Part 7

Saga started walking down the beach and every now and then she would stop and look over at the cluster of trees. It broke my heart to watch her and when I caught up to her, she started talking and I listened. She had really thought this through and she had been busy with a plan of her own for the last three months. Her plan also scared the shit out of me.

“We have to do something, Kai,” she said and her eyes seemed to plead with mine.

“I know, Sis, but luring them out to the forest and killing them? That’s murder. How are you planning to kill them once you have them here?” I asked her.

“Dad has journals, death spells…” Her voice trailed off and my eyes widened.

“No way! You know what happens when you do that! He almost died using death magic!” I said to her.

We both grew up hearing the stories of the twelve witches that came to Seward to kill him, his time in Helheim and the physical pain you feel when you use that type of magic. Kiran had closed off that part of his life and he had never again used death magic, promising our mother that he would never teach it to us.

“Then you kill them as a wolf!” she said emotionally.

She had started her club at school, using an interview as cover as she entranced one girl after the other and delved into their memories. She found five more girls at our school that had been raped by Greg and his friends. Their two friends, Steven and Mike, were still out there.

At first, the search for Greg, Kyle and Pete took the town by storm and their pictures were posted everywhere. They were last seen at our birthday party and Malachi had handed in our statements and told them that we didn’t know anything. Everyone had been questioned, and according to them, everyone had started to leave by two a.m. Most of them didn’t remember if we had left with them or not because most had been too drunk to remember.

As the months passed by, the search slowed down. They were still looking for them and they were still listed as missing but most people thought they had run away. I didn’t really feel bad for anyone, not their families or their friends. They deserved to die and I wondered sometimes if that made me a bad person.

“If you don’t want to help me, I understand, but they have to die. They’ll never stop doing what they’ve been doing because it’s been too easy for them. How many more girls have to go through this, Kai? What if it was Kari next on their target list?” My head snapped up toward hers as she said Kari’s name.

“That’s not fair,” I said. I already suffered through my own guilt every single day that I looked at her. “Let me just think because nobody can know about this.”

Saga bit her lip and looked down briefly. “I did a seance.” 

White hot anger shot through me and I glared at her. “Why would you do that?” I was yelling now and she got that Kiran look in her eyes.

“Because two years ago a girl killed herself after she was raped in Sterling…by them!” She yelled back and I looked down. Shit. This was just getting worse and worse. “I made a deal with her that they would die.”

“You know you can’t make deals with the dead! They always want more and more,” I said to her.

“I have to do something or I’ll scream or stop breathing or something!” she said defiantly. “The fact that they still walk around at school and I see them every day, knowing what they’ve done and will do again…it’s sickening!”

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” I asked her angrily. All this time they’ve been sitting at our lunch table and now I know why Saga didn’t eat in the cafeteria anymore. It deflated all my anger instantly knowing that her trauma never really stopped. She was staring at it every day and I’d been oblivious, again.

“Because I wanted to know for sure that it was Mike and Steve,” she said softly.

I pulled her against me and hugged her tightly. “Okay, just don’t do anything stupid, until we at least have a better plan.”

“You’re the best, Kai,” she said.

We stood on the beach for a long time while I held her. I knew we had to go home at some point but Saga and I had reached a pivotal point in our relationship. I drove us home and Kiran shook his head when Saga walked in with me.

“Helping your sister skip school?” he asked me with a smile.

“Love you too, Daddy,” Saga said and went upstairs as Kiran smiled and looked down at this phone.

“Your mother’s on her way,” Kiran said and seconds later I heard her car in the garage. Great.

Adara walked into the house and glared at me as Kiran picked up the newspaper and hid behind it. “Kai Gabriel Sinclair!” Kiran chuckled and Adara turned toward him. “I see you, Kiran! This isn’t funny anymore! Bubble wrap and confetti? And you put his house on sale and the superglue?” Her anger rolled off her in waves and Kiran nudged his head in the direction of the stairs. I grabbed my bag and walked up the stairs just as they started talking again.

“Give him some credit, listing Rush’s house for sale was kind of genius,” Kiran said and I smiled.

“And the superglue?” she asked him.

“That wasn’t him,” Kiran said and I wondered how he knew that I really hadn’t done that.

“You didn’t!” Adara said loudly and Kiran started to laugh. “It’s time for him to grow up, Kiran, and you’re not helping when you pull the same stunts.”

“I know. You’re right. I’ll talk to him,” Kiran said and my heart sank. This would not end well. When Kiran spoke in that tone of voice, his Alpha voice, everybody listened, including me.