Chapter 16 - Sam
I dropped Emma off at home, not leaving until Elias, who had sensed the danger through his own mating bond and was already speeding home with Grace by the time I called, arrived.
I gave him a brief overview of what happened, including the mysterious flames.
Emma had repeatedly insisted that she had nothing to do with the fire.
She was just as confused as the wraith had been.
I, on the other hand, had a sneaking suspicion I knew where the flames had come from. Or, rather, who. I kept them to myself. There was someone I needed to speak to first. So I drove home and waited for her to arrive.
The door opened, and Rachel appeared through the door.
“Where have you been?” I asked, keeping my voice neutral.
“At work.” She managed to keep her features straight, at least until she saw my face. She sucked in a breath. “What happened?”
I stood, rubbing my face as I did. “I think you know already,” I said. When she continued to feign confusion, I took a deep breath. “Emma and I were attacked by the wraith this afternoon. But you already know that.”
She did a good job of faking her surprise. She gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. “I thought I sensed something through the bond, but I never would have thought…” She trailed off, shaking her head. “Are you all right? How did you get away?”
“I’m all right,” I said. “Thanks to you.”
She stiffened, shifting from foot to foot with unease. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. “I wasn’t there. I was at home, taking care of a few things.”
I walked over until I was right in front of her. My hands rested on her shoulders to stop her from fidgeting as she worried her lower lip with her teeth. She stiffened for a moment, but then angled her head so she was looking in my eyes.
“Rachel, I know you were there,” I said, trying to keep my tone gentle.
I cupped the back of her neck, my thumb running up and down.
“I could sense you through the mating bond. I could feel your fear, and that you were trying to do something to help us. And I felt your relief and exhaustion after we got away.”
Biting her lip, she glanced away. I could hear her heart thundering as she wrestled with herself.
“Whatever it was, you saved my life,” I prodded, when she remained silent. “What did you do?”
She shook her head. “Nothing,” she muttered.
My eyes closed. How was I supposed to make her trust me? I needed to know what she had done, if only to be prepared for what might happen in the future.
“I know you were there,” I repeated. “And that’s okay. Honestly, I’m impressed that you were brave enough to come after me when you sensed something was wrong through the bond. I just want to know what happened.”
Her leg jittered, and her fingers tapped against the side of her leg. She glanced anywhere but at me. I waited, not pushing her even as I desperately wanted to know what the hell had gone on there. After a long moment, her shoulders sagged as she relented.
“Okay, I was there,” she said. “But I didn’t do anything. I saw the flame, which must have been Emma—”
“Emma told me she’s never conjured so much as a spark,” I interrupted, holding up my hand. Her mouth clamped shut. “She doesn’t think it was her, even on an instinctive level.”
“Then it must have been someone else,” she said.
A burst of anger flashed through me. “Why are you lying about this?” I growled. This was the sort of thing I needed to know. Why the hell had she kept it from me?
That frustration dissipated when I looked closely at Rachel, her stricken expression as she stared at me.
Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. She swallowed, and a realization that should have been obvious finally struck: she was terrified.
Whatever she had done, she was afraid of what would happen if she told anyone.
Without thinking twice, I reached out to her, pulling her in as my thumb swiped beneath her eye. My hand cupped her cheek, and she leaned into it.
“It’s okay,” I said. “You can tell me. I’m not going to judge. Especially since whatever you did saved my life. And if you want to keep it secret, then I won’t tell a soul. You can trust me.”
I saw that hesitation in her gaze at those final words.
She had trusted me once before, and I had thrown it back in her face.
I had spent weeks trying to build up her trust, but the memory of that day when we were kids would linger on no matter what.
I remained quiet, worried that anything I said right now might scare her off, like a doe startled by the crack of a branch.
After a long moment, she nodded, more to herself than to me. She took a deep, shaking breath and finally brought her eyes to meet mine.
“It was me. I felt you were in danger, and I wanted to do something. I don’t even know how I did it. It was sort of just instinctive.”
I let out a breath, allowing the knowledge to sink in. I had expected it the second I sensed Rachel nearby, but hearing it from her own lips was something else entirely. She waited anxiously for my response, as if afraid I would turn on her now that she had confessed.
“How long have you known about your powers?” I asked. If she had known for years, since we were kids, I couldn’t imagine the burden she felt shouldering that secret for so long.
“It started after the mating bond,” she said. “Just little things. It got stronger after we had sex.”
After we had consummated the bond, then. My mind went back to the Oracle, who had warned me to keep careful watch over her. Did she know? Or at least suspect? Unease at that possibility rippled through me. If she had known that, what else did she know?
Rachel stepped out of my hold, hesitating before she spoke. “I won’t blame you if you hate me,” she said.
I stared in disbelief. “What are you talking about? Why the hell would I hate you?”
Shrugging, she glanced away, unable to meet my gaze as she managed to choke out. “I don’t know. For being a witch? For lying to you about it?”
I shook my head in bewilderment, scoffing in disbelief. She glanced away until I tilted her chin up so she had to look at me.
“I’m not mad at you,” I said. “You saved my life. I would have to be a complete asshole to hate you after that. I may be an idiot at times, but I like to think I’m not an asshole.”
She gave a half-laugh, half-sob, a smile breaking across her face for the first time since she had come home.
“What you did was incredible,” I said, and genuinely meant it. “You literally turned part of the wraith into glass. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
“I don’t know how it works,” she muttered. “I don’t even know if I could do it again.”
“I know you could do it,” I said. “I think the bigger question is whether you want to.”
And whether the wraith can find a way to work around it, I didn’t add.
I didn’t want her to feel that sort of pressure.
More than that, I didn’t want her to get the idea in her head that going after the wraith again was a good idea.
She might have an incredible power, but that didn’t mean I wanted her putting herself in harm’s way.
I closed my eyes. If anything, she had proved she could handle herself. I had misjudged her.
“I’m sorry for saying you can’t protect yourself,” I said. “Though I hope you know that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop worrying about you. Because that’s never going to happen. I happen to care too much for you to ever do that.”
She blinked up at me, surprised. “You do?”
“Was that ever in question?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she came and nuzzled against me, her head resting in the crook of my shoulder as I pulled her into my arms, hand stroking her soft hair as I breathed in her scent.
“We should tell Elias,” I finally muttered.
It was the wrong thing to say. Rachel blanched and took several steps back, shaking her head as her eyes remained wide with fright.
“Please don’t tell anyone,” she said.
I frowned, brow furrowing. “What? Why not? He needs to know if his sister can—”
“They’ll hate me,” she said, panic lacing her words. “They already don’t like me. I don’t want another reason for them to treat me as an outcast.”
“You can fight against the wraith,” I pointed out. “Think about all the good you could do.”
Her eyes were still wide as saucers, and she seemed to shrink in on herself. Her arms wrapped around her stomach as she stared desperately at me, still shaking her head softly.
“I don’t want people to know,” she said.
Huffing, I ran my fingers through my hair as I licked my lips.
This sort of information was crucial for the pack to know.
It was the type of thing that could save the town.
I almost opened my mouth to argue. However, staring down at her, I saw the terror radiating off her as she stared at me in a panic.
She bit her lip as she bobbed from foot to foot, waiting for my response.
Letting out a deep breath, I nodded and moved to stand in front of her. “All right,” I said, wrapping my hands around hers and tugging them away from her stomach. “I won’t tell anyone until you’re ready. But I don’t think you should keep this to yourself.”
Her shoulders sagged as relief radiated off her. She let out a slow, shaky breath as she looked at me, giving a faint, almost nervous smile.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
I pulled her toward me, kissing her forehead as my mind spun, trying to figure out what the hell was going to happen next.
***
“You’re gonna love me,” Oz said, strutting into Elias’s room. Drake, the more silent, stern type, followed after as Oz gave a smug grin.
“How’s that?” I asked. “Because if you think that you dragging us out to a bar and buying us all drinks is enough to win our undying affection, that’s not gonna cut it.”
“Hey, it works with the ladies.” He winked. “But no, this is a horse of an entirely different color.”
“And that color is…?” Elias asked.
“I happen to have a lead on where the lair is,” Oz said with a broad grin.
Both Elias and I straightened, our attention finally locked on him for the first time.
“You do?” Elias said.
He raised an eyebrow as he tilted his head. “Given everything we’ve had to deal with, do you really think that I would come waltzing in here bragging about this if it weren’t true?”
“If you thought it was amusing? Absolutely,” Elias said, his face emotionless.
Oz tsked. “Okay, so maybe I would. But given how much of a headache the wraith has given us lately, I’m not about to lie about it.”
Elias let out a breath as he leaned forward in his chair, all his attention locked on Oz. “How did you find it?”
Drake chimed in, “Oz and I were on patrol. A couple of lesser demons tried to ambush us. We managed to drag one of them away and convinced him that it was in his best interest to give us as much information as he knew before we started using iron.”
I let out a low breath of disbelief. For the first time, I felt as though we might have a chance at beating this thing. We had the advantage for the first time. There was a chance we could end all of this.
“Where is it?” Elias asked, his mind clearly on the same trajectory.
“Northwest of town,” Oz said. “Just like you thought. Near the heart of the desert. There’s a rock formation there with a series of tunnels, sort of similar to the one that leads to the underground spring.
It’s hard to find if you don’t know where it is, but the demon gave us some pretty good directions. ”
I leaned against the wall, mind spinning as I let the words sink in.
A lead. We had a lead. We actually might be able to go after the wraith on its home turf, rather than waiting for it to come to us.
Glancing over at Elias, I could see he was thinking the same from the set of his shoulders and the glint in his eyes, even as he remained motionless, his face stoic.
“Where’s the wraith now?” Elias asked.
“We haven’t seen it since it attacked Sam and Emma,” Drake answered. “My guess would be it’s recovering from whatever the fire did to it.”
“So we should have some time to plan,” Elias said, nodding. “Good. Let’s come up with a real war plan so we can end this thing once and for all.”
“I’ll start mocking up some options,” Drake said.
“You’ve got a day,” Elias said.
Snorting as if offended, Drake retorted, “Give me some credit. I only need eight hours.”
As they left, Elias let out a low, relieved breath, sinking into his chair. “Finally, some good news,” he said.
“We’ve still got a ways to go,” I said. “But at least we know what we have to do. Once Drake gives us his thoughts, we can finish this once and for all.”
“Thank God,” Elias said. “I’ll be able to stop worrying about Emma every time she steps out of the house.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know how you’re able to let her go wandering about, considering the wraith is after her,” I said.
Hell, the wraith didn’t even know Rachel existed, and the thought of her walking down the street to train with Amelia still filled me with dread.
I knew she was strong and had proven she had the abilities to protect herself.
That didn’t stop that need to keep her safe. It was always there, a part of me.
“She’s her own person,” Elias said. “I don’t always like it, but I have to trust her. She survived on her own as a single mom for years.”
“Sure,” I conceded. “But every time Rachel’s out of sight, I’m worrying about her.”
Elias raised an eyebrow. “Really? I wouldn’t have expected that. But I guess the mating bond sort of muddles those things a bit.”
He gave me a suspicious look, and I realized what I had just said, what I had almost given away.
“Yeah. I think it has to do with me feeling responsible for her, with everything going on,” I said. “Even if we aren’t traditional mates.”
He scrutinized me for another long moment, and I thought he might push me for more information. Then he shrugged and looked back at the papers on his desk.
“Let’s just kill the wraith, and we won’t have to worry about it ever again,” Elias growled, pushing himself to his feet. “We’ll set up a meeting with the guards and start making a plan. I’ll have to bring Emma in on it, since she’s the only one who can kill it.”
Not quite. I had to bite my lip not to say it out loud.
I wasn’t entirely sure how Elias would react if he found out his sister was keeping magic from him.
I wanted to tell him. It was important for him to understand if we were planning on going after the wraith.
But that was Rachel’s story to tell, not mine.
And I cared more about keeping her secrets than telling Elias.
I glanced over at my best friend to see him studying me, tilting his head as he raised his eyebrow.
“You all right?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said, trying to keep my features neutral. “Just looking forward to having all of this behind us.”