Chapter 16

Sixteen

"There are no do-overs in life. No amount of magic, power, money, wishing, or praying can change what has already happened. Once you've acted, it's done. You have to live with the consequences or hope you die quickly if those consequences are too much." ~Jewel

Five minutes prior…

"M om?" Jewel gasped as she watched a woman step out of the portal. Shadows danced around her. The woman tilted her head, her eyes glowing an eerie green. Jewel thought the woman resembled her mother, but at the same time, she didn't. Her skin was too pale, her hair thin and lacking luster, and she moved as if her limbs didn't quite understand their purpose. "What is this?" Jewel turned to look at Celise, her heart feeling like it was going to leap out of her throat.

"Your mom." Celise pointed back to the portal as four more women emerged. These certainly didn't look like Jewel's mom. They wore black dresses and appeared to float as they moved closer to Celise. Their hair was long, blowing back from their faces—two had light blonde hair, another had brown, and the last had hair of pitch-black. "Sisters," the sprite crooned.

The four sprite women looked around. The one with black hair turned to Celise. "What have you done?"

Celise frowned. "I brought you back. Perizada killed you before it was your time, and I brought you back." She pointed to herself.

The four women seemed to consider this, and then the brown-haired one smiled. "Nice. You've grown powerful while we've been gone." The others nodded.

"I've got the Nushtonia ," Celise said. "It has so much more than any of us ever realized. And now, I'm going to use it to take care of those who deserve our wrath."

"Are you going to kill them?" one of the blondes asked.

Celise tapped her chin. "I haven't yet decided. The first step is to get them all here, or at least the most powerful ones."

"How are you planning to do that?" Black Hair asked.

Celise pointed at Jewel. "I have incentive for them to cooperate."

Jewel nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a rough hand on her arm. She turned and saw that her mom—or the thing that looked sort of like her mom—had walked up to her and was touching her. "Who are you?" the woman's voice rasped, rough from lack of use. She smelled of ash and dirt.

"It's me, Mom. Jewel." Jewel was torn between the urge to embrace the woman and the desire to step away.

The woman smiled, revealing razor-sharp teeth. Jewel covered her mouth with her hand as a squeak escaped. "This isn't my mom." The healer stepped back and looked at Celise.

The sprite shrugged. "Sure it is. I never said she'd be exactly as she was before. Death is hard on a person. What were you expecting?"

Jewel motioned to the other sprites. "Why do they look normal?"

Celise's smile turned cruel. "Because they matter." She laughed. "This is just a shadow of your mother's soul. A shell."

Jewel's mom—or her shell, whatever it was—stepped toward her again. There was so much pain in her dark eyes. "I shouldn't be here," she told Jewel. "This isn't right. I can feel that you were important, but I don't belong here. This … hurts."

Tears streamed down Jewel's face. "I'm sorry, Mom. I just… I miss you. I miss you so damn much."

Her mom's hand touched her face. It was gentle, but not the touch she remembered. "You have to let me go."

"Enough," Celise snapped. "Jewel, catch."

Jewel turned just in time to catch the phone Celise had thrown at her. "Call that mate of yours. Let him hear that you're alive and unhurt. Then give me the phone."

"What are you going to do?" Dread built inside Jewel. Her mom moved to her side, a hand still on Jewel's arm.

"That's not your concern. Make the damn call." The harshness of the words was like a slap across the face.

Before she tried to make the call, Jewel pulled on her magic, hoping to flash herself out of there, but no such luck.

"Good try at whatever you just attempted," Celise laughed. "Did you honestly think I wouldn't bind your magic?"

It was worth a try . Her hands shook while she looked up Dalton's number. She hesitated briefly before hitting the call button. The selfish part of her wanted to hear his voice, even if it was just one last time.

"Jewel?"

She closed her eyes as his voice washed over her. She could practically feel it in her veins, the warmth of the bond she'd let slip open a bit. "Please don't hate me." Jewel shivered and her voice trembled.

"I could never hate you," Dalton said softly. "Never."

"Whatever she tells you to do, promise me you won't do it." Her voice grew stronger. She needed to know that no one would come to harm because of her foolish choices.

"I can't do that, Little Dove. You know I can't."

"Dammit, Dalton. I fucked up," she snapped. Jewel never cussed, not like that, but she needed him to understand how serious the situation was. "Nothing is worth what Celise will do. Not even me."

"Give me the phone," Celise demanded.

"Jew—" She heard Dalton's voice as the phone flew from her hand straight into Celise's.

A hand wrapped around Jewel's, and she looked down. The ghostly, zombie-like figure of her mom was still there, trying to comfort her.

"You have to let me go," her mom repeated.

"I don't know what that means," Jewel gritted out. "You're my mother. I can never let you go."

"Listen carefully, Dalton Black," Celise said, drawing Jewel's attention. "You will do exactly as I say, and you will do it in the timeframe I give you. For every minute you're late, I will cut your precious Jewel. She will bleed out slowly for every minute of your hesitation. Starting now."

Jewel wasn't prepared for the slash across her cheek, and she let out a sharp hiss.

"You haven't even told me what you wanted," Jewel heard Dalton bellow through the phone.

Celise cackled, and the insanity of the sound terrified Jewel. "But now you know I'm serious."

"Don't do it, Dalton," Jewel yelled. "Please!" Another slice down her neck made her lift her hand to cover the wound as blood slipped down. "Ow!" It wasn't deep, but it hurt like hell.

"Fane and all his closest members. I'm not just talking about his closest wolves," Celise said. "I'm talking about all the mated fae, the elf king and his female, the warlock queen and the traitor she took in with his mate and son, her general and his mate, the djinn and his white witch and all their offspring, and Andora. I want you all here, and you know exactly who I'm talking about. Anyone I don't see means a slash to your female. If Perizada and her beast aren't here, I will cut Jewel's heart out of her chest while you watch, until the light fades from your eyes."

"DON'T DO IT," Jewel screamed. Not the children. Bloody hell, not the precious babies. What had she done? Her mom's hand squeezed hers, meant to be comforting and, to a degree, it was. But it was also strange, a reminder of how she'd gotten herself and those she loved into this complete disaster.

"I'm feeling generous, so you have ten minutes," Celise said. "Then I start carving up Little Dove."

Celise ended the call and set the phone on the rock table where the book and all her other supplies remained.

The storm around Jewel was just background noise now. The rain was nothing. Thunder roared and lightning lit up the sky. The best thing that could happen would be for lightning to strike her dead because then Celise would lose her bargaining chip. She knew her mate. Dalton would never leave her behind. And she also knew Peri. The high fae wouldn't back down, either.

"Shit, shit, shit," she hissed. Jewel spoke multiple languages, but that was the only word she could think of.

"If it makes you feel any better," Celise waved her hand nonchalantly, "I'm not going to kill them—not exactly."

"What does ‘not exactly' mean?"

"I won't touch them." Celise held up her hands. "None of their blood will be on my hands. I will, however, make their lives the living hell that Perizada made mine when she took my sisters from me. I will make sure they all feel the emptiness I have endured—the separation and loneliness of having your world ripped away. Those closest to you who know your pain, your joy, your likes and dislikes—they will understand with complete clarity what it is like to live without them."

Jewel's eyes widened as the words sank in. What exactly was the sprite saying?

Celise shook her head. "Death is too easy for them. I will not gift them that."

"G et Decebel and his crew here now," Dalton snarled. The whole group had heard the conversation through the speakerphone. "Thad, Jezebel, Myanin, Gerick…" Dalton kept naming people, going through every person that Celise meant.

"We heard her," Peri said. "We'll get them here. Disir, Dain, Adam, and Elle are on it."

Dalton watched as the sprite queen walked over, joining the group. She looked tired. "I have no idea if we can fight her," she said solemnly. "With the Nushtonia , and all the evil she's been gathering…" She shook her head. "I just don't know."

"We'll worry about that when we get there." Fane looked at his watch. "One minute. We've got nine left."

Suddenly, fae started flashing in with people and the group grew. Dalton's mind raced as he pushed on the bond again. Finally, she gave him an inch. He could feel her. Her emotions flooded him and nearly drove him to his knees. His precious, foolish mate. Dalton felt the darkness in her, but it wasn't ruling her. She'd been controlling it, letting some of it slip out when she needed, but there was only light guiding her actions. And now, there was complete despair.

"Does someone want to explain why the hell I was interrupted while ripping out a perfectly rotten vampire heart?" Jen's voice rose above everyone else's.

"Momma hell!" Thia squealed.

"It's just Momma, you little hellion." Jen scooped up her daughter.

Fane jumped up on a table so he could see above everyone, and Dalton joined him. This was his mate. And he needed to be the one to explain as much as he could.

Suddenly he felt a push, and Jewel was there. His hand shot to his chest as her voice filled his mind. "She promised me she'd bring back my mom. It was stupid. I should have known better. I mean, I'm a damn genius, and regardless of magic, dead is dead. But I've just been missing her so much. I'd be okay and then it would just hit me out of nowhere that I wanted my mom. I don't know why, and I felt stupid because it's not like she died yesterday. It's been a while. I should have processed it by now. And I didn't want to burden you with it, or anyone because, hell, look at all the crap going down. Me missing my mom is the freaking least of our worries. But I did, and Celise said she could do it, that I just needed to help her with the spell, and my gullible ass believed her, and now I'm going to get all of you killed because I'm stupid, and I want you to stop. Don't come. Please, if you care about me at all, you won't come."

Dalton growled. "You done?"

"I don't know. I'm sure I have more to say, but I'm distracted."

"Jewel." Dalton savored her name on his lips and the feel of their bond being open. "Pack doesn't leave anyone behind. No. One. Ever. For any reason. We are coming. We will face Celise and whatever evil plan she has, and we will deal with the consequences. Either in this life or the next. Now, let me focus. I'll see you in a few minutes." He didn't want to stop talking to her, but Fane was speaking, and Dalton needed to hear what was being said.

"Maxim, you and yours stay here. Lizzy, you and Finn as well. She doesn't know about you. Let's not put you on her radar. As far as I'm concerned, she's not talking about any of the other packs. But I do think she's speaking about the healers." Fane looked at each of them. "We have no idea what her plan is, whether to kill us all or something else. So we go with this core group, and we face it head on."

Dalton looked out at them, his eyes filling with tears. "Thank you." He choked on the words.

"No thanks are needed." Kara spoke up. "Jewel would do it for us in a heartbeat. She has done it for us. She has sacrificed for us. And we will do it for her."

Dalton glanced down at the healer's stomach, which now was slightly rounded. His heart shredded a little more. If they came out of this alive, Jewel might never recover from putting her family, her pack, in this position. "I'm sorry about the pups," Dalton said, because he didn't know what else to say.

"Titus and I will stay close to the younger ones," Torion, Skender and Tenia's boy said. His voice sure and strong.

"Have you seen something?" Tenia leaned towards him. "Drawn something?"

Torion stared at his mother for several seconds. "Nothing clear. I just know we need to stay together."

"You hear that, Thia?" Jen asked "You stay near Torion and Tie. Got it?"

Thia nodded. "Who hell Tor?"

"That's your future—" Titus started, but Jen cut him off.

"He's a fae kid that's older than you and gets to boss you around. Until you're grown. Then you can give him hell."

Decebel groaned. "We're going to have to have a serious discussion about our parenting styles."

"She says you have one minute," Jewel said slowly.

"Where are you?"

She sent him the image in his mind and then he jumped down and touched each fae, sharing the image with them. Each of them placed a hand somewhere on one of the fae, and everyone was quiet for a second before Fane roared.

"FOR THE PACK."