Page 25 of Lycan Witch

Yeah, her biggest weakness,my wolf scoffs.How do you expect to fight together if you’re always worried about keeping the other safe?

I try to ignore him, but the truth remains the same—if we were attacked, I’d lay my life down to save her. But can either of us survive if we sacrifice ourselves to save the other?

My phone buzzes on the counter, and I snatch it off, seeing a text from Frank about the bar. Quickly, I type a text back.

Put a rotation on Adara’s house. I want to know everything that happens there. If the ashes of the home blow in the wind, I want to know what time and in what direction. Understand?

Got it, boss. I’ll send the first team now.

Setting my phone down on the counter with a sigh, Adara heads upstairs without a word, and I hear the shower turn on a moment later. I hang my head, running a hand through my hair. That evil bitch, Monique, is up to something, and I’m going to find out what it is.

Chapter eleven

Adara

After turning on the water, I leave the door open and walk back into the bedroom to sit down on the bed, but a pile of ash stares back at me. I blink back the tears threatening to escape, annoyed at myself for how much crying I’ve done lately. Sighing, I lean back against the dresser, waiting for the steam from the water to prove the shower is ready.

The early afternoon sun shines through the window, reflecting off Kaylus’s feathers as he swoops inside. He glides to the nightstand table, settling himself into his nest that’s still standing despite the proximity to last night’s fire.

A soft buzzing comes from behind me, and I turn to grab the silver communicator, a new message blinking across its small screen.

I can be there in twenty,Chloe texts.

Groaning, I pick up the device and send her a text.Don’t bother. It’s fine.

Are you sure? I have news.

Dread curls in my gut.What news?

The communicator is silent until Chloe’s text comes through, and my stomach drops.Monique is gone. She shut the whole office down for a month-long vacation.

Monique never takes vacations. She doesn’t believe in respite, relaxing, or doing anything other than being productive and making money. Unless she’s taking time off to dive more into the hunt… for me.

Chloe sends another text.Jules is doing great, though. Her magic is growing, but she already has an amazing handle on it.

I smile at the message, glad that something is going right at least.Are they still hunting?

Steam starts to flow out of the bathroom’s open door, and by the time Chloe’s next message comes in, the bathroom mirror is completely fogged.Yes. Be careful.

With the office closed, Chloe won’t have access to Monique or other coven news unless they notify her directly, which is rare since she isn’t close to being a priestess, lower ranked as only a maiden.

Within our coven, under the high priestesses would be priestesses, the huntresses, then maidens. Chloe and I are only maidens, not having the amount of power required to reach a huntress level. My stomach twists, knowing it’s a team of huntresses coming after me, the ones responsible for hunting down the lycans.

“Are you going to shower or stand there and stink all day?”Kaylus asks, tilting his head at me.

I roll my eyes, tossing the communicator onto the dresser and closing the bathroom door behind me.

Hot water trickles down my back as I step under the spray, and I tip my head back, soaking my hair and letting the water wash away last night’s soot. The nightmare clings to my mind like a film, making me feel anxious and itchy, suffocated. I scrub until my skin is raw, as if that’ll somehow cleanse me of the image of Monique standing over Gideon’s dying body as she hunts for me.

Guilt rips through me as my mind wanders to after that nightmare—after the fire consumed the bed. Gideon’s arm wrapped around me brought me the best sleep I’ve ever had. The warmth of his body pressed to my back and the weight of his arm over me pulled me under a deep sleep, and I woke up feeling rested and renewed. Disappointment had crashed over me when I opened my eyes to find myself alone in his bed, but guilt followed soon after, wishing I didn’t have to choose between who I am as a witch and a sister and what I want as Gideon’s mate.

My wolf has been quiet since the fire last night, and I’m grateful. I don’t know if I can handle hearing her talk about how we should just accept our mate bond and our powers when she obviously doesn’t have control over my witch magic.

Because the only way to make this right is to get rid of one—my wolf or my magic.

The rest of the dream comes back to me in a rush, and I remember now that I walked the path, that I got farther than I ever had in the midst of Lockwood Forest. I got close to the well and the witch who guards it—somehow in my sleep.

Does that mean I could find the same path if I searched the woods again?

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