Chapter 11
Chapter
Eleven
Jace snapped out of it as soon as Mom disappeared. He hissed in pain and took the shirt from the bag wrapped around his neck, tore it into strips and wrapped his arms.
I crouched over Ethan and slapped his cheeks. “Ethan?”
The Lord was out cold. I pressed my ear against his chest and let out a sigh of relief when the steady thump of his heartbeat greeted me. “He’s alive,” I said to Jace as he crouched beside me.
“Thank the gods,” he muttered.
I slapped his cheeks once more. “Ethan. Wake up.”
“We can carry him back to his house if we need to.”
I looked around the clearing. “Where are the other two shifters?”
Jace blinked and frowned. “Stay here.”
The young shifter took off at a run, his eyes glowing a strange silver.
Hopefully they were alive. Mom hadn’t harmed Jace, but three shifters and a vampire were too much of a challenge for her. Holding us all wouldn’t have allowed her to concentrate the spell, whatever it was, on Ethan.
I uncurled myself and lay beside him, tucking my head under his arm to lay on his chest. This odd magic I had wasn’t anything I understood yet, but I was working hard to try to figure things out.
I focused on the remnants Fee had left behind when she’d sacrificed herself to save the Lords on Evie’s land all those months ago, but she remained watchful and silent.
While it was annoying I couldn’t control the magic she’d given me, her silence told me Ethan wasn’t dying. He was merely unresponsive.
The sound of branches cracking made me tense. I sat up, eyes focused in the direction of the noise to see Jace returning alone, his youthful face pale and stricken.
I tensed. “What’s wrong?”
“Dead,” he croaked.
I blinked. “What? There was no time for her to—”
“Magic around their bodies. Not the same as…” He waved his hand around the clearing.
My shoulders slumped. No wonder the magic I’d first sensed hadn’t seemed familiar. “She had help.”
Jace sank to the ground beside me. I let out a huff of breath. “Oh, Jace. I’m so sorry.”
He leaned against me in the way all shifters did when they needed comfort. They were a physical species and needed touch to thrive. I wasn’t the touchy feeliest of people, but I wasn’t heartless.
I raised my arms and drew him closer, tucking his head against my shoulder. “We’ll find those responsible. I promise.”
Jace drew in a shuddering breath. “I need to call someone, but I forgot my phone.”
I fished mine out of my pocket. “Here. Ask them to bring enough to help us bring everyone back in one trip.”
Jace took my phone but stayed where he was. He smelled like fur and shampoo. I stroked my fingers through his hair and let him lean against me for a while. A hot tear dripped onto my collarbone, so I squeezed him a little tighter.
Worry for Ethan warred with my instincts to murder my mother, but she could wait. The here and now was more important than any future payback. I dropped one hand to rest on Ethan’s chest so I’d know if he stopped breathing. Mom was too smart to kill a Lord.
She’d use them before she ever harmed them, but the length of his unconsciousness was a cause for concern. Ethan, like all Lords, possessed powerful innate magic, as well as a strong resistance to many spells.
Mom, unfortunately, was a powerful witch and had immortality on her side to learn all she needed to know in order to circumvent a shifter’s natural protections.
Jace finally lifted his head and scooted away, taking my cell with him. He spoke quietly into the phone while I watched Ethan closely. He seemed like he was sleeping. I brushed my fingers over his forehead and tried to sense anything off, but all I could smell was my mother’s presence.
The way she brushed up against him and held him so possessively made my claws slip from the tips of my fingers. She was gone, I told myself.
I could always kill her for it later.
And make no mistake. I would.
“They’ll be here in a little while,” Jace said. “Ethan never wanted to clear any paths out for ATVs to avoid damaging the ecosystem, but this might change his mind.” He pushed his knees up and plopped his chin on top, wrapping his arms around his legs.
His worried gaze lingered on Ethan.
“He’s going to be okay,” I said. “My magic is unique. I’d know if he was in danger.”
Jace blinked and looked at me. “Really?”
I nodded.
“How come you didn’t know the others were?” His tone wasn’t accusatory. More curious than anything, but the words stung.
“It’s not precognition. When someone is injured, I can touch them and know if their wounds are mortal.”
Jace let out a sigh. “That’s a good power to have.”
“Maybe,” I said. “It feels a little like being a god.”
“At least you can help them if you know how bad it is.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, even as I had no idea how to help Ethan. “It is.”
We sat in the dark for a while until someone shouted Jace’s name. The shifter’s head jerked up. He unfolded himself from the ground and took off running. I kept my position and checked Ethan’s breathing again.
He smelled like he always did, but his eyes had started to twitch and jerk behind his eyelids. His fists clenched and unclenched over and over again, and his jaw had clenched several times since Jace’s conversation.
Ethan was fighting whatever my mother had done to him, and there was nothing I could do to help him. I held his hand instead and waited for the calvary to come in and help us carry him home.
His new Second appeared a moment later, a tall, rangy male named Kinsley. His sharp gaze took in the scene, halting at Ethan’s prone body. Kinsley’s jaw tightened.
“What happened?” he demanded as he stalked over to crouch beside his fallen Lord.
Kinsley was handsome, like most shifters, but he looked more at home here in these wilds than anyone else I’d seen.
His face was rough with five o’clock stubble, and his intelligent gray eyes missed nothing.
Scar-flecked fingers reached out to touch Ethan’s neck, checking his pulse.
Satisfied Ethan was still breathing, Kinsley gently tipped Ethan over to ensure he had no other wounds we might have missed.
I went through what happened, ensuring I left nothing out.
“You know the woman who did this to him?” Kinsley asked, pinning me in place with his silvery stare.
“I do.”
One of his eyebrows went up as he waited for me to elaborate.
I let out a sigh. “She’s my mother.”
At his incredulous blink, I shook my head. “Estranged for…” I squinted. “I dunno. We’re both old as dirt. Let’s say that long.”
Kinsley blew out a low breath. “And Ethan suffered for it?”
My jaw clenched at his tone. “She’s been making a menace of herself for a while now. Ethan was in the way. I’ll speak to him about it when he wakes up.”
I couldn’t fault Kinsley for blaming me. My mother was very good at throwing wrenches into perfectly good plans and always had been.
Kinsley motioned for the others to come in. Two wolves carried an old-fashioned stretcher between them.
One crouched. “The others have our people loaded and ready to go. Should I send them ahead?” His curious amber gaze lighted on me.
I’d never met this one before. Sitting by the prone body of his Lord certainly wasn’t the best way to meet, either.
Kinsley nodded. “We’ll follow close behind. Help me with Ethan.”
I got up and moved away, watching as they carefully lifted Ethan and settled him on the stretcher. When he was situated, Kinsley looked back at me. “We’ll meet you back at the house with the Keep Healers.”
I swallowed hard and nodded, watching as they carried him away.
Once they were out of earshot, I buried my face in my hands and let out a loud, shuddering breath. He had to be okay.
I wouldn’t accept anything less.
The run back to the Keep was short and sweet now that I had no one watching me.
I stopped at the edge of the woods, keeping a close eye and nose out for my mother.
When I sensed nothing amiss, I took out my cell phone and texted Evie, asking for her to come rebuild Ethan’s wards to keep my mother out.
She responded almost immediately and said she needed something of hers to use as a focus. Witch magic could be tricky to work around, but fae magic would always be more powerful.
I had a few things that might work and told Evie as much. She had a key to my apartment and was one of the few people I didn’t mind digging through my things.
She told me to call her as soon as I knew anything about Ethan. After I tucked my cell away and stepped out from the tree line, I made a beeline to the house.
No one guarded the door or gave me a second look when I walked in. They’d grown used to me being around after my long stay, but today they were more concerned with Ethan than my presence.
I went straight to the small clinic room he’d set up long ago.
Injured shifters were a dime a dozen. Due to their very nature, someone was always getting hurt, so Ethan had taken it upon himself to build one of these areas in each home and dormitory so the injured party could get quickly patched up or stabilized in the event of something more serious than a cut or broken bone.
Ethan rarely had to use the room, so when I stepped in and saw his prone form lying motionless on the steel bed, worry froze my veins.
The main Healer glanced up and spotted me. “Moira!” She tugged off her gloves and walked over, gripping me by the elbow to lead me closer to Ethan.
“Tell me exactly what your mother was doing. Leave nothing out.”
Henrietta was a small but ferocious woman, slight and pretty. Magic buzzed around her, reminding me of a swarm of angry bees. The woman reminded me a little of Ben, but her magic zapped against my skin in a different way.
I told her everything and when I was finished, Henrietta frowned. “I need more. Tell me what her magic felt like.”