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“Don’t think of that now just rest we’ll figure things out tomorrow.”
Clay was asleep before Jace left the room and despite being exhausted he was restless, his dreams filled with dark lonely images of a life without his mate.
When he woke in the morning the bed sheets were twisted from his tossing and damp from his sweat. Guilt that he might have disturbed or hurt Jade with all his flopping around flooded his system.
He shited in the bed more carefully and turned his face to the window. The sky was just light enough that he knew it was dawn and though he couldn’t remember the specifics of any of his dreams they’d left him with an empty sense of dread and loneliness.
Jade was still and looked as if she hadn’t moved through the night. Her color was better and her breathing was good, most importantly her heartbeat was strong.
Clay lay in bed listening to the steady rhythm for a long time, half wishing that she’d sleep through the rest of the full moon so that she’d have no choice but to give up on trying to work the spell so she could save the fate of the lycans. He knew it wasn’t what she would want and that he was selfish for even thinking it, but even the shame of knowing that didn’t stop him from wanting to change it.
Eventually, his bladder and stomach forced him to leave the bed. When he returned Jade was stirring.
“Morning, beautiful. Man, I’m happy to see you.”
“Ouch,” Jade groaned using her hand to block the morning light that was streaming into the window.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
“We’re running out of time. We have to try again,” Jade argued.
“It almost killed you yesterday as it is you likely have a concussion. Why would you want to try again?” Jade could see the fear in his eyes, it made her wish that she could say no and that they could leave all the trouble with her coven and the difficulties with fertility behind.
After the failure of the spell, she was even more determined to follow through with helping the lycans because she knew beyond any doubt that her family was directly responsible for the magic that had become a curse not just for the Coldridge pack but all lycans.
“I know you don’t understand why I feel compelled to fix this but I don’t have a choice. I’m tied to it just as tightly as any of you are maybe even more so. It’s my family’s fault it’s our magic line that caused this problem.”
“You can’t know that for sure.”
Jade put her hand on his squeezing so that she would gain his attention. Although he turned into a wolf at will he still didn’t understand magic. He didn’t recognize that there was magic in his ability to shift and he didn’t realize that there was magic in what he’d done to heal her injuries. It was a skill that few possessed and one that even fewer came by naturally.
Most trained for years to be able to do what he’d done instinctively. It was something that in the future would be of great value not only to him but to his pack and made it much more important that he survive if anything happened to her.
“I do know Clay. It was that magic that attacked me during the spell. I need to talk to Ryan and Jace and we need to get Christine ready I think I know how we can undo what was done now.”
She tried to get out of bed but the room spun and she had to lean back against the pillows.
“No, you stay right there. Let me get them for you. If you insist on trying to complete the spell again you’re going to need all the rest you can get.”
Jade wanted to argue with him and assert her independence but she knew he was right.
“Ok, fine you win,” she said her tone petulant.
The three came into the room followed by Christine. She offered them all a brief smile, but Christine wasn’t content with such a tepid greeting and pulled her into a hug, though she was careful to keep the embrace gentle and released her as soon as she let out a small groan, and Clay wrestled back a growl.
“How did you know to come? Jade asked her cousin as he sat on the edge of the bed.
“I could feel the vibration of the magic. It was like you’d plucked a guitar string and it resonated back to you.”
“Damn it. That means we have less time than I thought. We need to finish this tonight. The coven will be able to follow that vibration just as easily as you did and it will lead them straight here.
Jade turned her attention to Ryan and Jace knowing that she couldn’t’ keep the knowledge she’d gained to herself.
“The person who cast the original spell is my Great Aunt Deliah.”
“But why would she do that? What would she have to gain?” Jace asked and Jade could appreciate his confusion if she hadn’t experienced the blast that Deliah’s spell had dealt her she wouldn’t have believed it herself. She still had the aches and pains to prove it though.
“Deliah has never liked lycans and has always cautioned us to keep our distance. I never understood why and just assumed that she was older, and set in her ways, that she was a bit racist when it came to anyone different, but now being touched by her spell it makes sense.” Jade’s voice cracked as she tried to explain and without having to ask everyone in the room was reaching for the water on the table near the sitting area by the fireplace on the other side of the room.
