielle began to slowly levitate, almost in slow motion, with her eyes still closed as Kari lifted her higher and higher, dragging the lake water with her. It continued to flow until it wrapped her in a giant, spinning, pulsating ball.

I could see the light of Kari’s power, still hugging Brielle in the middle.

“Goddess’s green-eyed mistress,” Reed mumbled, his grip on my hand tightening reflexively.

“She’s okay. The power is still around her.”

“Thank fuck somebody can see it,” Leigh murmured from my other side as she shot me a grateful glance. “This is creepy as all get-out, y’all.”

“It’s actually kind of beautiful,” I whispered, something about the moment demanding our reverence, our quiet.

“Watching one of your best friends get sucked into a water tornado? Not so much.” Leigh rolled her eyes, but she had already turned back to worriedly watch her friend hang suspended in the air.

“Something’s happening,” I blurted as the light inside the ball began to intensify.

But this was different. This wasn’t witch power, now that I’d had a few minutes of sensing it to become accustomed.

This was… nothing I could name. Pure, bright, burning . Like a star lighting up the night sky, the ball of energy built to a level so high, I had to turn my head and shield my eyes against the brightness.

A keening sound echoed through the woods, thin and reedy, as if it was costing Karissma everything she had to fuel the magical cleansing.

And then I felt it. A fissure in her power, followed by a sharp whip snap of that bright burning energy. A boom reverberated painfully against my eardrums as a burst of light flooded the space. It was so bright, it made the forest temporarily seem like midday before it dissipated and left us all momentarily blind in the darkness.

I blinked furiously, needing to know what had happened, only to see Shay plunging into the once-again glowing water, scooping a limp Karissma from where she floated, nothing more than a puddle of drenched clothing on the emerald surface.

But Brielle… Brielle wasn’t in the lake. It was like my mind couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing as I scanned the surface back and forth, blinking some more as if it would make her materialize.

It was Galyna who spotted her first. She shouted and pointed up, to the treetops.

Brielle was floating, the water that used to surround her forming a cushion she stood on. Her eyes were white beams, the power radiating from her so strong that her hair even floated in the force of it.

Kane raced to stand beneath her, readying himself to catch her as she descended faster and faster. When she was only about ten feet above us, she saw him and smiled.

The water bubble she stood on burst, spraying out in every direction with the force of shrapnel as she dropped into his waiting arms.

When the spray of the water hit me, I barely noticed, I was so focused on all the magic happening in the small clearing. But Reed’s worried tone broke through my fog of wonder.

“Fiona? What’s happening?”

“What do you mean?” I turned toward him, looking up at his worried expression.

“You’re… You’re turning blue. Everywhere . And your ears, they’re turning pointed.”

I scoffed. “Don’t be silly, I’m fine. I feel—” I felt Kari’s power, that same power that I’d felt at a distance when it was surrounding Brielle. But it was still there, buzzing in the water.

Reed’s face blurred in front of mine, water dripping down into my eyes. I lifted a hand to flick it away.

But it wasn’t my hand. It was a blue hand, covered in dark swirls that I didn’t understand but somehow recognized. As I wiped the water from my face, the buzz built in intensity, built in heat, as strange images started to flash in front of my eyes.

A man I didn’t know, tall and built, with blue skin stretched tight over his muscled frame, thick black eyebrows, and pointed ears. He was leaning closer and closer, a fingertip extended as if to touch my forehead.

You won’t remember a thing. The words were only inside my head, but I knew as well as I knew my own name, they came from him, somehow, sometime in the past.

When his finger connected, the buzzing felt like it had crawled under my skin, into my veins, piercing my lungs as I struggled to breathe. My chest was too tight. Something was wrong.

I gasped, trying my hardest and failing to drag in a full breath as the magic burned me up from the inside out.

“Fiona? What’s happening? Talk to me, Fiona!” Reed was shaking my shoulders when a pale-looking Kari appeared at his shoulder.

“It’s the spell. She shouldn’t have been affected unless she was also under some kind of curse.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Reed snarled, eyes starting to glow as his panic grew.

But she ignored him, focusing on me with a frown. “Sleep now, child.” The words were barely more than a whisper, but the command in them dragged me under nonetheless.

Reed’s terror was the last thing I registered as my consciousness flew away.