CHAPTER 49
Mark could feel Caster’s stare as he pulled on unwanted clothing, the anger he couldn’t control making the simple action of getting dressed more forceful than it needed to be. They’d failed again. He’d failed again and now…
Caster’s arms around him stopped his defeatist thoughts mid-stream.
He gave in to the need for the protection his soulmate offered, even as dread pure and unadulterated coiled around his belly.
There was no telling what she was up to.
If Pierce is to be believed, she’d managed to talk a demon into granting her immeasurable power not once, but twice before. What’s to stop her from doing it again?
Caster eased his hold, urging him to turn, the shirt he’d been about to put on dangling in his limp hand. “I think that’s why Pierce is still here.”
Mark frowned.
Caster took the shirt from his hand, draped it over his shoulders, and buttoned it with expert precision. “He wants to be here.” He looked Mark in the eye, his hands resting on his shoulders. “Here on earth, I mean. He was desperate to leave that void when I met him.”
“And you think that’s why he wants to help?”
Caster narrowed his eyes, further confusing Mark. “He’ll never tell us his plans, that’s for sure. But the way he jumped at the chance to fight off the other demon tells me there is more to it. He can’t go back, and he can’t have Ethel summoning any more of his kind.”
Mark nodded. “We can’t let her do that.”
The heavy weight of Caster’s hands on his shoulders eased, and they both sighed.
Mark wished he’d had the strength to pounce when the tiny light of opportunity had presented itself.
But the remnants of her power had terrified him too much, and he feared his terror might transport him into that darkness he dreaded.
“That was the right call, my love.” Caster took his hand. “Come on, I want this done. Let’s go make Pierce tell us everything he knows.”
Mark squeezed Caster’s hand. Their forever would start when Ethel was out of their lives for good.
The threat of an unwanted trip to the Underworld would not save her next time.
He still didn’t think they could trust Pierce, but he’d stripped her of all her dark power.
He didn’t need to be a witch or magical to see that.
By the time she’d unleashed her anger by hurling the remnants of her darkness at them, the halo of her power had turned blue.
She was now just another Water Witch, and he hoped she was hiding very well.
His wolf’s agreement rolled out of him in a low growl, and Caster’s manifested in a squeeze of his hand as they moved towards the raised voices coming from Marcus’s study.
Caster stood in his way as they approached the door. “Close your mind.”
Mark reached for the barrier that was now much closer, a consequence of the numerous times he’d had to use it.
“Can you find her?” Marcus was asking Riley when they stepped into the room. The large room seemed smaller now, crowded with everyone except Mikey and Ben. The King seated behind Marcus’s desk nodded at Mark, a small smile all the support he needed to offer.
The nod from Riley was emphatic, but it was Edie who spoke. “She will be more paranoid now. But if the demon did strip her of her dark power, yes…”
“I did.” Many voices filled the room, startling everyone before they all regained their composure.
“I apologize for startling you. But yes, all the darkness that made her so powerful is gone, and she cannot replenish it.”
His darkness delivered him into the room in full.
Was he doing that just to unsettle them?
He turned to Mark and smiled. Had he just?
Mark checked on the barrier, finding it intact.
“Her Power of the Water is still something,” The Queen said. “And she’s proven a determination to find more power before. The worst thing we can do is underestimate her.”
“Yes. Her thirst for vengeance is too great.” The mocking tone Pierce’s voice often carried, an air of superiority, like he knew more than he shared, was gone, replaced by a thoughtfulness.
“You’ve said that before,” Cy said. “What do you mean? Why would she do all of this?”
Pierce shrugged. “In all the centuries I spent with her, she only ever had one goal. To destroy the Grand Coven, replace it somehow.” He looked at Riley. “She never talked about her pain much, but it was clear you were the cause of it.”
“Me?” Riley’s shock was evident in the slight widening of his eyes. “I don’t even know her.”
Pierce’s mocking tone was back. “She seems to know you. The word obsession comes to mind. Though, I don’t know what you could have done to inspire such hatred.”
Then he waved a hand over the room. “But that hardly matters, does it? Our goal should be to keep her from gaining more power.”
His full attention was on Mark again, and like every time he looked at him, Mark got the sense he saw more than the physical.
“The long-term solution is for you to gain control over your ability. But that is not easy, and it will take more time than we have.”
“We need to kill her,” Edie said, a subtle sadness in her voice. He could understand it. Like her, he didn’t relish the prospect of killing, but Ethel had brought this on herself.
Pierce nodded. “Yes. But first, we need to close that tear in the Veil. Her ally might use it to crawl back to this world, and we can’t have that.”
The final part of his statement slipped past his tight control, a bit of his anger seeping through.
It was clear that this was personal for him.
Whoever that other demon was, Pierce needed to keep him trapped in the Underworld.
“How do we do that?” The King asked.
Mark’s heart skipped a beat when Pierce looked at him again. He’d feared he would be the key. That darkness, at least the memory of it, was not something he wanted to revisit.
“I’m afraid you will have to, Magicae Lupus.” Pierce seemed a little sympathetic, a quality Mark would not have ascribed to a demon. “I’m afraid it is the only way.”
The ease with which he’d seen Mark’s thoughts even with the barrier intact should have been concerning, but Mark was still stuck on the dread of having to visit the Underworld again.
“Isn’t there another way?” Caster’s voice came from somewhere above him, but even the comfort it brought would not override his dread.
“I’m afraid not,” Pierce said. He met Mark’s gaze, the gray of his eyes more pronounced.
“It is a simple spell. Shouldn’t cause you any pain.”
Then his voice rose as he addressed the whole room.
“But we have to do it now. I can feel her trying to access it, trying to summon him again. The longer it remains open, the higher the chance he will respond.”
“What do we need?” Marcus asked as Mark summoned his courage. He was done allowing the witch to reduce him to a sum of his fears. It was time to use a power the Goddess had granted only him.
Pierce turned to him and smiled, and Mark was now certain he could read his mind. “Just you.” And then he looked at Riley. “And a bit of your power.”
Caster tensed next to Mark. “I am going with him.”
Pierce shook his head. “The Underworld will drown you in its darkness. Did you forget what happened the last time?”
“He can’t go alone.” Dean’s Alpha growl, the threat of his anger, was in every word.
“He won’t be,” Riley said, nodding his assurance, and Pierce smiled. “But this is not happening unless you tell me what the spell is, how it works. I am sick of your bits of information.”
Pierce laughed, a human-like laugh. “Of course. I have a stake in this as well. I told you, I have no desire to destroy your world.” His smile fell, and he kept his attention on Riley. “My rival, Ethel’s ally, intends to do just that, and then remake it in his own image. I can’t let that happen.”
Riley stared at Pierce for an eternal moment, the challenge in the way he unleashed his full power, his eyes blazing with a rare blue flame. Then he nodded, reined in his power and looked at Mark. “Let’s do this?”
Mark squeezed Caster’s hand and readied himself for something he never would have imagined he’d experience, one he had experienced by accident and hoped to never face again.
***
Even with his mind shuttered from access, the fear in Mark was apparent.
Stronger still was his courage, evidenced by the calm rhythm of his heart.
Caster still didn’t like that he couldn’t go with him, but Pierce was right.
The Underworld’s call had been damn near impossible to resist last time, and he’d been outside of it.
Its call from the inside was not something he wanted to experience.
Still, his desire to ensure Mark’s safety remained too strong. “How long will it take?” He asked Pierce, needing even the tiniest of reassurances.
“Not long. To you, it will seem longer, several minutes. To him, a few seconds.” Then he turned to Riley. “I will place the spell in your mind. Don’t fight me.”
Confusion at his words set in for a moment before Riley let out a painful moan, clutching his head.
It was all gone in a second, but it was a second that increased his mistrust of their powerful new ally.
His conviction that he didn’t want the world destroyed rang true, but he still refused to share his motives.
Why had he accepted Ethel’s summons centuries ago?
Why had he not simply returned to the Underworld where he belonged?
But these questions, as pertinent as they were, remained secondary to the current threat.
They needed to cut the witch off from the power that made her so formidable.
It was the only way to ensure the safety of the whole supernatural community and, by extension, the humans, who remained oblivious of the enormous threat.
He squeezed Mark’s hand again, knowing the time was coming when he’d have to entrust his soulmate’s life to his best friend, but dreading the approaching seconds.
I’m OK. I promise.
The reassurance spoken in his mind eased some of his worry, and Riley nodded at him as if to grant him the same security.
Riley’s power, his full power, filled the room, its sudden injection drawing gasps from all present.
Caster didn’t as much let go of Mark’s hand as the spell tore it from his grasp.
Mark’s wolf growled long and low; the Prime Alpha answered the call from his brother with a low growl.
Then Mark gasped as more of Riley’s power infused the space with his energy, and he crumbled, Caster only just catching his momentum before he hit the floor.
Riley remained on his feet, but he swayed, his consciousness no longer in the room.
Caster looked at his mother, seeking something, as he failed to find Mark’s heartbeat at the first try. His breath caught, grief threatening to break through the myriad of emotions constricting his heart.
“Take a breath, son.” His father’s voice reached through the echo of his own racing heartbeat. “Now!” It was the command, rare from his father, that brought him back to the present.
He met his father’s gaze and followed his direction.
“Now, listen.” His father’s voice was softer.
He closed his eyes, relief washing over him, bringing tears to his eyes.
It was there. Slow, subdued, hidden, but the signature rhythm of Mark’s heart, one he intended to hold on to forever, was there, calling to him.
He called on all his control, staunched the tears, and opened his eyes to find a smile on his father’s face.
His mother had long lost her battle with her own tears.