“I can’t. Addie… She’s too wrapped up in Mom’s plot. Besides, I refuse to leave until saving Rowan.”
“The Seer?”
Xander shares a look with me, probably thinking the same: someone needs to start explaining this “Seer” they keep mentioning.
Archer ducks his head and shoves his hands into his ripped jeans’ pockets. “Yeah. I’m the reason he came to Mom for help, but she turned on him—onus. I’m doing what I can to ease his captivity.”
As he looks up and away, he winces, plagued by months of memories—perhaps even years. He lets out a sigh of longing, one I’ve heard Holly and Conan share around one another, or how Xander acts around Leah when she’s not paying attention.
He cares for him.
“What will happen to you?” Carina tightens her hand around his. “Sloane will know you’re behind our escape.”
“I’ll survive.” A shadow passes over his face as he ducks his head again. He’ll survive, but it won’t be without pain, and it makes me respect the warlock a bit more. “I do every other time she—doesn’t matter. Before you leave…” He reaches into his pocket and tugs out a thin, faux leather rope bracelet, dropping it into her palm and folding her fingers around it. “Give that to Jasper. He’ll know what it is.”
“Jasper?”
“Yes. Swear it. Now go, before she wakes.” He steps around all of us to return to his house of horrors, but I stop him with a hand to his chest.
“Thank you for what you’ve done.”
“I wish it could have been sooner. Get her home, wolf. Hide her.”
By my life and blood, I will.
Once he disappears, Xander, Holly, and I shift so Carina can create a sheet from our clothing. We tug Conan’s body onto it, and with the help of her powers and Holly and Xander, we start the long journey home.
Fifty-Eight
CARINA
Harlow never warned me.
The Darkness—it speaks to me. Harasses me. Makes me crave things I don’t actually desire. Murder, for one.
You’re mine, it continues to recite, bouncing in the crevices of my mind until I’m positive it’ll actually drive me to insanity.
Go. Away.I press my hands to my temples, earning a glance from Holly, who’s walking beside me from where I’m seated on Ryder’s back. I can’t look at her. Not her, not Xander, especially not Ryder, and most certainly not the deceased face of Conan.
Conan, whoIkilled.
Conan, who came to help save me and earned a knife in the heart instead.
The pack continues to lose people because of me. Alaric, Conan. I’ll be fucking damned if Ryder is next. Or Leah or Claire or Xander or anyone else in that camp. They’ll be safe from witches if it’s the last fucking thing I do.
You’re strong now. Stronger than anyone else in Highridge. There’s a way to become even more powerful.
Stop.
I’ll never leave you. End the remaining shifters. Become stronger. Becomemore.
Fuck off, fuck off, fuck off!I squeeze my eyes shut. If I can’t see, if I can pretend to be asleep, the Darkness will go away.
You know what you must do.
I rub my face.I’ll never submit.
Submit? There is no submission. You are I and I are you. We’re the same. You desire what I do.
