68. Anna

68

Anna

"We are not sacrificing anyone," I snapped. I still couldn't believe what I was hearing. Evalina was related to me? "You're not…you're…how?"

"Katherine was my niece," she said, never taking her eyes off Jax. He'd gone predatorily still. "When I began Darkwyn Coven, I brought my younger sister, Dessandra, with me. She was the original Mother and already pregnant with Katherine. Our younger cousin was the original Maiden. When Katherine was ten, she desperately wanted to go out and see the world, so Dessandra began taking her out more and more. Then another witch killed her and kidnapped Katherine. I felt my sister's death, but it was two months before I could rescue my niece. The other witch was a seer, and it was the second time someone told me of my death. It was also when Katherine began to doubt her magic. The seer had told her the kind of child her womb would bring. When her wolf came along, she was more than ready to give up magic all together, and he was the perfect solution. After all, children born of wolves and witches were almost always wolves."

Evalina was my great-aunt. My heart hurt. She'd protected me, even if her first instinct was to kill me. Now she was teaching me.

And apparently planning to die for me.

"Make it quick, wolf. I do not have all day," Evalina snapped.

"Jax." I stepped between them. "This is madness." If we sacrificed her, we were no better than Maeve killing her daughter. Surely he could see that.

His gaze fell to my belly, and his expression grew unreadable. "I have dead wolves to attend to, and a pack that I need to put back together. Stay here, Anna."

As he walked out, I tried not to take offense to his words. A pack he had to put back together. He didn't need my involvement.

Was he finally starting to see that I was the reason for all of his pain?

As I turned around, he returned in the blink of an eye and wrapped his arms around me. "I will protect you at all costs," he said softly as he kissed the top of my head. "But we will try to come up with another way."

Then, he was gone.

Evalina sighed and sat on the bed next to Lunessa. "When I was your age, packs had laws against mating with witches. It happened a little more in the rogue communities, but the thought of an alpha taking a witch was preposterous. When we learned of the mating bond, witches were up in arms. Wolves had magic. A magic that we, weavers of magic, could not possess. Most claimed the mating bond wasn't real. I'd thought the same, even when Katherine ran off with her wolf. I see it is truth in Jax."

I continued to stare at her. "You were my family, and you still sent me back to my father."

"Jax was your only chance of survival." She looked at me sadly. "I know it is hard for you to understand, but I ultimately chose you over the lives of everyone on this mountain, Anna. I believed that if you found your mate, you could defeat the evil."

"What if you were wrong?"

"Then at least you will have known love." She gave me a sad smile. "And I was here to see it."

"I used to lie in the dirt, caked in the blood of others, desperately wishing that I had a different family, that there was someone left who would rescue me. I'd hold my hand over the mouths of dying women, saving them from my father's torment, and wondered if there was an aunt or cousin or grandmother looking for me," I said coldly. "And maybe if you'd rescued me, I never would have met Jax, but maybe I would have, in a way that wasn't so fucking traumatizing that it took three years of us being mates before we could even touch each other. You listen only to your magic and never to your heart. A lot of people are different because of that."

She didn't say anything, and I stormed out. I didn't even care that Jax wanted me to stay. All I could think about was getting away from the woman who'd left me to rot because a vision had told her to do so.

I made my way down to the cages. While it wasn't initially meant to be a prison, it certainly felt like one. Light filtered in from only the top of the windows, and buzzing old light fixtures hung from the ceiling. It was cold and dank and entirely unpleasant. Ignoring the captured rogue wolves in the first cage, I sat cross-legged in front of the last one.

Finn.

He was awake, sitting on the floor like me with his back to the cage. His eyes were closed, but I knew he was awake because of the way his hands were fisted at his knees.

"It wasn't your fault," I told him quietly.

He didn't look at me. "Wasn't it? I knew something felt off. Like I was losing time. And when I'd heard what happened to Irene, a small part of me wondered if it was also happening to me. I didn't say anything. Can you feel her bond?"

Lucy. I swallowed hard. "I can, but barely. I think it's distance more than anything else. Maeve is probably going to keep her alive to lure me to her. We still have a chance to rescue her."

Finn's eyes finally opened, and I saw the grief and pain embedded in them. "Jax would never let you, and for the record, neither would I. Your safety is above all else, Anna. Lucy's death will be on my shoulders. Not yours."

He was wrong there. Every death that Maeve caused, that my father had caused, that Emerson had caused: it would always rest on my shoulders. I would take Lucy's burden as well.

"I can't even be trusted to fight anymore." He rattled the chains attached to his arms. "You should have left me in the woods."

I'd done exactly to Finn as I'd wished Evalina had done to me. Rescued him. Given him a family. And he was haunted by horrors that may never have happened if I'd just left him alone.

"I don't think it would have mattered, Finn. Somehow, destiny always seems to find a way. You were probably always going to fight in this battle, no matter what choice we made. If Maeve had gotten to you first, maybe you'd be fighting with her, and we'd be losing. All I know is that I'm glad you're with us. I'm glad you've met your mate. She'll give you a reason to keep fighting."

Baring his teeth, Finn snarled. "Amelia deserves better than me, and I won't let her get caught up in this. If I do get out of here, I don't think I'm going to survive this fight, Anna, and it would be better for Amelia to be as distant as possible when it happens. Better for her to survive and find happiness."

Slowly, I rose to my feet. "You're not going to die. I'm not going to let it happen. And you will be by our side again. The witches are close to finding a way to block Maeve from using Irene, and we'll use it for you as well. You're getting your happily ever after, Finn. You're my friend, and I don't have many of those. I don't intend to lose anyone else."

Finn seemed nothing more than a shadow of himself as he closed his eyes. The sweet and flirty boy was gone. Maeve wanted her daughter's heart, but she'd ripped out Finn's in the process.

I was done playing the game her way. It was time to take the fight to her.