Page 38 of The Delta’s Rogue (Crescent Lake #4)
“Why would she leave it behind then, if it wasn’t special to her?” I argue. “Maybe she didn’t take it with her because she didn’t want to destroy it.”
“Why would a scrap of fabric from a dress be so special to her?” she retorts.
“The why doesn’t really matter, does it? All that matters is that we try everything we possibly can—use every resource we possibly can—to find her and get her back.” Before it’s too late. Before they break her. “That’s all that matters, isn’t it?” I repeat .
Rune sighs. “I suppose it won’t hurt to try.” She stands and throws her long blonde hair into a ponytail, jerking her chin towards the front door. “Go get it. I’ll start setting everything up in here.”
I’m out of Wesley’s house as soon as she finishes speaking to me. Her voice follows me down the front steps as she directs the others to clear a space on the coffee table.
I race through the forest to the packhouse, barely aware of my surroundings and the path I take to get there. I have a one-track mind, a singular focus: Sarina.
I don’t pause to talk to anyone, mounting the stairs to my apartment two at a time and practically breaking down my door to get inside. Sprinting to my living room, I snatch the red strip of fabric out of my book—not caring that I’ll lose my place—before I head back out.
The door slams shut behind me with a resounding crack, and I wince as I glance over my shoulder.
A small fissure in the wood extends from the top of the door towards the doorknob.
I take a deep breath, to compose myself before I continue out of the house and back to Wesley’s, so I don’t destroy anything else.
I can’t help it, though. My lycan is vibrating with excitement at the prospect of finally finding Sarina, and his anticipation affects my actions too.
“How does this work?” I ask as I reenter Wesley’s living room.
Rune kneels in front of the coffee table, setting candles on the four corners of a map placed in the middle. “Do you have the fabric?” She holds her hand out and doesn’t answer my question.
I cross the room to her and pass her the red strip, hesitating for a moment before relinquishing my grip on it. I don’t know what she’ll do with it, if it will survive Rune’s spell, but it will be worth it to lose the fabric if it means finding and saving Sarina.
Rune sets one last candle at the top of the map. She pinches the wick of each candle to light them, then removes a small crystal pendant from around her neck.
Landon and Steele kneel on either side of her, offering her their silent support as her mates.
Dominic is nowhere to be found—not surprising, considering the way his mother used witchcraft on him for so many years—but Riven, Nolan, Cassandra, Wes, and Haven all make their way over to me, standing near me in solidarity, all of us anxiously waiting for Rune to begin .
“If this works, her energy will draw the pendant to her location on the map like a magnet,” Rune explains, staring at me over the top of the candle’s flame.
“And if it doesn’t work?”
“The pendant won’t move at all.”
I clench my jaw and cross my arms, digging my fingers into my biceps.
I hope this works.
Rune rolls her shoulders and prepares herself. She draws the fabric through the flame of the fifth candle.
I take a step towards her, eyes widening and a protest on the tip of my tongue, but Wesley grabs my arm and tugs me back, pulsing his aura over me.
I submit to it— like I did in the conference room—even though my lycan fights me on it, pushing against the power Wes uses to bind us to his commands and authority.
But my heart aches and my breath catches as the fabric goes up in flames, leaving behind only a smoke trail spiraling and swooping through the air above the map.
I look up at the ceiling, blinking away the itching in my eyes. It’s just fabric , I tell myself. It’s just a piece of a dress .
But it’s not. It’s so much more than that.
It would be impossible to explain to anyone what exactly that red fabric represents to me.
It’s a tangible representation of our love, a physical representation of how Sarina submits to me and yet holds power over me.
It’s the last thread tying us together, keeping the memories wrapped around my soul until we can make new ones.
I have to believe we will make new memories together.
“ Erit dux in corde suo ,” Rune murmurs as the last of the smoke dissipates, her eyes closing. She dangles the pendant over the map and repeats her spell. “ Erit dux in corde suo .”
Everyone holds their breath. Everyone locks their eyes on the crystal hanging from Rune’s fingertips, waiting for it to move.
But nothing happens.
“Did it—”
Landon shoots me a glare before I can finish my question, and I clamp my mouth shut, nostrils flaring and my lycan growling at him in my head .
“ Erit dux in corde suo !” Rune repeats a third time, her volume raising and her hand gripping the cord holding the crystal tighter. “ Erit dux in corde suo! Erit dux in corde suo! Erit dux in corde suo! ”
Each utterance of her spell is louder and more desperate. Each utterance is met with the same result: the pendant stays completely still.
Tears stream down Rune’s cheeks, a bead of blood dripping from her nose, and still she chants, giving everything she has to her spell to locate Sarina. “ Erit dux in corde suo! ERIT DUX IN CORDE SUO! ”
The pendant flies from her hand and flings across the room towards us. We scatter, and the crystal hits the wall, embedding itself into the surface from the force of its movement.
Wes clutches Haven and Nolan hovers over Cassandra, both of them protecting their mates from harm.
Rune collapses, and Landon wraps her in his arms, cradling her to his chest as she trembles and sobs in defeat. Steele rubs her legs and holds her hand, squeezing it and kissing her fingertips.
Her brown eyes, bloodshot and pained, meet mine. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, her voice choked and weak.
“It’s not your fault,” I mutter under my breath.
“There’s a shield or a protective enchantment… It was white hot and blinding. It hurt .” Her eyes clench shut. “I’m so sorry.”
I turn, drifting out of the room and out of the house. I can’t stay there anymore. If I’m there one second longer, I’ll lash out at someone again, and I don’t know if even Wesley will be able to stop me.
I wander through the forest and around the lake, steps aimless and thoughts scattered. I stop on the far shore, staring over the lake’s surface towards the main grounds of our pack’s territory.
My lycan howls in my mind, and even though she can’t hear me or feel me, I reach across the endless void stretching between us, sending her a new promise. “I’m not giving up, Sarina.”