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“Your word,” I said. “Take your poison out of the people of Wild Lake. Let them live. Then, I’ll go with you. I promise.”
They huddled together. Considering it. Debating it. They didn’t all agree. I felt the pull. They wanted to devour me.
Finally, one of the men stepped out of the circle and came to me. He seemed ancient. He had flowing white hair and lightning in his eyes.
“This girl,” he said. “She’s special. She’ll do.”
“Only if you cure them,” I said. “Only if you take your magic out of them.”
He cocked his head to the side. Finally, he waved a dismissive hand. “So be it.”
The world turned on its axis. I wasn’t in the woods anymore. I was standing at the foot of my brother’s bed. He thrashed and foamed at the mouth.
“No! This isn’t the deal. You said…”
“You can have what you want,” the fae said. “They can live. But we should warn you, this is going to hurt.”
Lightning exploded inside my brain. Tendrils of it snaked out and encircled my wrists, my ankles. I felt pulled apart. It was hell. It was more pain than I’d ever felt. It was the end of the world.
“Don’t fight it,” a voice whispered. “It’s better for you this way.”
My back arched. They were trying to rip my soul out. I felt it leave my body. I hovered above it, watching. They pulled me, wrenching my back, bending me at impossible angles. A column of light poured into my chest.
I was split in half. The dark part separated from the light. Oh, she was hungry. Soulless. Her need to feed. To own. To possess. I saw myself. No. Not me. A version of me. Scars cut through my face. Burns. Just like X. They had done this to him. He had tried to make this same bargain. Why did I think I could get them to honor it better than he had?
“No!”
A voice. A roar. A gold chain arced through the air and sliced through the light. I fell to the ground. It wasn’t my brother’s room anymore. I was back in the woods. The lighting around my limbs was gone. I couldn’t see. Couldn’t breathe.
Anson’s wolf sprang out of thin air. His teeth bared, the Dragonsteel collar still around his neck. He’d ripped the oak tree straight out of the ground.
Impossible.
But he was here. I felt him. His strength. His essence. He was Anson. But he was also X.
He turned to me, eyes blazing. No words. No breath. But I knew what he wanted me to do. “They’ll kill you,” I whispered.
Anson turned, grabbing the chain that dangled from his neck. He used it as a whip and drove the fae back. They cowered in front of him. The Dragonsteel should have subdued him. But somehow, he was using it against the fae.
“No!” I said. “Anson, you can’t kill them. We need them. They’re the only way to cure my family!”
But Anson was incensed. I felt his blood flowing through me and knew mine flowed through him as well. It was the thing that had allowed me to summon the fae. They had cursed him. They had cemented his connection to them. And through it, their connection to me.
“No more!” Anson growled it. The oldest of the fae approached him, teeth bared. He sent a bolt of lightning through Anson. He arched and howled in pain. But then…Anson reared up and struck.
He cut them down one by one. Their light faded as they died. Then Anson grabbed the elder by the throat. He sank his fangs in and bled him dry.
It was over. It was dark. Rain pelted my face. But it was solid, wet earth beneath my feet.
Anson was there. The Dragonsteel chain had broken in two. He was covered in blood. Fae blood. It lit his eyes, turning them into lightning. He took a step toward me. Staggered. I lunged for him, trying to catch him before he fell.
At the last second, he shifted into his white wolf. Then ran past me and headed for the house.
Chapter Fifteen
“Anson!”
His anger, rage, heat poured through me. Pure bloodlust. My body tingled with the refracted power of the fae as they died. Each of them, their intentions fully clear as they vaporized.
