16. Echo
Chapter 16
Echo
TUESDAY
M y body was still shaking, but I managed to catch Isla before she hit the ground. Kneeling down, I carefully situated her in my arms and prayed that she was okay. Wells was right next to me, anxiously checking her over, as I tried to wrap my mind around what had happened.
A rundown greenhouse that appeared out of nowhere.
A prophecy.
Reality unraveling.
I couldn’t even begin to analyze what that all meant.
During the entire interaction, I had seen not just Isla standing there, but a man as well. He was lurking right beside her, his body hidden in swirling shadows, but I caught a hint of glowing amber eyes and tattoos before he disappeared.
The mystery man’s focus had been completely on Isla, and the concern on his face deepened the further Isla was dragged beneath the swell of power. He never acknowledged Wells or me, and there was just something about the incident that made me hold my tongue instead of asking the witch if he had seen the person as well.
What the hell was going on?!
“I think she’ll be okay. She’s out, but her power levels feel fine and she’s breathing normally,” Wells announced, bringing me back to the present.
He rocked back on his heels and shakily exhaled as he rubbed his face. His shoulders slumped, like knowing that Isla was okay had lifted a huge weight off of him. My eyes narrowed at the guy, and I shifted Isla closer to me as if that would prevent him from getting any more interested in the girl I’d had my eye on since day one.
He squinted at the greenhouse, his curiosity barely contained, but then he shook his head. “I don’t think we should go in there without Isla. It feels… It feels like we wouldn’t be welcome, like we would be invading her space.”
I had to agree with him. The building looked beautiful in the way abandoned old buildings were. There was history in every stone of the greenhouse, but that history didn’t feel as… dead as it should. Something about the structure felt alive. It was a relic of the past, but I could never consider it dormant. There seemed to be some level of awareness there that wasn’t normal. It felt like the greenhouse was waking up, and it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
“Echo? Wells?” Isla asked, her voice rough and confused. Slowly, I helped her sit up, and she grabbed my hand, squeezing it. My chest puffed up with pride. She needed reassurance, and she wanted it from me . I barely had a moment to bask in that feeling before the warmth was followed by a pang of hunger. The sensation radiated in the pit of my stomach and deep in my bones. My cock ached, and it took everything in me to keep myself in check.
I need to feed. Soon.
The prospect wasn’t as appealing as it used to be.
“What… What just happened?”
“The Crone. She moved through you,” I answered, using the name of the ancient goddess I honored. Ancient, powerful, wise, the Crone was the oldest face of the goddess. She could be the comfort you needed at the end of your life or unflinching merciless cold.
I didn’t know if witches worshiped the same goddess as me, but Wells and Isla didn’t seem confused by my explanation.
“How are you feeling?” Wells asked, his voice soft. He reached down and helped Isla stand up. Following suit, I brushed the dirt off my pants.
“Shaky. Confused.” Isla’s rough laugh couldn’t distract me from the way her hand shook as she ran it through her hair. “That didn’t happen the first time I found this place. I’m not sure I ever want to experience that again.”
“What happened the first time?” I asked, unable to hold back my curiosity.
“I just… found it. Went inside and looked around at the plants. There’s an inner office or bedroom of some kind. It looked like it had been used as both. It didn’t have this power associated with it before.”
Wells nodded thoughtfully, carefully studying the greenhouse.
“It’s odd,” I started, clearing my throat when the two witches focused on me. “I couldn’t even see this place until the power took over. Nothing! I didn’t see it the night we came out to look for it either, but Wells could see it.”
“Maybe it was hidden from people who aren’t witches?” Isla thought out loud, then she shook her head almost immediately. “That doesn’t feel right.”
“It could be my power.” Wells sighed, the pinch in his brow showing he was uncomfortable. “I don’t like to talk about it, but that might be why I could see it.”
“What power?” Isla asked.
“I’m a weaver,” Wells said, keeping his voice low as if someone would overhear us. “I don’t have a specialty, per se. I can learn every type of magick and weave them together into something new.”
I swallowed hard, curious about just what he had done with those powers to garner the attention of Greywood. Isla didn’t seem bothered. If anything, she appeared intrigued. Just as she opened her mouth to ask a question, Wells’ expression darkened. A shudder made his entire body shake then stiffen.
“I’d appreciate it if we kept this between the three of us. I don’t like?—”
“Of course,” I agreed with him easily.
Isla didn’t respond. She had a faraway look on her face that said she wasn’t fully here anymore. She was listening to something only she could hear or looking at something only she could see. Suddenly, she jolted, and then she was back with us. A long blink, then she nodded in answer to Wells’ request and looked over her shoulder at the greenhouse.
“I’m going inside,” she announced.
“That’s probably not— never mind.” Wells ran a hand over his face as Isla completely ignored him and waltzed inside like she hadn’t just been overtaken by an unknown power. She had no sense of self-preservation.
Thankfully, no magick took over her body this time around. The two of us shared a mutual look of frustration before I began to move. There was no way I would leave her to this place on her own.
It felt like another world inside the glass building. Plants were all over the place—climbing the walls and trailing along the floor, and the earthy scent was strong but not unpleasant. The warmth immediately made it feel like summer, and I wished I wasn’t wearing jeans.
Power washed over me after a few steps. It assessed, judged, then moved on. I had been approved. But by what? A shiver of cold ran down my spine, and I looked over to find an odd expression on Wells’ face before he caught up to me.
“Did you feel that?” I whispered, feeling like the greenhouse would hear me. Maybe it could.
“It let us enter,” he replied, dodging a low-hanging vine in the path. “Whether that was the place itself or Isla wanting us here, I don’t know.”
“I wonder if we can find out anything about this greenhouse,” Isla said as we located her in the mess of the place.
“Maybe at the library,” Wells guessed absently as his attention was caught by the inner sanctum that Isla had mentioned.
A circular bedroom and office in the middle of this place.
Somewhere along the way, Isla had ditched her bag and shoes. She walked around barefoot, softly humming as she petted the plants. She looked powerful and ethereal, like her power was illuminating her from the inside out.
“This place suits you,” I told her with a small smile.
Her head snapped up at that, and a grin slowly grew on her face, the happiness making her face flush.
“It feels familiar somehow. I’m not sure why but being here feels like coming home.”
“Will it stay here after we leave?”
“I think so,” Isla replied, walking closer to the two of us. “I don’t know if everyone will be able to see it, I guess, but I think I’ll be able to find it.”
“We’ll need to experiment,” Wells proposed. “A personal project.”
“Trying to get your mind off the sex magick one coming up?” I quipped. Wells shot me an annoyed look while Isla snorted.
“Just be careful when you’re walking around. There are a lot of poisonous plants here, and even brushing up against some of them can cause pain. It won’t kill you, but it’s not pleasant,” she warned.
Her hazel eyes were sparkling with contentment as she deeply inhaled. I understood exactly how she felt. It was the same feeling that filled me whenever I had sex… or, since I’d arrived at Greywood, whenever I watched her.
Today, she had on a pair of waist-high black trousers, black boots, and a black and white striped sleeveless blouse. Her black hair was curled, the strands slightly framing her pale face, and her lips were accentuated with her signature black lipstick. She was gorgeous.
Black was a thing with her, and I was a huge fan. It looked amazing on her.
That familiar hunger rumbled through me again, but it had nothing to do with needing dinner. No, I needed sex. Lust. Desire. It had been too long since I’d fed, but in my gut, I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy anymore. The only thing this incubus wanted was Isla, and she wasn’t giving me a second look.
I’d have to find someone to fuck, and soon. Getting hungrier could be dangerous for everyone around me. The last time a rut had taken over me, I had awoken to find myself surrounded by the bodies of people I had fucked to death. My brain stalled with quick flashbacks of the aftermath. Aizel had found me and helped clean up the evidence, not before our mother found out though.
Physically shuddering at the ghost of her reaction, I forcibly pushed away those memories.
I’d need to go hunting Friday after classes were over. Greywood had made it clear that we had to take care of ourselves. Food sources for incubi, succubi, and vampires were not kept on hand, so we had to figure it out ourselves.
I couldn’t go into a rut. Not here. Not with Isla. There were a lot of things I could handle, but her death wasn’t one of them. The incubus inside of me didn’t care about that though.
Nothing could stop it, and it wanted her.