CHAPTER 44

HELENA'S POV

The room felt wrong without Jarett in it. The beeping of the IV was louder. The chair he’d been sitting in was still warm.

I hated being weak. I hated that the team had a game in three days and I was the reason they might lose it.

I knew Mason froze without the play I’d written for him in the margins of his notebook.

I knew our goalie overcommitted on breakaways if no one reminded him to stay patient. I knew Jarett played reckless if he didn’t eat before puck drop. Without me on that bench, they were going to get slaughtered.

My phone buzzed. 47 messages in the team chat.

*Cap: Where u at H?*

*Dell: We’re screwed without her tape jobs*

*Mason: Coach is losing it. Our game plan is trash*

Dell had taken over my taping duties. He was good, but he didn’t know that Mason’s left shoulder was still tight from last month, or that our rookie defenseman lied when he said his wrist was fine.

I closed my eyes. Even though I was a quarter-wolf raised on human food and human hospitals, I was their medic.

And right now I was useless, I was just a clipboard and a brain trapped in a body that wouldn’t move.

The door opened without anyone knocking on it and a woman walked in.

She looked to be in her late 40s, she had on a dark wool coat and she smelled like rain and crushed herbs and something old, like paper left in a drawer too long. The nurses didn’t stop her as she came in.

“Helena?” she said.

“Who are you?”

She smiled, revealing teeth that looked too sharp.

“Someone who doesn’t believe in plastic domes. I heard you were hungry.”

She set a paper bag on my tray, it had real noodles that was still steaming.

The smell hit me and my stomach twisted, because hospital food had been my whole world for four days.

“I’m not supposed to take food from strangers.”

“Good,” she said. “Because I’m not a stranger. I’m Maren. And your boyfriend is about to do something very stupid for you.”

My blood went cold. “What do you mean?”

She sat in Jarett’s chair like she owned it. She didn’t ask. She just did. “Werewolves and witches haven’t spoken in 200 years. But Jarett is driving three hours to my cottage right now to beg for a healing potion. Because you’re too weak to coach and he’d rather break the oldest treaty in the state than watch you lose the game.”

The word witches sounded ridiculous in my head. Like something from a movie. “Witches are real?”

“Very,” she said. “And if he brings me here, the Council will call it treason. So the question is, Helena... are you worth starting a war for?”

I stared at the noodles, the steam curled up and died against the cold air. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you deserve to know the price before it’s paid,” Maren said. “And because I want to see what you do with it.”

The lights flickered once. The IV pump beeped and reset. Maren’s smile widened. “He’s coming. And he’s bringing trouble.”

Then she stood. She didn’t walk to the door. She turned, took two steps, and went straight through the window.

There was no glass breaking, no alarm. Just a cold draft and the faint smell of rain, and then she was gone.

My heart was hammering. Jarett was going to a witch, all because of me, what the hell for? Werewolves and witches weren't even on good terms.

I grabbed my phone with shaking hands. There were no new text messages from him. The last message I saw was from two hours ago telling me to rest that he was going to be back soon.

Like hell yeah he was going to be back soon!

I tried to stand but the room tilted, the IV tugged at my arm. I sat back down hard and cursed. I was still very weak. But the game was in 72 hours and my team thought I was abandoning them.

Maren’s words kept looping in my head. Thepû oldest treaty in the state was a treason and a war.

I didn’t even know witches existed ten minutes ago. Now one had sat in my hospital room and told me my boyfriend was risking exile to get me back on the ice.

Then my phone chimed and I knew it was a message from the other coach. I opened the text message and read it.

"The 5 AM bus is almost leaving, we need you here, not just for the tapes but for heads. They’re falling apart without you."

I pressed my forehead to my palms. I could picture it.

Mason second-guesses every line change. Dell, trying to do my job and his and missing both. Jarett playing angry because he was worried and hungry and I wasn’t there to shove a granola bar in his hand.

The door opened again and I jerked upright. It was nurse Alina. She looked around, frowning.

“Did someone come in here? The monitor spiked.”

“No,” I said too quickly.

She glanced at the takeout bag. “Hospital policy says no outside food allowed.”

“I’m not eating it,” I said. Which was true. I couldn’t. Not after what Maren said.

Alina left after that and the quiet came back, heavier this time.

At 10:13 PM my phone rang, the number wasn't saved on my phone and it was from an uknown number.

I almost didn’t answer but then I did and the voice that broke through was Jarrett's.

“Helena.” he said in a rough voice, like he’d been driving with the windows down in the rain.

“Where are you?” I asked him.

“Don’t ask,” he said. “I’m almost there.”

“Almost where?” I asked, my brows furrowing with worry.

“The hospital,” he paused. “Don’t let anyone in. Don’t open the door for anyone but me and the doctor. Got it?”

My chest tightened. “You went to her, didn’t you? Maren.”