29. Kirsten

The backseat was crammed with boxes, the suitcases having taken up the majority of the trunk. Something about how cramped it made the car made me claustrophobic. Like some hulking thing was in the vehicle with me, bearing down on me, staring over my shoulder, silently judging me.

Why don't you turn around? Go talk to Jace, a nagging voice in my mind kept repeating.

With every mile that passed, the same thought sprang to my mind. I'd only left the cabin thirty minutes ago, but in my mental state, it felt like hours. Five miles from the cabin, I stopped to refuel the car and get some snacks for the road. Standing at the checkout counter of the gas station, I caught myself gazing down the road back toward Crestwood. It was more difficult than I'd imagined to force myself to turn onto the highway and angle south toward Texas rather than head back the way I'd come.

But you could still turn around. It's not too late.

"Shut up," I hissed to myself, banging the heel of my hand on the steering wheel.

I'd never had anyone like Jace in my life, and I couldn't remember ever falling so hard and fast for someone. The mere idea of seeing him and having him hurt me again was too much. Yet, wasn't that what I truly wanted? I'd basically said that to Shayna that morning. I easily could have left the box with her and not said anything else, but I'd felt compelled to explain to her why I'd made the potion. Hadn't I subconsciously hoped that once he heard that, he'd come running, ready to apologize and see the error of his ways? But perhaps even that had been too subtle.

My magic buzzed under my skin as I drove. That was something I was getting used to. My magic. Those two words alone made my head spin. In the few weeks I'd been in Crestwood, my whole life had changed. Now, the magical energy that pulsed within me had become normal, an integral part of me. If it left now, I'd probably feel like I'd lost a limb. For that, I had Tinsley to thank, but also most likely Jace. Without meeting him, I wasn't sure the magic within me would have ever come forward. His presence had activated it in some way.

Tears stung the backs of my eyes and continued building on the old country road that led toward the interstate. There were trees on all sides, like a tunnel leading to a new world. Try as I might, the tears came, blurring my vision, until I had to pull to the side of the road, flashers on.

Burying my face in my hands, I let the tears come. I'd told myself I wouldn't cry again, but here I was, sobbing like a little baby. So much had been lost in such a short time. How did a person go on?

My phone rang beside me, but I ignored it, too distraught and heartbroken to bother answering.

The glove box held a wad of napkins from some restaurant I'd eaten at months before. I dug them out and blew my nose as the phone began to ring a second time. As awful as all this was, I'd come to the decision that I needed to leave. Not forever, no. As much as I wanted to think that never treading the ground of Crestwood again might be for the best, I knew I'd be back eventually. Maybe Jace and I just needed to be apart for a while. If we had some space to think and work out what we wanted, and after he took the potion, maybe there was a chance. A small chance, yes, but maybe a slight glimmer of hope was better than nothing.

The phone rang a third time. I huffed, wiping snot from my nose, and grabbed it off the seat beside me.

The caller ID flashed Jace's name at me, and a sudden and very unexpected flutter went through my stomach. I couldn't tell if it was excitement, horror, or simple nausea. Would he try to talk me out of leaving? Did I want him to? No, probably not. We needed space, didn't we? If nothing else, I needed to let the pain heal.

With a sigh, I answered the phone, knowing he wouldn't stop until I did. "Jace? What is it, Jace? I'm not in the mood right now."

"Kirsten, where are you?"

He sounded frantic, terrified, actually. I'd have thought heartbreak or depression would be the emotion he'd be displaying, not this.

"I'm leaving, Jace. You know that," I said sadly.

"Is anyone following you?"

Reflexively, I glanced in the rearview. The road behind me was clear. "No, I don't think so. What's this about?"

He breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God. Why didn't you talk to me before you left?" he asked, his voice strained with emotion. It sounded like he was on the verge of having a breakdown.

"Jace, I… well, I feel like we need some space. I planned on coming back. In time. But right now, everything is so raw. I just can't be here. I couldn't see you again. It would have torn my heart out. You get that, don't you?"

"Turn around now," he said. "Come back. You have to get back here right now."

Again, that oddly frantic tone in his voice. I frowned. He was acting like someone's life was on the line, not like a man who'd just lost his girlfriend.

"What's going on, Jace? You sound weird."

"It's Eren. Some of his guys set a fire in the town hall. I think it was to get us all as far away from you as possible. He's planning something. He could have been watching your cabin, waiting for you to leave. Please," he begged. "Please come back, just stay in the cabin, stay inside the ward. At least then I'll know you're safe. Come back to me."

"Jace," I said, a deep exhaustion and weariness taking hold of me. "I'm not coming back. There's no one following me. I haven't seen a car in…"

I trailed off, the phone nearly falling from my hand as three massive wolves trotted out from the woods on the side of the road. The crystal at my neck vibrated a warning as magic surged within me.

"Jace," I hissed into the phone.

"What's wrong?" In the background, I could hear an engine roaring.

"They're here. Wolves in the road."

One of the wolves, the one in the center, tilted its head and gazed through the windshield at me. Dogs and wolves couldn't actually smile, but this one did a good imitation. I knew exactly who this was.

"Is it Eren? Is he there?"

I nodded, even though Jace couldn't see me, and my voice caught in my throat. I swallowed hard and forced myself to speak.

"He's here. He's one of the wolves."

"Get out of there. Now!"

"They're blocking the road," I said.

"Then run them the fuck over or back up. Whatever it takes, get out of there."

"Okay, okay." I took a few deep breaths, trying to calm myself.

The wolves were just sitting there, watching me. Nothing bad had happened yet. I still had time. Jace was right; I could just back up and turn around before they could come for me. A glance in the rearview mirror showed me three more wolves loping out to block me in. I sucked in a sharp breath at the sight of them.

"There's more, Jace. Three more. Behind me."

"Fuck! I'm coming as fast as I can. Which road are you on?"

"The country road that goes between Crestwood and Goldstone," I managed, barely keeping my voice composed.

I'd chosen the most scenic route that would keep me off the interstate as long as possible. It was also the road that kept me as far away from Scottsdale as possible. If Eren and his pack were here, then that meant he had been watching me. Had followed me. He'd probably ordered the fire the moment I pulled out of the driveway. The thought of them right on my tail, watching me, racing along the road as I drove made my skin crawl. Eren watching me as I pumped gas and bought snacks. My magic had been pulsing the whole trip, but I'd assumed it was because I was leaving Jace. No, it had been trying to warn me of danger.

"I'm actually already headed that way. I'd hoped that was the route you'd gone."

Eren shifted, standing between the two other wolves, and grinned at me through the window.

"Howdy there," he said, waggling his fingers at me in a wave. "Fancy meeting you here."

"What do you want?" I shrieked. On the phone, Jace was calling out my name, but I had tunnel vision. All I could think about or process was Eren.

"You don't gotta yell," Eren called out and tapped his ear. "Shifter, remember? Let's not make this difficult."

My car tilted backward slightly. I turned, craning my neck. Two of the three wolves behind me had shifted to their human form. One of them was the big guy who'd first introduced me to Eren. Poli. That was his name, wasn't it? The two of them stepped back, knives in each of their hands. A hissing sound told me they'd slashed my back tires.

Oh, shit. This was bad. I'd already dropped the phone and clutched at the steering wheel like it was an anchor, something to keep me steady in a raging storm. The tinny sound of Jace's voice was a distant memory as he continued to scream into the phone.

Eren circled around to my passenger side door, tapping the glass with a knuckle. "Open up, sweetie. I got things to talk to you about. Real important things."

My skin crawled at being so close to him, and my magic reacted in a way that nauseated me.

"I need a little help, you know what I mean?" Eren added, gaze drifting down to my chest. "I think you know what I mean, anyway."

"I gave you a fucking potion. That's all you'll get from me. Maybe if you weren't such a cock-sucking douchebag, I'd do more, but I'd never do whatever that sick head of yours is thinking about. Prick," I added for good measure.

Eren's smile vanished. "You know what, you stupid cunt? You made a real bad mistake choosing that limp dick Stone over me. You never had what a real man can give," he said, cupping his own groin. Bile rose at the back of my throat.

"All you needed to do was fix my little issue and then be my mate. How hard is that?" Eren asked.

I pounded my fists on the steering wheel. "I did help you! Aren't you fucking listening? I made that potion. What more do you want?"

"I just said it." Eren put his face right up to the glass, close enough that his nose touched it. "Fixing the problem isn't enough. I want a witch for my pack. I want my offspring to have witch blood. Simple as that. Until I get that, I'll never be happy."

"Not gonna happen," I said, jutting my chin out belligerently. "I'm Jace's mate."

The words tumbled from my lips so easily, so naturally, as though I'd been saying them my entire life. It had taken this moment for the blinders to come off, for the walls to come tumbling down. Jace was my mate, and I was his. Why the hell had I run? Was one fight a reason to end what could be the best thing that ever happened to me?

"I don't know why you're so fixated on me," I said, glancing around the car at the other shifters, trying to think of a way out with my tires slashed. "But I will always be Jace's mate. Nothing will change that."

Eren pressed his palm to the glass and leered at me. My magic crackled like static electricity. Something was happening in my mind. At the back of my throat, I tasted something like dirt. Soil or mulch or something. Earth? My mind fled back to the hours and hours I'd spent reading the books Tinsley had given me. Geomancy witches. Witches who could control the earth with their magic.

But why was I thinking about that now? Had my panic at being cornered unlocked more of my powers? Great. What did it matter if I couldn't figure out how to use them?

"You will give me a child after you make sure I'm cured. Don't worry about it; I'll make it good for you. Hell, tell me how many times you want to come, and I'll make sure to do that number—plus one. See, I'm a nice guy."

"In my experience, men who call themselves nice guys are anything but."

He ignored that. "If you don't, I'll simply let you rot away in a cell. And don't get any ideas about the big bad Jace Stone coming to save you. Once the fight he and I have scheduled for next month is over, he'll be nothing more than a bloody stain on the ground." He grinned and chuckled as if he'd just made the funniest joke in the world. "Hell, maybe I'll have his pretty little wolf head stuffed and hung over our bed. You can look up at him while you ride me. How would you like that?"

God, where was Jace?Why had I been so fucking stupid? Why'd I leave so early? I was nearly forty miles from Crestwood. How fast could he drive? How long had I been sitting here? Ten minutes? Fifteen?

"Now, are you going to unlock this door or not?" Eren asked.

"Why the hell would I?" I laughed at him, a humorless, desperate sound. "You basically just said you want to rape me."

"No." Eren held up a finger. "I don't do stuff like that. You'll beg for it in the end. Won't need to take what's given freely." The smile vanished, and his eyes flashed darkly. "Now open the fucking door, Kirsten."

"How about no? How about that? Fuck off."

All I had to do was stall for time. Give Jace a few more minutes to get here. My phone still sat on the passenger seat. Could I call the cops? Would they get here in time? Probably not.

"I think you forgot one thing," Eren said.

"What's that?"

"I was only being nice in asking. A shifter doesn't really need permission to come in."

His face warped into a snarl, and he slammed his elbow into the window, crashing it into the cab in a shower of glittering glass. I screamed and watched in horror as Eren and another of his guys reached through the busted window and grabbed the inside of the door. Both men twisted, grunting in effort, and ripped the door off the frame. My God, I knew they were strong, but I never imagined this.

Two flat tires be damned, I had no other choice. I slammed the car into gear and hit the gas just as Eren tried to climb in. He tumbled to the side, rolling onto the grassy shoulder as I pulled away. The other shifters jumped aside, but my car did not rocket forward like I'd hoped. In less than a hundred yards, twin streams of sparks began shooting up from my rims as the flat rubber of my ruined tires peeled away.

I hissed curses at the car as the speedometer crept upward, slower than I wanted but still picking up speed. Thank God they hadn't slashed the front tires, too. Eventually, I got to almost forty miles an hour, but that wasn't good enough. The wolves were racing toward me, Eren in the lead.

Seeing them getting closer, the taste of dirt at the back of my throat became more intense, and I squinted in concentration, allowing instinct to take over. As I watched the wolves in the mirror, my magic flooded out of me. To my utter and complete shock, tendrils of dirt erupted from the ground on either side of the road, like an earthen octopus coming alive. The tentacles surged forward, wrapping around two of the wolves, hauling them back with surprised yelps of horror. Two more tentacles swiped at Eren and the others but missed as they dodged and jumped out of the way.

I smiled despite the situation, proud of what I'd done.

As proud as I was, I'd made a mistake in keeping my eyes on the mirror and not on the road. I was rushing toward a curve in the road. Too late, I slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel. It caused an overcorrection, and without the back tires, the rear end of the car went sliding toward the shoulder.

I screamed in terror. The edge of the road dropped off the side into a small ravine. In an instant, I remembered Jace's story about his parents' accident. Was this the same spot? I wondered madly as I yanked on the wheel and jammed my feet on the brakes.

Eren and two of his other wolves leaped forward, slamming their full weight into the back fender of my car. Three hundred pounds of wolf muscles and mass, and that was all it took. The right tires skidded across the gravel of the shoulder, then over the edge.

Time itself froze. I sat, eyes wide with shock, mouth open in a silent scream, the menacing wolves gazing at me with hungry, yellow eyes. Then, in a flash, the world became chaos. Time resumed and the car went into a tumble, rolling over and over. Items flew from the boxes in the backseat, careening around the cab. The roar of the engine and crashing sounds of metal bending and glass shattering drowned out my screams.

The front end clipped a tree, and the airbag exploded out, my eardrums already ringing as my head slammed into the window. Pain shattered my mind like I'd been kicked in the side of the head by a horse. My vision blurred, and the final two rolls of the car went by in a haze.

My eyes didn't want to work and my ears rang with a high-pitched whine, but through all that, I could hear a strange tick-tick-tick as something in the car made its last dying sounds. Opening my mouth, I tried to call out. For who? I had no idea. Maybe Jace? Maybe even my dead grandmother. Regardless, all that came out was a raspy hiss. My throat felt like it was coated in glass. The smell of burning oil, hot metal, and blood filled my nose. It was only then that the thick, dripping ooze sensation registered as it rolled down my head. I barely managed to lift my hand to my forehead. Blood.

The sight of it made me even more dizzy, and my sight grayed out for a moment. The next thing I remembered was the driver's side door opening with the sound of bending steel and cracking fiberglass and plastic.

Rough hands reached inside, tearing at the seatbelt and dragging me out. Through my blurry vision, I saw Eren's face as he pulled me forward. Fear and terror urged me to do something. I summoned all the strength I could muster and punched him. My fist—limp-wristed, off-target, and lacking in any real strength—struck his shoulder instead of the nose I'd been aiming at.

"Still got some fight, I see," he said as he slung me over his shoulder. "That's good. Strong blood to pass down to my heir."

My stomach threatened to expel its contents as the world spun, and my head thumped against Eren's back, all energy to fight leaking out of me. Eren slapped a hand on my ass and carried me back up the hill. I wanted to swat his filthy fingers off me, but it was all I could do to stay conscious.

On the road, a big black SUV screeched to a halt as we crested the hill. Two men jumped out and opened the back doors.

Eren tossed me roughly into the backseat and leaned over, his breath hot as he put his face close to mine.

"Time to take you home. Time to make you mine."

The door slammed shut, the sound of it crashing into my ears, a final punctuation on my chances at escape. Tires squealed as Eren's man pulled away, rocketing us toward some unknown and terrible final location. Any possibility of being saved dwindled as we put more and more distance between us and the wreck.

Up front, Eren chuckled, his voice droning in and out as my vision and hearing blurred and faded, unconsciousness quickly dragging me under. The last thing I saw was trees flashing past through the window.

Reaching up with rapidly vanishing strength, I touched the glass. A single word, screaming out through my mind, shouted by my subconscious and magic, echoed through my head. The only chance I had was a shout of help as I slipped into darkness. The last word I thought before darkness descended was a single name, screamed out inside my mind.

Jace.