Chapter 24
OLLIE
Ibolted upright, letting out a grunt.
The room around me lurched, my guts roiling from the sudden jump from darkness to…where was I?
“You’re awake,” Mum said from a chair on the other side of this gray-and-white room.
My brain registered the location. A private hospital room, rain beating at the window, the lights turned down to the dimmest setting. There were drips attached to me, along with a heart monitor beeping steadily.
I touched my skull, feeling a bandage there. A dull throb lurked behind a wall of painkillers.
“You have a mild concussion and minor laceration to the back of your head,” Mum responded. “Jake and Dean got you to the hospital while High Coven agents took control of the situation. Every shadow witch was killed, bar one who is now with Stefan.”
Unable to stay upright, I lay back on the pillow. “How many civilians were hurt?”
“We don’t have any figures yet.”
Trust me to get knocked out during a major fight and stay unconscious until just before midnight, according to the clock on the wall.
Mum left her chair and came over, sitting in the one beside my bed.
She looked exhausted. “Oh, Ollie. Things are bad.”
I recoiled from a sharp pain in my forehead breaking through the painkiller barrier and adjusted my position slightly. “What happened? Where’s Isaac?”
He’d been poisoned and I’d failed to get him out of danger.
Defeat bore down on me, making my chest constrict.
Useless dickhead failed The Sun…
I found the button thing to adjust the bed, elevating myself a little.
Mum released a shaky breath, touching the base of her throat with a trembling hand. “He’s missing.”
A cold breeze seemed to lick up and down my whole body. “What do you mean?”
She sighed again. “During the attack at the restaurant, he disappeared.”
Was this a joke? “How could he disappear?” It wasn’t possible, especially with Drake on our team.
But it turned out, the scrying witch couldn’t find him.
“He’s been trying constantly,” Mum explained, “but there’s no trace of him. It’s almost like he doesn’t exist. And the fae woman said to him he would find The Sun when he can.”
She explained what’d happened with Drake and Riley at Blue Orchard with Isaac.
I scratched at my left palm. “Has she done something?”
“I don’t know, son,” she said sadly. “We’re reviewing The Coral’s CCTV along with a team from the High Coven. And there’s a search underway across the city.” She gulped. “I’m so worried.”
You failed him…
I reached for her hand.
She gave it to me, giving my hand a squeeze. “What if he’s…” She didn’t finish.
“Don’t, Mum. Just don’t.”
But I did. I went there hard, cursing myself for failing him, for being more concerned with Ben than him. He was my past, but The Sun was my present.
I’m sorry I’ve been a dick toward you, I thought, aching with sudden longing.
Crap. If Drake couldn’t find him, what were we going to do? I wouldn’t forgive myself if he died or got corrupted into some evil being with celestial power.
He has to be in my life…
Man, the impact of this hit me so hard, biting at my heart with ferocious teeth. I needed to hear his voice, see his face, hold him and tell him sorry because a maelstrom of guilt and defeat churned inside me.
“I’ve got to find him,” I said, trying to move.
But moving made the room spin.
“Don’t, Ollie,” Mum said, her hand moving to my shoulder. “You have to rest.”
“I can’t rest,” I complained as my head sank back into the pillow.
The monitor beeped quicker, my mind full to the brim with Isaac and terror.
There’s more beneath his surface and he’s not here…
He’s not here because I failed him…
I flinched in response to my inner voice. “What are we going to do?”
Mum took a seat in the chair beside the bed. Her phone rang at that exact moment. “Hello, Jake. Yes. Thank you. He’s awake now. Yes. I’ll see you soon.” She hung up.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
“Nothing new to report,” she answered.
Hold on, I was being selfish here. “What about Riley? How is he holding up?”
She closed her eyes. “Beside himself. Wants to be out there looking for him but things have taken a terrible turn.”
Which brought her back to the next pile of turds.
Firstly, the truth had exploded out of the box now. There was footage of Isaac healing Helen doing the rounds everywhere. Awesome. Nice to see people had the time to stop and film the attack on The Coral rather than run for their lives.
As a consequence, crowds were gathering outside the mansion, the witchcops having to erect barriers and perform crowd control, while the people demanded to know who The Moon and The Star were.
This was bad, on the verge of escalating quickly. Some dickheads were even calling for the arrest of the sacred witches, to shut this down before House Aurora failed the world again.
There’d be no coming back from this.
Secondly, there was the weird news about the hotel’s garden of Hecate Crystals. They were gone, nothing but a few fading shards scattered across the ground. Mum showed me a picture on her phone.
The shadow witches wouldn’t have done it. As much as they were pieces of shit with their own brand of magic, the world’s magic relied on the presence of the Hecate Crystals.
Things were getting mental.
“It appears these shadow witches are rebels,” Mum said.
“Really? Were there any shades involved?”
“No.”
An important question hit me. “What about Helen and Ben? Did they see who took Isaac?”
She shook her head. “They’ve both said they didn’t see anything other than him being there one moment, then gone the next.”
“And the High Coven haven’t picked up on any abnormal spell usage to hide him?” I wondered, delving into my mind for any clues to help. “Like a spruced up cloaking spell?”
“No.”
“The guy in white,” the words suddenly tumbled from my mouth.
“Who?”
“A man showed up right before the attack,” I said. “Isaac knew him, but…crap.”
Mum’s brows pinched together. “Can you describe him?”
I did as best as I could.
“Thank you, son. I’ll report this immediately.”
Poor Isaac. He shouldn’t be out there alone. He should be safely tucked away inside the mansion with me. With all of us.
I have to find him…
“I feel so useless,” I muttered, hating myself for the surge of self-pity.
“You’re not useless,” Mum retorted, giving my hand a gentle squeeze.
What was I, then? Man, I’d failed and failed hard.
Stop this crap immediately!
I sighed. “Could you switch on the TV, please?”
There was one attached to the wall on an extending bracket. Mum obliged, the first thing popping up on the screen was a live news report from the mansion gates.
“Would you like a cup of tea?” Mum asked.
“Please.”
“I’ll get that for you.”
She left me alone to watch the news and stew in my defeat.
I must have been pushed by fate to want the TV on. Because Ben appeared on the screen, sat in a hospital bed, all teary-eyed while the reporter jabbered at the screen.
“We’re here with reality star Ben Cash, who was at The Coral when the attack happened.”
Ben dabbed at his eyes with a tissue.
“He’s agreed to speak to us exclusively here on Coldharbour News,” the man said, offering buckets of sympathy to my ex.
Why did Ben have to be here to make me feel even worse?
“I know this is hard for you,” the reporter said, “but can you tell us what happened?”
Sniffle, sniffle, dewy eyes staring directly into the camera with a wobbly lip. “I’ll try.” Deep, dramatic breath. “I was there for a meeting with Isaac and his agent. It was going so well until…until…sorry.” Tears rolled down his cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”
“Take your time,” the interviewer said.
I wouldn’t say Ben wasn’t traumatized, because he did look rattled to the core.
But fuck him all the same. And maybe that made me a heartless, bitter dickhead.
I didn’t care. I couldn’t stand to hear him, look him, or even get through the coming days knowing he was sharing the same air as me in this hospital.
Man, what sort of person felt this way? He might have hurt me, but he didn’t deserve to suffer through any of the nightmare that’d unfolded at The Coral.
Ben broke down, sobbing uncontrollably, quickly losing himself to hysteria.
Wow. Guilt gave me a mighty punch for my bad thoughts.
I switched the TV off.
“Where are you, Isaac?” I said, my voice cracking.
Please don’t leave my life…
Please.
Please.
Please.