Page 47 of The Wolf and the Chimera (The Witch and the Cowboy #3)

Elle

As shifters clashed, blood stained the once pale stones of the temple. Though the chimeras were fierce and fought with brilliance and strength, this wasn’t a battle.

This was an extermination.

Throughout it all, Medea circled young Helena and weaved a spell in a low whisper. Jason guarded her with vigor, and his handsome face was a harsh, unyielding mask.

Helena was so still.

Cursing and crying, I lurched through the frenzy and reached the young chimera’s side. When I tried to take her hand, my touch went right through her.

I was a ghost, powerless to change the past.

Medea’s words boomed louder and drowned out the cacophony of the bloodshed. I glanced around, but no one noticed the witch’s louder spell. Instinct tugged at me to listen, as if the spell were what I was here for—what my chimera wanted me to learn.

I listened more intently to the guttural, ancient language, but I still didn’t recognize it. I wanted to scream—I had wasted all this time to learn what my chimera wanted me to, only for it to be in vain, for me to glean nothing beyond the atrocities that had been done to my people.

Ryder, I thought, I need to get back to Ryder .

That tug became a lurch, and Medea’s words were inescapable.

Listen, my chimera implored.

Stifling my panic, I closed my eyes and focused on Medea’s voice. Leaning into the instincts of my chimera, I searched for anything recognizable in the choppy syllables.

Magic tingled in my veins—not with the warmth of my power, but with the hot rush of Medea’s.

I didn’t know the language she spoke, but she did.

Before the sorceress could defend herself, I slipped into her thoughts.

Smugness and anger and longing swirled. She was too lost in the sea of her emotions to notice my quiet presence.

I dug deeper, until part of me was tuned to the vision of the past and part of me stood in the recesses of the sorceress’s mind.

On the small corner of logic left untouched by her wild feelings, I translated her spell.

Bind, tether, mend together.

Medea hesitated, until the cries of dying chimera swelled.

Mine eternal, mine forever.

Mine, I realized, not the gods’.

Sun-blessed warriors become my vessel.

As Medea crafted a spell that bound, tethered, and claimed, none of the gods noticed who she tied the chimeras’ power to. They were too consumed by the dying roars of mortals to pay attention.

Medea had commandeered all of this for her own gain.

And Jason had helped her.

What had cleaved two bound, twisted souls?

I realized my mistake a heartbeat too late. Jason’s name was like a beacon in her thoughts, and as Medea realized how deeply I had traveled into her mind, her rage smothered me.

Are you pleased with what you learned? she hissed.

As the vision of the past fractured, and we descended into darkness, I wanted to scream. Pleased was the furthest thing I felt. Not only had I just witnessed the downfall of my ancestors, but I had wasted precious moments I could have used to escape.

Now, in the suffocating darkness of Medea’s mind, I was more trapped than ever.

Don’t you get it? the sorceress growled. There is no escaping me—there is only succumbing.

Sensations seeped through the cloying darkness.

Sedatives chilled my veins, and a heart monitor beeped slowly.

Light burned my closed eyes, but I couldn’t shift away from it.

Someone brushed against my arm and brought my attention to the needles embedded there.

Beyond my control, my power chugged toward it.

“Faster,” Lyall ordered. “The High Witch will be here soon. We can’t waste a drop.”

Like a cord being cut, my awareness of my body was broken, and I was once again in the heavy, dark silence of Medea’s mind.

Wind swirled around me, and in the dimness, black stone glimmered beneath my feet.

A woman stepped into the shadows. Her tan face was illuminated by the power that eddied beneath her skin.

As Medea crept closer, I refused to break her ruby-eyed stare.

“Don’t you see?” she asked. “We are soul-bound. We are forged by blood and magic and millennia. You and I are unbreakable.”

After what I had witnessed, part of me believed her. Medea had been clever enough to trick the gods.

Who was I to outsmart her? What odds did a girl who had been protected and coddled her whole life stand against a centuries-old sorceress?

Like the lid of an ancient tomb closing, the shadows pressed in on me

An image flashed—Anassa’s lifted chin and defiant gaze.

Even on the cusp of losing everything, she had fought with bravery and skill and resilience that could not be broken or bound by any force, divine or not .

My chimera stirred beneath my skin.

Was that what it had wanted me to see?

I wasn’t a scared daughter or hesitant mate or uncontrollable beast anymore. I was born of a people who could not be broken. I was the heir to a once thriving kingdom, filled with love and hate and life.

I was a chimera, and chimeras bowed for no one.

The sorceress’s gaze bored into mine. Her face revealed nothing but arrogance and power, yet a whisper of fear coated the air.

There had to be a way out of this. I only needed to keep her talking long enough to figure it out.

“Why did you even lead me to the ripple?” I asked. “You and I may be soul-bound, but Ryder and I could’ve claimed each other at Circe’s Island.”

The sorceress swallowed hard, and dots connected.

“You never meant for me to make it there,” I realized. “That’s why you fought to gain control before we crossed under the waterfall.”

“You’re a decent liar,” she replied with a cool smile. “You know the best lies are mingled with truths.”

“Regardless,” I continued, “there must be a way to break apart two bound souls. After all, you freed yourself from your Anchor.”

The sorceress flinched and snarled. Light roiled under her skin like a coiling snake, ready to strike.

“I was strong enough to destroy that bond,” she quipped. “You are not me, pet.”

Though I shared the skin of a predator, all those years I had spent hunted and afraid had taught me how to think like prey.

My mind raced through possibilities. My bond to Ryder protected me from a full-blown possession, but it wouldn’t be enough to take control from Medea entirely, especially when I was trapped so deeply in the corners of her mind.

She had me pinned, and she knew it .

“No,” I agreed softly, “I am not.”

As my thoughts tumbled into each other, I studied the light beneath her skin—Helios’s light.

Even you, Helios?

“Both of us are blessed by the Sun god,” I said. “Were both of us betrayed by him too?”

The sorceress’s eye twitched, and I realized my words had hit their mark.

“Are you trying to find common ground with me, pet?” she asked. “Is friendship your grand plan of escape?”

The shadows caressed my skin. Their touch was so cold, it burned.

After decades of living as a parasite, was this what her magic had become? Still powerful, but shaped by hate and cold cruelty?

I swallowed my fear and forced myself to think.

I control her as surely as she controls me.

That glimpse of the reality surrounding my body, back in the physical realm of being, had shown me that. Every minute that slipped by brought us closer to being drained of power completely and handed over to the High Witch to be Entombed.

Despite all her power and bravado, the sorceress couldn’t take control. She couldn’t save herself. If she could have, she would have already.

She would have seized control as soon as we traveled through the ripple, back into this realm.

Think, think, think.

“You say friendship like it’s a flimsy thing,” I argued, “but it’s a bond stronger than anything you could conjure with a spell. Friendship is chosen family.”

The sorceress snorted. “I promise you, it doesn’t matter if family is chosen or by blood, it’s a farce. Everyone has a price.”

She planned on bullying me into doing her will, but something in me knew—my chimera, my instincts, my gut— that it wouldn’t be like other possessions. With my half-formed bond to Ryder threatening her connection to me, nothing would make the sorceress cede control once she got it.

Swift and sharp as an axe, a terrible plan took shape.

The sorceress was right—we were soul-bound. The only way to save myself would be to save her too.

I wouldn’t bow to the sorceress.

I would outsmart her.

I lacked the ancient training of my ancestors, but their determination ran in my veins as surely as the sunlight I was blessed with.

I lifted my chin.

“What’s your price?” I asked. “What’s the price of my freedom?”

All witch, she cackled.

I remembered that was what she truly was—a witch. Without the bravado and years of inflicting pain and terror, she was only a witch, born mortal, like the rest of us.

It was time I started thinking of her like that.

“There is no price for that,” she hissed. Medea hissed.

As she caught her name in my thoughts, her gaze widened, but only for a second.

I cocked my head. “Really? Because if that’s the case, your miserable existence will come to an end soon. You heard the Sovereign—the High Witch is coming for us. Drained of power, we will be completely defenseless to her Entombment spell.”

She crossed her arms and studied me.

“Your mortal need to survive will stop you before it gets to that point,” she countered. “You nor the so-called High Witch scare me.”

“I would rather succumb to Cordelia’s spell than let you transform me into a monster,” I promised.

Truth rang in my words, but still, Medea hesitated.

“You’re in my head as surely as I’m in yours,” I told her. I stared into her glittering eyes and invited her to peak into my mind. “Do you still think I’m bluffing? ”

“You would do that to your beloved mate?” she asked. “You would abandon him by choosing death?”

I’m yours, and you’re mine, and I love you.

The words, the thought of his eyes and rare smiles, were a pang in my chest. The thought of never returning to him, of being another woman to disappoint him, threatened to break my resolve.

The thought of going back to that dreaded darkness and quiet…

Without giving her a chance to guard herself, I launched myself into Medea’s thoughts and glimpsed the truth before she could shut me out again.

She had been too distracted by stirring my worst fears and heartaches to keep me out, and thanks to her hubris, I learned the final piece of information I needed to stay true to my threat.

If I gave Medea control, Ryder would be the first person she killed.

Without him to tether me, I would be powerless to break her hold again. The loss might break me so completely, I wouldn’t want to free myself from her.

“I won’t let that happen,” I whispered. “I would live in the dark for a thousand years rather than let that happen.”

Maybe the gods would be merciful and fill my eternal sleep with dreams of him—with dreams of the family I had found in Kieran and Melanie. Maybe time would soothe the burn of Bo’s betrayal and wipe away the pain this life had brought me. Maybe I would forget the revolting touch of Micah and Kowan.

Even if it didn’t, I wouldn’t concede.

Chimeras bow to no one.

“If you’re so hellbent on keeping me contained,” Medea growled, “then what is it you have to offer me?”

Hope sparked, but I didn’t let it show. I wasn’t sure I should feel hope—not with what I knew I needed to offer.

“Give me control,” I said, “and I will find a different way for you to come back—one that doesn’t exploit me and my power.”

Medea chuckled.

“Why should I believe you,” she countered, “when as soon as you’re reunited with that wolf, you’ll complete your bond and lock me out of your magic forever.”

That really is the way to cast her out, I realized.

Of course I would learn about such a possibility only to lose it.

“Because,” I said, “I won’t complete the bond with him until you’re bound to a new vessel.”

Medea hesitated, and the silence between us grew taut.

“Not any vessel will do,” she said.

I nodded. “You need one that’s blessed by Helios, right? That’s what made chimeras the perfect doppelg?ngers. That’s why you convinced the gods and your grandfather to choose us.”

She studied me like she saw me for the first time.

“You really are a clever thing, pet,” she whispered.

“I will find you another sun-blessed creature,” I vowed, “and I will not complete the bond with my mate until I do so, under the condition that throughout that time, I will have complete control over my powers and my chimera. I will have autonomy.”

Medea considered me. “The Redfern witch shall be the one to bind me to my new vessel.”

Though I loathed to drag anyone else into the deal I struck, I nodded. On the cusp of getting everything I wanted, I couldn’t balk.

“So,” Medea said, “do you expect me to take your word for it?”

“Do you expect me to take yours?” I countered.

I raised my palm and beckoned my chimera. Medea’s hold on my power eased enough for me to summon a claw and slash it through my hand. My blood dripped onto the dark stones.

“We’ll bind our deal with the only currency you respect,” I said. “Blood.”

In the darkness, Medea’s grin was blinding, and I wondered if I had made a horrible mistake.