Chapter 133 Maddy
MADDY
Nico’s mother shoved me, Abi, and Maxwell into the living room. My parents latched onto me, hugging me tight, and my dad reached out and grabbed Abi, pulling her into the embrace. Panic flooded through me as Gabriella burst through the door, slamming and locking it behind her.
“The wards are going to fall,” she said as she turned and leaned on the door. “Be ready to get into the safe room. All of you. When I tell you to go, you go. Do you understand that?”
Though her words were meant for us all, she stared right into my eyes as she spoke.
A few weeks ago, I’d have argued and demanded to help fight.
Now? I could sense the life growing inside me and how much I wanted to take care of it.
For the first time, I truly understood what Gabriella had lost by giving me up.
I also knew that if it meant saving the child inside me, I’d do the same thing.
I would do it and live with the heartbreak forever.
Gabriella’s gaze emitted such strong, motherly love.
I nodded. “We will. You say the word, and we’ll lock ourselves in.”
Gabriella breathed a sigh of relief and gave me a thin smile before looking out the windows. The TV was on, showing the live report of the situation outside. On screen, we saw another of those missiles barreling toward the protection wards.
The image shown to the world couldn’t come close to relaying the earth-shattering explosion echoing from outside. The house shook as the spells Sinthy had so carefully woven cracked and broke. Seconds later, the first gunshots rang out, and my blood went cold.
My father, probably knowing that I needed it, held me even closer as we watched the disaster unfold on the screen. Maxwell sat on the couch, his head buried in his hands.
A horror movie played out on the screen.
I was rooted to the spot, unable and unwilling to look away.
The camera couldn’t get close enough to show distinct details, so they were all like ants moving back and forth across the screen.
I watched as shifters fell under gunfire.
Each one could have been Nico. I dug my fingers into my father’s shirt, tugging and pulling as each second passed.
“They’re getting close,” Gabriella called out from her position at the window.
Icy tendrils of fear sank deep into my gut. The screams, shouts, and gunfire made it seem like we were in the middle of a warzone, which I guess we were. I’d never experienced anything so terrifying in my life.
“If they get to the cul-de-sac, you run for the safe room and get inside.”
My birth mother’s voice was strained and tight.
I wanted to go to the window and see what she saw, but fear held me in place.
Instead, I turned back to the television.
The battle was turning a bit. Three figures were hunched near each other.
One was on their knees, their hands on the ground.
The other two were huddled together, one holding the other.
Even at that distance, there was something familiar about all of them. Then I heard it.
Sinthy’s voice thundered over us—even from inside the house, it sounded like she was inside our heads.
Mom and Abi sank to the floor, covering their ears.
Flinching, I buried my face in Dad’s chest. I didn’t think anything had ever been so loud.
But I was wrong. As soon as she uttered her final word, there was a crack that could have broken the world.
One of the windows in the kitchen exploded inward, and Gabriella had only managed to get out of the way in time.
The rumbling and shaking slowly subsided, and silence finally reigned.
I’d barely managed to get my bearings when the scream came from outside again.
“Sinthy!”
It was Nico’s voice, terrified and broken. Nothing could stop me from going to him after hearing that. I yanked out of my father’s grip and rushed toward the door.
“Maddy, no,” Gabriella said. “We don’t know if the fight’s over.”
“Nico might be hurt!” I pushed past her and ripped the door open.
I was halfway down the porch steps when I heard the others rushing out of the house behind me.
Nico sat on a grassy mound less than fifty yards from the house.
He was holding someone and rocking back and forth.
It was bad. Even before I reached him, I knew it was bad.
Something about Nico’s body language told me that whatever it was, I didn’t want to see it.
Pushing through the slowly gathering throng of Nico’s pack, I found exactly what had him so distraught. I gasped in horror, my hands flying up to cover my mouth. Nico had Sebastian cradled in his lap. Sebastian’s head lolled back, and blood pulsed from a gunshot wound in his chest.
“Oh God,” Abi whispered beside me.
I hadn’t even realized she was beside me. I glanced over and saw she was crying. My own eyes were hot with tears. Abi and I sank down to the ground on either side of Nico.
“Sebastian, please. Come on, buddy. Please, God. Please.” The desperation in Nico’s voice tore my heart in two.
I reached forward, pressing my hands to the wound. Abi reached over and added her hands. In seconds, our fingers were slick with blood. Luis and Felipe came limping out of the crowd. I glanced up to see the grin of victory on Luis’s face shatter and his steps falter.
Felipe took it even worse. He hit his knees and began openly crying, then, his voice ragged and begging, shouted, “Help! We need help.”
“Shift, Sebastian,” Nico hissed in his ear. “Shift, and you can heal faster. Can you hear me? You need to shift.”
If Sebastian heard, he wasn’t able to do what Nico asked. His chest rose and fell beneath my hands, but it was getting slower and shallower every second. He was slipping away. I could see it in the deathly pallor of his face. Sebastian was dying. The realization made me want to throw up.
I turned and shouted into the crowd. “Where’s Sinthy? Where is she?”
The pack who had surrounded us were all whimpering, human and wolf sounds of sadness and despair. Nico’s voice was beginning to crack as he screamed at his friend to fight an unwinnable battle. Then, like a ghost, Sinthy pushed her way through the pack. My breath whooshed out of me when I saw her.
She looked closer to death than Sebastian did.
Her face was so pale that I could see all the veins beneath her skin.
The whites of her eyes had turned red from the burst blood vessels inside them, making her look like some kind of fallen angel or demon.
Sinthy stumbled forward and fell to the ground at Sebastian’s feet, looking for all the world like she was about to lie on Sebastian’s lap and die with him.
She turned her inhuman-looking red-ringed eyes on me, and through her exhaustion, she raised a shaking hand to someone behind me. I spun and saw Maxwell right behind me, standing beside Gabriella. He looked terrified.
“I… need… him,” Sinthy croaked, sounding for all the world like she was a hundred years old.
Her eyes were focused and determined, but her body wavered and shook. Whatever final spell she’d done had almost killed her. I could see that, and again, I wondered what kind of strength this girl had within her. The drive and determination were beyond what I could imagine.
Sinthy waved a hand and groaned with pain as the magical bangles she’d placed on Maxwell’s arms clicked apart and fell to the ground at his feet.
“I need your… magic… I have… barely anything left,” Sinthy said, speaking directly to Maxwell.
Sebastian’s breathing became markedly more labored, and his heart was doing odd things below my hands. He was fading fast. We had to hurry. If there was anything the two witches could do, they needed to do it soon.
Maxwell took several hesitant steps forward before kneeling beside Sinthy. He looked at his hands and shook his head. “I can’t control it. I don’t know how to heal anyone.”
Sinthy reached a weak and shaking hand out and put it into his.
“You have my family’s magic running in your veins.
It will flow through me, and I will guide it.
I need you. This only works if you allow me to access the magic deep inside you.
” She nodded toward Sebastian. “His life is vanishing. He’ll be gone in thirty seconds if we don’t do something now. ”
Nico had lost all control. He was openly weeping over his friend, his tears pattering down on Sebastian’s chest and face. Luis and Felipe had crawled forward, and each of them had a hand on Sebastian as though they could somehow summon magic to save him themselves.
Maxwell nodded eagerly. “I want to help. There’s been enough death. Do what you need to.”
Sinthy gave him a thin, tired smile and wrapped her fingers tightly around his hand.
Maxwell gasped, and his eyes rolled back in his head.
Sinthy leaned forward and placed her free hand on Sebastian’s forehead.
There was a surge of power as Maxwell’s magical energy flowed through Sinthy.
Static crackled in the air, and the shifters all took several steps back, expanding the circle around us.
Sebastian’s eyes fluttered open, and he groaned, but blood was still seeping from his wound.
Sinthy slid her hand down, pushing mine and Abi’s hands away from the wound.
Her fingers became slick with blood, and she pressed her hand hard on his chest. Her teeth clenched, and the hand that held Maxwell’s shook with the effort.
For his part, Maxwell looked nearly comatose.
All I could see were the whites of his eyes as his energy fed Sinthy—his body tense as she used his power.
He must have still been aware, though, as Sinthy spoke to him in a low, whispered voice. “Concentrate. Think of healing. Focus all your thoughts on life.”
“I… don’t… know how. I’m scared,” Maxwell murmured through his strange trance.
“If you fear your magic, you’ll never command it,” Sinthy hissed with renewed strength. “You can’t be scared. This man is scared. He is dying, Maxwell. Your fears don’t matters. Help me save him.”
Sebastian’s eyes fluttered closed. Sinthy looked pained as she watched him sag back onto Nico’s legs.
“It’s not enough,” Sinthy said as tears started to trickle down her cheeks. “He’s too far gone. I’m too weak, and Maxwell’s power isn’t flowing fast enough. I don’t know what else to do.”
Like a lightning bolt, Nico’s hand shot out and clamped onto Sinthy’s arm.
“These are my lands. I’m connected to them. Use me. Pull from me. From all of us.”
Sebastian shuddered one final time, then his final breath hissed out of his lips, and he went still.
Ignoring that his friend had died, Nico shouted to everyone. “Lean in. Open your minds to Sinthy. Give her everything.”
Sinthy shook her head sadly. “Nico, it’s over— ”
“Not yet,” he screamed. “Everyone, come on. Hurry.” He looked into Sinthy’s eyes pleadingly. “Try. Please. One last time. Try.”
Nodding. Sinthy pressed Maxwell’s hand to Sebastian’s chest and placed hers on top.
All around us, the pack leaned in, placing their hands on each other.
Those closest lay their hands on Sinthy and Maxwell.
Nico never let go of Sinthy. I sat beside Nico and wrapped my arms around him, willing every ounce of energy I had into helping Sinthy to save Sebastian.
With everyone connected and concentrating, images flashed through my mind: ancient shifters hunting and running through these lands, an old crone witch drawing symbols in the dirt. In my mind’s eye, she looked up and locked her gaze on mine, then nodded with a smile.
Sebastian’s body jolted, almost like he’d been shocked by a defibrillator, and a surge of power coursed through all of us.
There were murmurs of surprise and shock through the pack as everyone else felt it.
Sebastian jerked again, his back arching so hard that he almost bent in half.
Sinthy’s eyes opened with surprise, and a faint smile crossed her lips.
An odd glow emanated from Sinthy and Maxwell’s hands.
It was so bright that I had to avert my eyes.
The energy kept building and building until finally, Sinthy and Maxwell fell backward away from Sebastian’s body, both looking depleted.
Sinthy, still looking like death warmed over, lifted a bloody fist and smiled at me.
She opened her hand, and a twisted and warped bullet fell from her palm onto the ground.
Beside me, Sebastian, in a burst of movement, opened his eyes wide and sucked in the deepest, most intense breath of air I’d ever seen anyone take. He took in two more massive lungsful of air before coughing and falling back onto Nico’s lap.
“Holy fuck, that hurt,” Sebastian groaned.
There was a single second of shocked silence, then the entire pack screamed and roared with a combination of relief, delight, excitement, and happiness. Nico yanked Sebastian into a heavy bear hug, and Sebastian seemed very confused by the tears on his alpha’s cheeks.
“You cried for me?” Sebastian asked when Nico let go of him. “You really do care. What a softy.”
Nico feverishly wiped the tears and snot from his face. “Shut up, asshole. If you do that again, I’ll bring you back a second time and then kill you myself.”
Before Sebastian could give Nico a retort, Abi nearly tackled him.
My friend wrapped him in her arms and hugged him tight, sobbing uncontrollably.
Nico detangled himself from Sebastian and pulled me to my feet.
Abi curled almost completely into Sebastian’s lap and pulled him even tighter.
To me, it looked like his near-death had wiped away all the stupid shit they’d been going through.
What was left was how they really felt about each other.
At first, shocked and surprised, Sebastian finally smiled and wrapped his arms around Abi. The entire pack was celebrating, and in the distance, I could hear sirens approaching as the police and ambulances began to arrive.
Even through the shouts of excitement and relief, I could hear Sebastian talking to Abi as he stroked her hair gently.
“You know, if I’d realized dying was all it took to get the girl, I’d have done this months ago.”
Abi let out a sobbing laugh and slapped him on the back, then wrapped him in her arms again. Sebastian looked down at her, and for a man who’d been dead only a few minutes before, I’d never seen anyone so happy in my life.