Chapter 19: Kiara

Chapter 19: Kiara

I walked in a haze for the rest of the journey back to Everett’s house.

Clouds pushed across the sky, blocking out the sun and turning the air cold. Even with the leggings and t-shirt I wore, there was a chill in my blood that I couldn’t seem to shake. I knew what it was from. The last image I had of my mother was lodged in my mind, that vision of her staring sadly at me as I left her—again. Tears rolling down her cheeks. Only this time, we both knew that I wouldn’t be able to save her. It would be the last time I’d ever see her, and the weight of her permanent absence dragged me down to the depths of my inner ocean, sapping all the heat and strength from my body. I’d failed.

The small reassurances offered by my companions meant nothing to me. Aislin and Billie apologized softly for having to leave my mother behind, but it wasn’t their fault; it was mine. I was the one stupid enough to endanger the infant and force my mother to stay behind and help her. Maybe if I had just handed her to Lothair, he would have let us slip past and into freedom. Or maybe if I had been stronger, if I had been able to force my mother to her feet, we could have taken her with us. I could have healed her with my own magic. My mind was rife with hypotheticals, but no matter how desperately I conjured alternative solutions, nothing would override the truth of what happened. She was gone, and there was nothing I could do to bring her back. My jaw trembled as I tried to keep myself from breaking down.

We arrived at Everett’s house on the mountainside in silence, the aftermath bearing down on us. The Mythguard had lost five operatives, while Eastpeak had lost one pack member, all for a seemingly pointless rescue mission. It would have been worth something had we recovered my mother. But all we had that we didn’t have before was Colt Hexen lumbering behind us. The Alphas believed they could use his insights to defend ourselves against David and Lothair, but I didn’t think we could trust him worth a damn. Not after everything they told me about him, not after what he had done to me. His apologies were just words. He had handed me that infant knowing it would endanger me—for all I knew, it was all part of his plan to get the infant injured and make my mother stay behind. I couldn’t help but blame him. As we walked into Everett’s living room and everyone finally sat down, I hovered, refusing to look at anyone, unsure if I even wanted to be there.

Gavin paced, running his hand through his hair. “Okay. The full moon is in less than a week. We need to come up with a game plan.”

Everybody stayed silent. I clasped my hand over my mouth, fighting an unwelcome surge of emotions.

“Hello? Guys?” probed Gavin.

“Give us a moment,” said Everett, his voice grating with agitation. “We just lost six people this morning.”

Gavin sighed. “Right. Sorry.” I heard his footsteps leading back to Billie, his hands on her arms as they exchanged quiet comforts.

“Kiara,” Everett continued.

I didn’t face him.

The Eastpeak Alpha stepped closer. “What are the chances your mother will survive the next few days? Do you think it’s worth raiding the mine again before the full moon?”

My heart clenched with pain. I wanted to yell at him for the insensitivity of his question, but rationality told me he was only trying to prepare for the game plan that Gavin urged of us. Still, my head was spinning, and my mouth was too dry to provide anything useful. “I don’t know.”

“Your mother was in bad condition when we left her. All that blood she was exposed to could kill her,” Everett pointed out.

“I know.”

“So, do you think she’ll survive until the full moon?”

“I don’t know, Everett.”

“We can act if you believe she’ll still be alive.”

My voice died in my throat, unsure of what I wanted to believe versus what I already knew.

“We can try to save her, Kiara.”

She was still in human form when we left her. This meant that if she died in human form, David and Lothair would need another unicorn horn—mine. They would have tried to keep her alive long enough for her to shift into her beast form. But the instant she transformed, they’d kill her, and she was already so weak…

“Kiara.”

“There’s no point,” I croaked finally. “She’s as good as dead.”

“No. We can still save her,” Everett insisted.

“They’ll kill her as soon as they can get her to transform. She won’t survive the next few days.”

Both of the girls pushed toward me. I felt a hand on my shoulder and tensed, even if it was only the gentle consolation of Billie’s touch, understanding—I didn’t want it from anybody. I whipped away from them, facing everyone with tears in the corners of my eyes. Then behind them, I focused on Colt, who had never stopped looking at me. My frown deepened with hatred and anger. I could no longer tell if he deserved it.

“I saw her dying,” I said venomously to the gathering. “She used too much of her magic trying to heal people who took her for granted, who were too weak and scared to try to save her until I took the risk first. My mother is dead. You’re better off waiting until you have Lycans rampaging through town. They’ll be an easier target than cowards hiding behind their minions in that mine.”

Resisting the urge to storm off before they could react, my feet anchored to the floor, but still, nobody said anything. Just giving up didn’t feel like something I would do, but what other option did I have? Going back was certain death, and chances were my mother would already be dead. If she wasn’t, chances were her body would fail before long. I felt pathetic and weak and didn’t want to stand before the others any longer.

“Ais, show her to one of the guest bedrooms,” Everett suggested softly.

I was going to rush outside. But a warm bedroom sounded much nicer, so I begrudgingly allowed Aislin to lead me upstairs, down the hallway, and into one of the Eastpeak Alpha’s spare bedrooms. Once inside, I lingered, looking at the bed and breathing in the amalgam of scents belonging to all the room’s previous inhabitants, none of them my mother.

“Kiara, I’m sorry,” the redhead offered.

“Leave.”

Aislin sighed and shut the door behind herself.

I crawled onto the bed, wrapped myself up in a comforter, and retreated into the silence of solitude. The past few days had given me no respite, and even this was barely a reprieve from the harshness I had endured, but at least it was a warm, safe place, so I closed my eyes and quickly drifted asleep.

The moss-covered boulders towered over me. Long fronds of bright green grass tickled my ears as my eyes opened to golden sunshine. Dandelion fluffs drifted overhead on the gentle breeze. Laying on my back, I watched clouds amble across the sky, a sense of peace coaxing me into awareness of my surroundings. I was back in the sacred place I had been taken away from.

A buzz fled past my ear, jarring me from my back and onto my stomach.

Wide-eyed, I searched the glade for the source of the noise. The light breeze was all that moved. I stood, looking around myself, and was met with a sweet familiar smell that reminded me of home—my mother. I parted my lips to call for her, but in my hybrid beast form, I uttered nothing but a whine.

Something moved between the trees. A dash of pearlescent white, silky strands raised by the wind like a banner. I moved after the illusion, allured by the sunlight glinting off her horn. I had to be with her! I needed to embrace her, to feel her again in my arms.

Insects buzzed past me, distracting and loud. They kept diverting me from my path, taking my eyes off the unicorn ahead of me until I feared too long a look would cause her to vanish. I tried to focus on her, but the glass-winged insects began to swarm. The dragonflies were back. A dense cloud of them gathered between me and the unicorn. This was familiar, my desperation and fear—that my mother would be taken from me again. I ran faster, calling out for her, but my words were skewed and surreal.

The dragonflies swarmed me again. So many of them landed on my shoulders that I felt too heavy to run. They bit at my legs and crawled into my ears, dragging me into the grass. My calls became cries as I was incapacitated by them.

Then there was a hard wind, knocking the dragonflies away from me. The wind didn’t stop. It ruffled my fur and howled in my ears. With all my strength, I raised my head and looked between the trees, and there was the unicorn with her horn raised skyward—her magic rescuing me from the dragonflies. Her eyes were a dulcet blue. It wasn’t the face of my mother.

Welkin, I realized.

The Sky Goddess drifted closer as hurricane gales wrapped around me. With each step, the wind blew even stronger until it was nearly enough to sweep me off my feet. I could barely look up at her. Welkin stared back down, unbothered by the wind, her command unspoken.

She would not stand for the slight that had been committed against her.

My mother’s death could not go unpunished.

I woke from the dream with a gasp. Seconds later, someone knocked on my door.

“Kiara, are you awake?” Billie asked gently.

Lingering in silence, I gauged whether or not I wanted to speak with anyone. The dream burned vividly in my mind’s eye. The feeling of the dragonflies gnawing on my skin, the sheer winds evocative of the Sky Goddess’ grief. I cleared my throat and sat up. “What is it?”

“Can I come in?”

“Yeah.”

The door slowly cracked open, Billie stepping into the room first. And then behind her, gingerly hunched with his wrists still bound, was Colt, eyebrows pointed over his dark blue eyes. Blue, striking me with the same grief as Welkin.

“Colt wanted to speak to you,” said Billie. “I understand if you don’t want to speak with him. We’ll leave if you want us to. Otherwise, I thought if you wanted to feel safer, I could stay while he says whatever he has to say to you.” She glanced sidelong at Colt, her face hardened and unforgiving of him, warning him that neither of us could be trifled with.

On instinct, I bristled when I met Colt’s gaze. But burdened by all the pain we’d both suffered, our mate bond left us aching for union. We remained drawn to one another in spite of it all. I didn’t feel strong enough to resist it, especially when the dream impressed those blue eyes into my thoughts. “I’ll speak with him alone,” I decided.

“It’s fine. I can stay, really,” Billie insisted.

“That won’t be necessary.” I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood, staring with a warning of my own at my fated mate. “He’s not going to take anything else from me.”

Billie glanced at Colt, who nodded. He mustered a small smile for his adoptive sister, but she had yet to move past everything he had done and gave him little more than a cold look before heading for the door. “Call for us if you need something,” Billie advised.

I understood. Call for them if Colt tried anything.

When the door closed, it was just Colt and me in the bedroom. We stood before each other, once more at a stalemate, as we grappled with the urges of our fated bond.

I dared him to make the first move.