SIXTY-NINE
WILLOW
Makoto is fighting with Maeve, trying to wrench the pick she was carrying out of her hand.
“Makoto! What are you doing?” Juniper screams.
“She stabbed herself!” he yells. It’s now that I see the blood on the center of her chest along with a deep gash.
A hand grips my shoulder and yanks back. Caz replaces me, pushing past Juniper to storm into the pantry.
Maeve continues hissing with blood spilling down her chest. As she swings about, her sungoggles are knocked off and I cup my mouth, stepping farther away as Juniper raises an arm in front of me.
Maeve’s eyes are not her own at all. They’re flames…just like Selah’s . When her eyes find mine, she stops fighting and her head goes into a familiar tilt—an unnatural one that makes my blood run cold.
“Maeve,” Caz shouts, but she’s not there. Not right now. He grabs hold of her, shouting her name again, trying to snap her out of it.
With a swift spin, Maeve breaks free from Caz’s and Makoto’s hold and shoves them out of the pantry. I leap out of the way with Juniper, both of us slamming to the ground just as Caz and Makoto fly across the kitchen.
Glass shatters and I look back, spotting the jagged gap in the window. The men are no longer inside.
I don’t have time to react, to think, or even draw in a full breath before Maeve is stepping out of the pantry with the pick in her hand.
She stares right at me, sneering before she brings it in the air and rushes me. She grunts as she attempts a swing at me, but from her position on the ground, Juniper kicks her mom in the stomach. Maeve’s back slams into the edge of counter.
Juniper rises to her feet, snatching out one of her daggers and curling her hands around it as she forms them into fists.
“Mum, this is not you!”
Again, Maeve cocks her head, and her neck cracks as she glares at me with those flamed eyes. She tries dashing for me again, but Juniper stops her, kicking her once more.
I realize what this is.
Selah is trying to get me, and she’s using someone the clan will never kill in order to stop the attack.
Irritated, Maeve punches Juniper several times, causing her nose to drip blood, but Juniper returns the blows.
“Mum! Stop!” she shouts as she finally shoves her away.
But she doesn’t. She attempts to punch her again, but Juniper grabs her by the wrist and twists it. Maeve cries out but manages to shake out of Juniper’s grasp. She hops onto the counter like a possessed creature, dropping to all fours to crawl toward me.
Juniper tries grabbing her ankle but isn’t quick enough, and when she realizes, her eyes dart to mine. “ Run , Willow!”
I leave the kitchen and burst out the door that leads to the back deck. I nearly trip taking the stairs down, but I manage. When my bare feet hit the grass, I sprint toward the forest.
I hear panting and Silvera appears at my side, but when I look back, Maeve is chasing right after me, still holding that damn pick.
“Silvera, stop her!” I command.
Silvera growls and twists around, her paws pounding into the ground and her silver fur shining in the sunlight. She pounces on Maeve, sending her collapsing, but Maeve tosses Silvera off with strength only a Regal can possess.
Silvera whimpers as she flops to the ground a great distance away. I look back to see her trying to get up, but she’s limping now.
No!
Maeve is up and running again. I realize she won’t stop. Not until she’s killed me. That means I can’t stop either. Not until I think of a plan.
In the depths of the forest, I swat at tree branches and leaves. Wood crunches beneath my feet and spiderwebs drag across my skin, but I keep going, despite the shadows of the leaves making it darker the deeper I go. Despite the cramp building in my side from the sandwich I just ate. I keep going.
The darkness doesn’t last long though.
A burst of lavender and blue appears before me, and I scream when a pair of hands catch me.
“It’s me,” Korah says, her eyes dripping in color. “Go. That way.” She cocks her head left and I take off, finding the best place to hide.
When I spot a thick trunked tree with a hollow in it, I crouch next to it and suck in as much breath as I can.
Maeve stops short of The Regals as they lift their hands, conjuring orbs of light between them.
Maeve snarls at them. Her skin is changing. It’s gray now, paling. Oh my goodness. She’s turning into one of those things—like Warren! This can’t happen again.
Hassha shoots the first fireball, and Maeve leaps out of the way, barely missing it.
“Stop!” Caz’s deep voice fills the forest, and I cling to the rough bark, watching as he steps between The Regals and Maeve. “You can’t kill her!”
“She’s tainted. We must,” Hassha says.
“No, there has to be another way!” he yells, pleading.
“There isn’t,” Maeve says in a voice that isn’t her own. She jumps onto Caz like a spider, clawing at his face, punching, and snarling.
Caz shoves her off and when she lands on her back, he pins her down by the forearms. “Maeve, stop! This is not you.”
I can’t just hide here.
I run back to Korah’s side, watching as Maeve bucks and thrashes, but Caz keeps her pinned, holding her gaze.
“Maeve, please,” he pleads, voice wavering. “I know you’re still in there. Don’t let her win.”
To my surprise, her fiery eyes transition to their normal state. She stops fighting him and stares, tears accumulating.
“I—I can’t fight her, Caspian,” she whispers.
“Yes, you can.”
Maeve’s head shakes.
“Press hands to her, Caspian,” Hassha demands. “Do it now while she’s in her own state of mind if you want to save her!”
Caz presses his hands to her chest, and they instantly spark red. “What now?” he asks, voice cracking again. My heart aches hearing him like this.
Like a boy, sad and afraid.
This is his aunt. A woman who practically raised him. Treated him as her own.
“Feel the energy,” Korah says. “Listen to instincts. Trust that what you do next will save her, and it will be so.”
He blinks his tears away and clenches his jaw. The scared boy is gone, replaced by the man who fights for everything he loves, no matter the cost.
His hands ignite, burning brighter. I notice a spark of orange appear in Maeve’s eyes again. Selah is trying to tap into her mind, but Caz keeps his hands pressed firmly to his aunt’s chest, fighting Selah’s energy with his own.
The red in his palms spreads throughout Maeve’s body, highlighting her veins, her eyes, her nostrils, her lips. She throws her head back, and her mouth opens to cry in agony.
“Mum!” Juniper calls as she jogs toward us. With her are Killian and Rowan. Their guns are drawn, and their eyes are panicked.
“What’s happened?” Killian shouts as he studies his mother.
“Mum!” Rowan roars.
“Stay back,” Caz yells at them. “Come on, Maeve. Come on.”
He keeps his hands on Maeve, still staring at her. When her scream dies, her body shakes like she’s having a seizure. Still, Caz doesn’t let go. Not until the shaking stops and her eyes close.
When she goes completely still, he gasps and snatches his hands away.
“Maeve?” he calls, lifting her by the shoulders. “Maeve?”
Korah marches around him to bend down and touch Maeve’s forehead. Her eyes spark, and an immediate sigh of relief falls out of her.
“She’s okay,” Korah says. “Selah is gone.”
Caz expels a breath of relief, and his cousins run to his side, dropping to their knees to look at their mother. I drag in a breath of relief myself even though my heart is still pounding.
“She won’t die from this, will she?” Juniper looks up at Hassha and Korah with damp eyes.
“No. We can take her back to our camp and heal her.” Hassha’s blue glow illuminates the forest.
Killian picks his mother up in his arms, and I don’t miss the tears accumulating in his eyes as the top of her head presses against his cheek.
“I’ve got you, Mum,” Killian whispers, walking past me and Hassha. “You’re all right.”
“What the fuck just happened?” Rowan shouts, grimacing at Hassha and Korah. “You swore we were protected! You swore we were safe until the bloody war. That is our mother , for Vakeeli’s sake! She could have died.”
For once, Hassha falters. “I truly don’t know how this has happened. It shouldn’t have been possible. We sealed all barriers. We made sure there could not be any leaks.”
“You don’t know?” Rowan shoots back. He clenches a fist, and his face reddens. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him this serious, this angry. “My mother nearly died, and you don’t know how she was attacked?”
“Selah shouldn’t have been able to reach your mother,” Hassha says. “Every single territory is protected from her energy, so that means she shouldn’t be able to infiltrate any of them—especially not Blackwater. There is nothing she can do until the war begins.”
“What about gaps? Like the fight you had with her in the village?” Rowan asks. “Those creatures crawled right through because you weren’t focused on protecting that part.” Rowan’s knuckles whiten as he grips his gun tighter.
“I guarantee you, she cannot breach the barrier,” Hassha declares. “We made sure.”
“So how did this happen?” Caz’s voice is laced with anger too.
Hassha and Korah glance at each other, uncertainty swirling in their sparked gazes.
“You promised us the truth.” Caz’s voice is darker, dripping with fury. “Spare no detail.”
Korah takes a sharp inhale before setting it free. “There is only one sure way we can think of where Selah could’ve breached us and gotten to Maeve,” she says.
“It means there is a traitor in Blackwater.” Hassha looks at each of us with skepticism. “Someone here has made an agreement with Selah.”