Chapter 21 #2
“I will. Thank you.” Cass looked around for her phone and spotted it on the bottom stair, where someone must have put it out of the way. She went over, picked it up, and pulled up Eric Swanson’s number. Someone needed to be there when her dad woke up.
It took a few more minutes to get everyone out. Just before Tracy left, she handed Cass a business card with the report number handwritten on the back. When Cass went to take it, Tracy held on to it for a moment, her gaze concerned. “Are you sure this is the best way to handle this?”
No. “I am,” Cass lied.
“All right.” She didn’t sound convinced but let the card go. “Good luck, Cassandra.”
As soon as the door closed behind her, Cass hit Eric’s number, skirting the discarded towels and blood as she rushed toward the guest room. Where the hell is Grayson?
The phone rang twice, then Eric said, “Hello.”
“It’s Cassandra. I need you to get to Santos Medical. My dad’s injured. Mom’s missing.” She got to the guest room and stopped just inside the door, her grip tightening on her phone. The room was awash in red-gold fire.
“Wait, what?” Eric asked sharply. “Why?”
“My dad was attacked. He’s hurt.” She didn’t have time for this shit.
“Mom is missing. Grayson’s working on Sofia.
The EMTs took Dad to the hospital. They’re going to need his insurance information and permission to do whatever they have to to save him.
You’re the family lawyer, and I’m assuming your power of attorney means you can handle all of that, yes? ”
“Yes. What’s been shared so far?”
She repeated the story she’d told Tracy then ended the call with “Go, do your job.”
Cass pocketed her phone and inched her way into the room, keeping her back to the wall and staying clear of the symbols glowing around the bed where her sister lay.
Grayson sat on the floor in a smaller, secondary circle connected to the larger one through an intricate chain of sigils.
In an open palm, he held what appeared to be a piece of gravel wrapped in writhing shadows.
“Don’t come in any farther.” Grayson turned his head toward her. His normally brown eyes were eclipsed by a copper sheen. “I don’t know if they’ve set any other traps.”
“Traps?”
“I tripped one. It’s trying to subvert my protection spell.” He turned back to his previous position.
That did not sound good at all. “Sofia?”
Grayson’s shoulders tightened. “Let me work, okay?”
Her gut pitched in a sickening dive. His gentle nonanswer was an answer.
Sofia was in real trouble. Her mind whirling in useless chaos, Cass slid down the wall until her ass hit the floor.
She pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them, holding herself together.
She watched Grayson work as a grim determination wound through her fear and panic.
She wasn’t going to lose another sister.
Hasn’t Fate taken enough? She doesn’t get Sofia. Not if I have anything to say about it.
Cold fury blossomed until all that remained was the merciless will of an Oracle determined to best Fate. In her mind’s eye, Sofia’s path began to unfold. Cass’s heart stalled when only two roads appeared, the ending all but determined.
Sofia is wrapped in crimson fire while the malevolent strands of the curse tangle around her, layer after layer.
Grayson fights a bloated spider, their battle a never-ending storm of movement as they move along an elaborate web. That battle masks the stealthy scuttle of a smaller arachnid along one of the darker threads as it creeps steadily closer to Sofia.
Grayson kills the larger spider, but it’s too late—the smaller one has reached its target and sunk its poison deep, and Sofia’s life flickers, dims, then dies.
The second road.
This time, Grayson spots the smaller spider and aims a lance of crimson fire toward it.
There’s a burst of magic as his weapon finds its target, and an inhuman scream tears through the air.
The larger threat rushes Grayson, its attack more focused.
The thread that the smaller one died on glistens in the flashes of power, beaded poison slowly sliding along the nearly invisible thread anchored in Sofia.
Grayson is tiring, his movements slowing, and he’s caught unawares when lethal threads pierce his back, bowing his body, his mouth opening in a noiseless scream.
The true threat sinks into Sofia as Grayson’s life drains away, and Sofia soon follows.
“No.” Cass’s denial echoed in her mind and in her ears.
Fuck that noise. This was her baby sister and the man she was coming to love.
She would not lose either of them. Not like this.
She called to her magic, and it answered with a roar, power pouring through her until she and it were one.
She moved back along the path—not too far, just…
there, where Grayson crafted his protection of Sofia.
Her hands move steadily as she began to carve a third route, her mind clear as she forced Fate to her will.
Additional protection against the sly and unseen. Another thread to the shield, one that’s barely discernible.
Then she moved forward toward the confrontation.
He turns to fight the larger spider, his movements fast and sure, as if guided by an invisible hand.
The smaller one rushes forward, only to disappear in a bright flash of magic as it trips Grayson’s trap.
Crimson fire races along the threat’s path, searing away the poison creeping along the thread, leaving ashes in its wake.
Grayson kills the larger spider then turns to unwind the curse, slowly at first, then faster and faster until Sofia is no longer bound.
The path under Cass’s feet widened, pulling her forward.
You’re not done. The whisper came from nowhere and everywhere.
She didn’t want to walk this road, and she tried to stop, but the summons was relentless and sure. Can’t fight fate.
This time, the voice sounded like Thena, and Cass knew she was in trouble.
The path forward began to spiral, taking her into the inky void as her grip on the now slipped.
Branches appeared and veered off, one after another in a relentless cascade, each one stretching further and further out, offering glimpses of endless possibilities.
To her left is an unknown figure, cloaked in shadows—her mother, broken and bleeding at their feet. A devil’s bargain. “Will you take her place?”
“Yes!” She lunged toward her mother, but the road twisted, forcing her forward. “No, stop!”
Another bend. This time, vines erupt and slither around her mother, swallowing her. A cold laugh echoes. “Remember, this was your choice.”
Desperate, she struggled to leave the path as horror and dread broke her heart. “Mom!”
Another curve, steeper, darker. “Someone has to pay for you interfering with our plans.” The voice is a sibilant whip.
Heartsore and half mad with grief, Cass tried to step off the road, to go back, to change what was coming, but she couldn’t—the pull was too strong, too fast. It dragged her deeper and deeper into the cold, unforgiving abyss as it spiraled down in a dizzying dance.
Darkness closed in, like thick mud, creeping inexorably up her legs, her hips, her torso, until it dragged her under.
Then it will all stop. The thought was almost a relief.
“Cassandra! Dammit, wake up!”
Something wrapped around her wrists, burning through skin and bone, making the clinging darkness pause.
“Come on, Cassandra, come back to me!”
She knew that voice—recognized it, reached for it, wanted to hold it close, where it would chase away the ice in her veins. “Grayson?”
“That’s right, Cass. It’s me.”
Blindly, she reached out, trying to find him. “Where are you?”
“I’m here. Right here,” he said. Heat flared against her face, and the unforgiving grip of darkness loosened.
Her searching hands found purchase on warm flesh, and her fingers dug deep. “Don’t let go.”
“I won’t.”
She clung to his reassurance. “I can’t see you.” The choking fear that she would lose her grip and disappear into the spiral made it hard to breathe. “Where are you?”
“Here, I’m right here.”
Frantic, she clawed at the arms she couldn’t see, her breath coming out on a sob. “Grayson, don’t let go.”
“I won’t.”
She believed him. Believed the fierce determination she could hear in his voice.
She strained against the cascade’s hold, felt it give, and for a moment thought she would make it.
Then a brutal tug yanked her back, and she lost what little ground she’d gained, the world around her spinning.
She opened her mouth to scream but couldn’t get air.
Fear encompassed everything, and her body jerked.
Suddenly, there was Grayson, his eyes burning bright, his mouth hard, his hand gentle against her face. “Come on, Cass. Breathe. I’ve got you. Come on.”
She held his gaze, fighting against the inexorable hold. “I’m here.” She gasped, her grip on his wrists—now marred with raw scratch marks—tight. “I’m here.” The relentless pull took a step back as she repeated the mantra. “I’m here.”
Relief swept through his face, and he dropped his forehead to hers. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Scared me too,” she admitted shakily as the present resettled around her, loosening Fate’s brutal grip. “Sofia?”
“She’ll be okay.”
“You broke it?”
“Yeah, but I’m guessing that was due to your help.” There was a hint of censure in his voice.
“Had to. Can’t lose you or her,” she said. He closed his eyes, but she didn’t dare. “Thank you.”
He pulled back, opened his eyes, and studied her for a long, uncomfortable minute. Finally, he said roughly, “You’re welcome.” He pressed a soft kiss to her lips and then held her close. “I want to make you promise that you won’t pull that shit again.”
Her heart ached, but she couldn’t lie to him. “I wish I could.”
His arms tightened as he sighed. “I know.”
She burrowed in, relishing the way his warmth chased away the lingering chill. For a long moment, they just held each other. She tilted her head so she could see his face, then she reached up to brush her hand along his jaw.
She held his gaze when it met hers, and a slightly hysterical part of her bubbled up. “Still love me?”
Startled humor lightened his eyes and eased some of the worried lines in his face as his lips curved. “Yeah, I do.”