Page 61 of Curses and Casualties
I shake my head. “We can’t risk it. We’ll be short on time, anyway. The more prepared we are before we get in there, the better.”
“OK.” Georgia’s hand finds mine. “You go call your brother. We’ll be right here.”
I nod and move to the edge of the clearing, pulling out a phone that feels foreign in my hands. We’ve been on the run from the Elders for several weeks. But so much has happened in that time that it feels like years. When I key in my twin’s number and hold the cell to my ear, each ring stretches like an eternity until?—
“Hello?”
My breath catches in my chest and my eyes fall closed. “Owen.”
“Ryan?” My brother’s voice cracks on my name. “Thank god. Are you OK?”
“We’re safe,” I assure him quickly. “All of us.”
“You can’t come back here.” His voice lowers to an almost whisper. “Something happened in the last couple of days. The Alpha has lost all reason. Three wolves are dead for ‘letting the traitors escape.’ He’s got wolves all over the mountain. The pack is scared. Hell, I’m scared. Honey said there’s talk of wolf sightings all through Whisper Valley. If things don’t calm down soon this is going to get really out of hand, really fast.”
“Shit,” I mutter. “Scarlett had his mark removed, so she’s free of his control. I’d say that’s what set him off. Well, that on top of the fact the supermoon is tomorrow night, and his enforcers still haven’t put us down.”
I hear a pop and a squeal behind me—Scarlett’s laughter, wild and breathy, like wind through broken glass. Kane cocks his head, wolf-curious. I glance back and catch Georgia’s grin as she twists a stalk of pine between her claws, eyes bright while the others watch on in delight.
“Owen, listen,” I say into the phone. “Tomorrow night, Georgia and I are going to the Soulcave. We’ll be there at moonrise.”
“No. The Elders set a watch on it, Ryan. I’m not letting you walk into a goddamn trap.”
“We don’t have a choice,” I say. “Whatever happens to us, happens. But if we can finish the bond?—”
“You think that’s going to change anything?” Owen snaps, all traces of the polished academic gone to ground. “The Council will kill you before they let that happen.”
“Maybe,” I admit. I want to tell him more, to unload all the secrets I clawed from the last few weeks of near-death and running. But I can’t put that on him. Not yet. “We need the heartstone fragments, Owen. The ones you cleaned out of Georgia’s leg. I don’t trust anyone else to bring them.”
He’s silent for a long moment. I hear only breathing, and the faint clatter of what I’m guessing is him going through a drawer or something. Then he lets out a heavy breath. “I’ve got them. Where are you?”
“North Ridge. The old trailhead near Echo Point. We’re shrouded, so it’ll seem empty. But if you keep driving to the campground, I’ll find you.”
“I can get there in an hour,” Owen says, the old confidence flickering behind the exhaustion in his voice. “I’ll bring the fragments. Do you need anything else?”
A well of emotion springs behind my eyes. “No, that’s it. Just bring yourself. Please.” I want to tell him I love him, to say thank you for everything, for keeping our secret, for keeping me alive long enough to have this chance. But instead, I say, “I need you to promise something, Owen. Once you meet us at the ridge, you and Honey need to get off pack lands. Take her and go stay on the human side of the valley until this is done. No heroics, no watching the show. No standing by in case you’re needed. Just go. Please. I don’t want to think about you and her in the crossfire when the shit really hits.”
My twin is silent for a moment, but the way his breathing stutters tells me he gets it—how real this is, how there might not be a next time. “I promise. We’ll stick to the safe zone until you say otherwise. But if you die, I’ll find you and bring you back just to slap you.”
I almost smile, that old brother’s ribbing a comfort even now. “Fair deal. See you soon.” I hang up, my hand shaking a little as I tuck the phone away.
When I return to the others, they’ve already started setting up camp. Georgia looks up from the fire she’s coaxing to life, reading my expression instantly.
“Good news?”
“Owen’s coming. He has the heartstone fragments.”
Her face lights up even as Scarlett curses. “That’s incredible! But also terrifying. If they catch him?—”
“They won’t.” I inject more confidence than I feel into the words.
“Of course they won’t,” Ethan mutters. “They’ll follow him.”
The truth of it sits heavy between us. But before I can respond, a shimmer of light erupts near the fire ring. Ethan jumps back with a curse while Scarlett drops into a fighting crouch. But I recognize the magical signature—honey and herbs with an edge of steel.
Amara steps through her portal like a general arriving at a battlefield. She’s not alone.
“Cutting it close, aren’t we?” she says, her usual ethereal calm sharpened to something harder. “Less than twenty-four hours to the supermoon and we’re just now gathering?”
