Julian
Sacred Sea’sinitiation process was no secret to Norse Woods. We understood what it entailed. The burial and drawing of fear to pull the magic was first. If no magic, they must simply survive. Survival of the fittest. After they are reborn, then came the bond with the sea—days left out in the open, surrounded by water. The last one was the bond of the new coven. Stripped and united with the members through a Great Rite ritual. They’d all pass her around and fuck her, but she wouldn’t do that willingly. Not to me, not to herself. Not to us. Would they have forced her? My stomach turned …
It was foolish for me to believe they’d give up after hearing how determined Pruitt had been in the Chambers. I’d told myself lies, self-soothing and blinding lies, that her simple refusal would be enough, yet Sacred Sea must be as desperate to have Fallon as me. Both for different reasons.
4:49 a.m.
And yet, still, Sacred Sea’s initiation had started, and the bastards … they took the girl. My girl! The girl who held my soul in every subtle breath. The single thought of her terrified, and me not being there when I should have, pulled something new from within me. It wasn’t darkness this time, as it was as scorching as the sun bursting from my chest. I stepped on the gas as the rumble of the car burned my rage, set it on fire.
I drove through the graveyard, eyes narrowed on the only two figures in my line of sight. The Bronco ran down tombstones, disrupting sacred ground and heading straight for them. I didn’t stop. I couldn’t! as something had possessed me. The thought was maddening, my girl six feet under instead of on top of me. It all pushed me forward in a love-sick haze. I white-knuckled the wheel, seethed death in the night’s breath.
The speed hit sixty when my eyes settled on two mounds of freshly disturbed dirt in my path.Fallon. I whipped the wheel when the Bronco slid to the side until it came to a full stop in front of Kane and Maverick, who were both standing. I jumped from the Bronco, not bothering to close the door. My chest heaved so hard, every cold breath burned in my lungs as I charged for them.
“It’s already begun,” Kane stated, Maverick backing away. “There’s nothing you can do.”
Adrenaline pumped in my veins, and the night sky dropped so low my heart was claustrophobic. Clouds hovered and intensifying winds swirled, and I hadn’t noticed the coming of blinding rage. I hadn’t noticed, for I was so far gone.
I grabbed Kane by the shirt collar, held him high in the air as lightning ripped apart the surrounding black clouds. “Which one is she in?” An oppressive boom clipped my gritted words. Sweat pricked his forehead, and his fingers dug into my forearm. He choked on my tight hold, refusing to tell me. “WHICH ONE?” I screamed, and the malevolently charged winds threatened to rip him from my grip.
“Julian,” Cyrus’s bark came from behind. “Think about this before you do something stupid. The Order will come for you. It’s just one girl, and you need to think about what is right for your coven,” he added, using the same words Agatha had used in the chambers. Cyrus Cantini, the man of reason, yet there was no reasoning when it came to Fallon.
Screaming, I threw Kane through the air, and he slammed against a mausoleum. The stone cracked upon impact, and I turned with something black strumming through my system, vibrations shaking my core.
Maverick and Cyrus backed away with eyes wide opened, bewildered expressions marring their faces. Clenching my fists, I dropped to my knees, pressed my ear to the earth, laid my palms over the graves, and closed my eyes to feel the familiar pulse of her heart. Then I picked hers out and latched on to it, for she was alive and breathing.
Her heart, it pumped in my ears now. So loud and filling me down to the tips of my fingers. My palms slammed against the damp earth as a new scream ripped from my chest, burning up the ground as if it could burn up my rage!
The dirt came off the ground and slipped into the high winds. I felt the heat dry up my insides, my skin. It burned, but the agony of not seeing Fallon yet pushed me forward, motivated me.
The howl of the wind didn’t reach my ears now as the only thing I heard was the sound of her beating heart. I fisted the dirt, raised my clenched hands, and the soil lifted from the ground and swirled with the cyclone. The earth submitted to my ardor and defied gravity until the rest of the grave lifted, and the wooden coffin appeared.
Inside the hole, I pressed myself against the edge of the grave and pulled open the lid. “Fallon,” I gasped upon a shallow breath.
Fallon squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. Her face was red, and stained streaks ran down her cheeks. Her eyes were bloodshot and dilated, and dirt muddied her long white and tangled hair. Raw and bloodied fingers trembled as she reached out for me, her lips shaking. I grabbed her arms and dragged her barely naked body from the coffin.
“I’m here,” I told her, falling against the side of the grave, taking her with me. Fallon buried her face in my chest, every muscle of hers tense. I stroked her hair, held her together. “I have you.”
The storm faded into a calming night, and dirt snowed over the two of us like black confetti.
“You’re going to regret this,” Kane cautioned, hunched over and gripping his side as I pulled Fallon from the grave. “I’m going to the Order at first light. You will burn for this, Blackwell.” Ignoring him, I scooped Fallon into my arms and carried her to the Bronco, laid her inside the passenger seat, and rounded the front. “You just sealed your death!”
5:23 a.m.
Fallon sat in a shock-filled silence the entire way to my cabin. Her slender and nervous fingers twisted in her lap as she kept her gaze forward, her long-suffering body still trembling and detached and far away in the passenger seat.
I’d witnessed her fears before. I’d been there with her in her childhood trauma. I’d watched her from the outside in as if I were a phantom half of a soul that had separated from hers, but I’d felt her suffering as if it were my own. I wanted to soothe her the same way she had always been able to soothe me. There were many things I wanted to say, but none of which I found would be good enough nor a language that had been spoken to express myself in the way she deserved.
I reached out my hand to take hers. And while doing so, I feared, so much, that it wouldn’t be enough. I wanted Fallon to know that it was never a choice.
Whether in this life or our reincarnated one, it would always be her. As it always had been. The nature of our danger would be overbearing, but as her fingers slipped through mine, it felt like life and not death—so strong, so inseparable, so everlasting. And, I thought, perhaps the brave hand of a crippled monster could speak for itself. That it wouldn’t need words to hear its devotion.
I watched as her eyes closed for a brief moment from the corner of my eye, then they opened before her breathing shuddered. She gripped my hand tightly, and we continued our drive through the night.
When we reached the cabin, I pulled the Bronco into the graveyard of vehicles I’d collected and jumped out to round the truck to her. After opening the passenger door, Fallon turned in the seat and clutched both of my hands.
“Gramps,” she whispered, new tears shaking in the corners of her eyes. “You have to take me back home. Gramps … he’s dying, I can feel it! Something happened, Julian.Please!”
I didn’t know how to answer. I couldn’t bring her back there.
