Chapter 17
Jena stared at Kelsey in shock as Phil sprang to his feet, dark hair sprouting over his body and his bones cracking and shifting.
Fabric tore as his form exploded outward, and a great wolf stood where he’d been only a moment before.
He lifted his head and howled, the answering calls of his pack reverberating through the night.
Tess stood with Kelsey and hurried to clear the table.
“What’s going on?” Jena asked, her pulse racing.
“The Westsiders are coming for us,” Kelsey said with no small amount of relish.
Her mother tsked. “Hell’s bells, you’re just as bloodthirsty as your brothers. No, don’t—this lid goes on that,” she chided, handing her a different top. “That one’ll make it spill.”
Jena and Felix exchanged glances. “What do we do?”
“Stay here,” the older woman said. “The ward around the fire pit should slow them down if they get this far, but the others are too far gone to make much of a difference if their blood is up.” Her brow furrowed, and she ran a hand over the lines, smoothing them as she forced a smile.
“But don’t you worry. Phil and the rest of the boys will take care of things.
And while they do, you’ll stay here with them, Kelsey Ann.
I need to get back to the rest of the pack.
Your Aunt Selma doesn’t have a lick of sense and will just sit up there howling while Rome burns down around her. ”
“Fine.” Kelsey scowled. Her mother hurried off, the picnic basket in tow.
“How the hell can she stay so calm?” Jena asked as Nana came back to their side with a whining huff, not seeming excited about babysitting them either.
“It’s her superpower.” Kelsey shrugged, then turned to the dog. “Aww. Did Dad send you back? Don’t worry, if any of them get through, I’ll let you have first dibs.” The dog’s tongue lolled in a goofy canine smile like it’d understood her, then faced west again.
“I feel like I’m in a weird B-movie, and a tornado of sharks is about to descend,” Felix muttered, looking between the two, then swore at his borrowed tracksuit. “God, I cannot die in this. Promise that if I don’t make it out, you’ll bury me in Burberry.”
“Do you own any Burberry?” Jena asked, her eyes glued to the crest of the hollow. Had that been a snarl? She’d definitely heard a snarl.
“No, but you’d think you could splurge a little to honor my dying wish. Their plaid is on point, and I saw those numbers Phil gave you, you’re loaded.” Felix chewed a nail. “I might have a parking ticket or two you can take care of while you’re at it.”
“God, you’re not dying and neither am I.
” She also couldn’t just sit around doing nothing.
Jena shook herself and looked around, her financial situation the last thing on her mind for once.
“We can help by strengthening the wards.” She didn’t have enough karma to do it, but sin…
she opened herself up to her power again—
Crap. A big fat nothing…but if they could use the power leaking from the node… She stood and grabbed Felix’s sleeve, hauling him over to the outcropping of granite and slapped her hand on it. Power lapped between her fingers. “You feel that?”
Felix frowned as he put his hand beside hers, then snatched it away with a little yelp like he’d been zapped. “Yes, and no thank you. Whatever power’s there is ornery, and I don’t think it likes me.”
Great. Looked like she was doing this alone. Jena huffed, raking her hair back and stood for a moment, her hands on her head. “Do you have something I can use as a cauldron?” she asked Kelsey.
“Um…” The were pursed her lips and glanced around. “No…wait, maybe. Would a dog bowl work? I think there’s one under the picnic table.”
“I’m on it,” Felix said, jogging away from the fire pit to snag it and heading toward the stream.
Jena blew out her cheeks. Okay…how was she going to do this? There was zero chance of her having all the spell components for an invitation only ward, but a straight-up intent one? That she could probably pull off—
A pained yip and a shriek came from beyond the hollow, and a snarling wolf appeared at its crest. Nana lowered her head at the beast, growling, but before she could meet it, another wolf came out of nowhere, bowling the intruder over in a cacophony of furious snapping.
Jena’s throat bobbed as she lost sight of them. Or she could just attempt to shove as much raw power into what was left of the existing ward and hope for the best.
She rummaged through her spellbag. Come on, come on…she knew she had—yes! Salt, black Tourmaline, amethyst, and citrine…check. Damn it, she didn’t have any—her gaze fell on a bundle of greenery and jars on the picnic table by the fire. “What’s all that?”
“Hmm?” Kelsey glanced from the crest of the hollow to look at her blankly for a breath. “Oh. Herbs and seasonings to dress the pig with. The guys were about to bring it down and start cooking,” she said, edging farther from the fire pit, a hand on the clasp to her overalls.
Jena parsed through the herbs. More salt, rosemary, sage…the rest wouldn’t help with what she had in mind, but that was definitely more than she’d hoped for, and she might even be able to draw a passible circle to do it in.
Which by the distant baying coming closer, and Kelsey stripping down again, Jena needed to do, like, now.
“Dog bowl cleaned and filled with spring water,” Felix said, running over with it.
“Draw me a circle?” she asked, handing him the container of salt and going back to pinching herbs from their stems.
“Deosil?” His head snapped up at another yelp just past the crest of the hollow. Nana growled, her hackles raised, and Kelsey shifted, joining the dog.
“Yes.” Jena said. Clockwise. They needed the power to rise like the sun.
She shook out her hands and closed her eyes, trying to center herself.
Felix completed the circle and nodded at her, stepping to the side.
Right, deep breath, Jena. She could do this.
It was just like strengthening the wards around the shop.
Okay, it was nothing like that, but still. Piece of cake.
Jena bit back a manic laugh and brought the bowl over to the smoldering coals with one more deep breath. She set the bowl on the grill Phil had used for the burgers, an incantation rolling off her tongue to call the corners and set her sacred space.
Blue flame sprang up, licking the bowl as she added the stones and herbs, chanting, and let herself fall into the magic—
The power of the node rose around her, swirling, sparks tripping across her skin like laughter, flowing into her and filling her, waiting for her intent.
No, I don’t mean to, I just wanted…Jena faltered, and it caught her.
Our service for yours.
Fuck. Her throat bobbed at the seductive croon. I-I’m just visiting…
A wash of annoyance rolled through her, and the flames tinged purply red.
NO. OUR SERVICE FOR YOURS.
God, if the node had a foot, it would’ve stomped it. Enraged growls sounded, closer, the baying at the rim of the hollow. Nana took off, and the shriek and howl of dogs fighting shot through the night.
“Jena, whatever you’re doing, you need to hurry!” Felix yelled.
Damn it! She’d just wanted to cast a frickin’ ward—
A vision of Chase slumped at the bottom of a well, his lips blue and his skin gray as he struggled to breathe flashed across her mind’s eye. Then another, Aggie prone, Sweets and Matilda above her while Ms. Pao gave her CPR…
Jena blinked them away, her heart in her throat. What? No! She couldn’t lose them, no. No! Not the both of them—
OUR SERVICE FOR YOURS.
Jena trembled. Fuck, she didn’t have a choice, if she—if the node—could help them…“My service for yours,” she sobbed. “But you have to save them, please—”
Power hissed around her, wrapping her in its coils like a serpent. Swear it…
“I swear! I swear! My service for yours!”
Bubbles of jubilant laughter prickled around her, and Jena’s body went rigid, channeling the node’s power.
Magic rose up in a flash of violet sparks, a ring of warding flaring, encircling the stones and crazing outward in a web, crackling from the circle and running through the hollow like ground fire.
Another bright flash of light illuminated the crest of the hollow, and then a second lit the horizon a handful of heartbeats later.
Shrieking yelps of wolves pealed from the surrounding forest, chorusing through the night and grew faint.
Jena staggered, the flames beneath her bowl flickering and gutting as she fell to her knees, her vision graying.
Words to vow spoken, the blood of thy veins to bind. Seven stones to witness thy oath. Our service for thine…
An image of the ruined basement on the tor and the circle at the center of the garden flashed through Jena’s mind. The scent of bergamot thick in her nose, darkness claimed her.
Chase shot upright with a heaving gasp, the taste of alcohol and tobacco cloying upon his tongue. He coughed, doubling over and retched, spitting into the icy water surrounding him, a weird tingle running through his body.
Jena.
He’d seen her, surrounded by violet flame, her eyes emerald fire, hair twisting in an ethereal wind, like some kind of goddess.
Jesus. The amount of power she’d called…
but why? What the fuck was happening up there?
He rubbed his chest, eyes straining into the darkness, listening, but there was only silence from above.
And whatever that thing had been was gone.
Around him, the icy chill of its presence had dissipated, and the leyline’s hum resonated differently.
It’d morphed into something that felt…appeased somehow.
The pain in his head had receded too, and he didn’t feel like he wanted to throw up anymore.
Unfortunately, that itching need to do something was still there.
He snorted. All things considered, he’d gladly deal with that instead of that… that thing.
God. What had Jena done? He crossed himself and ran a hand over his throat, shivering with more than cold.
Above, the quality of the light had changed.
The rain had abated, and a circle from the gibbous moon crept down the eastern wall of the pit.
He tipped his head back, staring past it, his breath a stream of chill fog.
Those colors…the sounds…the last time he’d seen that—had heard those voices—he’d been stark raving mad, caught in a shift somewhere between wolf and man.
But even out of his goddamned mind, he’d never seen anything like that thing that’d been in here with him. Chase ran a pruned hand over his face. Fuck. The more he thought about it, the more he was positive it’d been his father. The way he’d looked at him at the end…
Yeah. He’d seen that hatred in the old man’s eyes before, and Patrick said Wallace Montgomery was past having any regrets—not that he’d had many in life.
Had that little fucker actually killed him?
No. It had to have been Malcom. Patrick was a sneaky piece of shit, but he wasn’t capable of that kind of savagery.
He preferred to eviscerate his enemies with his legal briefs.
And if their father was dead, that meant Chase was alpha by default, unless someone stepped up to challenge him…
except everyone thought he was feral. That would nix that, and he was sure Patrick had just been tickled to step into the position.
If Malcom was backing him, he might even manage to hold it.
Hell, their dad had for close to four decades, and there was more than one were in the pack that could’ve bested him physically.
It also meant that Patrick would step up as Chase’s best man and marry Crystal.
He snorted. The motherfucker could have her, and Chase wished them the joy of each other.
Damn. Now wasn’t that just pat, both him and the venomous bitch getting everything they’d ever wanted.
He scratched his stubble, positive Chambers would too, with his reelection campaign funding secured.
But that still didn’t explain what the hell Malcom got out of it.
Chase watched the circle of moonlight slip farther down the wall, his mind going back to the voices, the forms in the colors. He didn’t feel like he was crazy. Of course, he wasn’t sure he had when he was. Going feral…he didn’t remember a lot about it, and that was probably for the best.
That dream he’d had when he was, though…
that he remembered with crystalline clarity.
It’d been about Jena. About them. He’d been walking up the tor toward the manor.
It’d been rebuilt, and kids—two little girls—had run down to meet him.
He’d picked up the smaller of them. She had his caramel waves and Jena’s green eyes, and the elder, her hair long and dark, had taken his hand, leading him up the hill.
And then she’d been there. Jena. A hand on her round belly, another baby on the way, and a wide smile on her face. She’d risen up on her toes to kiss his cheek, then snuggled close. “I’m so happy you’re back…”
Chase dashed a hand across his eyes. That was why he’d come back. For that. For her. He looked up at the cloud covered moon. It was real. It would be real.
And as soon as he got out of here, he’d burn the world down to get it.