“She’s asleep.” I’d been fighting my wolf for the last two hours, and finally, I could relax a little. Tessa wouldn’t see my amber eyes or how tenuous my control was anymore. I didn’t want to scare her before, but now she was asleep in my lap.
I brushed my hand through her hair. The words she’d said just before she fell asleep both scared me and gave me hope. Those had been Tessa’s words. Not Cassie’s. That was the real Tessa I’d talked to. The one that had been kidnapped and hidden for so long.
I was getting her back, bit by bit.
Since she was asleep, I could hold her and see through the magic. She was painfully thin, but her color was better than it’d been in the elevator. The scent of death and decay wasn’t as strong. Which meant we had time if the fey stayed away.
Cosette lowered the volume of the TV and came to sit on the pouf in front of me. “We can’t let her take any more of the meds she talked about.”
“I know.” I wasn’t even planning on letting her go back to that apartment. I needed to find a way to get her out of here without the magic reacting and attacking her.
“Whatever they are, we have to assume it’s made her more susceptible to my mother’s magic.” She looked at Chris for a second, and then back to me. “Chris texted Claudia, and she said that she wasn’t given anything but fluids in the hospital. Which means she’s been cleansed from whatever that potion is for days. Unless she took some when she got home, which we can’t find out now. I would go into her apartment and take them, but the doors are warded. My mother would know and—”
“She was here.” I looked up at Cosette. “Tessa spoke to me.” My voice shook, and I tried to hang on. I didn’t want to wake up Tessa with my crying, but that’s all I wanted to do. I wanted to pick her up, cradle her against my body, and let all of my emotions out.
But that wouldn’t solve anything.
Tessa needed me to be strong.
Later. When I had her back, I would talk to her. I would tell her everything that happened while she was gone. But not now. Not yet.
I let out a shaky breath. “I can’t lose her again.”
“We won’t let her out of our sight. When she wakes up in the morning, we’ll convince her to skip class, to stay with us until it’s time to go to the concert.” Cosette stood over Tessa and touched her cheek.
“When I touched her forehead after she saw Chris’s painting, I was terrified. I want to lie to you and say that she’s going to be fine, but for a scary second there, I thought she might die on the spot. I’ve seen healthier looking skeletons.”
“She can’t—”
Cosette gripped my hand. “I swear to you that the magic is weakening. She’s still impossibly thin, but her color’s better.” Cosette reached toward Tessa and then hissed, quickly pulling her hand back. “Damn it. I still can’t get through the magic. Earlier I just helped soothe her. I didn’t want to make it worse, but now…” She looked at me.
I didn’t like the confusion on her face. She was supposed to be the expert.
“I don’t understand.” Cosette touched Tessa again. “The magic is thinner than cobwebs, but…oh. Right.”
“What?”
“It’s still in her soul. It needs…you. You’re her True Mate. When your bond comes back, it’ll break the magic.”
That wasn’t a revelation. I still didn’t know how to make it come back when it shouldn’t have been gone. Nothing should’ve ever taken our bond. Nothing except death.
I ran my fingertips down her face. “She feels so fragile.”
“She is. Anytime someone puts that much magic on a person…it’s not good long term, but Tessa is strong. She can overcome this. You can, too.” Cosette straightened. “She’ll get stronger. It’ll take time, but I don’t doubt it for a second.”
Cosette got up and went to sit on the loveseat with Chris.
I wanted to believe that Tessa would get stronger, but I knew that would take weeks—maybe months—to get her to gain enough weight. The amount of food it took for any werewolf to gain weight when we burned so many calories was a lot. And the more alpha the wolf, the more food you needed.
She was going to hate every second of it. She’d whine about how all that chewing was getting old.
I closed my eyes and pictured us in our house. I could almost see myself shoving food at her, and her yelling at me to leave her alone.
I would love every second of it. Every bit of bitching and moaning and whining.
Because hearing all of that would mean that she was free. That she was with me. That we could be at our house and have a life together again.
God. I wanted to take her home. So badly. I wanted to see her face when she saw how it turned out. I hoped she liked it.
No, I knew she’d love the house and everything inside it. From the look on her face when she saw this apartment, I knew I’d gotten at least that much right. It was even better than this place that was thrown together in a few hours.
There was a tap on my shoulder, and I opened my eyes to see Cosette standing in front of me.
“What is it?”
“I’ve been talking to Chris. I changed my mind. I want to go check something inside her apartment, but I can’t do that without your permission.”
“Why?”
“Going inside means breaking the seals—it’d be like setting off an alarm—but I can’t stop thinking…I need to know more about the magic on her. Something about it doesn’t make sense to me. There has to be a clue inside her apartment. Something that I can use to help you break this magic. Her apartment wouldn’t be warded if there wasn’t something in there.”
An alarm meant that we’d have to leave here, but that was fine by me. I wasn’t letting her out of my sight, and I couldn’t stay if the fey were watching her so closely. We were going to have to convince Tessa to leave here somehow.
“Go inside,” I said. “Find something to help her.”
“I need you to understand that once I go through that door, my sister will know we have her. She might come after us. I don’t know if it’d be immediate—if the seals would give an instant warning or if someone needs to check on them regularly. That my sister was here to see if we’d been inside makes me believe that it’s the latter. But if not, if the magic warns them, and we have to leave before Tessa is ready and there’s a backlash—”
No. I wasn’t letting Tessa out of my sight. Not after tonight. Not after she just spoke to me before she fell asleep. “The magic is weakening, right? And we all heard what she said. She’s there. I don’t need more than a day.”
“You need to be sure about that.”
It was a risk, and I got that. But everything was risk right now. “I am. Go find whatever clues you can find.”
“Good. I’ll be back.” She waved Chris over.
He patted my shoulder as he left with her.
The next few minutes were excruciating. I wanted to know what they found. Hell, I wanted to be there when they found it. But it was more important for me to stay where I was. I kept my fingers on the pulse point of her neck. The steady thump-thump soothed me. I breathed in time with her and waited for answers.
My cell phone buzzed, and I glanced at it. The text was from a number I didn’t recognize.
Cassie’s fey friend is in the elevator.
I quickly called Cosette. “Your sister is here,” I said as soon as she answered. I heard the elevator ding. “She’s getting off the elevator now.”
“I’ll handle it.” Cosette hung up.
I wanted to go and help, but I wasn’t leaving Tessa alone. Not when there were fey around. If Cosette’s sister didn’t come alone—
A few seconds later, Chris, Cosette, and another girl entered the apartment. She looked almost like Cosette—the same dark blonde hair, same height, same small nose, but her eyes were different. They were an eerie pale blue and filled with ice.
Cosette’s grasp on her sister’s arm was tight as she shoved her toward the loveseat. “Sit there and don’t get up.”
Cosette’s sister relaxed in the loveseat. “How cute, sister. It’s almost like you actually care about these werewolves. Mother told us not to get close to them. You know what they can do to our kind. Is the addiction already—”
“I’m not addicted to controlling them because I don’t act on it, Georgine.” Cosette sat on the pouf and stared at her sister. “But you’ve been with Tessa. What have you—”
“I’ve done nothing but watch her.” She looked at Tessa. “I don’t like her, but I didn’t hurt her.”
I didn’t like Georgine looking at my mate. I didn’t know what the fey girl could do by just looking at her.
I eased out from under Tessa and stood in front of her.
Chris came to stand next to me.
Georgine smiled at Chris, and it was like looking at a shark. There were too many teeth in her mouth.
“Georgine.” Cosette’s voice held a threat in it.
Georgine’s smile faded, thankfully, and she turned to her sister and shrugged. “You’re no fun anymore.” She flicked her hair over her shoulder. “I owed Mother a bargain, and I wanted out of that bloody court. I couldn’t take it there for one more day, so I watched your little werewolf friend. I went to classes, Cosette. Mortal school.”
“Oh, that must’ve been so hard for you.” Cosette laughed, and it was colder than her sister’s eyes. “If you wanted no part in our feud, why did you take the job?”
“Because I owed Mother a bargain. I had to do it, even if I didn’t want the boring job. I wasn’t allowed to contact you, or I might’ve just wanted to end my misery. But I was to watch Tessa until she either died or someone came for her. I was to alert her if either happened, which I have. But your timing is great. As usual.”
Cosette huffed. I’d been in battle with Cosette, I’d laughed with her, we’ve shopped together, but I’d never seen her with family.
It was almost like watching a soap opera.
A very dangerous, possibly deadly soap opera.
And even if I didn’t like Georgine, I wasn’t sure she was evil. At least not entirely. Especially since she wasn’t fighting us.
“And why is my timing great?”
“Van has caused a bit of trouble at court today. There’s a battle going on at court, and Mother is…occupied. And since I was the only one watching Tessa, you’ve time to fix what Mother has done.” She looked at me for a second.
I started to say something—what, I didn’t know—but Chris gripped my arm.
Georgine was a Lunar Court princess. Someone who could control wolves. Gaining her attention wasn’t wise.
“And I’m supposed to let you go?” Cosette asked, gaining Georgine’s attention again. “Because my timing is good?”
“I kept her alive, even when Mother’s magic would’ve smothered her wolf until it was dead.” Her words felt like a punch to my gut. “But I gave little bits of myself. I sacrificed for her. You owe me for that.”
She’d helped keep Tessa alive? I wasn’t sure how to feel about this fey.
Cosette’s sister stood from her perch on the loveseat.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Away, and you’re not going to stop me. You need to help that one there, and I want no part of it.” She motioned to Tessa. “When you go after Mother, you will either say nothing about me or tell her I’m dead. I honestly don’t care which.”
Cosette crossed her arms, and I wasn’t sure why she was agreeing to this. “And where will you go? How do I know you won’t act against me?”
“I won’t act against you as long as you don’t attack me. Said plainly and no lies hidden in my words. There’s war brewing among the fey, and I’m not like you. I was never Mother’s assassin. I’ll wait somewhere safe until this is over.”
Georgine got up and walked to the balcony door.
She was living, but she couldn’t lie. If she said that she wasn’t going to act against us, that she’d helped Tessa, then we had to let her go.
“Georgie?” Cosette stood. Her voice was softer, kinder. “You swear you didn’t hurt her.”
“No, Coco. I didn’t hurt her. I was sent here when the magic was already on her and only here to watch. I was bound to do that, but I didn’t hurt her. I couldn’t really help either.” She opened the balcony door. “See you in the next life, Cosette.” She stepped into the moonlight and was gone.
Cosette sat on the pouf again, but this time her face looked paler. I wasn’t sure what to make of that or what to make of her sister.
“Are you sure it’s okay to let your sister go?”
Cosette sighed, and then she turned to me. “Yes. I would’ve killed her if I thought she’d harm any of us, but that’s not Georgie’s way. She’s cold, oftentimes heartless, a straight-up bitch most of the time, and a narcissist all of the time…but that coldness in her was built over centuries of being with our mother. Under it all—buried very deep—is a softness. She doesn’t have the stomach to fight or even hurt someone. Not like our mother. Or even like me.”
“You’re not cold like that,” Chris said.
Cosette laughed and reached her hand out to Chris. “I’m glad you think that.” He took her hand, and they smiled at each other.
I wasn’t sure what to say, but I had more questions. “What did you find in her apartment?”
Cosette turned to me. “There are spells woven into every wall. Everything she touches in there reinforces the magic.” She pressed her lips together as if she were thinking hard about what she would say next.
I stayed quiet, waiting. Chris stood next to her. I could read him a little better, but his concern and worry didn’t give me answers.
“When she was first taken, I remember thinking about how much magic someone would need to hold her hostage and thinking it was too much. I just couldn’t wrap my head around what would need to be done, and that’s because I wasn’t thinking big enough.” She leaned forward over her knees. “And it is big. What’s in there is no joke. They’ve got spells on every inch of that place, reinforcing the magic hiding her, the memory loss, and making her more…docile, I guess, might be the right word. Making her accept what’s given to her—what she’s told to do and believe—and not push for more answers. It’s vile. I know my sister helped keep that going, even if she was also feeding her a little strength to keep her going. I’m not sure how Tessa’s survived this long.”
Chris sat down next to Cosette, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. “She survived because she’s strong.”
I sat next to Tessa, gently pulling her back onto my lap.
Cosette stared at Tessa. “She’s got these clear capsules in her medicine cabinet. I’m assuming those are the meds she mentioned. They’re herbal, but potions. I can’t tell what they do exactly, but I have to assume that they make her more vulnerable to the fey magic. It says on the bottle that she’s supposed to take them every two hours and then five more before bed. That’s a lot of spells she’s been ingesting every single day for a very long time.”
“Did your sister say anything about how to break the magic before you came in here?”
“No. Georgine’s powers are less and weaker than mine. There’s no way she could break it if I can’t either. Eli said no one but you could do it, but this is actually good news.”
I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or scream. “Why? How is any of this good?”
“My sister is gone. She’s the only one that’s been keeping an eye on Tessa. My mother is occupied. Which means we have time for her to fall in love with you again. And look at her.” Cosette pointed to Tessa asleep in my arms. “She’s here, already drawn to you. When I gripped her hand tonight, I could feel her fighting against my mother’s hold. With both you together again, that magic doesn’t stand a chance.”
I looked down at Tessa. “I almost gave up.”
“I know.” Chris squeezed my knee. “I know how bad it got with you, but you didn’t give up.”
I looked up at him. He was wrong. He was so fucking wrong. “She’s been fighting this whole time—so much that they have to shove the magic down her throat every two hours and press it into the walls where she lives—and she’s still here. She’s still fighting. And I almost gave up?” I’d never hated myself for that weak moment, but in that moment, I did. I hated how weak I’d been. “Tessa said she was running away to a mountain. She was afraid someone would die if she didn’t get there. That was me. Even under all that magic, she was still trying to save me.” I wasn’t worthy of her.
“This has been incredibly hard. I can’t imagine what you’ve gone through. If something happened to Cosette—”
“I saw Chris’s body.” Cosette’s voice was flat, and her words were too fast. As if she spit them out.
My gaze darted to hers. “What?”
“Chris was dead. Stabbed in the heart. I held him while he died. The blood was hot and everywhere and I was screaming and….” Cosette looked away and brushed away a tear. “I lay in my bed after. I couldn’t move.” More tears fell, but she didn’t brush them away this time. “I couldn’t talk to anyone. There was nothing to say. I hid in my room, in my bed, and I didn’t want to live anymore. Van tried to convince me to keep going, but I was fading and fading fast and I…” She turned to Chris, and he brushed her tears away with his thumbs. “I still have nightmares where he’s bleeding on the ground. Cold and lifeless. It haunts me. I’ve never felt that kind of pain before and—” Her voice broke.
Chris pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’m okay. You have to let it go.”
She pulled away from him. “I can’t. I’ve been alive for a long time and gone through a lot, but losing you nearly killed me. It would’ve killed me if my father hadn’t fixed it.”
Chris pressed his forehead against hers. “Cosette. Please.”
“No.” She pushed him away. “This isn’t about us.” She looked at me again. “You survived much longer and did much better than I did. But this will haunt you forever—her being gone will haunt you—if you let it. I didn’t know you before you met her, but I know who you were with Tessa. She’s your other half, just as Chris is mine. And whatever happened for the last twenty-one months, you did what you had to do to survive, even if it was just barely. You don’t get to beat yourself up over that.”
She was wrong. I could and I would, especially when I knew the truth. “I never should’ve had her in the first place.”
Cosette’s mouth dropped open for a second, but then she covered up her shock. “Why do you think that?”
“I bit her.” I ran my fingers over her shoulder, over where I knew the scar from my claws were. I ran my finger over her lip that I’d bitten. “I took away her choice. I—”
“But you’re starting from scratch now.” Chris sounded so matter-of-fact that I wanted to hit him. He was annoying when he was arguing with me. “Her memory is gone, and she doesn’t remember you at all. And yet she decided to come over and hang out with you after talking to you once—“
“Twice,” I corrected.
Chris huffed. “Fine. After talking to you twice, she decided to come over for dinner, decided to stay, flirted with you, told you her whole backstory, and felt so comfortable with you that she’s currently asleep on you.”
Chris had a point. “But part of her must remember because—”
“No.” Chris cut me off. “Look at her. She has no memory of you, but her soul recognizes yours. You’re True Mates. Two halves. The same thing happened before. I know what I said before—about how I didn’t think you deserved her—but I wouldn’t have said that if I knew you’d felt the same way. And part of me knew because…”
“Because?”
“God. It feels like forever ago. After she jumped out the window, I went to talk to Mr. Dawson. I wanted to make sure Tessa was being taken care of. I wasn’t bitten, but I knew how werewolves would treat her as less than.”
I couldn’t stop the growl. I didn’t want to stop it.
Chris laughed at the sound. “Yeah. I agree. And I heard what you told Mr. Dawson. She left that party and saw you. She came to you. She sat on your lap, after only seeing you a couple of times. After she only talked to you once before. She’d never touched anyone before, and she decided to make out with you? She chose that. She might not have known what she was getting into, but she picked you. She was drawn to you just as you were drawn to her. Nothing could’ve stopped what happened next.”
Now it was my turn to be shocked. “I didn’t know you knew. I…” No one except me, Tessa, Mr. Dawson, and the former Seven knew exactly what happened the night I bit Tessa. At least, that’s what I’d thought.
“Tessa loves you,” Chris said plainly. “So stop thinking about whether you deserve her or not. If you really feel like you don’t, then spend the rest of your days proving yourself wrong. Be worthy. Be better. But enough of the pity party. We don’t need it. Especially not now.”
I moved my hand back to her pulse point. Her pulse was slow but still steady.
Chris was right about something. I would make myself worthy of her. “Okay. So what’s the game plan? I can’t let her go back in there, and I definitely can’t let her take any more of the potion. And we need to be gone before anyone comes to check on her.”
“We’re all going to sleep here,” Chris said. “We take the bed, and you’re going to stay on the couch with her. It’ll be pushing it if you’re in the bed, and I doubt you’re going to let her out of your sight.”
“You have that right.” I looked down at her. “And then?”
“What was that bullshit about Above & Beyond?” Chris asked.
I laughed because I knew Chris was going to hate going to the club. “It’s not bullshit. Axel told me about it earlier. The part about having tickets was bullshit, but—”
“We don’t need tickets.” Cosette looked insulted. “I can get us in anywhere.”
“No, babe. We’ll get tickets.” Chris nudged her. “That’s what normal humans do. We’re doing things normally for the girl who thinks she’s human.”
I wasn’t getting in between Chris and Cosette if they were going to argue about it, but I agreed with Chris. “What if your sister—or your mother—comes back before we leave?”
Cosette shrugged one shoulder as if it wasn’t a big deal at all. “Then, we’ll leave.”
“What if Tessa wants to go get her stuff?”
“Flash the dimples,” Chris said. “Tell her to take a shower here and that I’ll go get her stuff.”
“Why does everyone think my dimples will solve everything with her?”
Cosette grinned at me, and suddenly I felt like a piece of meat. “Well, they certainly don’t hurt.”
Chris nudged Cosette again. “Babe. You’re making him uncomfortable.”
She wasn’t. Not really.
Tessa’s pulse seemed to stutter for a second, and I stopped breathing.
“What?” Chris asked.
Her pulse came back, and I could breathe again. “I must be losing it. Her pulse seemed to stutter, but it’s fine. It evened out. She must’ve been dreaming or something.”
Chris and Cosette shared a long look, and then they turned back to me. Chris stood up suddenly.
Now it was my turn to worry. “What?”
“Look at her,” Cosette said. “Move your hand so you’re not skin-to-skin, and then really.”
I moved my hand, and it was like the fake, blonde Cassie was semitransparent. “How did that happen?”
Cosette shook her head slowly. “I’ve seen a lot of magic, but nothing like what my mother used to pull this off. It’s the mix of magics. If Tessa’s trying to fight them, I don’t…”
I put my finger back on Tessa’s neck, feeling for her pulse. It was there and steady again, but my gut was churning, telling me that something bad was about to happen. “Something’s wrong. I don’t know anything about magic, but something’s not right with her.” I didn’t usually hold her pulse point. Not even when her soul was trapped in a Hell dimension with Astaroth over two years ago, and I only had her body to hold on to.
I closed my eyes and heard my wolf growling at me to do something before it was too late.
I opened my eyes, and I didn’t need a mirror to know what color they were. “Something’s very wrong.”
Cosette shook her head. “If there is, I don’t know what it is, let alone how to fix it.”
“Do you think Samantha would come over?” Chris asked. “She seemed to understand —”
“I’ll text her,” I said.
Not even thirty seconds later, the answer came. “She said yes, but she wants to get repaid for the Uber over. She’s short on funds. I’m sending her money now.”
“She can’t pay for an Uber?” Chris asked.
“No.” I didn’t realize how bad off she was, but that was something I could help with.
“How much can that cost?” Chris asked.
“Apparently, just shy of twenty bucks.”
“How much are you sending her?” Cosette asked.
“The reward I set up for anyone who found Tessa.” Also known as a lot of money. I’d been desperate, and I had my inheritance. Which was sizable.
The phone rang, and I picked it up.
“There were way too many zeros in that transfer. I’ll take out what my Uber is and send you back—”
“No.”
She was quiet. “What? I don’t understand. I told you I only needed $19.47. That’s the round trip fare. I checked the pricing from the address you sent. Why would you—”
“Want me to send more?” Because I was happy to send her the $19.47 in addition to what I’d already sent.
“No. Damn it. I don’t need your money or your handout. I told you. Money’s tight. I don’t have a car. If you’re in a rush, then the bus is out. I need to be repaid for the Uber. That’s it. I’ll send the rest back—”
“Don’t.” I cut her off. This wasn’t something that I was arguing about. “It’s not a handout. That was the reward I set up for finding Tessa. You found her. You earned it. I’m sorry I didn’t pay you when you first called me. I just didn’t think about it until…I just didn’t think about it.”
She was quiet for a while. “I didn’t do it for a reward.”
“I know.” I knew she hadn’t been expecting anything but the twenty bucks.
“But I didn’t do anything to find her. Eli set the whole thing up.”
“I’m aware, but I’m not sending him money. He doesn’t need it. You do. So, take it. He probably wants you to have it.”
She was quiet again. “You might have just changed my life.”
“You saved mine when you found her.” It wasn’t a lie. “Are you coming?”
“Yeah.” She sounded a little dazed for a second. “Uber just pulled up.” Her voice was stronger now. “Be there in ten.”
“Don’t use the buzzer. I’m sending Chris to wait for you. She’s asleep in my lap, and I don’t want to wake her up. I just need you to look at her. Something’s happening with the spell that’s on her. It’s probably a good sign, but something feels off.”
“Okay. Don’t panic. If I can’t figure it out, I’m sure Claudia will know something.”
“We’ll keep her in the loop. See you soon.” I hung up and looked at Cosette.
“I’m texting Claudia now. I don’t want to call Van if I don’t have to. Georgine said he was…busy at court. But I will if we need him.”
Cosette texted back and forth with Claudia, Chris paced for five minutes before leaving, and I sat there holding on to Tessa.
I tried not to get too excited or scared. I didn’t know why the spell to hide Tessa was thinning, but I was pretty sure that my being around her was helping. Assuming that the spell thinning was a good thing.
Also, the food probably helped her. She ate a lot, and her color was better. So, that had to mean all of this was good.
It sounded like Tessa might not have done much other than school. Which meant she must’ve spent a lot of time in the apartment. Being out of that apartment had to be helping, too.
And hopefully, she hadn’t taken those pills since she got home from the hospital. Even if she had, she’d been at my apartment for a few hours before she fell asleep. Which meant her next dose was late. And the five she was supposed to take tonight weren’t happening.
I stared at Cosette, and she stopped texting for a second to look at me.
“Are you still texting Claudia?” I asked.
“No. Everyone. I stupidly texted the whole group. I thought if I was texting Claudia, I might as well let everyone know.” Her phone buzzed, and she let out a frustrated sigh. “And now Axel’s texting. He wants to come tonight. I’m trying to tell him that his wolf can’t handle it, but he’s not taking no.”
“Tell him to come.”
“Really?” She said it as if I’d suggested something crazy. “I thought his control wasn’t good enough, and after your performance at dinner, your control isn’t good enough for your own wolf. You can’t help him.”
“But you could. You’re Lunar Court. You can control his wolf.”
“I could.” She sat on the pouf and shrugged like controlling someone’s wolf was no big deal. “You’re right. But I don’t enjoy using my will like that. It…it can be addictive.”
Well, that was good to know. “That’s why you let me break the plate.”
“Two plates. Yes. I don’t want to turn into my mother. It’s one of my fears. So, I don’t want to even be tempted with…” She glanced down at Tessa. “She learned French for you.”
I looked down at my mate. “She did.”
“How did that make you feel?”
“What are you? My therapist.” I was teasing her, and she’d changed the subject. Abruptly. But I got that she didn’t want to talk about her mother. At least not right now.
“No. Just curious.”
“I guess I was shocked at first, and then a little sad for a fraction of a second. I wanted to be the one to teach her and that someone could steal that from me…” I sighed, letting that anger go again. “And then I heard her explanation, and I was happy. Because it meant that she was still thinking of me even when the best tried to fight against us.”
Her heartbeat was still steady, but something was off about this. I couldn’t stop thinking that we should be doing something. “She never sleeps like this. She moves a lot in her sleep, and she would never be able to sleep with us talking.”
“It’s a healing sleep. At least, I think that’s what it is. I think she’s taking power from you. I’m not sure, but…”
If that’s all this was, then I’d be happy about that. “She can take whatever she needs from me. I don’t mind.”
“I didn’t think you would.”
The door opened, and Chris walked in, followed by a tip-toeing Samantha.
“Hey,” she whispered. She glanced down at Tessa, and her eyes went wide. “Whoa.”
“What do you see? Is our bond there? Can you see if the—”
Samantha held up a hand. “Shut up. Just give me a second.”
Cosette scooted over as Samantha knelt in the small space between the pouf and the couch. Samantha held her hands a couple of inches above Tessa’s body. She ran them from her head to her toes and back up. After a minute, she sat back on her heels, dropping her hands into her lap.
“What? Just tell me.”
Samantha was slowly shaking her head as if she didn’t like what she was going to say. “I didn’t see it when I bumped into her on the street. It was so quick, and she was freaking out and—”
“She’s dying.” The words were out of my mouth before I even knew I was going to say them.
“What?” Cosette’s question was half-screamed. “What do you mean? I thought it was a healing—”
“No. This isn’t a healing sleep.” Samantha kept her gaze on mine. “This is so much worse.”
I shoved down the fear and the anger and everything else until all I felt was a calm, cool well of power. “What do I do?”
“Break the spell.”
Great. I’d be happy to. But that was the question that we’d been struggling with ever since she’d been taken. “How?”
“I don’t know.” Samantha tapped her fingers on her leg for a second and then whistled. The sound was so loud that it felt like it went through my soul. She shook her head as if whatever she’d been trying hadn’t worked. “Have you tried kissing her?”
“She’s asleep, and she doesn’t remember me.” I wanted her to want to kiss me or at least be conscious for it. “No, I haven’t tried—”
“She’s not asleep. She’s dying. Fix it,” Samantha said. “Kiss her.”
Fuck it. I was supposed to kiss her, so I’d kiss her. I’d done it countless times before.
Cosette and Samantha moved to the far side of the pouf to watch with Chris. I didn’t want to do this with an audience, but I was doing it. I needed Tessa to live.
I slid out from under Tessa and pressed my lips to hers, but she didn’t wake up.
I stood and turned to Cosette. “Who do I need to kill to break the spell?”
“You can’t kill my mother.” Cosette crossed her arms. “You’d die.”
My knuckles started popping, and I felt the shift start. “I can try.” My voice was more growl than not.
“You’d die!” Cosette kept yelling at me, but I didn’t care. Either she would take me to her mother, or I would find someone else who would. Meredith was living next door to the entrance to the Lunar Court’s underhill. I could figure it out.
“There were thirteen of you,” Samantha said, but she was talking so softly that I could barely hear her under all the yelling.
“What?” I turned to Samantha, trying to shove the wolf back down so that I could talk to her.
“In the spell that linked you all together. Thirteen. Right?”
I shook my head, not because she was wrong but because we’d been over this. “We tried a spell—multiple spells—all together before. It didn’t work.”
“But you didn’t have her. Now you do. You have to do something now. Tonight. The kiss didn’t work. So, try one of the spells again, but with her.”
“Van!” Cosette yelled.
Van appeared. “We’ve been over this. I’m not a taxi, Coco.” His sword was in his hand. Blood dripped down its blade. “I told you not to call me again unless it was an absolute emergency and—”
“She’s dying,” I said.
The sword vanished from Van’s hand. “What? That can’t be right.”
“We need everyone in Texas.” I picked up Tessa’s limp body and focused on the sound of her breath going in and coming out. In and out. She was alive. I had her. I would fix this. “Now. Please.”
Van gave me a slow nod. He knew—he understood everything that was on the line right now. “Everyone hold on to me.”
“Wait,” Samantha said. “I can’t—”
“Everyone.” Van’s command was sharper than his sword and left zero room for argument.
We each grabbed onto a bit of his arm. Instantly, the world toppled and turned, but I held onto Tessa.
The three times that I’d traveled with Van, I thought I’d die. But this time, I didn’t feel a thing.
We appeared in Texas in front of our house. Mine and Tessa’s. The one she hadn’t seen before.
“I’ll be back,” Van said, and he disappeared.
He came back a few minutes later with Shane, River, Elowen, and Kyra from the Sanctuary. Then, Beth and Blaze. Then Lucas and Claudia.
Somewhere among all of it, Axel came out of the house and knelt beside us. If he had questions, he didn’t ask them. We were too busy trying to save Tessa’s life to explain, and I didn’t have any words.
Claudia threw her bag on the ground beside us and started digging out supplies. The other witches joined her—including Samantha—quickly prepping for a spell. The fey huddled together, discussing magic. And there were werewolves just standing around.
I sat on the ground, cradling Tessa to me. She was breathing. Her heart was beating. It didn’t feel like she was dying. It didn’t feel real that this could be happening now. But Samantha wouldn’t lie about this.
Something that we’d done had set this off. Maybe even being around her had done it. Or maybe it was always going to end like this.
But if she died tonight, I would follow her. I wouldn’t have time for thought or regret or revenge.
I was her True Mate. I didn’t doubt that anymore. I didn’t wonder if I deserved her because that didn’t matter anymore.
Once bonded, when one passed from this realm, the other followed.
There was some comfort in that.
At least we’d always be together. In this realm or the next.