Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
V ictor was pacing. Kade sat on the couch and watched him try to wear a hole in their flooring.
Most of their pack had discovered they had pressing business elsewhere, not wanting to deal with Victor when he was this wound up. He circled the coffee table, then headed toward the kitchen. His brow was furrowed deeply, his jaw clenched. He exuded a half-feral energy.
A few moments later, he was in the living room again, each step sharp, his movements those of a caged predator seeking an escape.
“You should have told him it was too soon for you to be apart,” Kade said as Victor made his lap.
With obvious effort, Victor sat. Tension was written in the lines of his body, his shoulders stiff, like it took every ounce of his willpower not to rip open the front door, shift, and sprint until he reached Elijah.
“No.” Victor’s hands gripped the arms of the chair hard enough that his knuckles went white. “He needed to be with his friends. That was more important.”
Kade scoffed. “I doubt he was having much fun while he had a giant ball of anxiety in his head from your self-restraining ass.”
“Speaking of his friends,” Victor said in an attempt to change the subject, “I didn’t see you yesterday after you picked up Liam. What’s he like?”
Kade shrugged. “He’s a mage.”
The glint in Victor’s eyes was entirely too perceptive. “I feel like I know him already.”
Kade had a flashback to sitting beside Victor when he’d said the same thing about Elijah, but how was he supposed to answer that? Should he admit he’d been utterly unprepared for Liam to look like a model? All high cheekbones, warm brown skin, and piercing eyes. Or that he seemed impervious to Kade’s feeble attempts at his usual flirty innuendos? The spirit must have screwed up any amount of game Kade had, along with his senses.
After dropping Liam off, Kade had been even more off-kilter. To try to lessen the feeling, he’d driven around Lost Creek and up into the mountains in a large loop that had doubled the forty-minute journey. It had taken that long until he hadn’t felt quite so unsettled, until he’d convinced his wolf they didn’t need to return to the shop to prove they were much better at flirting than their disastrous first impression had shown.
But what he’d truly longed to do was shift and run. With his wolf awake again, he wanted to be in his other form. The dozens of unknown spirits on their territory made that impossible. It was too unsafe. Victor had expressly forbidden going into the forest alone. He couldn’t afford anyone else being stupid enough to make the same mistake Kade had, and shifting somewhere off pack land by himself didn’t feel right.
Speeding through the winding mountain roads had been Kade’s only option to ease his restlessness. He’d been almost as bad as Victor was now, his grip on the chair tightening to the point he was likely putting permanent dents into it.
They had nearly an hour before Elijah arrived. Maybe doing something active would offer a distraction that’d keep Victor sane until then.
“Do you want to see if we can identify another spirit?” Kade asked.
Victor groaned. “Yes, please.” He retrieved Elijah’s map, showing it to Kade when he returned.
“These are the three we’ve already tracked down and identified.” He pointed them out—a shimmering mirage of ash, glimmering crystal, and twisting growth. “Heatwave, frost, and this is causing a bunch of vine-like weeds to grow and choke out the native plants. Elijah said Liam will design sigils for them once he arrives so we can capture them.” He motioned to the fourth largest on the map. “This is next on our list to identify.”
It was a cracked thing, spidering slowly across the paper, leaving behind jagged lines of ash. It wasn’t moving fast, just creeping along the southern line of the territory in an unstoppable trail. They’d have no problem finding it; the bigger issue was figuring out what it was.
They headed out the front door, and Kade paused, staring into the forest. The reality of what he’d suggested they do hit him like a punch to the stomach.
He hadn’t been in the forest since the night they’d fought the decay spirit. Since the night they’d fought him .
His breathing grew shallow, his chest tight.
He was being pathetic and weak. This forest had been his home his entire life; the wind twisting through the trees had whispered secrets to him since his childhood. The idea of entering it shouldn’t cause his heart to pound and sweat to prickle on his skin. He loved running through those trees. But now they loomed so tall, the shadows underneath them so dark.
Who knew what was out there, what those spirits could do?
What if another spirit—
Victor’s hand came up to the back of Kade’s neck and gave him a reassuring squeeze. Kade sucked air into his lungs.
Victor cocked an eyebrow. He didn’t say anything; he didn’t have to. The question was clear. Are you okay?
If Kade said the word, Victor would let him sit this out, and he wouldn’t judge him for it either. But Kade didn’t want that. What he wanted was to help defeat these fucking spirits.
He pulled himself together. There was no way in hell he was letting his pack down again. Memories would not keep him from doing his duty.
Victor nodded in acknowledgment. He then stripped out of his clothes, hung them on the railing, and shifted into his wolf form. Kade did the same.
He surrendered himself to the shift, letting himself be consumed by it. Pleasure and pain washed over him as he was reborn, as he became more than human. The familiar rush of adrenaline and energy coursed through him, and he welcomed it, welcomed the feeling of returning to himself more fully than he’d realized was possible. The relief of that transformation left him shivering in its aftermath, his fur ruffled by the breeze, the earth solid beneath his paws, power thrumming through his muscles. He exhaled, finally home after a long journey.
When he opened his eyes, Victor was watching him. Kade dipped his head. He was good, better than he’d been for days.
Victor led the way, his large frame loping gracefully through the undergrowth. They’d be faster on four legs, and unlike some of the other spirits, this one didn’t seem to be moving quickly or erratically; they wouldn’t need a map to find it.
For all Kade’s determination to do this, his breath still hitched as he stepped past the first trees into the forest, but it was easier to push that aside in this form. Being in this body helped, like these weren’t the lungs that had filled with decay.
They padded through the trees at a good clip, and Kade took in the forest surrounding them—the vibrant canvas of colors and sounds, the autumn leaves and scattered destruction. How long would it be until it recovered? Would it ever be the same, or would the scars of the rot spirit always be there, no matter how well new growth tried to cover them?
It wasn’t far to the area on the map that had been smeared with ash in the spirit’s wake.
Something in the air felt wrong, though Kade couldn’t place it. It wasn’t the skin-crawling filth of the decay from before. This was different. He scanned their surroundings, but didn’t notice any immediate signs that made it apparent what they were facing.
They continued along the trail. With each step Kade took, the grass grew more brittle until it was breaking under his weight. The trees began to change too. They weren’t simply colored by fall here; their leaves were shriveled and withered. The earth was parched.
He exchanged a glance with Victor, and they shifted to human.
“Drought?” Kade asked.
“Seems like it.”
They walked farther, the cracked dirt harsh under their bare feet.
It was like the forest hadn’t seen rain in weeks, in years . Kade’s skin felt parched as well, and he wanted nothing more than a drink. He went to wet his lips, but his mouth was as dry as the land around him.
While none of these spirits were good, he preferred this over the rot. It didn’t reek or make him feel unclean.
He was about to say as much when Victor stood up straighter, turning toward the road that led into their territory. He closed his eyes and exhaled, tension falling away from his shoulders.
Kade grinned. “I take it Elijah’s here?”
Victor didn’t bother answering. He was back in his wolf form, sprinting home.
Kade shook his head, then shifted and hurried to catch up, his paws rapidly covering the distance between him and the house.
He caught glimpses of Victor’s fur through the trees and rounded the corner to see Elijah getting out of his car, a second vehicle parking behind him.
Elijah jumped when he noticed the large wolf barreling toward him, then relaxed when he recognized Victor. He didn’t even have time to shut his door before Victor was there, shifting mid-run, crowding into his personal space. Victor pushed him up against the car and inhaled his scent like he’d been oxygen-starved, his hands roaming over Elijah’s body.
Elijah’s expression flickered from surprise to amusement, and then he melted into Victor, giving himself up to the kisses Victor dragged along his neck before finding his mouth and devouring him thoroughly.
Kade shifted at a more leisurely pace as Elijah’s friends got out of the cars—Liam from the passenger side of Elijah’s and two others from the second vehicle.
Grabbing his clothes from the railing, Kade studied the new arrivals and was tempted to take his time dressing when he noticed Liam and one of the other mage’s eyes darting over to him.
Liam was as attractive as he had been the day before—the sunlight warm on his skin, his soft-looking sweater fitting him snugly. Kade tore his gaze away to check out the other two.
The driver of the second car was gorgeous, with Asian heritage, black hair, dark eyes, and a wicked grin, the type Kade would pick up in a club. His frame was slender but strong, his sleeves pushed up to reveal inky patterns twisting around his forearms. Kade had never seen a mage with real tattoos before, and he blinked when he realized the negative space in the design must align with the pattern of his magical tattoos.
The third was a cute blond who was carefully looking everywhere but at Kade slipping into his underwear and the very naked shifter currently mauling his friend. The only word Kade had for him was angelic. Where he would have picked up the tattooed mage in a club, the blond was an immediate no. Kade couldn’t fathom dragging someone that pure into a bathroom stall for a dirty fuck.
He pulled on his shirt and hoped he wasn’t imagining the disappointment in Liam’s eyes.
It was a miracle Victor hadn’t tossed Elijah over his shoulder and headed straight to their room. It really was too early for them to be apart, and Victor would need to reaffirm their bond until his wolf was satisfied.
Liam and the tattooed mage cast amused glances at Elijah, not that he noticed, and Kade had the distinct feeling Elijah would be getting his fair share of shit as soon as Victor let anyone near him.
Kade finished dressing and grabbed Victor’s clothes.
“Victor,” he said sharply, tossing them on the roof of Elijah’s car.
Victor seemed to regain some semblance of control, though he lingered as he pulled away from Elijah and kept their hips pressed together, like that was hiding the situation that was happening down there. Elijah’s eyes were glazed over, nearly as lost as Victor.
“Don’t stop or get dressed on our account. I’m enjoying the show,” the tattooed mage said, smirking as he leaned against his car, his gaze trailing down the bare line of Victor’s back and over his ass.
Elijah flipped him off, but didn’t push Victor away.
On the other side of the car, the blond surveyed the scene. He was grinning at Elijah and Victor too, but not in the ‘I’m going to tease you relentlessly about this’ kind of way. No, this was a genuinely warm smile, like he was thrilled for Elijah, for them both.
Liam leaned on the top of Elijah’s car, mirth glittering in his eyes. He snapped a picture with his phone, the shutter noise drawing Elijah’s attention.
“I’m sending this to Mom.”
“You wouldn’t,” Elijah hissed, attempting to lunge for him, though Victor held him firmly in place.
Liam grinned and slipped his phone into his pocket. “We’ll see.”
Elijah looked ready to race around the car and make him delete the picture, but Victor was boxing him in and didn’t seem inclined to let him go.
Kade chuckled. “How about I take your friends to the back of the house and show them the maps?”
A low rumble of approval came from Victor, his stare not leaving Elijah, and Elijah swallowed hard. “Great idea. You do that.”
“Aww,” the tattooed mage said. “For a second there, I thought we might be treated to some live-action porn.”
“Not everyone wants to watch Elijah get bent over the hood of his car and railed by his big-dicked alpha shifter, Aran.” The blond seemed to realize what he’d just said, then clamped his mouth shut, his cheeks coloring.
Aran snorted. “Nice, Miles. I see you’re already ahead of me on imagining positions.”
Kade suppressed a laugh. With as worked up as Victor was, he doubted they’d get that far. He gestured for the mages to follow him. They did, each tossing a bag over their shoulder, and if there wasn’t a book or two in Liam’s, Kade would never shift again.
He’d heard people say there was something about shifters that marked them as supernatural, especially on full moons. Something a little wilder, a little more dangerous. He supposed that was true, but he felt the same about mages. Even from across the yard, he would have known Elijah’s friends had magic. Whether he could smell it on them or not, he sensed it in the atmosphere around them—it was almost electric. The power was undeniable, and it made him wonder how humans could look at a mage and not realize they were something more .
The pack had smelled of magic until his late teens when his grandmother had passed, but having four mages in one place was a lot. There’d be more magic in the territory over the next few days than there had been in decades, and most of it wasn’t pack magic. Once again he thought it might be a blessing that his sense of smell wasn’t working.
The same wasn’t true for his hearing though. He had to purposefully block out the choked-off cries and bitten-back moans that were coming from the front of the house.
They made their way around to where a pile of boxes had been stacked next to the porch. The boxes were rough things, assembled by Rick, one of the pack’s betas. The cedar wood was raw and unvarnished, with simple hinges and a single clasp to keep them closed. Most would fit nicely onto the palm of a hand, but there were a few closer to chest-size and a couple in between.
He gestured to the pile. “Those, Elijah will have to show you. If he has the mental capacity to do so after Victor makes him come his brains out. But I can explain these.”
The mages gathered around him as he grabbed three maps that were tucked under a box and handed them out. They weren’t overly detailed, but they’d be sufficient to navigate the land. The major paths were marked, as were rivers and terrain. A few of the larger clearings were also noted.
As the mages unfolded the maps and saw the ashy blobs slithering and flowing over the paper, they each sucked in a breath. It was daunting how many spirits there were, how littered the forest was with them. Some had gotten bigger over the last few days; others were still small smudges. None were remotely close to the size of the decay spirit.
“Elijah explained what’s happening, right? That they’re all different, but we’ve only tracked down a few so far?” He got three nods in return, so he continued, stepping into Liam’s space for the sole purpose of seeing the map he was holding better. The instinct to breathe in deep hit Kade, but he repressed it and pointed to the four spirits they’d already identified. “Drought, frost, heatwave, and vine-like weeds. The spirits grow bigger as they get stronger.”
“You haven’t checked out any without a trail yet?” Liam asked.
Kade leaned closer. It was impossible not to wonder how he smelled. How abrasive was the scent of his magic? Kade had never been with a mage before. Non-pack magic often made him feel like he was about to sneeze. Not the sexiest of sensations. But he wasn’t having that issue with Liam right now.
He shook his head, half to clear those thoughts and half to answer Liam’s question, but then the back door opened and Rick and Will walked out.
“We heard Elijah’s car and figured it was time to get started,” Rick said as they descended the stairs to join them.
“Made the mistake of glancing out front first,” Will added wryly.
Kade snorted. They must have gotten an eyeful.
When he turned back to the mages to make introductions, he found Liam crouched at his feet with a massive book in his lap and a notebook open beside him. Liam muttered to himself as he flipped through the tome.
The book was like nothing Kade had seen before. It was full of intricate symbols, each with a block of text next to it, though Liam didn’t stay on any page long enough for Kade to read them. The speed at which he jumped through the pages suggested he had the book mostly memorized. He flipped with his left hand and sketched with his right in the notebook, first rough chunks of designs, but they soon coalesced, twisting into sigils that he labeled, each embodying the spirit they represented. This one cracked like parched earth, that one twining around itself like overgrown vines.
Kade stared, impressed.
On his other side, Aran leaned in and said under his breath. “He’s kinda hot when he does the super-focused genius book-nerd thing, isn’t he?”
Kade jerked his gaze away from Liam and saw Aran’s smirk.
He was saved from trying to deny that when Elijah and Victor appeared. Elijah looked weak-kneed and rumpled, his cheeks stained red, though there was a fond smile on his lips. Victor radiated smug satisfaction. He was also significantly more relaxed, and Kade found an additional reason to appreciate his senses being messed up, because otherwise, he’d be smelling how much they had to reek of sex.
“Well,” he said, “I guess we can get started now that everyone’s had a nutritious lunch.”
Elijah blushed darker, Victor’s smugness increased, and from where he was crouched, Liam huffed out an almost-laugh.
Aran and Miles’s heads whipped toward him, and he looked guilty for a fraction of a second before he raised an eyebrow to ask, What ?
Elijah cleared his throat and gently pushed Victor away. Victor grudgingly took a step back, giving Elijah room to walk over to his friends. Aran greeted him with another smirk.
“Don’t even,” Elijah replied.
Aran held up his hands. “I didn’t say a word.”
“Literally no one believes the innocent act, Aran,” Liam said as he gathered his books and stood.
Kade had to agree with him. He knew next to nothing about Aran, but even he could tell innocent was the last word anyone would use to describe him.
“Please. Would I make a comment about Elijah receiving such a warm, enthusiastic welcome? Or about how he just came home?”
“Yes,” Elijah, Liam, and Miles said in unison.
Kade would have remarked that it was lovely Elijah had gotten his happy ending, but those worked too.
“ Anyway. ” Elijah made quick introductions between the mages and the pack members, telling them that Rick and Will were Victor’s betas while Kade was his second-in-command, then picked up a box to show them.
Kade hung back with Rick and Will. They were there largely as guides and energy sources; the difficult parts would be up to the mages.
Elijah explained how he’d put a binding spell inside each box that would snare the spirits and reel them in, a contract that the mages could activate.
“The four base sigils are inscribed and ready to go.” Elijah grabbed a map. “We just need to identify the spirits and inscribe the correct fifth sigil that will name the spirit we’re capturing. This one is—”
“Frost,” Liam said. “Got it. I’ve already made sigils for the first four.”
“I should have known.” Elijah’s tone was amused. He shut the lid and flipped the clasp. A dazzling glow sprang up around the box before fading. “These wards should hold the spirits we capture.”
The mages launched into a dozen questions Kade didn’t completely understand. From what he could follow, the wards were impressive. He’d always gotten the sense that Elijah was strong, that he was a good mage, but their reactions to Elijah’s wards told Kade all he needed to know. What would his grandmother have thought of Elijah? Other than being thrilled Victor had found his mate, of course. She had been good with wards too, so that would have made her extra fond of him.
Victor was watching the scene with contented, possessive pride in his expression, perfectly willing to let Elijah take charge of the situation. There was no one else in the world Victor would so easily take a back seat to, and Kade found it adorable how smitten he was.
Elijah must have felt it through their bond, because he glanced up and smiled at Victor with such warmth that Kade couldn’t help but grin. He hoped to have that one day, that perfect connection between two people.
But he’d have to wait a little longer, and he was okay with that.
“What do we do with the boxes after we’ve trapped a spirit?” Liam asked. “They need to be kept somewhere safe.”
“We’ve got a room to store them in. I’ve warded the absolute hell out of it, so if the spirits somehow escape their boxes, they shouldn’t be able to get out of the room.”
Liam nodded, but he was frowning at the box in Elijah’s hand. “The sigils are on the inside. That’s ideal for trapping the spirits, but once we’ve got dozens captured, we won’t have a clue which is which.”
“Will we need to?” Aran asked.
“I’d rather play it safe and have us mark the outside of the box than have to open them up to figure out what’s inside later.”
That seemed reasonable to Kade.
“Okay, we’ll do that,” Elijah said. “After you’ve trapped a spirit, label the box. Now, I want to show you what you’re dealing with before we break up to identify these things. This is the closest.” He pointed to the drought spirit.
Liam hesitated, considering the map. “Actually, we should check out one that isn’t leaving a trail. It’s clear they’re different somehow, and there are more of that kind. They might be harder to track, but we need to know what they are.”
“This would be so much easier if we could trap them all at once,” Aran said.
The mages looked at Liam expectantly, and Kade had a few seconds to picture that—a spell that would suck the spirits out of the forest in one go—before Liam shook his head.
“I’ve only seen binding spells that capture specifically named spirits, and I have no idea how to modify a spell to capture more, not without knowing exactly what they are. But I’ll keep researching.”
Of course that’d be too easy. Kade should have known.
“And we still have to find out where they came from and how to destroy them,” Liam added. “So identifying them is only half the work.”
He was right. They were on cleanup duty here. There must be something underlying it, and they’d have to deal with that eventually. Kade wanted to discover who was behind this so they could ensure it would never happen again, but making the forest safe for their pack came first. Their territory was too dangerous with the spirits on it. None of them had come near the pack house, but that might not last.
Elijah shrugged. “We’ll take care of that when we have to. Until then, let’s get as many of these things identified as we can. Today, we’ll track them down, then tonight, Liam can make sigils, and we’ll capture them tomorrow.”
Liam cocked his head. “Why not message me when you find one? I can send a picture of the sigil.”
Kade scoffed at the idea, drawing Liam’s attention.
“There’s shit reception in the forest,” he explained.
“Oh.” Liam frowned.
“Welcome to the middle of nowhere,” Elijah said. “But some areas are better than others. We could try with the understanding that it’s unlikely we’ll get an immediate reply. If we do manage to send a message that you receive, and you can send the sigil while we’re still in the area, it would save us from having to find every spirit twice. So just in case…”
He handed a few boxes to each of them, which they tucked in their bags, then he singled out a medium-sized smudge about fifteen minutes from the pack house. “Okay. Let’s see what this is.”
The spirit traveled in sharp bursts through the forest, leaving no trail behind, and Kade’s chest tightened, each lungful of air harder to take than the last, but he forced himself to inhale.
Glancing up, he caught Victor watching him again and nodded. He was fine. He wasn’t chickening out of this.
When he looked away from Victor’s assessing gaze, he found Liam studying him too, a furrow between his brows.
“Alright.” Elijah clapped his hands, saving Kade from having to respond to the concern in Liam’s eyes. “Let’s do this.”
“And be careful,” Liam added. “We don’t know what these things are capable of.”
It wasn’t directed at Kade, but it still reminded him of how he hadn’t been careful last time.
Keeping his breathing regular, he followed Victor and Elijah into the forest to face whatever awaited them.
They hiked for ten minutes, Victor and Elijah in the lead. Victor’s hand found the small of Elijah’s back before pulling away—a brief touch, a confirmation. Elijah leaned into it, then returned his attention to the land and the map.
Even if they had been idiots who’d taken forever to figure out how perfect they were for each other, Kade was glad Victor had finally gotten his head out of his ass. Elijah balanced Victor, made him stronger, made him happy. If only they were all so lucky.
The rest of their party trailed behind him—Liam and Will directly after him, followed by Aran and Miles, with Rick bringing up the rear.
They were nearing the area where the smudge was marked on their maps.
Kade looked around, expecting to see some sign of disturbance—leaves dripping with sludge, the cracked dryness of drought.
There was nothing.
Two squirrels yelled at each other in the trees, chattering aggressively before one chased the other away, and a crow screeched at them as they passed beneath its tree. Its warning call rang through the forest, picked up and echoed by other birds.
Kade almost ducked his head at the ruckus, and that irritated him. He wasn’t afraid of a few crows.
From behind him, Aran called ahead. “Elijah, you aren’t leading us into a scene from The Birds , are you?”
Elijah waved him off and kept walking.
Well, that was fucking rude. The least he could do was answer his friend’s goddamn question.
Confused by his own thoughts, Kade’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t get irritated often, yet tension coiled under his skin. Anger was not a common emotion for him, but it was building in his chest.
He tried to push it down, tried to calm himself. It didn’t work the way it should have, and that annoyed him even more.
Where was this fucking spirit? He wanted this over with so he could get the hell away from these people. Each and every one of them was annoying the shit out of him.
He frowned and cracked his neck. That thought wasn’t like him.
When he glanced around at the others, their shoulders were bunched. Dark glowers marred their faces.
“Is anyone else feeling… irrationally angry?” he asked.
“Shut up,” Will snapped, then paused. He exhaled shakily. “Sorry. Apparently yes.”
They gathered in a cluster. Now that Kade was aware of it, he felt the anger inside him, the urge to lash out, to say something that would hurt.
This had to be the spirit, but how? It hadn’t touched him, it hadn’t…
He breathed in. No, that wasn’t what was happening. It was affecting him, affecting them , and the animals too, but he wasn’t in danger of being taken over by it.
“They affect emotions?” There was an edge to Aran’s tone that glinted like steel.
“I guess so,” Elijah said. “Which means they do leave trails, just not ones that show up on the map. And since the spirits that cause physical effects seem to feed off those effects, I’m going to assume the ones that affect emotions feed off the feelings they elicit. So the angrier we get, the more we’re feeding it.”
“Lovely.” Aran spat out the word like a curse.
“How concerned should we be about that?” Liam asked. “Can they also possess people?”
Elijah frowned. “As far as we can tell, the spirits can only do that if they touch you. And it might only be the bigger ones that are capable of it, though we shouldn’t assume. If these emotion spirits work similarly to the physical ones, they’ll taint our emotions while we’re in their wake, but shouldn’t affect the areas outside that. So, as long as we monitor ourselves, I think we should be okay. But whatever you do, don’t let them touch you.”
The hot flush of shame raced through Kade, followed by annoyance at the emotion, but before he had time to process it, Liam shoved the thick tome of weird squiggles at him.
“Hold this.”
Kade did as he was told, blinking at the book, holding it open so Liam could flip through it as he sketched out a spiky sigil.
When Liam was finished, he held up the notebook for Elijah to see. Elijah studied it before pulling a box out of his bag, opening its lid, and pressing his fingers to the bottom inside. A light flared briefly before dying out.
He exhaled forcefully, lowering his shoulders with deliberate effort. “Let’s give this a try.”
“Can you do it from here?” Kade immediately wanted to growl, frustrated at how weak that sounded, and he couldn’t blame it on the spirit.
Liam stopped repacking his bag, and the mages exchanged contemplative looks. He tilted his head in thought. “If we only have to get close enough to identify the effects and not see the spirit itself, it would be a lot safer.”
“Worth a try.” Elijah held the box out, open on his palm. A brilliant light shone out of it as he activated the seal, and a purple glow sparked in his eyes.
Kade watched, holding his breath.
A few drawn-out seconds later, Elijah shook his head. “I can sense it out there, but the binding can’t latch on. I need to be closer.”
“Figures,” Aran sighed.
They started to hike through the forest again, though this time, they stayed clustered together. Kade had to remind himself he didn’t hate how fucking close Will was to him. That was ridiculous and not something he would have been annoyed by under normal circumstances, but it got harder to remember with every step he took.
Even so, this felt nothing like the spirit of decay. If Kade focused, he could separate his own emotions from the irritation it was amplifying inside him. It didn’t have control of him.
“There,” Elijah announced, pointing ahead of them.
A moment later, Kade saw it—sharp flashes, white-hot light exploding in bursts as it moved.
“Why isn’t it trying to evade us?” he asked. When the decay spirit had been smaller, it had fled when they’d gotten close. It pissed him off that this spirit wasn’t doing the same.
“They might all work differently,” Elijah said. “Or they get smarter as they get more powerful. The rot hid until it was too late to do anything about it, but some of the others might not act the same.”
“If each spirit embodies an emotion, they may also mirror that emotion with their actions. It’d explain why no two look the same on the map,” Liam said.
“So each might require a different tactic to—” Before Kade could finish his sentence, the spirit changed course, charging at them, its explosions getting brighter, leaving afterimages dotting his vision.
Kade froze, unable to breathe. Elijah held out the box and activated the binding contract, his eyes kindling to purple again. The power of his magic surged into it, causing a sudden change in the air around them as it pulled the spirit toward them. The closer it got, the more irritated Kade felt, and the tighter his chest became.
Anger swept through him, and he gritted his teeth against it, refusing to let a spirit control him again.
Elijah kept working, the tattoos on his arms glowing bright enough to show through his sleeves, a few tendrils peeking out over his collar. Victor’s hand settled on the back of his neck, giving Elijah’s magic an extra kick.
As the spirit was sucked into the box, it condensed, forming a volatile pool so blinding it was difficult to look at. Kade’s breathing came easier, and the anger churning inside him lessened, then abated entirely. He exhaled. Next to him, Will did the same, tension leaving his body.
When the remnants of the spirit were trapped in the box, Elijah snapped the lid shut and latched it. The ward flashed around it as brightly as the explosions of anger. He pressed his hand to the top of the box, and when he lifted it, the sigil for anger was transcribed on the wood.
Nodding to himself, he turned toward his friends.
“Elijah,” Aran said, “you just invited us to the shittiest bootlegged version of Pokémon GO ever, didn’t you?”
Elijah’s laughter was shaky but genuine. “Yep, sorry. You don’t want to see what they evolve into. This won’t be pleasant for any of us, but I think the best plan is for Victor and me to tackle the largest spirits, while you guys search for the medium and small ones to identify and catch if the reception plays nice and Liam can send a sigil.”
“Will we be able to do that?” Liam asked. “You used a fairly sizable amount of energy, and we aren’t bonded to shifters.”
“This took less energy to trap than the decay spirit, so I think you’ll be fine provided you connect to a shifter and stick to spirits smaller than this. That’s why Kade, Rick, and Will are here. But if you have any doubts, leave them for us. If you can identify them at least, that’ll help when we capture them.”
Liam considered that, then spoke. “We now know they affect emotions, so we should make a list of potential spirits. That way, if we come across one of those, we can try to capture it immediately.”
“Good idea. If this was anger, what else could there be?”
“Hatred? Sadness?” Miles suggested.
They started to brainstorm, and Kade found himself holding Liam’s book again as Liam scribbled sigils in his notebook. He was so laser-focused on the task at hand, Kade wasn’t sure he realized they were standing in the middle of the forest.
Kade absolutely was not distracted by the sweep of his dark eyelashes. They were standing so close, he should have been able to smell Liam, though everything was still frustratingly blank.
When Liam had a dozen sigils created, his friends took pictures of his notebook with their phones.
“Okay,” Elijah said. “If you find a spirit that matches these and think you can handle it, give it a try. But err on the side of caution, alright?” They nodded. “Pair up so we can trap these damn things.”
“Gotta catch ’em all,” Aran muttered.
Kade snorted, their gazes locking. They looked each other over, and for one moment, Kade could imagine meeting Aran in a club. He saw the recognition on Aran’s face, the knowledge that they might dance for a few minutes, a pretense to feel each other up, to grind against each other as foreplay before finding the nearest bathroom or back alley for a quick hot fuck. They wouldn’t even remember the other’s name by the end of the night.
Aran grinned at him, wide and wicked.
“Oh fuck no.” Elijah jabbed a finger at them. “You two are not allowed to pair up. Even if no one is around to hear the resulting chaos, you’ll use up the entire universe’s quota of dick jokes. You’d probably just end up fucking while you’re out in the forest.”
Aran looked offended. “Hey now, I do not fuck while I’m working.” He paused, then added, “Unless, you know, the work involves fucking.”
Fair enough , Kade thought. That seemed like a sensible position to take.
“Also,” Aran added, “you’re one to talk.” He gave Elijah a thorough once-over. “Pretty sure only one of us has gotten off in nature recently.”
Elijah’s cheeks heated. “Regardless. Nothing good can come from you two being paired together. It’s not happening.”
Kade glanced over to where Miles was standing, but Elijah cut in again.
“Nope. Nuh-uh. I’m not subjecting Miles to you either. He gets enough from Aran as it is. Liam?” he asked, apology clear in his tone.
“Got it.” Liam didn’t seem particularly surprised by the arrangement.
Okay. Liam it was. Kade could work with that. This might be his chance to prove he wasn’t as pathetic as Liam had likely thought yesterday.
That settled, Elijah continued. “Miles, you go with Will. He’s semi-decently well-behaved and mated with a baby on the way, so he should be practicing how to be a good role model.” Elijah’s expression held a clear warning, and Will beamed at him as innocently as possible. “And Aran, I’m pairing you up with Rick because I don’t think anything you can say will faze him.”
Aran assessed Rick with a leer. “Challenge accepted.”
He was barking up the wrong tree with that one. In Kade’s entire life, he’d never seen Rick show an ounce of interest in another person sexually, and he was unflappable when it came to double entendres and dirty jokes. Kade knew that well; he’d lost count of the times he’d tried to flap him, to get some kind of reaction out of him.
“Actually, Aran,” Elijah said, “Today, I want you to concentrate on repairing the damage from the previous spirit. The forest is pretty beaten up in some areas. A few are almost dead zones. Whatever you can do to revive it would be great. If there are nearby spirits while you’re doing that, definitely identify them and capture them if you can, but I’d rather have you focus on the forest itself. Make sure everything is recovering properly.”
“I can do that. After all, I’m the best here at making wood grow nice and ha—”
Victor cut him off. “Rick, take him to the western border where the damage is the worst.”
Rick sent Victor a flat look, but led Aran in that direction.
“Be careful!” Liam yelled after them.
Aran gave him a little salute. “Always, Li-mom. You know I’m a big fan of keeping things safe.”
Li-mom ? That was adorable.
Elijah tapped the frost spirit on the map. “We’ll do this one, then take care of the others we’ve already identified, if you want to go in opposite directions and see what’s out there.”
Liam and Miles nodded.
“You guys be careful too,” Liam said, getting promises from Elijah and Miles before they left.
Liam pointed to a dark ashy blob that was skittering across the map. “Should we try this spirit? It doesn’t seem that far from here and isn’t too big.”
“Might as well.”
Kade turned toward the spirit, and they headed deeper into the forest.