Chapter 18 - Hannah #2
“We are going to tranquilize him so he doesn’t try anything, so this contains the potion, along with a tranquilizer.
You won’t have much time, but from the message I received about this, it is you who will uncover the secrets he is hiding through this ritual.
So, you have to be quick,” she tells me, lifting her eyes to Conan.
“You will enter the cell with Hannah just as a precaution, but you may not make any physical contact with either Hannah or him.”
Conan nods, and I take the syringe from her while Milly releases my arm and steps aside. Conan unlocks the metal gate, the squeaking of the hinges echoing around the room.
Before we can step inside, Amalia places a hand on my shoulder.
“I have faith in you, Hannah, to bring us the information we seek. Milly and I will be right here as well. Remember what I told you this morning about your intention. Focus on that, and it will give you the answers you seek. Nothing else is important.”
I nod as Milly offers me a tense smile before she falls into position beside Sister Amalia. I clutch the syringe tightly when Conan presses a reassuring kiss to my temple, and we both head inside the dark cell.
Marcus Hale looks up with a smug smile that he hasn’t stopped wearing since he arrived back in the Bitterroot Valley.
“You’re wasting your time, witch,” he sneers, and I tilt my chin up, suddenly feeling powerful.
In control.
In charge of my abilities in the face of adversity.
No longer afraid of what I have to do as a witch, no longer hiding in the shadows and avoiding the frontlines
It’s all thanks to my mate bond with Alpha Conan Becker, and I’m grateful that he’s there to support me, the close proximity allowing my magic to simmer beneath the surface, humming beneath my skin and pulsing in my heart.
It’s why I don’t waste time on small talk with Marcus Hale. I couldn’t care less what he has to say. He’s been in custody for so long, but he hasn’t spoken a word that could lead us to who is behind the demon threat or what the demons are after.
This is the moment of truth, and there’s no time to waste. Not with Clarissa in danger.
That’s when I puncture Marcus Hale’s neck with the needle, pushing the potion into his veins.
The reaction is instantaneous, the liquid lighting up his veins in ropes of crimson that are prominent against his paling flesh, and as Amalia and Milly chant outside the cell, I place my hands on the man’s head just as his eyes close.
Clinging to the intention Amalia advised me to maintain as the ritual commenced, I mentally chant it, wanting to see beyond his memories and the resistance he tries to put up, and stay focused on the answers we need.
I only want information about the demons. Information about the south ruins of the Bitterroot Valley.
A sharp electric current rushes through my palms, and my head snaps up in response, a gasp escaping my lips. I can still hear the witches chanting behind me; I can feel Conan’s presence nearby, but my consciousness has moved as if I’ve walked into Marcus Hale’s mind.
I see things as if my vision is through his eyes, a memory unlocked, standing tall in a dark alleyway as a demon comes swirling down in a torrent of black mist. It stops right in front of Hale, wearing robes as black as its eyes, its face hidden by a hood attached to its robes.
“You have done well, Marcus Hale,” a dark, ominous voice speaks, its voice echoing theatrically through the alleyway. “We have located one hybrid vessel already.”
Nico.
My heart hammers with dread and fury, hearing the demon or whatever this thing is, referring to Nico like that. They’ve been on the lookout for hybrid children, and Marcus Hale was the one leading them to the children.
The only reason Clarissa was safe was because of the potion I’d been giving her to keep her wolf masked.
But as I try to focus my vision to see the masked face of the one talking to Marcus Hale, his memory dissolves into a tunnel of darkness, like an empty chasm that suddenly makes my heart race.
A feeling of deep dread takes over, and suddenly, it’s like I can’t breathe, choked by the darkness and emptiness of my surroundings.
I can’t hear Amalia and Milly chanting anymore. I can’t feel Conan, can’t feel the mate bond. All I feel is…empty.
The lonely kind of empty, where the only thing I have is my power, which suddenly feels like it will consume me.
Fire.
Fire feels like it will scorch my own skin, burn me the way I’ve burned the demons we’ve fought.
And for the first time tonight, I feel scared.
Truly afraid of this darkness.
“No…no…” I chant in my head, feeling lost, as if I’d walked into a corner of Marcus Hale’s mind where he’s trapped me. Except, it’s not possible to get lost in a human’s mind.
He doesn’t possess that kind of power.
And that’s when it comes—the moment feeling like a rubber band has been pulled taut and snapped back in my chest. The darkness surrounds me, almost consuming me, but then my vision is launched out of the eerie presence, and it feels like I’m ripped out of the ground.
I’m soaring now, but it’s only my consciousness. I can’t see my limbs or feel my body, but I hear my name.
“Hannah Young…” a dark voice whispers. “At last, you have found me…”
The shock of feeling like I’ve been caught lurking in places I shouldn’t know about has me gasping, and I’m slammed out of the ritual, Amalia’s and Milly’s voices returning with their chanting, and Conan’s arms catching me just as I’m about to hit the ground.
Exhaustion like nothing I’ve ever felt before pounds into me, and the last thing I see before I black out is Conan’s eyes as he yells out my name.
The only voice I want to hear.