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“Wait,” I say. “I’m not going to sit here while you go out there and put your life in danger for my sister’s. I’m going with you.”
“Not at all.”
“It’s not a request, Jaxon! They took Maisie because they wanted me! If I go with you, then maybe they’ll let her go and take me instead and-”
“F**k no. You’re staying here where it’s safe. Don’t argue with me about it. You won’t win.” He does the Alpha thing, where he clenches his jaw and stares at me with his dilated eyes. I don’t give in like he thinks I will.
“Going with you is the best way!” He tries to cut me off, but I talk over him. “I won’t really turn myself in, but if I go in alone, the pack can sneak in and get Maisie out of there safely while their guard is down. If we act like you guys can’t get past their defenses, they won’t expect an attack. While I’m keeping them busy, you go in and surround them.”
He thinks with his eyes closed. It’s hard to tell what he’s thinking because his feelings are all over the place.
Ezra says, “You know it’s the best plan we have.” I almost forgot he was still around.
Jaxon growls and stares at him.
Ezra says, “I know what it’s like to have your friend in danger.” “Do you remember all the crap I had to deal with to keep Skyler safe?”
Skyler nods and smiles sheepishly. I don’t know anything about Skyler’s life before he met Ezra. I need to hear another story when we have more time.
“I get it, Jaxon. This is the best way to keep people from getting hurt, and you know it. They’ll be distracted. We’ll have eyes and ears on the place the whole time. When she ‘surrenders,’ he air-quotes, “it will be exactly what they expect. They won’t be ready for a full-blown battle. We will be.”
Jaxon grunts and then pulls me close to him. I know this is hard for him, but I know that the coven likes to show off. Felix has told me stories about his coven and what it was like to grow up there. I hate him right now for betraying me, but I still believe all of those horrible stories. Now I just think he liked all of the things he pretended to hate.
My mom and I both jump when we hear a lot of footsteps in the house.
“It’s just the warriors,” Jaxon says softly. I feel better right away because I know we’re not being attacked.
He starts barking orders at them, and his outside quickly changes to that of the proud Alpha of the Blackthorn pack.
When the wind blows my hair back, he stops giving orders. I get tense when I remember that there shouldn’t be a breeze inside. That can only mean one thing.
I turn around and see Felix. His blue portal light fades away in seconds. He finds my eyes right away.
“We need to talk.”
A lot can happen in just a few seconds. It’s the amount of time it takes me to take a full breath. Jaxon wants to know how long it takes to punch Felix in the face and then start choking him. It’s enough time for my mom to scream.
It’s funny that no one tries to stop Jaxon. He curses Felix under his breath, but he doesn’t seem to care if he lives or dies. He gives him a look of anger that says he holds his life in his hands.
A small part of me is saying, “What if?” What if Felix didn’t know that his coven’s plan all along was to take Maisie? What if he’s just a pawn in the big chess game that Marlowe has been playing?
Along with the soft whispers of that voice, there was another voice inside me that screamed—screamed for Felix to pay for putting my six-year-old sister in danger and for betraying me and my pack.
I walk over to Felix, who is still trying to catch his breath. I bend down in front of him and tilt my head to the side.
“Why did you do that?”
He wheezes, “What?” and can barely catch his breath to answer me.
“Why did you trick me? I defended you and trusted you, but you still gave my sister to your group of monsters,” I say with a sneer. “Was it a game to you? To see how much you can break me? You tried to tear me away from my mate, but that didn’t work, so you go after my sister instead?”
“No, Calla,” he groans. “I didn’t know. Elise tricked me too. She—”
He coughs as he grips the strong hand around his throat. As he runs out of breath, his face turns a shade of purple.
“Jaxon,” I whisper, letting him know that I want to hear Felix out. I don’t believe him, but I want to hear what he has to say. He might make a mistake and say something we can use against the coven.
Jaxon lets go of Felix’s throat just enough for him to be able to breathe again.
“You so much as say a word about any magic spell,” he growls, letting his claws dig into Felix’s neck, “and I’ll kill you.”
Felix turns pale. Got the message.
I see my mom in the corner of the room for a second, watching me talk to a magical man she’s never met. I can only guess how scared and lost she is. Skyler seems to be keeping an eye on her, which is good.
“Calla, I swear I didn’t know about the plan until it started. I had no idea they were going after Maisie until she was in our area.”
When my mom hears her daughter’s name, she starts to cry, but I keep my mind on Felix. I want to believe him, but I’ve been hurt too many times to trust him. I can’t trust him anymore.
I look at Jaxon, who just nods, knowing that I’ve learned not to trust a warlock.
“I don’t believe you,” I say.
Felix is moving around like crazy, as if he knows he’s going to die. Jaxon just holds on tighter to his neck, and one of his claws breaks the skin. Felix stops moving as a drop of blood runs down his pale skin.
“Now, here’s what’s going to happen,” Jaxon says as he gets up and starts to pull Felix over to Ezra, who is only grinning in a bad way.
“My Beta is going to make you tell him everything you know about this coven of yours. Only then will you be given the mercy of death. That is, if you cooperate.”
Ezra cracks his knuckles as he thinks of the best ways for Felix to scream.
“Wait! I’m the only way you’re going to get your sister back! I know how to get in and out of their group and what their weaknesses are. I’ll tell you everything you want to know and more, but please! Calla, please. I have proof she’s safe! I’ve seen her!”
I watch as Jaxon pulls Felix across the floor of my living room, to Ezra, who would take Felix back to the pack house as a prisoner and do who-knows-what to him to get the information we need. I can hear Felix’s shoes squeaking as he tries to find something to hold onto to keep him here. I can hear him begging and pleading.
I can’t believe I’ve already talked.
“Hold on.”
I can’t help but want to hear what he has to say. We might not have to trust him if he can get to Maisie and show us proof. We might just have to believe that his survival instincts are stronger than his desire to put the pack and Maisie in danger.
“Have you seen Maisie since they took her?”
Felix turns around to face Jaxon. Felix looks as relieved as he can be with an Alpha’s hand around his throat. Ezra looks sad that he might not get to t*****e Felix. Sometimes, he scares me.
“I’ve seen her,” Felix says, slowly reaching into his pocket to show us something instead of killing us. When I see a little butterfly clip in Felix’s hand, I let out a small sob.
“I took it from her when no one was looking. I wanted to show you that I saw her so you would believe me when I say she’s fine.”
Jaxon takes the little hair clip from Felix and gives it to a guard next to him. The guard then puts it in my hand, which is not hurt.
I remember getting this clip for Maisie. We were at the mall shopping when she pulled me into Justice. I complained and groaned about having to go shopping with her, but I secretly liked spending time with her, even if it was doing something I didn’t want to do.
The clip was bought at the last minute. It was one of those things by the cashier that is in just the right spot so that any little kid would whine until their parent added it to the pile. She liked how shiny it was. I know I have to do everything I can to get her back and save my little sister from the heartless coven now that I see the blue and purple sparkles on the clip.
I angrily wipe away a tear and clip it to the waistband of my pants.
“Go ahead and tell us how to get Maisie back if you really mean it.”
Jaxon seems unsure about asking these kinds of questions, but if it means avoiding violence and saving time, why not try to hear Felix out?
“Only a few people can portal into the main house,” he says carefully. “I’m one of them. If you take your hand off my neck, I’ll tell you what I know.”
“Not a f*****g chance,” Jaxon growls, his grip on Felix getting tighter as his eyes darken with hidden rage.
Felix gasps, “Worth a shot,” as he tries to get the wolf’s fingers off of him. “The coven has been putting on a show for a long time. When Beckham was Alpha, the war between the coven and the wolves was at its height.”
Jaxon didn’t show it, but I could feel his sadness and anger when I said his father’s name.
“Beckham made the coven a lot weaker, more than you know. A witch or warlock can have two kinds of magic: offensive and defensive. Elise and I both have offensive magic, which means we’re the strongest in the coven after our leader, Marlowe. We’re the only three with this kind of magic.”
There are only three people who can use magic between my sister and me. It doesn’t look like that many. If we can get past their shields, we can easily sneak in and get Maisie as long as we stay away from the other two witches. If you can believe Felix…
I can see that Jaxon is thinking.