13. Raven
There was a horrible sense of dread curled up in the pit of my stomach. The longer the night had worn on the more that dread spread further inside of me.
It was to the point where one wrong move and I was going to end up getting physically sick.
I should never have agreed to any of this. The whole night had fucked my coven all up and the ride home had been full of tense, angry silence.
If I didn’t end up punching Rain in the stupid mouth for this one there was a really good chance that one of my men just might do it themselves and I wasn’t going to be able to hold it against them.
The bodies in the woods had been reduced to nothing but ash and then carried away on the wind.
The fires had been put out.
The area had been secured and contained.
Anyone who’d been left alive had long since vanished and there was no one left to be found.
This did not sit well with me at all.
The people responsible for this massacre did not need to be out free in the world. Not after what they’d already showed they were capable of.
There was no telling what else they’d do to the people they might come in contact with.
And who the hell knew what the hell had happened that had pushed them over the edge and made them snap the way that they had.
They were a danger to everyone and they needed to be caught and detained immediately.
And we had no fucking clue who they even were. The only person who could possibly tell us anything would be Autumn.
Or that damn Finn and not only had he seemed to shut down completely but Rain was coddling him to the point where even Romero had looked annoyed with the man.
Since Finn was clearly out that left Autumn and by no means did I have faith that she would be up to the task.
And I did not like the look in Rain’s eyes one bit. He was going to do what he had to do to get the answers he wanted.
This situation was so completely fucked it wasn’t even funny.
And I was never going to invite any of these fuckers back into my home for anything ever again.
The mood was somber all around when we walked into the house.
We found Ariel and Isobel in the living room watching some vampire show on the big tv. The coffee table was covered in a plethora of snacks and drinks.
I had no idea two tiny women, one even being pregnant, could eat so much.
My girl was nowhere to be seen and my mood, already in the dumps, soured even more.
I hoped like hell she hadn’t stayed holed up in her bedroom the entire time we had been gone. I wanted her to feel comfortable enough to roam freely here. I wanted her to feel at home for however long she decided to stay with us.
Especially after seeing the condition of where she’d actually lived before we rescued her.
I invited these women here because I trusted them and if they had made our potential female uncomfortable then I would have no one else to blame but myself and I would have a hard time forgiving myself for this one.
“Where’s the forest witch at?” Rain rumbled out before anyone else had a chance to speak.
Both women looked back over the couch at us. Neither of them seemed surprised to see our arrival. The tv was loud and I knew none of us had made any noise when we’d entered the house through the garage. The house had a lot of magic sunk into it and the lack of noise was by design.
Rain was out of his fucking mind though if he thought he could walk into my house and demand to see the girl. He also wasn’t going to just interrogate her because he was pissed off about what we’d walked into in the woods.
We were all raw and emotional because of it.
“Dad.” Ariel stood up and the blanket she’d had covering her lap fell to her feet at the floor. “What’s wrong?”
“Finn,” Isobel whispered. “Why do you look like that? Come here, baby.”
She held her arms open and Finn immediately ran to her. He dropped to his knees in front of the couch and buried his face in her protruding belly.
“Oh, my sweet boy,” she crooned as she ran her fingers through his hair. “Whatever it is it’ll be okay. I promise. We can get through anything just so long as we’re together.”
This was a touching moment and all and I was happy for them, but they weren’t my priority at the moment. And I really didn’t know Finn enough to care about what his damage was at the moment.
I had to find Autumn and tell her all of her people were dead.
Finn and his emotions could wait.
“Ariel,” I called out gruffly and her wild green eyes swung my way. “Where’s my witch at?”
My men had nothing to say to that.
Fuck it, I was claiming her until she told me she wanted to be somewhere else with another coven.
Rain made an angry noise in the back of his throat but fuck him too. I didn’t care about what he thought either.
Ariel searched my face and her eyes softened. “She went outside hours ago to explore the greenhouse. We let her go alone because she told us she wanted to be by herself. I thought it was only fair to let her be because she deserves that. We haven’t checked on her or anything, but we talked to her before she went out there and she didn’t act like she’d been afraid of us or anything. We were very welcoming to her, Raven. I promise you that.”
I believed her and my shoulders relaxed a little bit. Ariel might be wild and she did whatever the fuck she wanted but she was good people and she’d always root for the underdog when it came to female witches. Or just witches in general.
“That was hours ago though, Raven. Like, a lot of them. She spent the whole night out there. I’d probably go and check on her if I were you.”
I blinked at her.
Did she just say spent the whole night out there?
What the fuck.
There was giving the girl space and there was common sense.
“I’ll go get her,” Rain offered oh so helpfully.
“Dad!” Ariel hissed.
I growled under my breath. And I wasn’t the only one in my coven who did.
“Rain, really,” Romero said in exasperation. “You’re not helping anything by being an asshole right now. Let them look after the girl while we take care of our boy. He needs us right now. Your hero complex can wait until later. Come on.”
I blinked. Romero wasn’t really known for being a levelheaded person. None of them were, but I hadn’t expected him to be the voice of reason out of n the bunch.
Romero grabbed Rain by the arm and dragged him around the couch. He pushed the man down on the couch beside Isobel and sat down as well, sandwiching Rain between them.
“Uh,” Ariel muttered uncomfortably. “I’m just going to head on up to my room. You guys know where I’ll be if you need me for anything.”
“You’re welcome to stay down here with us,” Romero said in a gruff voice. “We’re all family and you don’t have to run off.”
Ariel looked at me with wide, frantic eyes and, despite the situation, I almost laughed.
I smirked at her before heading across the living room towards the back door. I felt the presence of my coven as they all followed me. Like I knew they always would.
Now that my blood had cooled down I realized the air had as well. Fall was almost here and the summer weather had disappeared. I was glad the greenhouse was heated and she wasn’t out in the woods in the cold.
It was a miracle that we had found her when we did. Otherwise her dead body would have been in the pile with the rest of them that we’d found tonight.
That thought fucked with me more than I wanted it to.
This girl was under my skin and I had barely even spoken to her yet.
The lights in the greenhouse were on when we walked in. That was a good indication that she was still out here.
Everything else was…
“Holy fuck,” Liam breathed out in awe.
“You can say that again,” Scout choked out.
“This is…” Gunner trailed off, at an obvious loss for words.
Incredible is what it was. To say the very least.
The whole entire place had been transformed into something truly magical. Magical and beautiful and just… left me at a loss for words.
“She did this?” Mason murmured in confusion as he looked around the space. “How long was she in here for?”
“All night.” I muttered under my breath as I searched the space for the beautiful girl.
It had become a tropical jungle in here. The whole space overflowed with greenery and flowers and fruits and vegetables.
I didn’t understand if she was capable of this then why the crops in the forest weren’t growing.
Then it hit me.
The markings on her face that told the story of what would befall anyone who harmed the girl.
They were warnings for a reason and they clearly hadn’t been taken seriously.
Not that anything that had happened to those people was Autumn’s fault at all, because it certainly was not. I had a feeling she was entirely blameless in everything.
We searched high and low throughout the entire greenhouse now turned jungle and the girl was nowhere to be found.
“Fuck.”
Where the hell could she be?
If something happened to her I was going to lose my goddamn mind.