Chapter 22 - Emily
My feet barely touch the ground, the forest bending and stretching around me like it’s breathing.
The air is too thick, too heavy, each breath scraping my lungs raw as I run.
And I’m running as fast as my feet can carry me.
I know I’m chasing something, or someone, but the knowing comes without memory, without reason.
Panic is already in my bones, and I’m running purely on instinct, fueled by adrenaline.
“Sean?!” I yell out in desperation, my voice breaking apart before it reaches the trees.
There’s no response, while the bond is screaming in my bones and inside my chest.
It isn’t the steady hum I’ve grown accustomed to, the quiet pull that anchors me even when I’m resisting it.
This is jagged. Torn. Like a cord snapping inside my chest, cracking my heart the harder it tugs.
Pain flares so sharply I nearly drop to my knees, clutching at my sternum as if I can hold my heart together with my hands.
I stagger forward anyway. I need to keep going—that’s all I know. I need to find Sean.
The trees open, and a clearing suddenly appears in front of me, too wide, too exposed, too vulnerable. Moonlight spills across the ground in a pale wash, illuminating the truth I’ve been running from.
Sean is on the ground, and my heart lurches as his name rips out of my throat like a wretched cry. His body lies twisted at an unnatural angle, one arm outstretched as if he tried to reach for me. The bond surges violently, then stutters—weak, fading—like a pulse slowing beneath my fingers.
“No,” I whisper, throwing myself forward. “No, no, no…”
I fall beside him, my knees hitting the dirt hard enough to rattle my teeth. My hands shake as I reach for him, afraid of what I’ll feel when I touch him. Afraid I already know, even when it takes every ounce of courage to look down.
Blood pools beneath his chest, dark and endless, soaking into the earth like it’s being swallowed. It stains my hands the moment I press them to his shirt, warm and slick and impossibly real.
“Sean!” I choke. “P-please!”
His eyes are open, glassy and unfocused, staring past me blankly, not focusing on me.
The sight shatters something deep inside my chest, something I don’t think will ever get pieced together.
The dark, treacherous claws of doom are about to consume me, and now that there’s nothing left to live for, there’s no fight in me. None at all.
How am I going to live without my fated mate? Without Sean?
I try to scream, but no sound comes out when a chill slices through the air, and the forest goes eerily silent.
Then, out of nowhere, yet all around me, there’s laughter.
It slithers through the air, soft and pleased, curling around my spine like cold fingers. The shadows around the clearing stretch, lengthen, bleeding together until they form a shape behind me. I don’t turn. I don’t have to.
I feel her, and my heart gets lodged in my throat. I lift my eyes only enough to see her morphed, shadowy figure hovering over me, cast on the ground, cast over Sean’s lifeless body.
“Little witch…” the voice whispers, brushing against my ear like a lover’s breath that sends a chill down my spine. “Did you think power came without cost?” She laughs again, her breath blowing the hairs tucked behind my ear. “He dies when you rise….”
My eyes snap open to find myself back in Sean’s bed, his arm lying across my midriff like a safety harness to keep me pinned to the bed.
Taking my first breath after waking up from a nightmare is a nightmare on its own when the air scorches my dry lungs, and I stifle a wheeze so I don’t wake Sean. He’s sound asleep, but I know any sudden movement or sound will wake him.
It’s why we’re sleeping in the same bed, not as lovers, but with Sean as my protector, while I’m left to be the damsel in distress, even with all my powers.
Something inside me cracks with the last bit of courage I have for this whole thing—being a witch, taking down Grimes—and I can barely look at Sean’s sleeping face anymore.
I mean…I want to. I want to wake up to this every morning, watch the sun rise across his tanned cheek, and listen to the rhythm of his breathing as his breath falls from parted plump lips. But what I’ve been seeing in my nightmares and visions lately has me spooked.
And what’s worse is what the others told us last night—that my powers are so intricately woven with the mate bond that if either of us gets hurt, the other one suffers.
I feel responsible for Sean’s life now, and it’s a heavy burden to bear.
What if he dies because of me?
Unable to live with myself or with this condition set upon us, I slip out from under his arm and grab my phone off the nightstand as I head to the bathroom.
Delilah needs to figure something out to either break our mate bond or untangle my powers from it.
***
Walking into training today feels different, and it’s mostly because I’m shutting down again. I can feel it in the coldness of my lips when I smile, the emptiness in my eyes when I greet someone.
I know Sean senses that I’m not myself today, but he hasn’t asked why. I’m just trying to protect myself from getting hurt, because if there’s one thing that could break me, it’s watching Sean die.
And that can’t happen. It’s why I sneaked off to the bathroom this morning before he woke up and called Delilah to speak to her before they arrived for training today.
She’s the only one who knows about what I’ve been seeing in the visions and in my nightmares, and I begged her to find a way to break the bond.
I also asked her to keep it a secret from everyone else, which is why she exchanges a knowing look with me as she greets me before training, and proceeds without saying anything about our call.
“Sean, I want you to do something differently today,” Delilah instructs when we’re already halfway through training.
He steps forward, arms still behind him as he awaits further instructions. My brows furrow lightly as I wonder if this is the part when she breaks the bond between us.
Instead, she calls on Hunter with a gentle nod that prompts him to step up in front of Sean, as if there’s a prior arrangement between the alpha and luna of the Shadow Fang Pack.
My frown deepens as Hunter nods at his luna, then cracks his neck to either side.
“Wait.” I step forward, my fingers still tingling with remnants of the magic I just used during training. “What’s going on?”
Delilah gulps as she cautiously steps toward me, checking over her shoulder as if she’s afraid someone might hear her.
“I’m testing out a theory—” she begins, but I cut her off.
“No more testing theories, D. We’ve done enough of that,” I grumble under my breath. “Is this how you’re gonna break the bond?”
“Emily, I—”
“Break the bond?” Sean echoes beside me, startling me as I gasp and turn to him. “What is going on? Emily? Delilah?” he asks, brows raised between the two of us.
My heart drops, and I hesitate to say anything, not wanting to tell him what I’ve been secretly plotting.
“Delilah…you promised,” I remind her, but Delilah sighs despondently as she turns to me.
“I’ve researched it, and there’s no way to break a fated mate bond, Em. It’s just not possible.”
I can feel Sean’s glare boring into me, and I can’t bring myself to look at him.
“I—I can’t go through with this. The magic, all of it.”
Delilah shakes her head slowly, reaching for my hand.
“Don’t you see, Em? You’re the key. You and Sean share a bond that fuses with your magic, and it sets you apart from the rest of us.
If we get this right, Sean can harness your powers as a wolf.
He’s an alpha, and with your powers, you’ll bring down the dark lord in a heartbeat. ”
A chill slithers down my spine.
“And if it doesn’t work, we’re all dead, Delilah.” I snatch my arm out of Delilah’s hand, refusing to believe there’s no way to break the bond. I storm into the house, wanting to be left alone, wanting to crawl away and never be seen by anyone. Especially not Sean.
But I hear him come inside behind me, to my dismay, and I’m forced to face him in the kitchen, where I was about to pour myself water.
“What just happened?” he asks, his voice demanding. “What was that about breaking the fated mate bond?”
“It was nothing,” I lie, lifting the glass to my lips, but it doesn’t reach my mouth when Sean snatches it out of my hand. Water spills across my feet, but I watch the droplets sliding between my toes instead of lifting my eyes to Sean’s face.
“It wasn’t n-nothing,” he says, voice cracking. “You want to break the mate bond between us? You don’t want me?”
I look up with a startled gasp, hearing the pain in his voice, and then finding it in his expression. His eyes are glossed over with tears, his bottom lip quivering with dread, and it breaks me, physical pain shooting through my chest.
I spin around because I can’t bear it. I can’t stand here and watch him break apart while I’m trying to save him, trying to spare him from an unfair demise if I fail to use my magic correctly.
“I never said that,” I squeal, and he remains behind me.
“You might as well have said that,” he whispers, and the anguish is still ripe in his voice, breaking my heart. “Is it because of last night? Do you want me to take down the bars? Send the guards home? I’ll do anything—”
“No!” I spin back to him, my heart lurching. “It has nothing to do with any of that.”
“Then what is it? Did I do something wrong?”