Chapter 38
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Owen’s eyes widen, and my world slows down to microseconds.
A weight slams into my back, knocking me off my feet and sending me flying as a fifteen stone wolf hits me from behind.
The phone clatters to the ground, followed swiftly by me.
I hit the floor with a crunch and my ears ring as my head bounces off the wood.
Ouch. I roll to avoid a heavy paw to my face, and bring my hands up just in time to protect my throat from the wolf’s savaging teeth.
Bloody hell.
Underneath the wolf’s snarls is the sound of Mr Henderson’s tinny laughter.
Even though the wolf attack feels like forever, it is only a matter of seconds until the shifted wolf goes airborne and is yanked off me.
“Andy? That was Andy, right?” I say dazed.
My vision is hazy, and I can see actual squiggly lines in front of my eyes. I must have really cracked my head if I am showing signs of concussion. I watch as a black fuzzy blob rushes toward me.
“Tuesday, are you okay?” Mum cries as she helps to sit me up.
“I am fine, Mum,” I rasp with a fake smile as I move my head to knock her icy hand from my cheek.
The bloody magic lie detector pings. Great. The stupid magic won’t even give me the peace to lie to myself.
I blink a few times and my head clears. “He just knocked the wind out of me, that’s all. The realm magic will fix me right up.” My tone is light and even, but my heart is slamming against my ribs. I lick my lips. Blood coats inside of my mouth and the back of my head aches.
I duck my head to cover my horrified expression, and madness bubbles inside of me. The shock I’m feeling right now makes me want to roll back onto the floor and laugh. Laugh like my entire world has not fallen apart.
Up. Get up.
My stomach churns with fear, and my body is rubbery with shock. My limbs are like a day-old Pot Noodle. I scramble to my knees and, with my left hand, I stretch out and grab the fallen phone. “Thanks for the heads up, Mr Henderson,” I say pleasantly as I end the call.
With Mum’s help, I stand. I fist my right hand behind my back.
“Flash, are you okay?” Owen asks over the ruckus of the brown thrashing wolf. He has a good grip on the wolf. He holds him by the scruff of his neck.
“Yes.” I get the single word out before my throat locks up.
Liar, liar, broom on fire. The old nursery rhyme echoes around my head.
With Owen’s attention on Andy, it is easy to pull the wool over his eyes.
Plus, this is my realm, and reality can be altered.
I make sure the scent of my blood goes nowhere near his keen shifter nose.
The hellhound lets out a hair-raising growl and shakes the wolf like a puppy.
His arm bulges with strength, but Andy's weight doesn’t seem to affect the big man.
“Andy?” Diane whispers brokenly. “Why, Andy? Why would you do that?” I clamp my mouth closed, as it takes everything that I have not to say, “’Cause he is a dickhead.”
Jodie tries to comfort our sister while looking back at Mum and me with frightened eyes. Ava and Heather are nowhere to be found. I don’t need to ask my magic where they are as Dad is guarding the way to my office.
“Shift back, or I’ll break your neck,” Owen says. His voice is a deadly whisper in the snapping wolf's ear. Then it’s as if Andy comes back to himself. He finally pauses his struggles, tucks his tail between his legs, and cowers.
With puppy dog eyes and pink spit dripping from his jaws, he inspects our angry coven. The realisation is dawning on his wolfy features. He has seriously messed up.
The wolf shifts.
I’m glad to see Andy isn’t naked, having been gifted the coven’s expensive clothing retention potion. I stand there quietly. I don’t have the heart to interfere with this interrogation.
One thought keeps screaming at me. It bounces around in my head and I have to push it away, so it doesn’t come spilling out of my lips in a devastated scream.
“You brought in the mercenaries,” Diane says, shrugging off Jodie’s arm and surprising probably everybody in the room as she steps up.
Her voice is clear. Gone is the pain, and it is replaced with anger.
“You brought mercenaries here to hurt my coven. Why? Why would you do that?” Andy winces as Owen applies pressure to his neck.
There are flames in my hellhound's eyes and is that…
yes, his free hand is once again engulfed in dancing blue flame.
I love that I can see his magic. I am not in love with the circumstances, but I’m glad I get to see him like this again, for what undoubtedly will be the last time.
“I am sick of you and your fantastic, amazing, incredible coven looking down at me as if I’m scum. What are you without your potions? What can you do really? It was easy to make you think I loved you.” Andy winks. “Any hole is a goal, am I right?”
Beside me, Mum lets out a disgusted sound.
Diane blinks a few times and then laughs.
“You narcissistic, little shit. To think I thought your weirdness was endearing. You are a joke. Who told you any of this would be a good idea? When did you decide on this brilliant plan?” She waves her arm in the air and then nods at Owen.
Owen’s fiery hand drifts closer to Andy.
A droplet of sweat from his hairline rolls down his face. Andy lets out a whimper.
“It was all Mr Henderson! He knew I was dating you and when you included me on the trip to the safe house, it gave the ideal opportunity to set things in place. It was a nice little earner. Kill two birds with one stone. It meant I was finally rid of you and wouldn’t get my arse kicked by your bitch of a mother.
” Mum huffs. “Win-win. Until you all decided to move location and come here.” He toothily grins at me.
He knows. He knows what he did.
“So, when your useless sister mentioned fixing a portal to the shop at lunch, I got on the blower and made the plans. It happened quickly after that.”
Ah, this wasn’t the work of the host. Good to know Andy was not a victim, brainwashed into doing something that was out of character.
I keep my injured right hand behind my back and a small droplet of blood splatters unnoticed on the floor. The realm’s magic whisks the evidence away.
Andy looks again at me with a triumphant grin. I didn’t get away unscathed and no magic on Earth will heal me. Andy bit me in his deadly wolf form.
He bit me.
“Tuesday. Will you open a portal?” I must have missed some of the conversation. Mum gently strokes the back of my head to get my attention. “Your dad and Owen are going to take Andy to the Hunters Guild.”
I nod. “Sure,” I croak. I need to mask what I am feeling, suck it up until they’ve gone.
I open the portal.
“Please don’t take me there. I don’t want to be locked up. Diane, tell them to kill me. Are you not going to kill me?”
“Kill you? No, that would be way too easy. Where you’re going, pal, they will keep you alive for a very long time.” Owen shakes Andy like he is a rag doll to get his point home. I am glad I’ve not said anything about the bite. Owen would rip Andy’s throat right out.
Andy must have the same thought. “Tell him, Tuesday—”
I freeze his stupid mouth.
My breath shudders. It’s probably my imagination, as I’ve always been a tad dramatic, but as the painful bite on my hand burns, I can already feel the poisonous shifter magic running through my veins.
“Love you, Dad.”
Dad kisses me on the cheek and whispers, “And I love you. Please look after your sister.” I can’t speak the lie, so I nod.
I shuffle towards Owen and quietly mumble a goodbye. “See you in a bit. Be careful. Thank you for your help.” Owen smiles at me in that way he does.
“Always.”
My heart wails.
Why? Why couldn’t I get my happily ever after?
I’m dead, my body just doesn’t know it yet. The small bite will kill me within seventy-two hours, and this is the last time I will see my hellhound. I don’t want him to see me suffer like that.
I stubbornly lift my chin as they step into the portal, dragging Andy between them.
I love you. I love you so much. I scream inside.
Before the portal closes, I squeeze my eyes tightly shut and turn away so I cannot see the budding confusion in his beautiful grey eyes.
I can’t watch him leave. I just can’t.
When the portal closes, I lock everything down so he can’t return. I am so proud that I held it together.
Now I have a decision to make. I can run, like the million times I have done before, or I can be honest. Tell the truth.
Everything inside me wants to run away, wants to find some deep, dark hole to fall inside.
But the selfish part of me wants my mum.
It also wants Owen. But he is gone. It wants to be greedy, to have my coven and Daisy at my side.
My heart aches for my brave, beautiful hellhound to somehow fight this for me, to chase away the poisonous magic in my blood and rescue me.
But he can’t.
A sob wrenches out of my throat. I cover my lips, and beneath my hand, an inhuman wail comes out of my mouth.
I never knew grief and horror had such a sound.
“Tuesday, Tuesday, please tell me what is wrong.”
“Mum, I’m sorry.” Blood dribbles down my wrist as I hold up my bitten hand.