Eli raced to his side, sending water washing over his fur, but the flames wouldn’t stop. How much longer did he have? Long enough to tell Sameen he loved her one last time? A cascading pile of wood and brick landed on him, and while they dampened some of the flames, they broke his ribs, his arm, and his pelvis, and Peter howled.
Cade collapsed, the baby cradled to his chest, but a second practitioner stepped forward, and with a few words in Gaelic, cut the baby’s cord, banished the blood and remnants of the birth from Mara, and wrapped the little one up in an ornately patterned piece of fabric as Cade started to shift into his wolf. He growled, then whimpered, and even as Peter burned and struggled to breathe, he understood.
Cade’s shift had been brought on by magic, and the alpha couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t shift back. They’d trapped him again, and it was killing him.
Sunlight flooded the room, despite it being just after midnight, and Regulus hissed and brought his hand up to cover his eyes. Eli’s spell kept him from burning, but the momentary distraction was enough for another practitioner to, with a flick of her wrist, conjure silver chains from the air and send them snaking around the vampire’s entire body. He fell with a weak curse, and his eyes rolled back in his head.
Next to Peter, Eli sank down on his ass. “Who...who are you? Where are we? I don’t remember…who I am.”
The flames burned Peter’s muzzle. One of his ears felt like it was...gone. And he couldn’t move.
“Sameen. I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I love you.”
She shook her head, sobbing even harder when Celia grabbed her braid and twisted to expose her neck.
“Bring the mother,” Celia said. “Both parents must die when the child absorbs the elements from the conduit and the son of the traitor.”
Two more practitioners dragged Mara off the altar and dropped her next to her mate. She moaned softly, barely managing to stretch out her hand to touch his paw.
All six of the witches started chanting again, and the one next to Celia withdrew a blade from her robes and drove it deep into Mara’s back.
Cade howled, the muscles in his neck straining. The magic had not only trapped him as his wolf, but stopped him from moving at all. He could do nothing but watch as Mara shuddered and gasped for breath, blood pooling around her.
“Love...you...shaggy man.”
Chapter Eighteen
Sameen
She couldn’t move. Celia’s magic had trapped her in her own body once more, left her unable to blink, breathe, or even whimper. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and her vision started to blur.
The hazy form of her mate twitched and whined from only ten feet away, most of his body buried under a pile of rubble.
“Not every truth is right…”
Regulus whispered to her mind, but she didn’t know what he meant—besides quoting Paddy’s words back to her.
“Sameen…”
Peter. Her heart shattered into dust at the agony she felt pouring from him.
“Burning…can’t hold on this time. Love you…always.”
This time. This time?
A blast of pure, white light sent sparks dancing over the stone floor, and the blood pouring from the wound to Mara’s back seemed to disappear wherever one of the pinpricks of magic hit.
“Yer lies do fade when shown the light. Truth now seen will fuel the fight.”Paddy. The old man tottered into the room, his eyes glowing, and smiled.
“You think you can stop us?” Celia asked. The other practitioners laughed and Freya pulled an athame from a sheath under her robes and threw it end over end in his direction. It found its mark, burying itself hilt-deep in his stomach, and he stumbled until his back hit the wall, then sank to the floor.
No. Not Paddy. The harmless old man had been kind, despite his ramblings. Blood stained his old tweed jacket, but the wound glowed with the same white light he’d sent towards Mara. It flowed over the stones towards Sameen, curling around her fingers.
More of her tears fell, and as they dripped from her jaw, Sameen understood.
Salvation comes from strength of heart, not of body.
She wasn’t locked in her own body. Not truly. Not completely. If she were…she wouldn’t be able to cry. Peter was burning, crushed under rubble. Cade was trapped as his wolf, watching his mate die. Eli didn’t know who he was, and Regulus struggled to free himself from silver chains—one of the only ways to weaken or kill a vampire.
