I wonder if my heart will ever stop fluttering.
“Okay, I have another question,” I say, sitting up. “How old are you?”
North and Blaze both chuckle, hands swiping over their face or behind their neck.
“Ah… I don’t remember,” Blaze admits.
“Don’t look at me. Fuck all, if I know,” North says.
As I’m laughing, something catches my attention by the jetty. It appears so suddenly and out of nowhere that I can’t help but be taken aback.
“Is that… Is that a horse?” I ask, brows narrowed at the black stallion standing in the surf.
Chapter 26
North
My insides hollow at the beast in the surf.
“Oh fuck me,” I mutter.
Pack begins to bark, and Blaze quickly gets her leash on her.
“There’s your answer about the kelpies,” Blaze grunts, standing.
A goddamn kelpie, appearing as a black stallion, stands at the edge of the waves. It’s watching us, and I know without even seeing the contents of its saddlebag why it’s here.
“What is it?” Juniper asks, standing with us.
“It isn’t a horse.” I grab Pack’s leash as the dog’s bark grows more harsh. She’s jumping and lunging in an attempt to go with Blaze, but I bend down and hold her back. “It’s a kelpie. Shapeshifter. Don’t ever trust the things that come out of the water,” I tell her.
“I’m not entirely sure I should be trusting demons either, yet here we are,” I hear her mutter.
I chuckle and watch Blaze take an envelope out of the saddlebag. A solid black envelope that looks more like a shadow than something corporeal. A sense of dread fills me when the beast backs up into the water, and when Blaze reaches us, I want to vomit.
“Is that… Is that from her?” Juniper asks.
Blaze’s jaw tightens as he turns it over and stares. He doesn’t speak, and the longer he stays silent, the more anxious I grow.
He hands it off to me a moment later, shaking his head. “I can’t.”
I stare at the thing, hair on my neck standing. Still, I take the envelope from his hand and rip open the thick paper.
The words nearly make me hurl bile.
You’ve condemned her just like the last, and now you’ve brought your brother down with you. You have until sunrise to bring her to me and plead for mercy, else the three of you will be hunted down. Forgiveness will be null and void. It’s your choice, son.
“Fucking cunt.” I rip the envelope in half. “Plead for mercy.Fuck her. She isn’t touching you,” I say to Juniper.
Juniper’s throat bobs as she looks between us. Blaze reaches for her, his hand bracing against her cheek.
“Nothing is going to happen to you,” he promises her.
“What if it doesn’t work? What if the spell doesn’t hide me?” she asks.
“Then the three of us die together,” I say, rage threading through my veins.
Blaze gives me a look.
