My heart stuttered to a stop as I mulled over his words. That was a wonderful idea. Why hadn’t I thought of that sooner?
“This spell would be more powerful and more apt to work if we had a potion,” Jan stated, and my eyes widened.
“You wouldn’t mind helping us?”
She shook her hand back and forth. “Not at all. Besides, I quite like your company when you come in. I don’t have many customers who actually know their way around herbs, if you know what I mean.” She chuckled to herself and started busying herself behind the table, pulling out her cauldron and a bunch of other herbal medicines and some that were not medicinal that I hadn’t seen before.
My intrigue was piqued. The leaves that she set out were funky colors like purple, blue, and gray. I had never seen anything like it, even in my research.
Trixie clapped her hands. “Oh my gosh! Don’t tell me you have these kinds of ingredients!”
“Okay, I won’t. It’s not like I own a magic shop or anything.” The older lady snorted at Trixie in a teasing manner.
“So what do I need to do?” I asked, leaning my back on Lachlan.
“Well, your friend and I will join hands with you, and we will cast the spell right after we put in all the ingredients. When we start chanting, I want you to focus on this woman named Alice, and the vision of her should form in our minds as she is right now.”
“Okay.” I swallowed hard. Anxiety squirmed in my gut as I watched as Trixie and Jan threw ingredients into the cauldron and poured in more strange colored liquid that I hadn’t seen before.
I enjoyed turning my herbal remedy into a potion with Kian, but I knew nothing about true potion making. It was mesmerizing watching them create the bubbling potion.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Lachlan’s breath hit the back of my ear, and I shivered. “Who knows the real reason behind her not sending a reply?”
“I thought about that.” I turned in his arms to see the worry lines creasing his forehead. “But I think I need to know one way or the other. Grayson said that they linked her life essence to his, but I’ve never read anything that said it was possible to make it one way. I’ve only read of spells where it was mutual.”
“Yeah.” He reached up and scratched his scruff. “I thought the same thing, but damn, it really pisses me off to think about everything you went through because of that bastard. If I ever get my hands on him, I swear—”
“To be honest, as long as Alice is safe, I don’t care what happens to him. I just don’t want to be the reason she gets hurt.”
He groaned. I understood the frustration. The others felt the same way. Grayson was a threat, and I knew he would be killed sooner or later by one of my mates if he tried anything again. I also knew his parents would make the entire pack retaliate, and the quickest way for them to do that was by hurting Alice.
“It’s ready,” Jan said.
Trixie and she held their hands out toward me. “Are you ready?”
A buzzing snapped through my nerves as my hands hit theirs. Our magical essence connected, and then they started chanting. They chanted in a different tongue I assumed was native to Cursina, since that was where witches originated from. I had heard Kian speak it a few times, but never so forcefully. Their hair started to float around them as the air charged with magic.
Lachlan’s hands settled on my waist for support. I wiggled slightly to make sure he was there, and then I focused on Alice like they had told me to do.
My guardian.Alice was my aunt by right, but she encouraged me to call her my guardian. She never wanted me to call her anything else. She had told me countless times that she would never try to take my mom’s place, and she used to tell me stories of them when they were younger.
Alice was mated to Uncle Greg around the same time she and Mom became best friends. But when Mom met Dad, she wasn’t allowed to stay in the pack unless Dad stayed away. She visited sometimes, but never for long. My memory of Alice before coming to the pack was fuzzy, but I did remember Uncle Greg fondly. Alice did what she could in the situation that was forced on us, and I was grateful for her.
An electric zap shot through my spine, and my back arched. A piercing scream tore from my lips as Trixie and Jan broke their hold with me.
Lachlan’s strong embrace from behind tightened, helping me stay upright. “What the hell was that? You didn’t say it would hurt her!”
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to focus on any sort of image that would come up, but nothing did. “Did I do something wrong?” I asked as I cracked my eyes open. “I thought about Alice like you said.” A sinking fear dropped in my stomach.
Jan’s worried eyes met mine. “There’s one of two things that could’ve happened to block our spell. Either there is a concealment spell cast on your guardian.” Jan darted her gaze toward Trixie, pressing her lips together.
“Or she’s no longer of this world.” Trixie’s voice cracked.
“You mean that she could be…?”
Trixie nodded, and Lachlan’s grip on me tightened. “If Grayson was telling the truth about the witch linking them together, then there is a chance that she could have a concealment spell on her. He knows you have access to witches who could do this spell.”
Trixie’s words were meant to give me hope, but in all honesty, all it did was solidify a deeper agony that coursed through me. I didn’t know what to do. Alice was the only one who had ever been there for me, and while she may not have done a lot, according to what some of my friends say, she did all she could. She was a wolf who went against pack norms for me. It meant a lot that someone was willing to ignore their instincts just to make sure I didn’t die in the wilderness alone like I was sure Alpha Haven wanted to do in the first place.
