My heart hammers against my ribs—part excitement, part dread. I’m going home. To Asher, to the home I shared with myfamily, and to the town where my mother died trying to save everyone.
And to whatever is waiting for us in Emberwood….
The standing stones take form around us before the nausea from portal travel fully hits. I stumble forward, catching myself on weathered granite still humming with residual magic.
The first thing I notice is that the air tastes wrong. It’s got a metallic edge to it, sharp, like licking a battery. Above us, ribbons of spectral light twist through the evening sky, a magical aurora borealis where it has no business being.
“Yikes,” Rowan breathes, staring up at the celestial event. “That’s not normal, right?”
“Verynotnormal.” I press my palm flat against the stone, feeling the erratic pulse beneath. The ley line energy surges and stutters, like a heart struggling to keep rhythm.
Wylder’s already moving down the hill, his long stride eating up ground. “We need to assess the damage and find out what we’ve missed.”
“And then what?” Orion jogs to keep pace.
“Then we go to the coven and explain what’s happening.”
I roll my eyes. “Wylder, I get that you’re super loyal and Laurel’s trusted lapdog, but you don’t honestly think she’s going to welcome any of this, do you?”
He frowns. “No, not welcome it, but after what you say you saw?—”
“Excuse me?” I peg the guy with a scowl. “Are you suggesting I made it up? Are you really so desperate to have Laurel remain your pillar of leadership that you think I’d lie about any of this?”
He meets my scowl and raises me an icy glare. “I didn’t say that, but there is still a chance that the vision might’ve been a manipulation. You’re so new to magic, you wouldn’t even know what to question.”
I scoff. “I may have been clueless before, but I’m not now. I’m Poppy-freaking-Hallowind, Emberwood Elite, and heir to the Hallowind ancestral powers. I know what I know, and if you’re too wrapped up in Laurel’s lies to see what’s actually happening here, you might as well return to base and report me as a danger to the coven and all you stand for.”
Wylder stiffens. “That’s not fair. I’m here, aren’t I? I’ve trained you and remained objective despite the demon mark and everything that happened.”
I laugh, all the hurt and frustration of his disapproving looks and disdain finally breaking free. “Objective? Do you think cutting me down with every look, and sneering at everything I’ve said for two weeks was you being objective?”
“Poppy, don’t,” Orion says, interrupting. “You only have half the story. This hasn’t been easy for either one of you.”
I meet Orion’s concern and don’t understand it. “Oh? And what’s the other half of the story? What gives him the right to treat me like dog shit stuck on the bottom of his boot?”
“That’s bullshit,” Wylder snaps. “I’ve treated you better than anyone else would have in my position. Do you know what it cost me?”
“Not a clue. Time away from your lying mentor? A drop in popularity points for lowering yourself to be seen with a pariah? Oh, is that why Amber was so hostile toward me? Did I get in the way of the two of you becoming the ‘senior volunteer super couple?’”
He makes a face as if that soured his stomach. “What? No. Amber has nothing to do with anything.”
“Then I don’t understand any of this, least of all why anything that’s happened to me should piss you off.”
Wylder puts his hands on his hips and takes a deep breath. “Having you back here, defending your mom and Sebastian pissed me off becausemymom was one of the coven elders killed that night. Your mother lost control of that ritual and killed her. Laurel was the one who took me in and helped me pick up the pieces of my life.”
My world spins as all the blood drains from my head. I play back the vision Mom showed me and try to envision the other three witches there. I can’t.
They hadn’t mattered to me because I was solely focused on my mom and her suffering.
As he would be solely focused on his.
I swallow and meet his glare. For the first time, I look past the hostility and see the anger and pain that he carries. “I, uh… I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
He shrugs. “How could you? Since you got back here, you’ve only cared about yourself, what you’ve lost, and what you’re going through. Even when you were told that three other coven members died with your parents, you never once asked about them or their families.”
Heat flushes my cheeks. He’s right. I’ve felt so vulnerable and victimized since I got back, I didn’t stop to consider what bringing all this up again would mean for other people.
Hell, Orion told me that my return was stirring things up for Wylder, and I never cared enough to question it.
