Chapter 44
Chapter
Forty-Four
The fighting was coming to a stop around them, but Delainey was barely paying attention. She had her body thrown over Reece’s to protect him from any stray magic that might come their way, for all the good it would do her.
Her fingers were jammed under his pulse point, trying desperately to feel that thump, thump, thump that would tell her his heart was beating, that he was alive.
His neck was cold under her fingertips, and his head had lolled to one side so that his hair was matted with dirt and pressed flat against the ground, his jaw slack and his lips colorless.
It had been almost a minute since she felt the last beat. Fifty-three awful seconds while her mind came to the realization that the Nevins had succeeded.
She couldn’t feel the tether anymore, and no matter how much she reached out with her magic trying to bind herself to him, it was like something inside him was rejecting it.
Rejecting her.
She had no idea if this had something to do with him being a werewolf and her being a witch, and she didn’t give a damn. She just needed to save him.
Elise was trying to pull her off, but Delainey wouldn’t budge.
Something sharp jammed into her chest, and she gasped, and that finally broke her attention. She looked around and felt over her heart as if she expected to find a spear protruding from her breastbone, but there was nothing.
Then Reece twitched.
“Did you see that?” she said. But Elise had scrambled away to deal with the injured who she could actually help. Delainey tried not to feel upset about that.
Reece twitched again.
Delainey poked her fingers hard enough into his neck to bruise, but this time she found his pulse, strong and quick. She slid her hand up until she was cupping his chin and tapped his cheek.
“Come on, come on, wake up,” she said, patting his face with her open palm, and not gently. But Reece just groaned and turned onto his side.
“You can’t kill my parents!” Delainey heard the scream tear out of Elise’s throat.
Okay, maybe she needed to pay attention to what was going on behind her.
She glared down at Reece. “Don’t you dare die on me now,” she said and got to her feet.
The members of the Wallace Grove Coven had been split up, with Brenda Nevin on her knees beside Cole, who had claws out and hovering right over her neck. Cole’s claws were fully extended, thick, curved, dark at the tips, and they hovered an inch from the pale column of Brenda’s throat.
Tim lay unconscious on the ground at Serena’s feet. His face was turned to the side against the grass, a dark bruise already forming along his temple, and Serena stood over him with her university sweatshirt singed at one sleeve, the last crackle of electricity dying between her knuckles.
Emerson stood by a wolf who must have been Hugh, his hands in the air. The other unnamed members of Wallace Grove were also on their knees, hands up.
“They kidnapped a member of my pack, Elise. I can’t let that go unpunished.” Cole said it without raising his voice, his broad frame planted between Brenda and any possible escape route, stone-carved features giving away nothing but absolute authority.
“Think about what you’re doing,” Elise insisted. “Think about their coven. They can destroy you.”
Brenda didn’t look at all repentant. In fact, she had a smug little smile on her face because they all knew at least Elise was right.
“You kidnapped my people,” Cole said to Brenda.
At the moment, Delainey wasn’t going to quibble about Cole calling her one of his people.
This battle felt like more than a truce.
It felt like a true alliance. With Nico and Elise together, and her and Reece together because he was going to wake up, and they were going to figure their shit out, her coven and the Southern Basin pack seemed to be getting closer and closer by the day.
“This is all a big misunderstanding,” Brenda said, her chin still lifted even from her knees, that imperious tilt holding firm despite the claws hovering at her jugular. “There is no need for more violence.”
This motherfucker thought she could get away with it.
Delainey had stood up but hadn’t walked away from Reece, and every step she took further from him felt like she was pulling pieces of her soul out, not physically and not magically. Emotionally, though it was a roller coaster.
She didn’t realize she had stepped more than thirty feet away until she looked back and saw the distance. The tether between them was gone, but she could still feel a piece of wild magic deep in her soul, a piece that felt like Reece.
How?
She’d have to figure that out later.
“They masterminded the kidnapping,” Delainey informed everyone, thankful that Brenda had taken a bit of time to explain her dastardly plan before trying to kill them.
“She hired someone to kidnap Nico and Elise and hoped Elise’s magic would go wrong, kill Nico, and send her running back to Wallace Grove.
” Delainey let the words land dispassionately. She wanted this to be over.
Elise made a pained sound in the back of her throat. “Mom?” she asked. “Dad?”
Delainey kept talking. “Emerson used the hospitality gifts to manipulate our minds, and he was sabotaging our research and investigation from the very beginning. He’s in this up to his neck.”
“I only did it because I love you.” Emerson looked at Briana, his smooth hands still raised, the words coming out thin and reedy through that pinched mouth.
“Someone who loved me would never do this.” Briana’s wrist was raw from where she’d torn the bracelet off, and there was a bruise on her cheek. She stood with her shoulders squared despite the dirt ground into her clothes.
Emerson made to lunge at her. Cole growled while Hugh charged forward and snapped his teeth at Emerson, since he was closer. Hugh’s jaws closed a half-inch from Emerson’s forearm with an audible clack, and Emerson jerked back so hard he stumbled, his polished loafers slipping on the torn-up grass.
Elise took Nico’s hand. “You aren’t my parents,” she told Brenda. “I never want to see you again, and I am never going to be a member of the Wallace Grove Coven.” Her voice didn’t waver.
The smug smile peeled off Brenda’s face as her composure cracked. “Elise,” she said, and for the first time her voice lost its imperious edge.
But Elise looked away and tugged on Nico’s hand. She walked by Reece and knelt beside him, working her healing magic, even though it had done nothing before, as if Brenda and Tim weren’t right there.
Brenda looked at Briana as if she was the one who could fix things. “This was a misunderstanding. We can come to some sort of terms.”
Delainey heard Reece groan and wanted to run to him, but things needed to be settled right now.
She took a final step forward and made sure her voice carried. “What I understand is that you tried to kill my mate. You all get the hell out of our territory before we send your skins back to Wallace Grove and damn the consequences.”
“Get out,” Briana added, stepping forward so that she stood shoulder to shoulder with Delainey. “All of you. You are no longer entitled to our hospitality. We rebuke you.”
“I rebuke you,” said Delainey.
“I rebuke you,” came from both Aya and Serena.
Elise said nothing. She had already said her piece.
The witches took a step back. Briana nodded to Cole.
He flexed his claws for a moment, then let his hand shift back to human.
The claws retracted with a faint wet sound, and he straightened to his full height.
“My allies have spoken,” he said. “Get out of this territory, and if you are ever spotted again, your lives are forfeit.”
Allies.
Delainey didn’t repeat it out loud. But that was a word that wasn’t spoken lightly in these parts. It would need to be discussed further, but she liked the sound of it.