Chapter 15
Fifteen
EMERY
For the longest moment, no one moves.
Not Delaney, who has a blade protruding from her hand. Not the witches behind her, who are gaping in horror. Not Travan, who is laughing maniacally, his windswept brown hair dancing around his face.
But I know, just like everyone else, that this is merely the calm before the storm. Rain clouds are coming, and they’re coming fast. Really damn fast.
Ashton takes an automatic step backwards, reaching for first my arm and then Reid’s in an attempt to drag us back towards the tree line.
That minuscule movement captures Delaney’s attention, and her eyes sharpen, flaying my skin like the serrated edge of a knife.
With a scowl, she reaches for the hilt of the blade and tugs it out of her flesh, tossing it carelessly to the side.
“That.” She directs her gaze back at Travan, who’s still laughing uproariously. “Was rude.”
Then she closes her eyes.
“Oh shit,” I murmur.
The air thickens with the scent of imminent conflict. My heart races in my chest.
More and more wolves have joined Travan—some in their human form while others have shifted, but all of them hurling daggers with their eyes at Delaney and her coven.
Gerry spins to face us, wild desperation painted on his face. “Boys, you need to get to the forest. Now. You need to—”
One of the wolves I recognize—an older man who runs the local bar—lunges at the coven in his shifter form, his claws slashing through the air.
With a swift motion, Delaney extends her hand towards the man beside her for him to take.
The two of them chant, their words flowing together, and a barrier of shimmering energy surrounds them.
The wolf slams into the invisible wall with a deafening thud, the impact sending a shockwave through the clearing.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” I mutter.
Wolves surge forward, moving as one, their fangs bared. All I can hear are the sounds of snarls and growls as they approach Delaney’s barrier.
One of the witches—or is he a warlock because he’s a dude?
—steps forward, and a wave of his hand sends a barrage of thorny vines shooting from the ground, wrapping around the nearest wolves’ legs.
They howl in fury and struggle to break free, but the vines constrict, digging into their flesh and drawing blood.
“Well, isn’t this a thorn in my side!” Travan calls from where he’s nearly entirely encircled by green vines. “Get it? Thorn in my side? I’ve been trying to think of a new catchphrase for a while, and I think I might’ve stumbled across something amazing.”
As I watch, transfixed, his hand distorts, his fingers lengthening until they resemble talons. Dark, spindly talons that seem to emit wisps of shadows. With another laugh, he slashes through the magical thorns like they’re nothing but silly string.
Travan races forward and reaches upwards, grabbing at a branch. With a tug, he tears it free and then waves it in the air over his head.
A witch lifts her hands, her lips moving to mutter an incantation, but before she can get a word out, Travan stabs her through the chest with the branch.
“You’ve given me…wood,” Travan murmurs to the dying witch.
His brow crinkles, and he abruptly releases the branch—and consequently the witch who’s still attached to it.
“Huh. That catchphrase was a little too perverted even for me, don’t you agree?
How about instead… Do you want some milk and sugar with that tree? ”
“He’s crazy,” Ashton breathes in horror.
“Yes, he is.” Gerry swallows. “You guys need to find Kyle and Silas. Now. They’re the only ones who may be able to calm him down.”
Reid balls his hands into fists. “But Izzy—”
“Do you think the witches will ever give her back if we kill half their coven?” Gerry hisses. “Travan won’t stop until someone stops him. And the only person who can stop him and not be killed isn’t here. Kyle and Silas have a fifty-fifty chance of surviving.”
I blink at Gerry, unsure if he’s joking or not. But nope. There’s not a hint of mirth in his eyes. He’s one hundred percent serious.
Fuck.
A younger witch—who can’t be older than twenty—rushes forward, her eyes emitting a soft blue light, but one of the wolves leaps at her with terrifying speed.
His claws rake across her chest, and she cries out in pain, barely managing to push him away with a blast of energy that sends him skidding back.
A short distance away, a shifter still in human form is dodging the attack of a tall, willowy witch with pitch-black hair.
The air around her shimmers with energy, and in a sudden burst of light, a blinding flash of lightning arcs towards the human shifter.
The bolt strikes with incredible force, sending the wolf flying back, his hair singed and his body twitching.
Chaos. Absolute fucking chaos.
And Travan? My mate’s father? He simply laughs giddily like this entire show of death and carnage has been set up for his amusement. He stealthily moves through the fighting witches and wolves, that unhinged smile never faltering.
Until he reaches the magical barrier cocooning Delaney and the warlock. All at once, his smile fades, and a malevolence I’ve never seen before enters his dark eyes.
“Give. Me. My. Daughter.” He slams his fist against the barrier, but it manages to hold.
His knuckles come away red and raw.
“She needs to be trained,” Delaney hisses. Her hair seems to hover around her in all directions like she’s underwater. “Let me protect her.”
“You? Protect her?” Travan hits the barrier again, this time with those strange, shadowy claws of his.
The energy flickers, wavering for just a moment, but it’s enough time for Travan to push all the way through.
Without preamble, he shoves his entire hand into the male warlock’s chest and rips out his heart.
“Don’t go breaking my heart,” he murmurs to the dead warlock, and I realize the crazy fucker is still trying to come up with a suitable catchphrase.
“Damn,” Reid says, wincing. “Remind me to never get on his bad side.”
“We’re mated to his daughter. We’re already on his bad side,” I reply. Then, in a lower voice, I add, “I’m totally going to piss my pants the first time we’re officially introduced.”
Reid, the biggest, scariest motherfucker I know, says, “Same.”
I can no longer hear Delaney and Travan’s conversation. They don’t appear to be fighting, though. Just…talking. Delaney’s eyes are cold glass shards, and I can no longer see Travan’s expression. Somehow, that makes it even more terrifying.
I don’t think there’s anything scarier than Travan’s unpredictability.
“Move!” Ashton roughly shoves me aside, racing forward with two familiar men directly behind him.
He must’ve left to find Silas and Kyle while I was just standing here like a gawking idiot.
It only takes Silas and Kyle a second to assess the situation.
“Travan!” Silas bellows, charging for his pack mate.
But just as he takes a step, a witch thrusts her palms out, and the ground beneath his feet cracks open. Stone pillars shoot up, pinning him in place, holding him trapped in a small prison.
Silas yells something, and then the stone shatters around him when he bursts through as a large gray and white wolf.
His one eye swivels in both directions until it lands on the witch who trapped him.
He leaps at her, but instead of killing her, he simply hits her with his paw until she falls unconscious.
“Goddammit, Travan.” Kyle scrubs a hand down his face, looking as if the weight of the world is resting on his shoulders.
“You don’t sound that surprised by what you see.” Ashton turns towards Kyle incredulously.
Kyle winces. “We were teaching Travan self-control,” he says in explanation.
“You’re saying that he’s going on a murderous rampage because he doesn’t have a stress ball to squeeze?” Ashton’s brows touch his hairline.
“We need to calm him down before he kills everyone,” Gerry interrupts, his eyes fixed on Delaney and Travan.
Delaney’s hands are slightly raised, her palms emitting white magic. But she doesn’t make a move to attack. Not yet.
Silas, still in wolf form, finally reaches the two rivals and stops directly beside Travan. The crazy bastard grins down at the wolf and then begins to pet him, all the while conversing with Delaney as if this is a casual Saturday night and he’s out at the park with his dog.
Delaney nods in response to something Travan says then takes a step back. She lifts her hand in the air—the one that once had a blade in it. A gaping hole remains, oozing blood.
All at once, the fighting witches are tossed in one direction while the shifters fly in the other. I stagger back as well, the force of her raw power nearly sending me onto my ass.
“Enough!” Her shrill voice echoes through the clearing. She turns towards her coven. “We will be leaving now.”
“What?!” This comes from the black-haired witch I noted earlier. Incredulity colors her tone. “After what they did—?”
“We will be leaving,” Delaney repeats, her eyes narrowing on the woman. “Or do you wish to challenge me, Merida?”
Merida opens her mouth, closes it, and then bows her head submissively. Delaney nods as if that’s what she expected.
Without another word, she begins to walk towards the forest, her coven trailing behind her. A few of them stop to retrieve their dead, but no one talks. Blood is smeared across the asphalt and grass, glinting in the moonlight.
One by one, the witches disappear from sight. Literally disappear. It’s as if they’re being swallowed up by the darkness itself, becoming one with the night.
I watch them go, my mouth agape, until Travan claps his hands together cheerfully and bounces from foot to foot.
“That was fun, wasn’t it?” he asks.
“Meeting. Inside. Now,” Kyle hisses, directing this at Silas, Travan, and surprisingly Gerry. He then turns towards the three of us. “You three as well.”
“I need to find Ethan,” I protest. “And Izzy.”
“And Christian,” Ashton adds, his fingers tapping rhythmically against his thigh.
It feels like I can’t breathe with my mate and twin gone. They’re two pieces of my soul—different but equally important. Watching all those wolves die earlier this evening taught me one thing.
Life is too short to be angry.
I need to find Ethan, tell him I forgive him, and work to reconcile. Maybe we won’t be able to repair our relationship completely, but we can certainly try.
Then I’m going to take Izzy in my arms, spin her around, and confess that I’m falling in love with her.
I may not be there entirely yet—I haven’t been in love before, so I have no idea what it even feels like—but I know that my heart skips a beat whenever she’s in the room.
That I can’t think when she’s gone. That even just the thought of her hair makes my hands clammy.
We need to find them. Soon.
“This is about Izzy,” Kyle tells us, his face drawn tight.
Ashton eyes the older man with barely veiled disdain. “This has something to do with you three being Izzy’s biological fathers?”
All of the color drains from Kyle’s face. “W-what?”
“We know,” Ashton says curtly, his eyes narrowing. “She knows. I don’t know why you think you have a say in anything to do with her after you abandoned her for—”
Ashton flies through the air and smacks into a tree. He twists midway and transforms into a wolf, his claws digging into the earth. He growls low.
“Oops.” Travan deadpans from where he stands directly where Ashton once was. “My hand slipped.”
Ashton lowers his head, another growl rattling his chest, but Kyle moves to stand between the two men, his arms raised to fend them off.
“Enough.” He levels the two of them with an indecipherable look before gritting out, “Inside. Now.”