“You’re friends with vampires, stalk shifters, and have a crazy-ass coven after you. Carina Hargrove, you really invite danger, don’t you?”
She bursts out laughing and for a single second, the world stops turning. It’s a sound I could get used to…if the situation was different and she was like me.
Eventually, her laughter is stifled with reality. “I get you’re worried. After seeing him, I am too. Maybe Mom can help. She knows more than I do. If we go to talk to her, at the very least, I’ll retrieve a pain potion.”
“It doesn’t change the fact this is a witches’ war.”
“Earth is believed to be in the middle of the Celestial’s war, which means every single creature—mortal or otherwise—could be in danger. Witches, shifters, vampires, and whatever the fuck else is out there. You, me…we’re all in this. If there’s something coming, you guys won’t be safe from it either just ’cause you hide out here. A battle between angels and demons won’t be like any fight between covens and shifters.” She exhales deeply, her eyes sunken with horror. “None of us are safe.”
Being Alpha means protecting the pack from everything. It means working with our kind to keep the rest of us alive. It means keepingheralive in any way I can.
“Come with me.”
She jumps in surprise before trailing after me like an overeager pup. I lead her towards the middle of camp where Xander and Holly are standing by the fire. Xander’s smile fades with our approach.
“Xander, head to Dad’s cabin. Ensure Marissa and Amos stay put.” Holly slinks away, taking her cue to go elsewhere while Xander obeys.
At present, I don’t trust Carina alone in my cabin, so I gesture to the wooden log Holly and Xander were standing by. On an adjacent log, one of the females, Leah, is observing some of the pups, her own daughter mingled within the group. I trust Leah to keep an eye on Carina and use another to chase her if she tries anything.
“Sit. Stay. Don’t leave this bench for the safety of your own neck.”Your pretty little neck.
Beside the fire is a basket of apples, picked from our nearby orchid. I take one and toss it to her. “Breakfast. Eat.”
She palms the apple, staring at it as if it’ll hold all the answers in the world. After a few steady breaths from myself and no response from her, I turn and walk away.
The prickle in the back of my neck wants to take her with me.
Twelve
CARINA
Ryder headsback to his father’s cabin while I palm the apple and consider—albeit with a racing heart—all I’ve learned.
Black magick.Here.Shifters are the last people who should be dragged into Twilight Grove’s bullshit. No matter what Ryder decides, I have to get home. Mom needs to understand why they brought me here, and how desperate Twilight Grove apparently is to get me to be using them.
Doesn’t explain why they want me.
Sparks fly from the fire a few feet away and land by my feet, extinguished by the dirt that’s been scraped away in preparation for the large pit. Everything in the camp seems well thought-out for outdoors living, and while this wouldn’t be my personal first choice, a part of me admires the pack.
When my stomach groans, I’m reminded by the apple in my hand. It’s crisp, cool, and clearly freshly picked. Smaller than the ones bought in grocery stores, and if I wasn’t concerned about all the other revelations this place brings, I might be interested in asking.
While eating, I lift my gaze to the nearby group, whom I’ve been doing my darndest to ignore. A female shifter openlyobserves me with an intensity that makes my skin itch; I can’t determine if it’s hatred or not in her expression. A group of children play around her, which seems harmless enough, until one breaks away and heads my direction.
Long, dark hair falling nearly to her waist frames wide blue eyes and open curiosity. Past her, the other two boys hover nearby, unsure how close to get. The woman doesn’t appear bothered by the children’s proximity.
“Hi!” The little girl clenches her hands together. “Are you really a witch?”
Her bold personality reminds me of some of the kids at home, and with a pang to my heart, I find myself hoping to return to them soon.
“That’s what they tell me.”
Doing magick probably won’t make anyone feel safer, but the friendliness and curiosity of the child wins. Killing a child’s curiosity is the worst thing a person can do, which is why I twist my wrist until my half-eaten apple balances on the tips of three fingers. With a silent spell that may get me later slaughtered by Ryder, the apple hovers two inches into the air, earning the gasps of all three children.
The boys, entranced by the floating fruit, rush closer. Amused by their enthusiasm, I flip the apple into the air and my other hand shoots as if to catch it, knowing it won’t be my skin that will. The fruit lands, hovering again, above my palm, earning the whoops from them.
“Can you do anything else?” one of them shouts, bouncing on his bare feet.
With my free hand, I suspend it between us, palm facing the ground. With a minor pull of elemental magick, raindrops drip from my palm the same way they would the sky. The children explode in excitement and all but clamour over one another tostep beneath my hand and feel my manufactured rain on their faces.
