“Spirits from the other side…
…hear my words, hear my cry…
Only one of you we do seek…
…a mother of two, whose secrets still sleep…
We ask you to cross the great divide…
…to share the truth you chose to hide.”
I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath until I felt Asher’s eyes on my face. Still, I couldn’t exhale. There was this part of me that was terrified I’d be disappointed, that the worst would happen, and she wouldn’t come.
Through all the fights I loved the mother I knew, but I wished she were here to tell me this herself.
Cordelia repeated her chant a second time, and then a third. The air around us was thick and heavy, like a tangible substance that weighed us down. I watched as Breyona wiped the sweat from her forehead with the sleeve of her hoodie. She pointed at it and grimaced, regret in her eyes. Asher was stoic, his
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I didn’t have long to accept the fact that I’d just spoken to my dead mother’s spirit because we were on our way to find my grandmother, whose uncovered heritage I was also trying to process. Bright spot, grandma was with the rest of the town at the bake sale hosted in Carson’s memory.The plan was to grab Grandma and head back to the house to get the blood we needed. Cordelia had every other ingredient on the list and was surprised that the spell itself was a simple reversal spell. What made it complex was the final ingredient, grandma’s blood.Rowena was right, bake sales had a different meaning around these parts because what I had in mind involved perky PTA members with plates of store-bought chocolate chip cookies and children with fists clenched full of old ones and quarters.What I hadn’t expected to see was every sorority and fraternity milling around outside, hanging out in clusters of ten or fifteen. All of them shou
Chapter 141
Asher would’ve killed him on the spot with only my word as evidence. That was how much he trusted me, how much he wanted to protect me. The gut-feeling twisting and tearing into my stomach like razor blades was telling me to scream for my mate—or worse, tear Lars’s throat out myself. I had to keep my cool, especially at a bake sale for a girl who had just been murdered. There was no way I could cause a scene. I couldn’t accuse Lars of something like this with nothing more than a hazy memory of black boots and a gut-feeling that set off a symphony of alarms in my head. His lips curved up in an amused smile, which was my only warning that I had taken too long to answer. Keeping my eyes on his face and not on his boots was excruciating, but I wasn’t sure if he had seen me look the first time. If this gut-feeling of mine was correct—which both witches said it would be, then that meant Lars was connected to all of this. Perhaps he was a puppet and
Chapter 142
Sean stopped us just as we were getting into the car, his arms piled high with sweets. Like dad, he chose to stay behind for the séance. He hadn’t spoken much of the day mom died, but Sean found closure for that on his own.In a way, Sean made getting over mom seem easy, but I knew the truth. No matter how disciplined, a person could only take so much pain. The agony of losing your mate was said to be the worst in existence. Just the thought of Asher fading was unbearable. Never hearing the husky sound of his voice in the morning or feeling his hair through my fingers as he showed me how loved I was with his lips and tongue; it was a fate I wouldn’t wish on any wolf.Some part of Sean seemed to be at peace when I told him that mom looked happy, that the smile she had was genuine and warm. I wasn’t sure if I’d have some talent for spirit magic like Cordelia or if my skills were elsewhere, but I liked to think that Sean wasn’t alone a
Chapter 143
“Of course you aren’t, and even if you did catch on fire that’s what Cordelia is here for.” I waited for Cordelia to laugh or smile, to show some sign that Rowena was joking, but all she did was nod. “Plus your friend has a fire extinguisher.”Breyona held up the fire extinguisher and grinned, which did absolutely nothing to ease my worries.“What’s going to happen to her?” Asher’s voice held an edge that silenced the room. He looked at me as he spoke, softening his tone so it didn’t sound like he was ready to start murdering people.The smooth lines of Rowena’s face sharpened, and she gestured to grandma. “First I’ll be needing her blood. It’s the final ingredient in the potion Lola and are to drink. From there I’ll unravel the bind by hand.”“I thought Cordelia was removing the binding spell?” I asked, shuddering as I repressed a ru
Chapter 144
I barely remembered running into the forest even though I had little red marks speckling my face and arms from how fast I’d been going. Branches both barren and full of leaves slapped at my bare skin, but the proof of it faded within seconds. Her scent was faint, but I followed the thread until it withered away in my hands. The shadows scurried into the darkest corners of the forest, retreating farther with every step I took. I had just noticed it when the sound of a wet gasp sounded from close by. The sight of her face, and the paleness of her skin as she lay sprawled out in the grass nearly sent me into shock. My mind was shutting down my senses one at a time until I could make sense of reality. There was one thing alone that propelled me forwards, making me stumble and scrape my knees as I fell at her side. It was the slow thud of her heart and the way her lips formed a small smile as her eyes focused on me. I didn’t hesitate as I tore her shirt op
Chapter 145
It wasn’t the sunlight streaming through open curtains that woke me, but Beta Drake’s gruff baritone. His voice drowned out the steady thud of Asher’s heart which was right below where my head was resting.‘Lola, are you with Asher right now?’My spine protested angrily as I rolled off Asher’s chest, which I had been sprawled across seconds ago, and plopped down on the floor. The last thing I remembered was being wrapped in his arms, letting his warmth and strength flow into me as I told him how Breyona almost died.I didn’t want to tell him what I’d done. There wasn’t a single part of me that regretted it, not once I saw the look of pure relief in Giovanni’s eyes and knew how close he had been to snapping, but I was still ashamed and horrified. There was no telling what or who they would take.Instead of saying the words out loud, I let Asher relive every agonizing second through our bond. Every
Chapter 146
The moment the caution tape fluttered to the ground, Sean and Mason were at my back. Breyona was there too, and I had to resist the urge to raise my eyebrows when I spotted the knife she had hidden in her hand.I noticed the resemblance between him and Devin the moment he came up close. They had the same arched eyebrows and thin lips that made them look perpetually angry all of the time. When I first found out Devin was the son of a judge, I had hoped the piss poor attitude wasn’t genetic.“I’m Luna—”“I know who you are.” Judge Clint Armstrong snapped, his voice sharp like razor blades. I held back my irritation since it was his son that was murdered, but the venom in his voice sounded far beyond that of a grieving father. “I asked you a question, girl.”I had seen death’s many faces, suffered through so much loss, and stepped into a role I wasn’t sure I could handle, all to be ca
Chapter 147
“Sacrifices…” I said for the third time, narrowing my eyes as I followed the curvy backroad in the new car Asher reluctantly loaned me.“The red-haired witch, doesn’t she know how to do blood-magic?” Mason asked, refusing to let me stew in silence. “She really can’t think of a reason for these…sacrifices?”“She doesn’t know much blood-magic. It runs in her family, but they don’t practice it themselves.” I explained. “I just wanted Holly to know where she comes from. As much as she can, anyway.”I hated having control over Holly’s life. Making decisions for her, forcing her to see a therapist, it made me feel like she was a prisoner and not part of the pack. I didn’t want to make her feel how our father did, like pretty bird shoved into a cage, left to rot as it sang itself to death.Only one other person truly knew how I felt, and it was Tristan.