Chapter 23 - Shane
Stumbling out of a dream, I blink my eyes open, feeling so violently jolted out of my mind, I roll over and claw against the carpet. The sensation of falling is so strong, I have to press myself to the floor, concentrating on the hard surface to convince myself I’m safe and still.
Where is Hyacinth?
I fumble around, blinking crazily to banish the shadows from my eyes. I can’t remember a single thing about the dream, only a horrific sense of loss that felt like it would tear my heart in two.
“Hyacinth?” I call out, waiting to hear her answer or her step in the hall as she returns to me. When only silence answers my call, the fear from the dream comes back to me, prickling my skin with terror.
If I don’t find her, I will lose her.
I don’t know where this certainty has come from, but I have no doubt it’s true. I leap to my feet, only to stagger and almost fall as my head spins.
I’m still not okay. Without her, I’m weak, inside and out. How could she leave me like this?
A splinter of even worse doubt pierces my chest, and I rush down the hall to her room. All her things are still there, completely undisturbed, so she couldn’t have left me.
That would have broken me for good. To share this much with her, to come so far, only to have her run from me… I would rather die.
I rush down the hall, following her scent to the backyard.
My senses still aren’t as sharp as they should be, and her scent is scattered all over the place, so I don’t even know if I’m tracking her current trail.
Turning around slowly, I try to find a sign that she was here recently, anything I can use to follow her.
Towards the back of the garden, there is a small circle of flattened grass. I move over to it, and her scent becomes strong enough that I’m convinced she was here, and not that long ago.
Walking barefoot—I don’t see any shoe prints. She can’t have gone far.
I follow the thin scent around the house, and that’s when I see my car is gone. I glare at the empty space in the driveway as if my irritation could return the vehicle, the shock of Hyacinth being beyond my reach almost too much to bear.
Get help.
I race back inside, grabbing my phone off the table, and calling Rhys. He answers right away.
“What’s happening?” he asks. “Have there been any changes to your pack?”
“No,” I answer. “Well, maybe. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter right now. Hyacinth’s gone.”
“What? What do you mean, gone?”
“I woke up, and she’s not here!” I yell, my stress finally getting the better of me. “I don’t know what to do—”
“Hold on,” Rhys says, and I hear a rattle at the end of the line and muffled voices. After a few seconds, Rhys comes back on.
“Okay, Sadie says she thought this might happen.”
“What do you mean? How?”
“I don’t question anything my wife says,” Rhys replies. “She’s going to do a locator spell with Trina. I’ll call you back and let you know where to go.”
“You’ll have to come and get me,” I say. “Hyacinth took my car.”
“Okay,” Rhys affirms. “I’ll see you soon.”
I pace back into the house, wondering what I should do while I wait. The sense of loss I felt upon waking gets worse, scoring marks of grief into my heart. I can almost feel the curse trying to swallow me, an inky-black shadow infecting my blood and trying to weaken me until I can no longer fight.
I will fight. I don’t care if I have to keep fighting until after I’m dead—I will fight for her, for eternity, if that’s what it takes.
I end up sitting out front, staring at the ground while I wait for the others. Rhys hasn’t even fully stopped his Viper when I jump up and throw myself into the back seat.
“The gang’s all here,” Rhys says, nodding to Owen and the two girls. “Where are we headed?”
“The manor,” Sadie says, her expression grave. “I had a feeling that’s where the final fight would play out. I blame myself for this, Shane. I should have kept a closer eye on her.”
“What do you mean by that?” I ask.
Sadie sighs. “Both Trina and I felt a strong urge to initiate a ritual not long after our powers awakened. It was a dangerous thing to do, but at the time, we felt we had no choice. It was the same sort of impulse that led all of you to kidnap us, I believe.”
“What?” I mutter, not comprehending.
“We’re all being manipulated,” Sadie says. “And this final piece of the puzzle is the most important. Each of us thought we had to go forward alone to break the curse—and it’s likely Hyacinth feels exactly the same way.”
“What does this mean?” I ask, my voice trailing off as I anticipate her answer.
“It means she’ll die,” Sadie says bluntly. “And in doing so, might undo all the work we’ve done so far. The curse is defeated by our link to our mates—the magic of a wolf meeting a witch. If she does it without you…”
“None of this makes any sense!” I explode. “What the hell is going on here?”
“Lynette suffered a terrible fate,” Trina says, her voice very soft. “Darian locked her up in the manor. He literally bricked over the door. Then he left her in there to die and told her he would kill all her kind for what she did.”
“I don’t believe this,” I say quietly.
“It’s true,” Sadie replies. “Pieces of Lynette’s diary were hidden around the manor, and I’ve managed to collect them all. Some of it is pretty dark. She and Darian built the manor to live in once they got married, and when he locked her up, he said it would be her forever home—her tomb.”
“Fuck,” I choke out, trying to imagine the insanity of a person who would do this. “How did we end up holding our council meetings there?”
“Around fifty years after Lynette was locked up, it was reopened by your ancestors,” Trina says. “They wanted the sacred items and other documents that had been locked inside, and they had no fear of a dead witch.”
“Did they… find her?” I ask.
Sadie nods, her face grim. “She was sitting in the foyer. There was nothing left of her but a skeleton, sitting in the middle of the room, pointing at the door. Her empty eye sockets were the first thing they saw.”
“She had a note in her lap,” Trina said. “Cursing all wolves for the ill Darian had done to her. The council at that time didn’t believe it and just went about their business.”
“What did they do with her?” I ask.
“They threw her skeleton out into the woods,” Trina says. “Not long after that, the gardens around the manor began to die.”
“There was no further manifestation of the curse until recently,” Sadie adds. “Lynette’s curse was waiting for the right time—waiting for us.”
“We deserve to die,” I choke out. “We don’t deserve her forgiveness.”
Sadie closes her eyes and looks away. “That may be so. But Lynette always believed in the love she shared with Darian. There were notes in her diary—which became even more unhinged on every page—that indicated she still loved him, and that if love could bridge the gap, the curse could be broken.”
“I pray that’s true,” I say, looking out the window.
We’re almost at the manor, and the thick trees on either side of the path seem to crowd against the car. The shadows feel alive, creeping into my vision and blinding me, bleeding into my veins until my hands shake.
“Are you alright?” Trina asks.
“No,” I say.
Sadie looks over at me with concern. “We have to find her,” she says, her tone desperate.
As Rhys pulls the car into the gravel drive, the great shadow of the manor falls over us, and the darkness in me surges. I can barely stand as I get out of the car, and Owen hurries to support me.
The elders are standing by the door, all of them looking so weak and sick. I’m surprised they are on their feet.
“Something has changed,” Faye says weakly. “I can literally feel the life pouring out of me. We’re all going to die.”
“Not if I can help it,” Sadie says. “Have any of you seen Hyacinth?”
They shake their heads. The elders have been so out of it, they probably don’t even know night from day.
This is all connected—them being trapped in the manor, just as Lynette was locked in. The weakness spreading through the wolves is Lynette’s revenge.
But why did Darian do this to Lynette? And what happened to him?
All of us split up in separate directions, except for Owen, who keeps one arm around my waist as I lurch painfully up the side path.
The gardens of the manor are all dead, blackened sticks rising from the ground where colorful flowers should be blooming.
The sight of it brings a new wave of doom sweeping through me, and I almost lose my balance.
“Maybe you should stop,” Owen says.
I shake my head, gripping his shoulder as I force myself to take the next step. “I can’t stop. She’s going to die out here, all by herself. I can’t let that happen.”
“I know,” Owen replies, his voice thick with emotion. He gets a better grip on my waist, and I gather my strength, forcing one foot in front of the other.
I’m beginning to despair of ever finding her when I hear a faint sound over the next rise. Owen lifts his head and looks that way, so I’m sure I didn’t imagine it.
“Should we check it out?” Owen asks.
“We have no other choice,” I answer. “If it’s a fucking raccoon farting, so be it. We have to check.”
Owen smiles as he props me up again, helping me to the top of the rise. What I see when I reach the top makes my blood run cold.
“Hyacinth!” I scream, my voice echoing around us to resonate into the field below.
She turns her head slightly but doesn’t stop what she’s doing. She’s kneeling in a blackened circle, a spot that appears poisoned or burned, chanting in a low voice.
I shove Owen off me and run down the hill, almost falling a dozen times. When I reach the edge of the circle, a powerful force stops me. A magical barrier I can’t pass through.
“Stay back!” she yells. “I have to do this!”
“No!” I scream back at her. “It’s an illusion—you’re going to fail! We have to do it together.”
“No,” she says. “I won’t risk your life. I can save you, I can save everyone.”
“But you’ll die,” my voice comes out as a helpless wail.
“I know,” she whispers, so softly I shouldn’t be able to hear it, but the words reach my ears all the same.
“I will not let you die!” I yell, attacking the barrier with both hands. “I will not let you do this by yourself!”
I pull back my fist and punch the barrier as hard as I can. A ripple bounces across its surface, making Hyacinth jump as the force field wavers.
Encouraged, I hook my hands, encouraging my claws to grow. To my shock, my wolf answers me, and my fingernails lengthen and sharpen as if I’m going to shift. I tear into the barrier with both hands, feeling it rip apart like old linen.
When I’ve made a big enough hole, I throw myself through it, landing heavily on the other side. There is a small pop and a painful ringing in my ears as the barrier closes itself again.
“Get back!” Hyacinth shouts, gesturing wildly. “You can’t be here!”
I crawl across the blackened ground, pain slicing through every nerve. The darkness seeps into my vision, and sickness rises in my guts, almost ready to pour out of my throat. Somehow, I make it to her side, reaching out to grab her hand.
“Hyacinth,” I whisper with relief. “I found you.”
“You shouldn’t have come,” she cries, tears pouring down her cheeks. Her skin looks as pale and sick as mine, and the normally vibrant hue of her eyes has darkened to black. I can feel her strength ebbing away as she pours all her focus into the spell.
“You’re not alone,” I say, sitting up and putting my arms around her. “You’ll never be alone again.”
Hyacinth sobs softly, clinging to me. We hold each other for a moment, and a vibration flows through the ground, making even the force field shudder.
“We’re joined now,” she says helplessly. “Your energy is bound to the spell. I can’t remove you from it.”
“We were already joined,” I reply, stroking her hair back from her face. “And I was already part of the spell. The only way forward for us is together—can’t you see that?”
Hyacinth’s lip trembles, and for a moment, I see her old fire flicker in her eyes. Even though she still looks weakened, there is a determination in her that wasn’t there before.
“Okay,” she says. “Let’s do this—together!”
“Now you’re talking,” I reply, moving to sit behind her so I can put my hands on her shoulders. “My strength, my heart, my life is yours, Hyacinth. I trust you.”
The energy between us pulses again, rippling outwards in shimmering waves. I realize that even after my big pep talk, I’m still scared the spell won’t work—or even worse, that Hyacinth could get hurt, or die.
I can feel the strength between us now, and I’ll never doubt it again—but will it be enough?