Page 97 of The Wolfing Hour

“Go away, and take your apathy with you.” The words grated against the inside of my throat. “I am entitled to my pain. Iearnedit.”

It was an order, a command, something the demon understood. The cold numbness faded, and hot pain rushed in. Every inch of me hurt. Every centimeter.

And I deserved it.

I wept.

Deep beneath the garden room floor, the soil wept with me.

When I surfaced next,I was sprawled on my back on the cold tile floor. Something cool touched the skin on my ankle, and my pain lessened.

Fennel purred in my ear.

Cecil peeled back one of my eyelids and frowned directly into my eye.

I blinked his hand away and stared up at the man standing above me.Ronan. He’d shifted to hybrid, but in the closest form to human. Anyone else might not have realized he wasn’t one hundred percent human, but I knew him.

“Betty.” Ronan breathed my name like a prayer. The way he spoke, barely moving his lips, made me think he hadn’t meant for me to hear him.

“Where’s Rory?” I tried to sit up but my injured arm gave out, and I crashed back down. “Is she here?”

“Goddess, your hands. Your throat.” He scowled down at my partners then roared, “Heal her right godsdamn now.”

Fennel dropped a charm into Ronan’s hand and head-bumped his arm. Cecil slid down the side of my face and went to stand beside him.

“Don’t yell at them. It’s not their fault,” I sobbed. “Yell at me.”

“Oh, I plan to.” He tightened his fingers around the charm. “What were you thinking,Betty? Whatthe absolute fuckwere you thinking going in there alone? You could have been killed.”

“Where’s Rory?” I asked, my throat clogged with tears. “Did I find her?”

His eyes flashed gold before returning to their normal hazel. He took a deep, deliberate breath. “You’re badly hurt and need to heal. Let me help you put this on. I can’t stand seeing you in pain.”

“Ronan? Where’s Rory?”

He shook his head sadly. “We haven’t found her.”

The words were a punch to the gut, driving the air from my lungs and doubling me over in pain.

I’d done this for nothing. All the destruction, pain, and death.

Fornothing.

His fingers were warm and gentle as he placed the charm around my neck. For all his immense strength, there was something fragile about him when he smiled down at me afterward, hazel eyes red-rimmed and glistening.

“I let my demon side take control,” I whispered, as thehealcharm took effect with a low-grade burning sensation thatpermeated my entire body. I was glad to have it, even though it would take hours to completely heal my wounds. Possibly days.

Ronan nodded, smoothed a strand of hair out of my face. “Been there, bonita.”

“I meant literally.” I flinched as a tear trickled from the corner of my eye and puddled in a raw spot above my ear. “She severed my connection to my earth witch and dragged me into the darkness.”

“Sometimes we have to sink into the darkness to do what must be done. I know that as well as anyone.”

“I was so angry, so scared for everyone,” I said. “Filled with vengeance.”

“Because of Trey,” Ronan said, his voice cracking on the young wolf’s name. “Because you believed that what had happened to him was going to happen to Rory if you didn’t do something.”

“Not only Rory.” My voice rose with panic. “Everyone. I was so afraid that my magic wasn’t strong enough. I gave her complete control.”