24. Apryle

Chapter 24

Apryle

M y vision is hazy as I lift my head. The high-pitched whistling in my ears makes it hard to hear anything, but I can see the panicked looks on the faces around me. Even though I was the one who pulled Kye down, his huge body is draped over mine, protecting me as plaster showers down from the ceiling.

"You okay?" I can barely hear him. His words sound as if they're coming to me from underwater, but I nod my head as he helps me to my feet.

"Where's Savannah?" I'm pretty sure I'm shouting, but I can't decipher how loud my voice is, and I don't care.

I want to find Savannah and quickly.

Chaos descends around us as everyone tries to regain their bearings. I pick my way over parts of the ceiling, finding Savannah safe with Sawyer and Roux.

She comes straight to me, wrapping her arms around my waist, and I grab her face, checking for any injuries. There's a little dirt smeared on her cheek, but other than that, she looks unharmed.

Callum and the others are rushing around, arming themselves.

"That was magic," Roux shouts, clearly also affected by the explosion of power that hit the building.

"We are under attack," Callum yells, before his gaze locks on Hester. "You led them right to us."

Did she? More importantly, did she do it on purpose? I try to read her expression, but I don't see any triumph in her face. In fact, she looks scared. "I didn't know I was being followed. I was careful."

"Clearly not careful enough. Get ready to fight." He places a gun in my hand. It's not particularly heavy, but it feels like a ten-ton weight is sitting on my palm.

I've used my magic to defend myself so many times, and I wouldn't think twice about doing it again, so I don't need to shoot someone to protect myself. I have inbuilt weapons that are far more dangerous.

When I try to hand it back to Callum, Kye wraps his hand over the top of the gun in mine. "You stay here with Savannah."

If he thinks I'm going to stay behind while he fights our battle for me, he is so wrong. "Why don't you stay here?"

That annoys him, mostly because I can see he doesn't know how to argue against it. I'm just as capable as he is, and although I'm not physically strong, my magic means I'm not helpless. "We have to protect her, Apryle. If she has this blood, the same as you, then you are both a target."

Now I'm the one unable to argue. "We don't even know if they're here for us. More likely, they're here for all of us. I'm not staying behind, so you're just wasting your time."

"I'll stay with her," Tessa says, cradling her stomach.

Abel remains behind her, making it clear that he is also staying. "I'll protect her with my life," he states.

Before Abel met Tessa, he was always the one who took care of us. He would go into the nearest town to the Sanctuary to collect food and any other supplies we might need. So when he says he'll take care of Savannah, I truly believe him.

I press a kiss to Savannah's head. "You do everything they tell you to," I say, my voice wavering.

I don't want her to hear my fear and make her scared, but I'm also very aware that we're about to run headlong into a situation that might end with us dying.

"I don't want you to go," she tells me, tears brimming in her eyes. It breaks me to see them, but I remind myself that we are fighting for a future in which Savannah never has to be afraid of anything ever again.

"I know, but sometimes we have to do things that are scary and feel bigger than us." I let go of her, and she immediately seeks comfort from Tessa, who nods at me, telling me without words that she'll take care of things.

A tendril of anxiety unfurls inside my veins, wrapping around my heart and squeezing. I'm not stupid enough to pretend I'm not scared, but I also hold resolutely to the knowledge that we're doing what needs to be done.

That and Kye's presence inside my mind give me the strength to join the others. As we emerge from the building, the chaos that greets us has both of us stumbling.

The stench of magic and blood is thick in the air as tau and wolves fight for survival. My eyes struggle to see who is with us and who is the enemy, the attack so frenzied. Kye squeezes my hand tight enough that the pain is enough to ground me.

"Don't die," I say to him before pulling free of his grasp.

He doesn't want me to go, but he and I cannot fight this together. He knows it too, even if he does not want to admit it.

"I love you," he whispers, and my heart soars.

"I love you too."

I turn away before it becomes too hard, the lump in my throat already choking me as I spot Halle, Roux, Dove, and Hester engaged in a battle with a group of other tau. I dodge a blast of power, but I don't see the wolf until his front paws slam into my side, knocking me off my feet.

I hit the ground hard, reaching for my power as teeth snap in front of my face. Shit. I whack him with a blast that sends him back a couple of steps, but then he is coming for me again.

Son of a…

I draw deeper on my power, but before I can unleash it, a gray wolf slams into him, knocking the russet wolf to the ground. I scramble back, pushing to my feet as the gray rips out the throat of the other wolf. Blood spurts, drenching the grass beneath, the russet wolf twitching as his life drains from him.

The gray swings his bloodied muzzle in my direction, his mouth pulling into a grin as his tongue lolls between his teeth. I narrow my eyes.

Wyatt?

He takes off, rejoining the fight, and I quickly make my way over to my coven. I can sense Kye in my mind, his concentration, and also some pretty strange animalistic thoughts from his wolf, meaning he's probably shifted. Knowing he's okay allows me to slip my hand into Halle's. She gives me a shit-eating grin as she draws on her power, and I do the same.

I feel it amplified as it spreads between me and the other members of my coven. Dove stands on the other side of Halle while Roux is on the end. I don't see Hester anymore, but I can't think about her right now. Callum and the others are also fighting, every single person I care about trying to survive.

Without warning, a wave of power spreads across the entire compound. It's like the blast from a nuclear bomb, flattening everything it touches. I glimpse the crowd of people ahead falling to the ground before I'm pushed down too.

I let go of Halle's hand as I go down heavily, the wind knocked out of my lungs as my face smashes into the grass.

What the hell was that?

As a coven, we're strong, but that was something else. I lift my head, seeing a sea of downed people and wolves, but two people remain standing.

The white-haired man and a redheaded woman. She's standing at his side, her palm outstretched. Magic swirls around her, stronger than anything I have ever felt before. She isn't tau. She's a witch.

I scramble to my knees, but there is an invisible force field stopping me from getting up.

"Oh, boy." I follow Halle's line of sight, and my stomach twists.

They aren't the only two standing anymore. Hester is also on her feet, standing in front of the white-haired man, far away enough from him that he can't touch her.

He tilts his head to the side as he takes her in, disdain curling his lips into a snarl. "It's been a while, sister."

They don't look alike, though there are some hints of similarity between them. He also looks older than she does. Hester has this timeless, ageless appearance to her, which I guess makes sense considering she is the daughter of one of the most powerful witches to ever exist.

"I could say it's good to see you, Erik, but that would be a lie. I never wanted to see you again." Her voice shakes beneath her strong words.

"What happened to blood being thicker than water?"

She laughs, but there is no humor in it. I scan the crowd, looking for Kye, but I can't see him. It is only the fact that I can sense him in my mind that keeps me calm.

"That stopped making sense the moment you tried to kill me and Freya."

"I didn't come here to rehash the past," he snaps the words, his irritation clear in every syllable.

Hester opens her arms wide, her eyes bouncing around the dead and injured. "And yet this looks exactly like the past."

"I tried talking to the guys at the front gate. They attacked us, so my people attacked back."

Halle's hand slips into mine, and I squeeze her back, grateful for the reassurance it brings. I don't know what is about to happen, but I feel like we are distinctly on the back foot here.

Are you safe? Kye's voice strokes through my mind.

I'm with the girls, I tell him. You're not injured, are you?

No. I'm good.

Relief fills me, and I'm sure I give him the same assurance.

"What do you want, Erik?" Hester asks, dragging my thoughts out of the mating bond to listen to their exchange.

"You know what's coming."

Hester's arms wrap around her as if she can protect herself. "I know you should be scared of what's coming."

Despite her brave words, I can see her hands are trembling as she faces her brother. Her fear of him is not feigned. She is genuinely terrified of him, and yet seeing him like this, I can't help but think there is nothing to be afraid of. He is just a sad old man who relies on the strength of others to keep his place.

"I am. Your mother will destroy everything if she is freed."

Hester arches a brow. "Now you definitely sound scared. You probably should have thought about the repercussions before you killed so many of her bloodline."

I try to access my power, but whatever the witch with him is doing seems to have put some kind of block on my magic.

"We should all be scared. Revna will kill all of us."

Hester's fear morphs into something else, something far more sinister. Her lips tug into a snarl as she glares at him under her lashes. "Not if I kill you first."

She attacks him with power, the scent of it filling the air a moment later. She was so quick, I didn't even have time to register what she was about to do. But her wave of magic doesn't hit him. The witch deflects it, tossing it aside as if it were nothing.

Hester attacks again, but the counterattack slams into her chest, knocking her down to her knees. My stomach plummets. Get back up…

It takes her longer than I would like to climb back to her feet, but her brother and the witch don't attack her. Interesting. They don't want to kill her. So what does he want from her?

"Quit attacking me," Erik snarls. "I just want to talk."

"So talk."

"Despite what you think, Revna coming back will not benefit you or your half-breeds. She's been trapped in hell for over a millennium. She's not going to care about protecting her precious offspring. She's going to want revenge, and you know it."

"On you maybe. The rest of us will be absolutely fine."

"You know that's not true." Hester flinches, and his eyes narrow. "You've already seen it, haven't you? You've seen what happens when she returns."

"So what if I have? There is no force on earth that would make me stand with you, Erik. I would rather my mother burn everything to the ground than be at your side. I hate you. I hate everything you are, and I hope like hell you burn for what you've done. All those lives lost. All those unnecessary deaths. You are your father's son, and I don't think you'll ever change."

I keep my head low, discreetly trying to fight the magic holding us down, and I can sense the others doing the same. I don't like lying here, vulnerable, but the power his witch wields is too strong.

I glance in the direction of the white-haired man, the asshole behind this nightmare, wishing I could just take him out, and it's then that I notice his little redheaded witch has her gaze locked on me. Cold spreads through my body as she doesn't look away.

What the hell?

"Quiet," she says, and both Hester and Erik fall silent, even though their mouths are still moving. I barely feel the whisper of her magic doing it, and yet it is as if someone pressed the mute button. She steps over the dead body of a wolf, striding toward me.

What is going on?

I scramble onto my knees, but that's as far as I can go before I hit the barrier she's put in place.

The burning scent of magic fills the air as Hester unleashes hers on the witch, but she deflects it with barely a twitch of her hand, her eyes never leaving me.

Hester hits her again, and it is then I see movement. Figures come out from behind the buildings, more females, and I can smell their power as well.

With them is the woman Savannah pulled out of her dream. She has ugly purple marks around her wrists where she was tied up, and her hair is dirty. The smirk on her face terrifies me as she hangs back, watching, waiting.

"What are you doing, Avalana?" Erik demands his witch. "Get back here!"

She ignores him, still moving toward me. Halle's hand tightens in mine, Dove grabbing my other one, and I try again to reach my magic with their help, but I can't find it.

"Avalana!" He roars her name, but she doesn't listen. "You belong to me! Do as I command!"

She pauses, glancing over her shoulder toward him. "I never belonged to you. You were nothing more than a means to an end to find what we truly needed." Her eyes meet mine. "The key."

Avalana steps up to me, and I can hear Kye freaking out. His panic in my mind is unsettling, and it draws my fear to the surface as she grabs my face, squeezing it between her hands. Slowly, she rotates my head from side to side, her eyes scanning every inch of me. "You're about to do something great," she says softly.

"I'm not doing shit for you," I spit out.

"I'm afraid that's not your choice to make."

She places a hand on my shoulder, and I feel the surge of magic burn through me before the sensation of being pulled and tugged attacks every part of my body. Pain stabs through my skull like an ice pick is being driven into my brain. I fist my hands over my temples, squeezing my eyes shut as I scream and my wolf howls.

It feels as if my insides are melting, my brain is on fire, my thoughts scattered, my bond silenced.

And then it suddenly stops.

I peel one eye open and then the other as the hazy shapes and shadows around me come into focus. Heavy metal manacles have appeared around my wrists, binding me and my magic.

Not again…

Avalana glances down at me as if I am beneath her. "Get up."

An invisible force drags me up, and I teeter on the balls of my feet as I find my footing. She curls her fingers into her palm, and a stone table appears in the middle of the grass.

I don't like the look of it, and those fears are confirmed when two of her witch friends appear on either side of me, latching their hands around my biceps and dragging me toward it.

My legs feel like lead, the effect of whatever magic is being used to hold me, making my body sluggish, but I try to fight what they're doing, even though it makes no difference. All that training, all those hours spent on the mat learning to defeat enemies bigger than me, and I'm as helpless as I have ever been. Flashbacks from when I was younger spin through my mind, my old pack holding me down and trying to hurt me after they discovered what I was.

I blink, trying to block it all out, trying to find Kye in my mind, but there is a wall between us that I can't penetrate. Instead, I turn my head, twisting in their hold to try and find my mate, but I can't move far enough. My wolf is freaking out, and so am I.

They walk me over to the table and force me onto it. The stone is cold beneath my back, and they bind my arms over my head, spreading my legs to either corner. My pulse is racing, my fear growing with every second as I keep trying to find my magic.

"Stop this," Erik demands again, as if he is still in control.

Avalana laughs. "Do you really think you have any power here? You're just a silly little boy throwing his toys out of his crib. You're about to see the real definition of power, Erik. You're about to have a front-row seat to mother returning, and I cannot wait to see what she does to you. Months of doing your every whim, of selling my pride to you." She says it with such disdain, such vitriol.

"I broke you," he says, his eyes wide with fear. "I rebuilt you, made you one of my soldiers."

"Do you really think you could destroy a Seidh witch? I am more powerful than you could ever imagine. Your little hybrid experiments have nothing on the power my coven and I wield. Everything I did was to get to this moment, to find the one prophesized to free Revna."

I twist my head on the stone to try to find my mate. Is Kye about to see me die? Am I about to die? My chest heaves as I try to suck in air, but it doesn't feel as if it gets into my lungs. I'm lightheaded, and every inch of my body is trembling. Then I see him through the crowd. He is lying on the ground, desperately trying to fight the magic holding him in place. The look in his eyes cuts through me and makes my stomach fill with ice.

I wish I could hear his voice in my head, wish I could speak to him one more time and tell him that no matter what happens, he made my life worth living. I tried to convey it with my eyes before mouthing "I love you," but he doesn't say it back. Instead, his terror reflects in his eyes, and I understand why when Avalana steps up to me, holding a wicked-looking knife.

I want to close my eyes, to block out what is about to happen to me, but my body is paralyzed with fear. There's nothing I can do as she lowers the blade, pressing it into the skin along my wrist. The first bite of the blade takes my breath away, and then she drags it up the length of my forearm toward my elbow. Blood instantly rushes out of the wound, dripping down the side of my arm and onto the table beneath me.

The other witches gather around the table, holding hands and chanting. I can feel the magic growing with every passing second, smell it thick in the air as my eyes start to become heavy and my vision fuzzy.

Avalana grabs my chin before her fingers trail over my cheek in an almost loving way. "In years to come, it'll be your name they speak, Apryle, when this story is retold. Your sacrifice won't be forgotten."

There is a change in the air as power surges. The weight in my chest only allows me to draw in small breaths. I'm going to die on this table, and if my mate survives whatever is about to happen, my death will end him anyway.

Tears leak out of my eyes, rolling down my cheeks as I stare up at the stormy sky overhead.

The power is gaining momentum, and lightning flashes along the clouds, cracks of thunder following a moment later. My arm is numb, and I make one last attempt to reach my magic, coming up empty.

There's a flash again, but this one hits the ground in front of the table. The smell of burning fills my nose, and my wolf roars as every single person writhes as if their bodies are being shattered. One by one, they all shift into their wolves, and not just the vargr. Through my hazy vision, I see the girls' bodies twisting and cracking as their wolves take over.

It shouldn't be possible. Tau are latent, though there are a few exceptions to the rule, but right now every single tau is in their wolf form apart from me. Still, my wolf feels stronger, closer to the surface than ever before. She was distant in the past, almost like an imprint in my mind, but now she feels solid, and she's urging me to get up and fight.

I can't… I'm dying.

Darkness is creeping into the edge of my vision, and the last thing I see just before I pass out is a figure standing at the end of the table—a figure I recognize as the female I met when I dreamwalked…

Revna.