22. SEVENTEEN

SEVENTEEN

Wren

“Wren,wakeup!”A frenzy of dismay shot through Kian’s bond, and the sharpness of his tone had everybody jolting up in bed.

Thorn’s arm tightened around my waist as he got up. “What happened?”

“I just had a vision. Wren is able to hurt Grayson, and he’s so mad about it. He obviously doesn’t trust her, and he thinks she’ll try to kill him, which yes, that’s our goal. He’s coming here now to take her. If we act right now, there’s only one outcome of this.”

“What’s the outcome?” Rowan shifted out of bed.

“His death. We need to go to the summoning circle, and we need to get Grayson and Wren inside of it.”

“She’s not getting in that circle with him,” Alister hissed, rubbing his eyes with his palms.

“She has to! I don’t like it either,” Kian snapped, and we stiffened. “But if we don’t do this right, I’m afraid we’ll never be able to kill Grayson.”

“I’m doing it,” I decided as I moved Thorn’s arm and crawled over Rhett and Damien before my feet hit the floor. “How much time do we have?”

“Maybe twenty minutes.” He grabbed a handful of his hair as pain flashed in his eyes. “Grayson’s planning to take you and fully infect you. You’re a danger to him now, and he wants you on his side. He’s mad at Roak and tired of playing by his rules and wanting Rowan to join their side. Wren, you have to act like you’re on his side, like you’ve accepted the dark magic and want to go with him. If you’re already in the circle, he should form inside it with you. You need a piece of you both to sacrifice to form the bond. Get his pinky bone and cut a small piece of your hair.”

I glanced down and caught a glimpse of my arm, tilting my head. The veins had crawled all the way up my arm.

Fear and worry pushed through the bonds, but I felt nothing.

“And what about the dark magic? Where will it go once the rejected bond is back?” Damien stepped forward and cut a small piece of my hair from the bottom before placing it and the pinky bone in my palm. He must’ve gotten it from my bag when Kian mentioned it.

“The dark magic will not be able to inhabit either of them, but I’m not sure where it goes. I’m only sure it won’t be in our mate.”

“Good enough for me. Let’s go.” Rowan sneered, fighting against his shift.

We had worn clothes to bed because we couldn’t go to sleep unprepared, and it was disappointing.

Damien’s shadows snaked around us, and we all stepped within the summoning circle before they moved.

“We need to stay in the shadows for a bit until I start the ritual.” Kian grabbed my hand and pressed a kiss against my temple. “Sweetheart, please. Whatever you do, do not get out of the circle. You have to let the bond reform.”

I turned my head and met his lips with mine. “Don’t worry. I know what to do.”

He tensed, being drawn back into a vision, and Lachlan gripped his arm as Shade scurried over and pressed his paws to his temples.

Damien stepped closer and dragged his nose over my neck. “Little bird, don’t you dare get hurt.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

“Not good enough,” Rowan growled.

“Now,” Kian gasped, and their eyes held hesitance as Damien’s shadows enshrouded them.

I stood within the summoning circle, holding my arm. The last time I had been in this circle was with Trixie when we had broken the bond.

“Is this where you broke our bond?” Grayson’s disembodied voice pierced my ears as I turned to face him, his pinky bone clutched in my hand.

He had formed inside the circle.

“Yes, and that has proved to be a mistake.” A sigh escapes me as I stare up at him.

He looked awful. He was sickly gray, and his eyes sunk into his skull with black bags underneath them. His veins were black and throbbing under his skin. “I don’t think it was a mistake. You took away my weakness and gave me strength with dark magic.”

“Perhaps you’re right about that. Dark magic is strong,” I murmured, raising my hand and staring at the throbbing veins in my arm.

“I knew you’d come to realize that.” He smiled, rotten teeth barely hanging on to his gums.

“Even if it’s strong, it was a mistake,” I reinforced, feeling the power, the magical energy of my mates around us as the red glow of the crystals glared off of his dull eyes.

“Why can I not use my magic?” He growled as his white fur, tipped with black, sprouted on his skin as he roared. “What are you doing?”

“It’s over, Grayson.” I dropped his bone and the lock of my hair into the circle between us.

“No!”He launched forward and wrapped both of his hands around my throat and squeezed. His rotten sulfur scent enveloped me.

Wincing, I stood there, not attempting to remove his hands. I didn’t want to risk going incorporeal for fear of it messing with the ritual.

The edges of my vision blackened, and my knee jerked up into his groin with more strength than I’d ever possessed before. A rush of air flooded my lungs as my knees wobbled to keep me upright.

He dropped to the ground with a groan.

The dark magic that felt so heavy within my own separated and seeped out of me. Grayson’s did the same as the dark magic formed into a black gelatinous blob on the ground between us.

All of my emotions flooded back at a high level, and my heart pounded in my chest.

The anger in Grayson’s gaze faded as confusion replaced it.

The lump of black goo floated in the air, and his eyes met mine. “Wren,” he rasped, and the bond snapped violently back in place between us.

A piercing scream tore from my throat, along with Grayson’s.

I dropped onto my hands and knees in front of where he was crumpled in the circle.

Pain ebbed up and down my body, searing into my chest. Our teeth were bared as we stared at each other.

It was like my blood was on fire, melting me from the inside and burning my organs.

My mates stepped out of the shadows around the circle, various pained expressions on their faces as Kian chanted in that language I never understood.

“This is your fault,” Grayson croaked, his voice sounding like his again. A very exhausted version of it. “My parents, the pack, Mirella… this.”

Hatred simmered in his eyes as he stared at me, but I could see the true pain the dark magic had caused him.

“I’m sorry the dark magic infected you, but I couldn’t be bonded to you anymore.” Tears welled in my eyes as I kept my chin tilted up to look him in the eye.

If I had known dark magic would have infected him, I would have dealt with the pain of the rejected bond. I didn’t mean to ruin his life, even with how terrible he was to me.

“Could’ve been different.” He forced out the words as one of his rotten teeth fell from his mouth.

I shook my head, the pain almost too much to bear as Grayson’s body started to crack.

His gray flesh crumbled, flaking off as the night breeze blew through, and his flesh and bones turned to ash, floating into the breeze until the only thing left was his eyes filled with hatred and trained on me.

Alister darted forward as soon as Kian stopped chanting, and he crushed both eyeballs in his palms before cupping his hands together. A red glow flickered in his hands as the rejected bond vanished and the grip of it released me.

Alister opened his palms to reveal a small red stone, but as soon as he did, the black goo sucked into it like a vacuum.

“That’s not supposed to happen,” he hissed, holding out the stone as far as he could until the dark magic sealed itself inside it.

Damien and Rowan were at my side, helping me to my feet as Kian stepped forward with Lachlan and Rhett.

Alister stepped forward and held out the stone. “I promised you a blood stone of Grayson, and this is it. But I think we should have this checked out first, considering it’s imbued with dark magic now.”

A hiccup pulled from my chest as tears spilled down my cheeks, and a laugh burst out of me. “I think that’s probably a good idea.”

“Tiny fox, you okay there?” Lachlan tilted his head.

“She’s overwhelmed with emotions after being numb for such a long time,” Rhett explained, crossing his arms.

“Pretty sure that would fuck with anyone,” Alister muttered.

“What do you need, fledgling?” Rowan’s hand tightened around my arm, smoke pluming from his nose.

“Let us take care of you, Kit.” Thorn blasted his ice magic over my body, and I breathed in the icy air until it filled my lungs.

“I wish his brain had survived so Kian could reanimate him, and I’d kill him again for putting his hands on you,” Damien growled, his fingers gliding over my throat where Grayson had choked me.

“I’d have done it, too,” Kian muttered. “He’d deserve it.”

“Thank you. Thank you all.” I sobbed.

We had seen Grayson’s death, and the relief that trickled through my bones was enough to make me want to sleep for days.

“I’ll take the blood stone to Drecken. He’ll check it over and make sure the dark magic is well and truly trapped,” Rowan said, taking the blood stone from Alister and pocketing it.

My chest felt lighter, and my body went into recovery mode for holding onto the dark magic for so long. “I need you all to hold me while I sleep.”

They paused and smiled at me.

“Of course, fledgling.” Rowan’s eyes flashed with fire.

“After all this shit, all I want to do is hold you, baby,” Rhett muttered, running a hand through his hair.

“The blood stone will be yours soon, but I need you in my arms now, sweet ruby.” Alister’s tongue flicked over his fangs as he glanced at the pile of ash in the circle.

“You need rest, and we need you, sweetheart,” Kian said softly, adjusting his glasses and taking a step forward.

“Ready, Kit?” Thorn swept a blue lock of hair from his face.

I nodded. “I’m more than ready.”

“As you wish, little bird,” Damien’s voice caressed my body as his shadows slipped over us, and my mates did exactly what I needed.