Chapter Sixteen #3
On cue, Trey’s eyes fluttered open. His mouth moved, but no sound came out. He writhed against the steps, kicked out his legs, made gagging sounds.
Fennel swished his tail on Trey’s shoulder and hissed. Cecil made a gesture encompassing everything and pointed frantically at me then the wolf.
“The protection spell. Hang on. I’ve got you, Trey.” I whispered a silent chant, quickly giving him permission to be on the property so the spell wouldn’t hurt him.
The young wolf stopped gagging and kicking, but the writhing continued. How was he alive? I didn’t know anyone who could live with such brutal injuries. I wanted to summon an ambulance or a witch or a god—anyone who might be able to help.
I gripped Ida’s forearm. “Call Margaux and Bronwyn. Maybe they can track down a healer who—”
“There’s no time. He’s very close,” Ida said gently. “I can’t always tell, but I connected with him. His soul is slipping away. If you have questions, ask them now.”
I crawled up to his side, the knees of my jeans soaking up blood. My hand shook as I stroked the hair off his damp forehead. I would’ve taken his hand, but his palms were sliced and covered with silver. They had to hurt.
“Trey, was Ronan with you when this happened?”
His gaze locked onto mine as he formed the word, “No.”
It seemed wrong to feel relief as Trey endured such pain. “Did Floyd do this?”
His head moved an inch up then down.
The son-of-a-bastard is going to pay for this and everything else he’s done.
“How,” Trey whispered. “How-w-w.”
“Trey, I don’t understand.” My voice sounded high and tight. Terrified. “What are you trying to say?”
“Howww…” He began shivering so hard his teeth snapped together.
He’s just a kid. How could they do this to a kid?
Ida set a hand on my shoulder. I hadn’t realized how badly I was shaking until she steadied me. “I’m going to get something to cover him,” she said, blinking back tears. “Be right back.”
She ran around to the front of her trailer, and I was alone with the dying wolf.
“House,” Trey managed. His voice was so faint, I had to move my ear to his lips to hear him. “Alpha.”
“You’re saying he did this to you at his house?”
“Cell. Hurt.”
“Cell? A phone? I don’t understand.” My thoughts whirred at breakneck speed as I tried to piece together what he was saying. And then it clicked into place. Cell. Hurt. The screams I’d heard in the spell vision echoed in my mind.
Trey was describing the room I’d seen when doing the spell.
“Were the walls silver?” I asked.
He did another one-inch nod then coughed up blood dotted with bits of silver. The wooden steps squeaked in protest as he thrashed against them, and I felt powerless to do anything to help him.
But I wasn’t powerless. Not entirely.
I ran to Ida’s garden and scooped up handfuls of my soil. It burned into my blood, charging my magic. I chanted aloud the only heal spell I knew that didn’t require a charm, switching to whispering when Trey cried out in pain and tears clogged my throat too much for my voice to break through.
Soil magic won’t work. The raging voice in my head wasn’t mine, but also … was.
The demon.
No, he’s too far gone. This voice was calmer. It was mine, but also … not.
I chanted desperately, knowing the demon was right and that it wasn’t going to work.
“B-b-base—” Trey’s body twisted in agony as he attempted to force the word out of his bloodied mouth.
Not working.
I stopped chanting.
There was so much silver. No matter how strong he was, Ronan wouldn’t have been able to remove it in a hundred years.
Cecil had placed generic pain charms on the uninjured parts of Trey’s body.
It wouldn’t be enough. A specialized charm wouldn’t have been enough.
There wasn’t enough magic in the universe to heal this much damage.
Frustration, helplessness, and rage rose in me like bile, and the voices in my head began to argue.
The demon: The alpha must die.
Yes, but Ronan has to kill him, the calmer voice replied. My witch?
It couldn’t be. I wasn’t three parts of a whole; I was one witch with a demon problem.
Protect our people. Kill the wolves responsible.
Rip out their eyeballs and boil their brains, the demon shrieked, and her ferocity scared me because she was giving voice to my darkest, most depraved thoughts.
Things that fired through my brain when I thought about what I’d do if Floyd killed one of the people I loved.
“Basemen…” Trey managed.
“Basement? Floyd’s house has a basement?”
“Yuh.” His voice was nearly gone now. His eyes had already lost focus. “Save them.”
“Who? Rory? Mason?”
But Trey wasn’t speaking anymore. His eyes had closed, his breathing shallowed, his body stilled.
His last words had been about saving other people.
“Rest now. Don’t worry, I heard you. I’ll save them.” I stroked the top of his head, one of the few places that wasn’t injured or covered with heal charms.
Cecil made a solemn circuit around Trey, removing the pain charms and placing them inside his hat. Fennel head-bumped my shoulder. Meowed sadly.
My cell buzzed against the concrete. I had it set to vibrate and ring, so it was especially loud in a silence disturbed only by the sound of me crying. Blinded by tears, I pulled myself up and went to retrieve it.
Unknown caller.
I tapped the screen and brought it to my ear.
“Did you like my gift?” Floyd laughed, the sound like rocks thrown into a blender. “I hope so, trailer trash. Because there’s more to come. I won’t stop until everyone who’s helped you and my turncoat son is dead.”
“He was a kid,” I said, sorrow pulling at every word.
Floyd snarled, “He was a problem that had to be dealt with. A spy. A traitor. You don’t tolerate traitors in a strong pack. Something your lover doesn’t know anything about, because he doesn’t have the balls to lead.”
While the alpha wolf spat hatred into one of my ears, the dark voice sang retribution in the other. Protect our people. Kill the wolves responsible.
“Threatening Ida was a mistake.” Because that’s what the placement of Trey’s broken body had been about. A two-for-one deal. Kill one of Ronan’s people and threaten mine.
“Threats?” Floyd laughed again. “Oh, we’re way beyond threats, bitch.”
If your soil magic is strong, how was the wolf able to enter the property? How was Sexton?
Sexton is a demon. Time barely affects him. He can do anything he wants. The witch’s voice held an edge of desperation. As for Floyd, maybe he had a key. Could he have stolen one? Maybe one of the tenants lost—
No. This time, the voice that replied was mine. This is no one’s fault but my own. The protection spell isn’t strong enough.
I’m not strong enough.
A ripple beneath my feet told me the soil was listening. It reached for me, but we were separated by a thick layer of concrete and a thicker layer of doubt.
The soil can’t protect them. Kill him.
No. Ronan has to be the one to do it. This voice was fainter now. I could barely hear it.
Ida opened her sliding glass door and stepped out. She clutched a brown-striped Mexican blanket in one hand and a terracotta pot in the other.
“Meredith woke up, and I was afraid she’d scream and make things worse so I… Oh no.” Her eyes drooped with sorrow as she knelt beside Trey and covered his body with the blanket. “Poor kid.”
Fennel rubbed against her calf.
Cecil helped her smooth out the blanket.
I seethed.
Kill every last wolf responsible. That sounded real godsdamned good to me. Protect our people, once and for all.
Floyd was still yelling at me on the phone. “You’re going to learn that you don’t fuck with—"
“I’m going to kill you.” My voice was a whisper that contained screams. “Soon.”
I ended the call.
Protect our people. Kill them all, the dark voice chanted.
Faintly, I heard: We have to let Ronan—
No.
I was done with the other voice, the witch, the one who kept trying to use restraint and reason. She was going to get everyone killed with her milquetoast rationalizing and fear-soaked warnings.
Floyd broke through the park protection spell.
It hadn’t been strong enough to keep him out. I hadn’t been strong enough.
I can’t keep them safe.
“Betty?” Ida frowned up at me from the steps. “Are you all right?”
“I won’t let him hurt you.”
If I can’t protect my people with my soil magic, I’ll have to do it another way.
“Betty, it’s okay.”
I can protect us all. Let me.
This time when the demon spoke, I leaned into her rage. Absorbed it into my blood the way I did my soil, let it power me.
Let me protect them. Let me in.
Yes.