“What?“ A bitter laugh tore itself out of my chest. No one would be left to cling to me? He still had the nerve to be possessive about me?Ignoring his foolish confession, I pressed on to understand his line of logic. “But instead, you fed the people you were to save to him. The same people you once ordered to follow you.”His mouth twitched. “It was never really about them.”“Of course it wasn’t,” I retorted with a tight tone as my fingers itched to hit him. He participated in the death of my parents, yet he was standing there like he had any right to say the things that were leaving his wretched mouth.I once thought I’d run out of room for rage where he was concerned, but he still found ways to surprise me. My sorcery hummed under my skin, restless and hungry to bite into him the way my wolf promised. All of me shared the same instinct to break him.But before I could tell him to leave, he tried to plead further, “You don’t know what it’s like. Seeing you. Knowing you were mine and
Vorare was a sorcerer prodigy who dabbled with death when the old sorcery was still pure. He apparently tried to grow stronger than Gaia herself, so he found ways to bind himself to the line between life and what comes after.At least, that was the summary Becca spat out hours ago. She’d said it all so carelessly, too. Apparently, Vorare wasn’t some mindless entity but an embodiment of hunger wrapped in a dead man’s ambition.Becca herself had no intention to summon him because she wasn't powerful enough to attempt control. She was merely channeling him to use dark sorcery, and Higan, unaware of the threat went on to summon him.Why? That was the missing piece of information left. According to Becca, the scroll made it clear what Vorare really was. There were warnings inked on the parchment, yet he went ahead to do it anyway.I couldn't help but doubt that Higan wasn't being entirely senseless about it. In fact, I didn’t buy that he’d done it blindly. Higan Sinclair never did anything
“And?” Ethan demanded.Higan’s voice eagerly rambled out before the beta could answer. “I didn’t lie. It should’ve worked. The scroll said it would.“What scroll? I didn't catch any at the scene.Tyler mocked with a laugh beside me. “Should’ve? That thing out there is working?”Higan’s eyes darted wide to me instead. “It was supposed to force them out. The Melbringers. Not… that. Not this.”I didn't like the way his eyes were probing into mine like he expected me to suddenly understand him. Neither did Ethan, as his authority pushed through the air. The werewolves grew more tense, and Higan gritted his teeth.The beta beside him pushed on with a tremble in his voice. “He brought the scroll. And a glass eye. He told us it was from the old 'pack vaults.'”He lied about where he got it from, too. I thought.My necklace hummed again against my collarbone, so I reached to caress it. The shape of my mother’s old magic burned under my ribs. It had been doing so since the parking lot.Ethan b
In all the time I had known Higan, I thought of him as vain, shallow, and arrogant. Despite him being my supposed mate, I could never understand what about Higan was meant for me. Especially as I grew to realize his affinity for petty cruelty.Yet there he was. Nothing more but a boy planted right at the edge of a nightmare of his own making, pleading with his shame-filled eyes.I could feel Ethan’s mind pushing to read mine, but it was now a steel trap snapping shut around instinct.Higan's not my problem, not right now.The real threat grew menacing behind Higan, and we all needed to deal with it or Springville would be devoured.I dashed to the people pressed down by the pressure. Their eyes appeared to be in a hollow daze as their will seemingly diminished by the minute.Taking a page out Ethan's book, I called my wolf out using my authority. The werewolves in the clearing all half-lifted their heads at the same second.“Prepare to move out,” I barked out, hoping it was enough to
How obvious of her. I shuffled forward, slow enough that she could track the intent in my shoulders. “I can see your head turning, Becca. You really think you’re walking out of this one alive?”Becca’s grin slipped at the edges, but she didn’t drop it. In fact, it looked bored and condescending to the very curve. “You can kill me. You want to, I can see it. But you should consider that if I’m gone, the only information about what that is dies with me. Higan has no clue what he stole, or to be clear,” she looked right into my eyes this time,” Who he stole.”Suddenly, I'm back in the forest, at the Stark Mansion, right after my spar with Abigail, learning how far I can see and hear into town. The twisted voice I heard her talking to, the one that bled through my ears. The moment it all started.How had I missed that? I assumed it was a Melbringer, but I had never encountered what sounded so wrong so far, not even when I broke into her home.A muscle in her cheek twitched once more. She
Becca’s blatantly amused laughter quickly turned guttural with my nails digging into the skin of her neck.She was so confident she could swallow me whole in the dreamspace as though being weak herself didn't matter. I desperately wanted to smack the confidence from her upturned lips.I pressed tighter against her throat. Any minute now, or so I would urge myself to snap her neck. Yet, I hesitated. Would killing her here really do anything?Out of the blue, smoky shadows speared from her sides like spikey, sharpened tentacles, and they dug right into my gut.Blood leaked out of my wounds as I gritted my teeth, refusing to have her hear me scream out in pain. “Is that it? I can heal faster than you can cut me.”The smoky shadows twisted sharply, and they burned where they touched flesh.Becca leaned in, leaving the surreal feel of her breath to brush my ear. “Your parents beg to differ.”The rage tore through my bones before she could move her lips to smile again. I cried out and slamm