Chapter Twenty-Five
Twenty-Five
Bex
Cletus has already dismounted from his beast of a horse and is standing in the middle of town.
Viola and another rider linger behind on their horses.
The witch doesn’t pay any attention to anyone but my sister, and that concerns me.
If we survive this, what favor is she going to call in for my sister to do?
I don’t like it. What I do like is the massive wolf by Nina’s side, protecting her.
I don’t understand it, but I approve of his choice.
“My faithful witch tells me you have an offer for me to consider. Let’s hear what you’ve got!
” Cletus shouts from the middle of the street.
He tips his black sunrider hat up, just enough so we can see his face.
He’s wearing similar clothes to when we saw him last, except tonight he’s got a strip of black fur hanging from his waistband.
Garrett steps off the porch platform. “I was the one who shot your pup,” he confesses. “It wasn’t the dustslinger. It was me.”
A wide, toothy smile spreads across Cletus’s face. “Does Maureen know about this?” Then he looks around, brows pinching, and he asks, “Where she at?”
“She had to travel and was scheduled to return tomorrow. We weren’t expecting a midnight visit,” Garrett explains. “Now, do you want to hear what I have to offer as an apology?”
Cletus’s smile returns. “Sure, why not.”
Garrett looks at Booker and gives him a nod. Booker walks out and meets his cousin out in the street. He hands him the wooden box and slowly backs away, not turning his back to our enemy.
“This is a wee-tiny box. I don’t know if what’s inside will be as good as a rogue werewolf, the sheriff of Gravers Junction, and a mystic of the winds.
” He laughs and then opens the lid. His amusement immediately falls, and he takes out the gold ring before turning it over at eye level.
Then he looks at Garrett. “Where did you get this?”
“Let’s say I found it and just kept it for a rainy day.”
I recall Garrett telling me it was a family heirloom.
Cletus drops the ring back into the wooden box and slams the lid shut. “Why would you give this to me? Are you trying to start a war between us and those bloodsuckers?”
“No. I thought you could return it, since the owner lost it after being banished from his coven. Your bringing it back rather than keeping it actually puts you in favor with their elder council.”
“Lies!” Cletus spits on the dirt before throwing the box onto the ground. “I decline your offer and will keep the original bounty of the woman and the wolf. Now, hand them over!”
My gaze shifts from the angry alpha werewolf to Viola, who now has a fearsome expression on her face, and she’s staring across the way at Nina and Hunter.
Cletus marches over to my sister, and I react, pulling myself inward until I disappear from Booker’s side to over in the path of Cletus.
He bellows out a laugh. “Oh, it’s you again, baby dustslinger! Get out of my way!” He whips out a fist and backhands the side of my face.
Nina screams, “Bex!”
My dustslinger magic reacts, and when his fist contacts my face, he’s met with a dust cloud where my cheek should’ve been.
His hand passes through, and the second he’s clear, my face returns to its normal self.
Not waiting for him to balance himself out, I throw out my sandropes and flick my wrists so the ropes wrap around his entire body.
“You are dead,” he says, seething and spitting at me. “Dead! Do you hear me?”
Garrett and Booker creep closer, while Nina and Hunter also stalk closer from behind.
From behind Cletus, the Spirit of the Land appears, floating high in the air. No one else seems to notice her. “Use the elements, child of dust. Ignite your anger.” Then she fades from view.
Use the elements? Then something sparks inside my mind. And a wicked idea forms. Cletus is struggling to escape my sandropes, and his pups are closing in, ready to strike if Cletus gives the command.
I think about what I want to happen—fire. And then flames ignite, traveling from my hands and down along the sandropes, which are still wrapped around Cletus. “You think you’re so clever, don’t you, dustslinger?”
“I think so, for a newbie.” The flames glow brightly, illuminating the center of town.
“Bex! What are you doing?” Garrett shouts.
“You know,” Cletus says, a low growl in his voice, “one word from me and my pups will shred everyone in this town.” His arms are bound, and the flames have reached his body. “Will I be your first?” he asks, while staring at me, a test to see if I’m ready to take a life.
And I’m not.
I withdraw the flames and let the sandropes dissipate, sprinkling to the ground.
Nina hurries to my side. “If you touch her, I won’t hesitate to kill you.” Hunter approaches, standing next to Nina, baring his teeth. From the building next to the barn, Loretta steps outside, her lucky pistols drawn.
Cletus returns to his horse, and before he mounts it, he tells Garrett, “Keep your ring, and your mystic, and the rogue werewolf. I can’t promise the council won’t put out a bounty for him when I report his whereabouts.”
“We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” Booker shouts to his cousin.
“You still owe me blood,” Cletus says after mounting his horse.
“I won’t forget that.” He whistles and waves a finger in the air.
Cletus and the other rider leave town, while the werewolves run with a speed so fast, I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it.
The only one left is Viola. She looks to my sister and nods.
Nina reciprocates. Then Viola pulls on her horse’s reins and she rides out of town.
Thinking about how fast the werewolves just sprinted out of here in their human form, I ask Booker, “Can you run that fast?”
He chuckles. “I’m an old man now. But back in the day, shit, no one could catch me.”
“Hunter and I are going to pick out a room inside the inn for us.” She’s speaking to Garrett. “I’ll not have him sleeping in that dark hole you’ve got him locked up in anymore.” Without another word, she walks off, a rogue werewolf by her side.
Loretta and the others all make their way into the inn too.
It’s late, and I reckon none of them want to stay out here any longer than they have to.
I recall Maureen’s warning that even though one evil has left, there may be others lurking about.
Garrett and I are the last ones standing outside, and we take our time following everyone into the inn.
“I told you not to be a hero,” he says.
“I know, but I couldn’t let him take my sister.”
“That was a neat trick, lighting your sandropes on fire.”
“Yeah. It was. I still have a lot to learn about this land.”
He holds the door open for me and says, “Today was a win, Bex. But the next confrontation might not go in our favor. You need to practice more with your powers and learn everything there is to know about aberrants in the Graveyard Territory. That’s if you decide you’re going to stay.”
Inside, he locks the door behind us. Sheamus continues playing the piano while we stand there staring at one another.
“I thought you left because of me,” I confess.
He smiles. “The world doesn’t revolve around you, Bex.”
“I know.” Then, curious about the ring, I ask, “Did you really think he’d take the ring?”
Garrett removes his sunrider hat off and hangs it on a nearby coat stand. “I did, actually. But I also didn’t think he’d think I was setting him up for a conflict with the vampires.”
“Who’s ring was it?”
“It belongs to my brother’s father.” He holds the box out and opens the lid.
There’s the gold ring Cletus held up earlier.
In the center of the ring is an embossed rose with thorns on its stem.
The rose is black, while the stem and thorns are red.
I put two and two together and silently think, Redthorne. Garrett fucking Redthorne.
He searches my face and then asks, “Did you make your decision?”
I smile, knowing Nina will support me in this decision, even though we haven’t talked about it. “If Gravers Junction will have me, I’d love to be your dustslinger.”