Page 38

I started pushing Felix after I knew Skyler was okay. I don’t know where I got the courage to keep hitting him and yelling at him, but I did. Then, I’m in the air. I’ve always wanted to fly, but when I’m floating because a witch is angry at me for attacking her brother and using her magic to keep me pinned to the wall? Not fun.
I won’t lie: I was scared. It only took a moment for my feelings to calm down before I realized I was attacking two very strong supernatural beings that could kill me in a second. I told myself I wouldn’t cry, and I didn’t.
I think Jaxon has been rubbing off on me because I stayed strong even when I was scared. I didn’t cry or get all worked up like I would have a month ago when Elise was yelling at me.
Felix told her to stop. He said he didn’t want to hurt me, but he had to. I’m really looking forward to questioning him, but first he needs to break this dumb spell that keeps him from sleeping. The door literally flies off its hinges just as Felix and Elise are about to fix me. Jaxon, Ezra, and the guards who were supposed to be guarding the door are standing in front of us. I guess they’ll get yelled at later.
Jaxon’s angry eyes scan the room until they find me. When he sees me, the tension usually goes away. This time, he looks even more tense. It makes sense that Felix and Elise are holding my shoulders. This does seem a little sneaky, but he doesn’t know that they’re trying to help me.
When Jaxon gets mad, he growls loudly, which makes the hair on my arms stand up. I just want to run over to him and hug him while calmly explaining what’s going on. The twins stop me when I try to do that.
“Guys, let me go to him. He doesn’t get it—”
“You’re not going anywhere, cupcake,” Elise says with a frown as she pulls me back into her and wraps her hand around my neck. It’s not hurting me, but she could easily kill me with her magic if she wanted to. Elise holds her palm up to Jaxon, which makes the blue magic go away. “Get back, Wolfie.”
Jaxon growls but doesn’t come any closer because he’s worried about my safety. As Ezra’s canines come down and his claws come out, I can see his eyes change color. He clearly isn’t happy with Skyler, who is still lying on the floor. Ezra loses it and turns into a wolf right in front of me, ripping his clothes to shreds. His golden brown wolf growls loudly and runs over to the side of the room where Skyler is.
“Defensionis!” Elise yells out of nowhere, and a blue holographic shield pops up in front of Skyler. Me, Elise, and Felix. Ezra’s wolf runs into the wall and bounces off of it. He whines a little as his body is thrown against the wall. I think the shield burns anyone who steps into it because I can see steam coming off of Ezra’s golden coat. For 2.5 seconds, I’m scared, but then I see him get up and growl loudly at Elise for keeping him from his mate.
Felix says, “Don’t do anything stupid. We came here to help Calla, and we can’t do that if we’re dead.” He decides to be the voice of reason. Jaxon, Ezra, and four other pack members walk as far as they can to the boundary and give the coven members their worst looks.
“Right,” Jaxon says with a laugh. “You came onto our land to “save” Calla after trying to kill her. I’m not a f*****g idiot!” Jaxon’s teeth start to come down, which starts his shift. If he turns into a wolf, there will be no way to save me. Elise was already on the fence, so I don’t need to give her a reason to kill me.
“Jaxon, please believe them.” He looks at me in shock and then in anger. I can tell he wants to say no, but I can’t let him.
“Please. As your Luna, your friend. Stop.” My voice is clear as I give the order. I don’t think I’ve ever spoken like this before, but I feel strong. Jaxon feels the difference. He doesn’t seem happy about it, but he takes a step back to show that he won’t attack right now. Good news!
Elise slowly lets go of my neck. Felix and Elise are not touching me right now. The forcefield is the only thing that is stopping me. I ask Felix to let me go to Jaxon.
“Absolutely not!” Elise says, wiping the sweat off her forehead. It looks like this boundary spell is really draining her. I don’t know how long she can keep doing this. How long can witches use magic before they run out of energy?
Felix looks at me with a hard look in his eyes. “Once she lets you go, we’re dead. If we leave, you’ll be dead within a day because of the spell. The only way for you to live is if Elise puts down the shield and your werewolf doesn’t kill us. We’ll do the spell, but then we have to leave here alive.”
I nod and turn to Jaxon. He seems angry, but I can tell from the way he nods his head that he’ll do anything to keep me safe.
“Okay,” I say.
“No,” Elise says with a frown. “I want to hear that from Sir Alpha over there.” Elise walks to the edge of the border and stares Jaxon in the eyes. If the forcefield wasn’t there, I’d be worried that they were going to kiss because they’re so close to each other. It’s clear that they don’t like each other; they look like they want to kill each other. Elise is a head shorter than Jaxon, but she acts just as tough. It could be the piercings and the colored hair.
“You have my word that I’ll let you two go when you save Calla. But if I ever see you two again, I’ll kill you without a second thought.”
“Ditto,” Elise says with a smirk, then backs away.
Elise says, “Exsolvo defensionis.” There is no longer a magical barrier between us when she speaks. Ezra runs straight to Skyler, even though he is still a wolf. His wolf stands over Skyler’s sleeping body to protect it while he glares at Felix and Elise. His body is lightly touching Skyler’s, and he is still on the defensive, ready to attack if he needs to.
At the same time, Jaxon runs up to me really fast like a werewolf and pulls me into his arms. The tingles come back full force as he runs his hands over my body looking for signs of pain. He pulls me back into his body and sighs loudly after he’s sure I’m not hurt, other than the tired look on my face.
“I’m so sorry I left you. If I had known these disgusting magic users were going to try anything—”
“It’s okay, Jaxon. I’m fine. They’re here to help,” I say as I hug him back tightly. Jaxon looks at Felix and Elise. Elise falls to the side, and Felix runs over to her and whispers something in her ear. I can’t hear it, but Jaxon and some of the guards do because a group of growls fills the room.
“We had a deal!” He yells, adding a wolf growl to make his point. Felix laughs and then leans back against the wall on the other side.
“We did agree to help Calla, but we didn’t set a deadline. We’re both too tired to use that kind of heavy magic right now. We need a few hours to recharge.” Felix makes sense now. He should probably rest and do the spell when he’s at full strength, even though I wish he could do it right now. I wish he had made that clear before he led us on. I just want to go to sleep…
“All you warlocks and your f*****g games!” Jaxon says to Felix. I can feel his chest rumbling with each word he says when I put my head on it. It’s surprisingly calming…
“I know it only takes you,” he says, pointing to Felix, “to break the spell. You don’t need her,” he says, pointing to Elise.
“Yes, technically.” Felix crosses his arms and smiles at Jaxon. But the smile isn’t real. The smile of the winner is the one that says they know they’ve beaten the other person. “But we need to get out of here through a portal before you all eat us. So we both need to get stronger for a portal.”
“Fix her now!” Jaxon growls. He has never yelled this much before. I get why he’s upset. This is how things are right now, even though I’m tired and cranky. We need to wait for Felix and Elise to get their energy back. I don’t know if that means taking a nap, eating, or resting. There is no way to get around this.
“Jaxon, let them rest. They—” I yawn before I can finish my sentence. As I lean into Jaxon’s chest more, my vision starts to get blurry. At this point, he’s carrying most of my weight. The adrenaline rush is over, and I’m even more tired now. I can feel my eyes closing, and I’m about to pass out while standing up.
“Don’t go to sleep, baby. Look what you’ve done to her!” I think Jaxon is yelling at Felix, but I’m not paying much attention. I suddenly felt very light-headed. I’ve been working hard for the last half hour, and now I’m tired.
Felix’s voice sounds like he’s underwater when he says, “Look, I didn’t have a choice.” I think he says something else, but I can’t hear what he says. It feels like my head is full of cotton. The dark, dizzy feeling of sleep almost takes over my body, but then something very cold falls on my face. I open my eyes, and I see Jaxon with his eyebrows furrowed as he looks at my face. It feels like he put a cold washcloth on my face; at least, that’s what I think he did. When he’s focused, he looks so cute.
Jaxon’s frown, which was very serious before, turns into a small grin as his mouth turns up in a smile. He says, “You’re cute, too.” Oh no. I said that out loud…
Jaxon sits in the armchair and puts me on his lap in a way that makes me feel comfortable. Someone gives me the big cup of coffee again and tells me to drink it. When I drink it, I cringe and turn my head away.
“I’m cold,” I whine. I enjoy coffee that is hot. I enjoy coffee that has been chilled. I really, really hate coffee that is room temperature. It smells bad and isn’t natural.
The coffee is warm again before Jaxon even tries to heat it up. Really, Felix waved his hand, and the cup was now magically hot.
“Warlock, stop using your magic for no reason.”
Felix says, “Shit, my bad,” to Jaxon, who is glaring at him from across the room. Felix and Elise are eating crackers, which is probably to give them more energy for the spell. I think Felix and Elise don’t want to sleep in enemy territory, and the wolves don’t want to rest while magical beings are in their territory. This is going to be a long night…
~
“You’ve had enough rest. Now take off the spell.” Jaxon takes me to Felix and Elise and stands me in front of them. Since they started to rest, he hasn’t stopped pacing and fidgeting. He wants them to leave his area, and who can blame him? It’s clear that the magic users and the wolves have been at odds for a while, and this problem made things even worse.
“Okay, let’s do this.” Felix cracks his knuckles, rolls his neck, and bounces on his toes. I think he’s trying to make things more dramatic than they need to be. He cast the spell in two seconds, so how long would it take to get rid of it?