Chapter 36 – Carina
Thirty-Six
CARINA
Ryder rushes away, but there’s a tether between us. I step past the barrier to follow, but he disappears into the trees. Although his destination is most likely his camp, following is a fruitless attempt.
The man’s made it known that I’m not welcome. No matter what’s happened between us, at the end of the day, I am a witch and he’s a shifter. If I walk into his territory uninvited, it’s cause for war.
My hand lifts to my mouth, swollen from the force behind his kiss. Unconsciously, I lick my bottom lip to reclaim his taste. For a moment, everything went blank—nothing mattered but him and how much I craved more.
Want him still. Which might make me stupid—pining after a man who literally carried me only to see me gone. But this still feels unfinished. This wasn’t the goodbye Ryder and I were meant to have.
Realistically, what kind of goodbye did you want? He was ready to send you packing to save his father.
I’ve lost my usefulness to him, but it’s more than that. Deep down, I know it. The things Ryder said, the tone he spoke in. He was truly terrified for me. His solution was to make me go away so he didn’t have to witness it.
My next sigh ends with an all-too-familiar pop and my name being exclaimed right before my mother’s arms wrap around my waist. “I swore I was imagining things when I felt your approach. What are you doing home? Not that I’m not happy to see you, of course.
” She straightens her arms to regard my face, tracking the sliver of emotion that’s slipped free in the time she grabbed me—the tear slipping down my cheek.
“Oh, honey.” She wipes my cheek. “What’s wrong? Actually, this isn’t the place. Come.” Her hand slides down my arm until she takes my hand, and seconds before we transport ourselves home, I glance over my shoulder.
Except, he’s gone.
In the root of my stomach, I feel it. Ryder left…
And he won’t be coming back.
It’s with an empty tone that I recount everything to Mom.
Alaric’s increasing illness, which she meets with pity; his death, which draws her sorrow; the black magick I took on, which leads to yelling before she calms enough for me to continue; and both Alaric and Ryder urging me to return, which she strongly agrees with.
I skip the ending and simply leave it at Ryder walking me back.
She regards me where I sit at the table, hands wrapped around a mug of hot tea. Aside from the hot spring in the caves, this is probably the warmest my hands have been in quite some time.
“This is a huge mess, isn’t it? At least, you’re home. I’m sorry about Alaric, but they were right. Twilight Grove coming after you has always been our issue, and now they’ll be safe.”
“They won’t be. I have to go back.”
Not for Ryder. Not because I’ll chase a man who doesn’t want me.
But because, as I recounted everything, it reminded me what I told Ryder earlier: Twilight Grove will still seek the pack for me.
They’d be taking on an entire coven of Dark witches trying to defend themselves.
Black magick mixed with whatever elemental magick lies between them won’t have a happy ending.
“They won’t stand a chance when Twilight Grove arrives.” Which could be anytime between now and morning.
Her lips pinch, disapproval evident. Deep down, she doesn’t care for them, but I do.
“There are kids, Mom. Babies. Elders who won’t be able to defend themselves.” Faces flit through my head. All the people I’ve come to be friendly with.
Claire, a child herself, and her friends.
Leah, who can’t shift, which means Xander will die defending her.
Marissa and Amos, weak with age. I’m uncertain of their capabilities.
Even the warriors won’t stand a chance. Conan, Holly, Elias, Graham…Ryder.
And so many more.
“I’ll cast a protection spell around their camp, same one as the town. They won’t be able to get through.”
Frustration drives my fingers into the tabletop. “It won’t be enough. “Ours is reaffirmed with your magick and overlaid with centuries of High Priestesses before you. If you only do theirs, it won’t hold up against Sloane and her coven.”
“What would you have me do then?” Mom snaps. “It’s better than nothing. You’re not going back. I didn’t like it the first time on Treaty Day, I didn’t like it after you learned why Ryder requested you, and I don’t like it now. It is dangerous.”
“Because we have no choice!” Tea spills from my cup as I jump to my feet, knocking the table with my hip. “You think I want to go with them? It’s a sacrifice for a reason! They might not have stake in it anymore, but we do. We can’t let them die because of my bloodline.”
Mom follows me up, her face devoid of emotion. Exactly the leader I’ve come to know, but the one I don’t want to be. Not if it means sacrificing others.
“Bring them here.” I bare my teeth at her, something I learned from Ryder, to make my point very fucking apparent. “We have a decent patch of forest within the town’s lines—our territory. Move the pack there and keep them safe while we figure this out.”
Mom rears back, blinking. “You want to move a group of shifters into our territory? Have you lost your mind or forgotten that, before this year, our kinds despised one another? How do you think the rest of the coven will take this? And that’s if the pack takes us up on the offer.”
Ryder would if it meant saving everyone.
A scraping comes from nearby, followed by a new voice. “So, I take it neither of you heard me knocking?”
“Jasper,” I breathe, using my cousin’s arrival to break the volatile atmosphere. I run towards him for a hug, using the hallway to fill my lungs with something that isn’t a battle brewing.
“Heard you were home. Happy to see you, but what’s going on?” He releases me to his side, looking between Mom and me.
“Tell your cousin she’s an idiot with a death wish.”
Jasper chuckles, clearly not sensing the turbulent situation. “That’s nothing new, but what is it this time?” He directs the question at me, immediately followed by another as he blinks. “Wait, why are you home?”
With an aggravated sigh, I recount the same story, this time against the background composition of Mom’s foot tapping against the floor.
As soon as the last word passes my mouth, she exclaims, “See! Tell her, Jasper. She can’t leave.”
My cousin chews on the corner of his mouth as he looks between us. “Auntie, hate to say, but Car’s not wrong. We both know Twilight Grove doesn’t actually care about the Alpha’s illness, but they won’t take kindly to the fact that Alaric is dead and Carina’s unreachable again.”
“Thank you!” I exclaim.
“But,” he continues, rendering my winning useless as he drags his attention towards me, “I also agree that you don’t need to be in danger. The pack should move here.”
Mom’s jaw cracks so hard, it echoes through the space. “I can’t move an entire group of them into our territory—High Priestess or otherwise. The coven needs to be on board about this, or we’re about to have a whole lot of deaths on our hands when both sides attack one another.”
“So talk to them.” I motion my hands in a waving gesture, intending for her to do that this instant, despite it being late. “I’ll head back to Ryder and explain what we’re willing to do.”
Mom pinches her nose with a heavy sigh. “No one is going anywhere or doing anything until morning. Correction, you’re going to bed…after you shower.” She rakes her eyes up and down, nose crinkling. “Seriously, they have you showering in a creek or something?”
“Or something.” I shrug. “Been using magick mainly, with soap I was sure to pack.”
“Well, this conversation is over for now.” She glances at Jasper. “You’re going home and I’m going for a damn drink. Hecate, this is too much.” A drink means she’s going to Jasper’s house, so she can talk with her sister—his mother.
She stalks by us both without waiting to see us follow her instructions. I peek behind into the hallway, waiting until the door slams shut before turning to my cousin, hand held out. “Take me back to the pack.”
His sigh tips his head back. “Guessing your mother’s instructions will not be followed?”
“You said it, too. They need our help.”
“Sure, but tomorrow is an option. It’s late. There’s nothing that can happen right now anyway.”
“We both know the outcome of the conversation Mom will have with the others. Jasper, half of them hate even the concept of shifters. They won’t care. Besides, Sloane can come anytime now, so we’re literally out of time.”
He tilts his head back to me, brows scrunching together. “Why do you care so much?”
“There are kids,” I say, feeding him one of the same excuses I did Mom. Although, it’s not a complete lie. “And not all shifters can fight for themselves.”
“Nah, that’s not all, is it? It’s okay to care about them, Carina. Hecate knows, who we care about doesn’t always make sense. Look at Harlow.”
Feeling him coming around to my side, I grip his hand, my action begging him to get me out of here. “Exactly. When Mom returns and finds me gone, she doesn’t know where the pack is located. This is my only chance to slip away.”
“She’ll follow your trace,” he reminds me—the magickal signature every witch has and the one the High Priestess can use to track anyone in the coven.
“She won’t because she knows I’m correct. Besides, you’ll be here to prevent that.”
His breath billows out in a long sigh, finally comprehending the true weight of my request. “I’m guessing I’m also going to be the one to get you back?”
“I’d walk, but yes, it’d be easier if you could take me.”
“She’s going to kill me for this.” He takes my hand.
In the next second, we’re gone from my kitchen and back into the depths of forest, the birds chirping against the backdrop of the silent night.
The wind is warmer than I left it, tainted with the hope of progress and saving others.
Like Hecate Herself approves of my actions, despite the shred of Darkness within my veins.
It blows against my sweater, billowing the material south—the way I’ll walk to find him, somehow sensing it’s the correct path to lead me to Ryder.
Jasper leaves immediately, his muttered, “Good luck,” lingering and nearly drowned out by the nearby echo of a wolf’s howl.