Page 41 of Whisker me Away
"That's suicide," Rufus protested. "If you don't know what you're sacrificing..."
"Then I'll figure it out when the time comes." Freya's voice carried the kind of finality that ended arguments. "Because the alternative is watching everyone I care about fall victim to something I might be able to stop."
She made it as far as her cottage's front porch before the weight of everything finally broke her. The responsibility, the guilt over Rowan, the terror of facing an ancient evil with incomplete knowledge, all of it crashed over her at once.
Kieran found her there twenty minutes later, sitting on her steps with tears streaming down her face and her magic sparking erratically around her hands.
"Hey," he said softly, settling beside her without hesitation. "Talk to me."
"I can't do this," she whispered. "Everyone's depending on me to save them, but I don't know how. The texts are vague, the ritual is dangerous, and every choice I make seems to hurt someone I care about."
"Then we'll figure it out together." Kieran's arms came around her, pulling her against his chest where she could hear his steady heartbeat. "You don't have to carry this alone."
"What if I attempt the ritual and fail, and everyone dies because I wasn't good enough to protect them?"
"You are good enough." His voice was fierce with conviction. "You're the strongest person I know, Freya. But strength doesn't mean facing impossible odds alone."
"Your tiger chose well when it recognized me as your mate?"
"My tiger chose perfectly." Kieran's lips pressed against her hair. "But if we're being honest about fears, I'm terrified too."
The admission surprised her. "Of what?"
"Of not being strong enough to protect you. Of losing you to this ancient evil or to the ritual itself." His arms tightened around her. "Of finally finding my mate only to watch her sacrifice herself for others."
The vulnerability in his voice made fresh tears spill down her cheeks. She could feel his fear for her safety, his desperate need to keep her alive, his helplessness in the face of magic he didn't understand.
"We're quite a pair," she said with watery laughter. "Both terrified of failing the other."
"Maybe that's what makes us perfect for each other." Kieran tilted her chin up so she could see the gold and green flecks in hisamber eyes. "We know what we have to lose, so we'll fight twice as hard to protect it."
The mate bond pulsed between them with renewed strength, and Freya felt some of her panic ease. Tomorrow night would bring answers, for better or worse. But at least she wouldn't face them alone.
22
KIERAN
Kieran's phone rang at three in the afternoon with the kind of urgency that made his tiger surge to immediate alertness. Edgar Tansley's voice crackled through the speaker, tight with panic and barely controlled fear.
"The water treatment plant," Edgar said without preamble. "The corruption's reached the main intake pipes. We've got maybe six hours before it's in the municipal supply."
"How bad?" Kieran was already moving, grabbing his jacket and keys while his mind raced through evacuation protocols.
"Bad enough that Twyla's already closing the café and telling people to switch to bottled water. If this gets into the drinking supply..."
"I'm on my way." Kieran ended the call and turned to find Freya watching him with growing alarm. "The corruption's reached the water supply. We need to evacuate anyone without private wells or magical purification systems."
"That's half the town." Freya's voice carried the same protective urgency that was driving his tiger to pace. "How long do we have?"
"Hours, not days." He caught her hands, noting how her magic fluttered with anxiety. "I need you to stay here while I coordinate the evacuations. Help people pack emergency supplies, provide healing potions for anyone showing signs of exposure."
"I can do more than play support." Her green-gold eyes flashed with determination. "I can help with the evacuations, use my magic to purify water temporarily..."
"No." The word came out with enough alpha authority to make her magic recoil. "You're the primary target, Freya. The corruption hunts you specifically. I'm not risking your safety when we're this close to attempting the binding ritual."
"You can't just order me around because we're mates now."
"Watch me." Kieran's tiger prowled closer to the surface, instincts warring with logic. Every protective mechanism he possessed screamed at him to grab Freya and run, to get her as far from Hollow Oak as possible before the Thornweaver claimed her. "This thing wants you dead. It's escalated from targeting plants to people to the water supply because it knows you're close to stopping it. I won't give it another chance to strike."
