70. Anna

70

Anna

The sun was setting when I met Lunessa, Evalina, Irene, Finn, and the remaining sisters in one of the open fields. Except for Lunessa and Evalina, everybody eyed the others with suspicion.

Well, also except for Finn. He just stared at a blank space, his hands in balled fists by his side.

"Shouldn't he be in chains?" Raven asked in a whisper. Nobody wanted to stand near him.

"If I put him in chains, then I put all of you in chains. Maeve has the power to take over any of you," I pointed out woodenly. "We're here to stop that."

"I've never had magic done on me before. Is it going to hurt?"

"No, it won't hurt," Lunessa said with a gentle smile. "We do not have the power to keep Maeve from spelling your blood, but we can weave a two-part spell that will redirect it. The first part of the spell is to simply identify when magic enters your body. Once that spell is activated, it will trigger a second spell to deflect. The only bad news is that it has to be administered every twelve hours. The stronger the magic, the faster it will burnout."

Tears filled Raven's eyes. "She has what she wants. She doesn't need us anymore. Can't we just leave?"

She had a point. If we let the rest of the sisters go, then we wouldn't have to expend any more magic, and we wouldn't have to keep an eye on them.

"It won't matter where we run," one of the sisters said darkly. "If we're on this mountain, we'll be swept up in the spell. I'd rather stay and fight. She needs to be handled."

I watched Finn for any signs of emotion, but he didn't even blink. Lunessa looked at me, and I nodded. "If you want to leave, we won't stop you. It's true that the chances that your mother will capture you and carve out your heart are minimal now, but your sister is right. There's nowhere to run now. If you stay, you stay to fight."

After a moment, when no one moved to leave, Lunessa and Irene stepped toward one of the sisters. I took a few steps back to make sure my null power didn't interfere, and I prayed that Maeve wouldn't choose now to try and make an appearance. We needed to do this. We needed to be able to trust each other again.

The sisters and Finn were first. He barely moved a muscle during the ritual, and when I gently touched his arm, he just tensed even more. "She can't use you anymore," I said gently. "You should talk to Jax…"

"You don't know that," he growled as he turned his head. "You said it yourself. Maeve has been planning this for years, and you opened your pack to her and let her waltz in less than a year ago. You have no idea what she did while she was here. She could have a dozen spells to control me. She could have an infinite amount of magic at her disposal. I cannot be trusted."

His fury blasted into me, but I didn't back away. "We will fight back. She's not going to win."

"I don't know. Seems to me like we've already lost." Stepping around me, he stalked away.

I didn't even realize that I was shaking until Irene put her hands on me. It was all I could do not to immediately jerk away, but when I looked up, I knew it was the witch looking back at me. For the first time in a long time, she actually gave me a smile.

"He's hurting," Irene said in a low voice. "I know the feeling. When Maeve leaves you, she leaves this bitter feeling like you've housed something truly evil. And she is his mother, and she used him in the most vile of ways to commit the darkest of betrayals."

I already knew that. He hadn't said anything personal against me, but when he looked at me, I wondered if he'd stopped seeing me as a friend and started seeing me as an instrument of mass destruction.

I felt like a fucking bomb.

"How are you feeling?" I asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Free. It would be easier if I could do the spell on me, but a two-parter takes two witches, and I was never good at spelling myself. Anna, I need to tell you something. Maeve visited me last night."

"What? Wasn't someone with you?"

"Jenson, but she came to me in my sleep, and she held me down in the bed while she spoke to me in my head. I didn't tell anyone. She didn't do anything but ask that I pass along the message, and in my opinion, I think it's a good sign."

Maeve always wanted to talk to me. If I was on her side, then I could just walk up to her and give her my body. I wasn't sure how that was a good sign. "What did she say?"

"That sacrifice is a part of motherhood, and she knows that you will never understand what she did, but she hopes one day you will forgive her."

I recoiled. "How the fuck is that good news? We already know she's a little obsessed with me."

"Anna, I don't think Maeve knows that you're pregnant."

"Okay. Up until a few days ago, I didn't know that I was pregnant. What does that have to do with anything?"

"She has surrounded herself with magic, stolen and blackmailed seers, and heard every prophecy about how this would happen. If there was even a chance that you might be pregnant when it happens, she would know, and if she knew, she would be using it against you. Something has changed. Something has happened that she could not predict or control."

"So maybe there are other things?"

Irene nodded. "Yes. There has to be. I believe in you, Anna. I always have. What Maeve is trying to do is unnatural, and I refuse to believe that magic will let it happen. Do not give up. I haven't."

Impulsively, I leaned over and hugged her. "I'm glad to have you back, Irene. I really am."

"I'm glad to be back."

After the sisters left, we went back to Irene's coven. The soldiers watching her were dismissed, and Irene looked a little more relaxed as she made dinner. The moon was rising, and I checked my phone again. I hadn't heard anything from Jax since I'd stormed out of his office.

He wasn't happy about our child. We were in a good place. A place where we finally supported and accepted each other. Loved each other. This wasn't the most ideal time to have a child, but I still couldn't understand why he'd shown no emotion when someone brought up the baby. Why he didn't even want to talk about it.

It hurt more than I thought he was capable.

"So, there are still descendants of the Fae," Irene mused as she handed us each a bowl of stew and bread. "I suppose that makes sense. The null trait is so strong. I'd often thought it would have weakened by now."

"I don't understand. If the powerful Fae are still around, why are they hiding? Why don't they help us?"

Evalina snorted. "After everything that you've been through, it never ceases to amaze me how naive you are, child. The Fae care nothing for witches and wolves. We decimated their kind. I would expect each and every one of them to sit back and watch us destroy each other."

"And you're so damn bitter," Lunessa snapped. Apparently, their bond over their coven ties were rapidly devolving. "Saris could have let us die. Instead, she gave us a fighting chance."

"And disappeared? When she could have gotten even more texts to us?" Evalina challenged.

She wasn't wrong. If the Fae had wanted to help, they certainly could have done more.

After dinner, I shifted and ran. I expected to have a hundred texts and calls from Jax, demanding that I return, but it wasn't long before I learned why he hadn't. I was being followed. At least four guards, keeping their distance, tailed me during my run and followed me all the way back to the house.

I padded into the bedroom and stopped. It was well after midnight. I hadn't heard from Jax in over nine or ten hours, but the bedroom was empty.

I shifted, pushing my disappointed wolf back down and stared at the bed. Something was very wrong with us, and Jax didn't seem inclined to want to talk or help fix it.