Page 74 of Bad Witch

I nodded and carefully lifting off the closest lid. The bones were draped in faded linen.

“I’m sorry for disturbing you, Eartha,” Tempest said, “but we think Uriel is trying to release the Wraiths of Destruction and we need to make sure that doesn’t happen.” The wind whistled outside, through the gap in the door, and down the stairs, rustling my hair. Tempest lifted her head, her gaze distant. “Eartha is here with us.”

The wind whistled again, louder, sounding like a mournful cry as another stronger gust burst through the room, flicking back the fragile linen and revealing Eartha’s bones. Temp quickly inspected them and found nothing, no glyphs.

“She can’t communicate very well, but she knows we’re here for the right reasons and won’t stop us,” Tempest said. “Thank you, Eartha.”

I placed the crypt’s lid back on and we moved to Petra next. I did the same, lifting off the lid. The wind increased, blowing around us, through us, and her cry joined in. The high-pitched sound had the hair on the back of my neck standing on end. Again, the wind blew back the linen and Tempest checked for glyphs, and again there were none. She thanked Petra, and I slid the lid back in place. We turned to the final crypt. Brigid’s.

The stone was new, no moss or discoloration like the other two. I carefully removed the lid. Tempest cursed, before I could. Brigid’s remains had been dumped inside, not neatly placed as they should have been.

“Hi, Brigid,” Temp said, and began to quickly, but reverently, arrange the priestess’s bones, putting them where they should be. “I’m so glad we could reunite you with your sisters.” The wind was like ice now, tearing through the room. Tempest’s hair whipped around her face wildly, and a shriek joined the cries, this one full of rage. Tempest turned to me, tears in her eyes. “She’s so angry,” she called over the wind and shook her head. “I don’t know why.”

“Is she angry with us?” I said, ready to haul Temp off her feet and carry her out of here.

She shook her head, and continued to arrange Brigid’s skeleton. “No, with the angels—Uriel.” Tempest gasped as another icy blast slammed through the room. Finally, she straightened. “Oh no,” Tempest said, her eyes flaring. “Her thigh bone, it’s missing.”

Uriel or whoever he’d sent to the blue cliffs, had found her before us, had sent the dark power she’d spoken of, and had taken the bone, the only bone that could have had the glyphs carved into it.

Temp looked up at me with terror in her eyes because now we knew, Disease had already been released. He had caused the sickness in the city. Which meant the path to the end had already started, and we’d had no fucking idea.

The cries and shrieks became melodic voices, joining as one and filling the space.

Tempest’s eyes rolled back so only the whites were visible, and she went limp. I grabbed for her, catching her before she hit the ground. “Tempest? What’s happening?”

She didn’t reply.

“Tempest,” I snarled, about to throw her over my shoulder and get her out of there.

She swayed and her hand shot out, taking mine as a tear slid down her face. “They’re talking to me.”

“This is too dangerous.”

“They need me to listen. They want to save us, they want to stop this,” she rasped.

I sucked in a sharp breath and did what my female asked, even as the beast roared inside me to get her out of there. Nothing but sadness came from her now, though, no fear, no pain. Empathy, I realized. This new emotion that I’d recognized coming from Tempest was empathy. She was hurting for the Stonebridge sisters as if the pain was her own.

Wrapping my arms around her, I did the only thing I could, I supported her, holding her up when she leaned into me and listened as the sisters told their story.

As they desperately tried to save the world from the males they’d once loved, and going by their cries—still did.

Chapter

Twenty-One

Tempest

* * *

When we walked into the clubhouse, Warrick and Willow were waiting.

Fender had called ahead when we left the Stonebridge property and told War we had information and it would be good if Willow was there as well. A flurry of nerves filled me as we approached them. Willow studied me as we joined them at the table, curiosity in her green eyes.

“What’s going on?” War asked, the huge male aiming the full force of an alpha’s intensity on Fender and me.

“Some developments that you need to know, that everyone needs to know. Lucifer especially.”

“What’s happened?” Willow asked, her gaze sliding between Fender and me.