Chapter Twenty-Seven
Walker
T hrough the fog of sleep, someone tapped me on the shoulder. Desperate to cling to unconsciousness, I rolled away from the annoying sensation. Tiny fingers flicked my forehead, and I jolted.
“Finally,” Cady complained, “you were sleeping like the dead.”
Ash floated in the air, and I coughed. I laid in the burned remains of the jungle with Cady crouched above me. Moonlight lit her ash-covered face. Honey and dirt and blood clung to her clothes and skin, but her green eyes were bright. I reached out and smeared some of the filth off her arm. Only the barest shadows of scars marred her skin.
“What’s up with the sticky stuff all over me?” she asked. “Did I slip and fall into a puddle of tree sap—”
I silenced her with a hug. For a heartbeat, she stiffened but quickly hugged me back.
You’re okay, I thought in relief. You’re okay.
I didn’t realize I spoke aloud until she leaned back to clasp a hand over my mouth.
“You’re right,” she said, “I am okay. Stop freaking out. It’s freaking me out.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “How are you not freaking out anyway? Don’t-don’t you remember what happened?”
“I remember the High Witch showed up,” she said and shivered. “Her magic is terrible. It repels the life in the soil. And her cronies—Handmaidens is what she calls them—they’re vicious.”
Cady scrunched her eyebrows and searched her memory. I almost wanted her to stop and let what happened fade away, but burying things never made them easier to get over in the long run.
“Elle and I tried to run,” she continued. “We thought you and Freya would be safe down there, and we could meet up later, but the Handmaidens were too strong. I couldn’t hold them back and then, and then—”
As she recalled the moment she had almost died, Cady sobbed. I pulled her back into my arms and held her tightly. Beside us, Freya stirred. Still in cat form, Arion slept tucked against her side. Despite the anger I harbored for Freya, I was relieved that the familiar had survived. Ryder lurked in the jungle somewhere, in some version of alive.
Everyone was okay, except Elle. Our mission was complete.
As I met Freya’s hollow gaze, I felt the opposite of accomplishment. Shame turned my stomach.
Cady pulled back and took in our surroundings. Sweat clung to my back, and insects buzzed. For once, however, Cady wasn’t studying nature.
“She’s gone,” Cady exclaimed. “The High Witch took her, and Ryder—”
“He’s okay,” I promised, though it wasn’t quite the truth. “He’s in the jungle, but Elle…Cordelia took Elle.”
“I don’t understand,” Cady insisted. “How did the High Witch know we found her? Do you think the wolves turned us in, and she tracked us?”
Heavy silence stretched between us. Freya stared at the jungle floor, and I stared at Freya.
“What is it?” Cady snapped. “Why are you two ignoring me?”
When Freya remained silent, I scoffed. “Why don’t you ask Freya.”
Cady’s voice grew higher. “What are you talking about?”
“I thought Elle was lying,” Freya said quietly. “I thought it was all a ruse, and she deserved it, and-and it was the only way to save us, to save the coven—”
“Stop it,” Cady barked and recoiled. “You wouldn’t do this. You wouldn’t do this. You’d never sell out an innocent person or put us in danger—”
“You weren’t supposed to be in danger!” Freya snapped. “The High Witch wasn’t supposed to arrive until sundown, and I was supposed to be there, and none of this would’ve happened.”
Cady shook her head. As she glowered at Freya—her greatest role model—her lower lip wobbled.
“You’re not who I thought you were,” Cadence whispered and stood on shaky legs. “I’m going to find Ryder.”
I reached for her, but my sister side-stepped my grasp. Tears leaked down her cheeks.
“Give me a minute,” she begged.
I resisted the urge to refuse her. “Don’t go too far.”
Cady nodded and walked toward the cliffs.
“Walker,” Freya said. She looked so foreign—teary-eyed and lost and afraid. “You must know I only did it because I thought it was the right thing. I thought it’s what my mother would do.”
I laughed humorlessly.
“When are you going to stop living for a ghost and start living for yourself, Freya?” I demanded.
She flinched as if I had struck her. Part of me wanted to take the words back, but they hung between us like a barrier. When I couldn’t bear the silence a second longer, I spoke.
“You lied to us.” You lied to me. “You said we would figure out what to do together.”
Freya’s breath hitched. “I know.”
“Cady could’ve—” I cleared my throat. “She could’ve died.”
“ I know,” Freya repeated.
As we sat in the darkness, I had never felt further from her, not even when she had tried to kill me. I didn’t know the girl with lost eyes staring back at me.
I didn’t recognize her.
Tears burned my eyes, and pent-up sobs ached in my throat, but I bottled my emotions. I didn’t want Freya to see how deeply her betrayal had cut me.
“You finally got your wish,” I whispered. “I am thoroughly pushed away.”
???
Freya
In the darkness, something rumbled so loudly, it vibrated my sternum. Glowing amber eyes glowered at me through half-burned forest.
Not rumbling, I realized, but growling.
In wolf form, Ryder crept closer. His massive black paws dug into the soot and ash-covered ground. His white teeth flashed, and he crouched mere feet away with his ears flat back. In my periphery, Walker stirred.
After waking, Cadence had drifted back to sleep. Her body needed more time to heal, and I had agreed to watch over her.
Walker had stayed awake anyway.
“What the hell?” he asked. As he registered the wolf who towered over me, he cursed.
Ryder growled at him and locked his gaze on mine once more. Fear and magic made my heart race, but I didn’t break Ryder’s stare. I feared he would attack at the first sign of submission. One of my mother’s teachings rang in my ears.
The fastest way to die is to hurt a werewolf’s mate, she had once told me when I had laughed at the absurdly romantic reality of wolves.
“Ryder,” I whispered, “I’ll help you get her back. Let’s just talk—”
He snarled and prowled closer. From only a foot away, his blood-scented breath heated my face. I swallowed. I couldn’t bring myself to wield magic against him.
I wouldn’t fight my friend.
I had already done enough to hurt him.
“I will do anything to get her back,” I vowed. My voice cracked. “I messed up. I know that, and I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
Ryder didn’t back away, but he didn’t move closer. Walker shifted toward me, and the wolf glared at him.
“I’ll help too,” Walker said. “I shouldn’t have let her go to the High Witch, man. I shouldn’t have ever agreed to any of this, but I’m going to make it right.”
Only Walker would find a way to blame himself for what had happened, but his words soothed Ryder. Shaking his head, the wolf sauntered deeper into the jungle, and when he returned, he was a jean-clad man.
“I really want to fight you right now,” Ryder said, “so you better start talking. How are we going to get Elle back?”