Chapter 55

Fifty-Five

FINN

Oberon built up the pyre. No one came. A dark wave of grief keeping them from leaving their homes. I didn’t realize it was me until Oberon stopped moving, dropping to his knees, gaze turning my way.

“Let me finish,” he said. “We need to set her free.”

I swallowed hard, and walked her to the bed of the pyre, setting her down and leaving. It took every bit of my strength to walk away. The pack could not mourn her until I eased the oppression of my grief, but no matter how my human heart tried, the pain welled up over and over. Marina had been not only a pack mate, but a mother figure to many. Me included.

How was I to let all this go?

I stalked away from the fire, letting myself wander aimlessly into the woods. The land welcomed the release of the emotions, absorbing the grief with a spit of fire and a fizzle that left everything scorched.

How many more would I fail? Why did I keep building a pack and a family, only to lose them all?

The beast overwhelmed me for a time, and I opened my eyes to find myself on the edge of the bridge near the deepest part of the river. Felix ran about in his wolf form, alone. Which I found strange. Where was Cassa?

Smoke spiraled through the trees, more than Marina’s funeral pyre. My pain having set the forest aflame, too. The beast slid away from my skin, leaving the mortal man, and Felix yipped at me, excited to see me. He raced around my feet, a rare glimpse of the child he could be when the wolf was in control. But my heart hammered as there was no sense of Cassa’s omega strength to help him.

“What happened?” I asked as if the toddler could answer. His skin glowed, a pulse of magic running beneath it I’d never seen on him before. He ran to the water’s edge and howled, gaze meeting mine. I dropped down at his side, running my hands over him, and finding his beast locked beneath a heavy layer of magic I couldn’t explain.

“Where’s momma?” I asked.

Felix turned back to human, the process faster than most full-grown wolves, but still taking a few minutes. His little toddler eyes filled with tears as he pointed toward his head and then the water.

“What?” Cassa was in the water? I hadn’t seen any sign of her. I got up and leapt into the river, fearing she’d been caught by the current. Beneath the surface a glimpse of dark hair made me swim toward the bottom. My heart in my throat as I raced toward it.

Cassa’s hair cascaded around her, arms floating free, gaze blank in death, expression peaceful. I screamed, air filling my lungs, and reached for her, needing to free her as though I could still save her. She didn’t budge.

Darkness popped around my vision, the lack of air, and water filling my lungs threatening to add me to her grave. Strong arms yanked me from the water, dragging me to the surface. I struggled, but broke the surface, gasping for air, to find Oberon dragging me to shore.

“No!” I flailed. “Cassa is down there.”

He dumped me unceremoniously on the shore, shoving me hard. “Stay there.”

“Cassa…” I whispered my heart breaking.

He dove into the water and it felt like forever before he came up, Cassa in his arms, limp and lifeless. Felix curled up by my side, little face tucked against me, his wail sounding more like a wolf than a child.

Oberon carried Cassa to me. I reached for her, finding a heavy set of chains broken but linked around her waist. Oberon’s hands were bloody, and he dropped down beside us, the scent of his grief wafting through the death.

“She’s already gone,” Oberon said as I tried to turn her over to free the water from her lungs. “Cold. Been gone awhile.”

My mind spun with a thousand ideas and confusion, trying to make sense of anything. “What? How? Why?”

Oberon captured Felix’s face and studied it. He gasped and looked back at Cassa. “Xander,” he said after a moment.

“Help me,” I begged him. How many times had I failed to save his lovers? Was this payback? I couldn’t stop the wheels of time, but Cassa hadn’t been at the end of hers. “Please.”

“Xander,” Oberon said, wrapping a firm arm around me. “She’s gone. She did this to herself.”

“No.”

“Yes. It looks like a spell.” He glanced at Felix. “To suppress the beast.”

“No!” I ripped myself away from them, howling as the beast demanded control and my wolf screamed inside.

“It looks like some sort of sacrifice spell to control Felix’s dark side, but I’ll have to search her belongings to see if there are notes. She’s gone.”

I snarled and reached for the baby monster I’d created. Oberon put himself between us, the claws of my beast going into his gut. He grunted but didn’t back down.

“If you need my death to alleviate your grief, my brother, then so be it.”

I screamed, fighting the beast and the wolf with the fragile remains of my broken human heart, demanding they not destroy my brother, too. Something splintered, a snap into darkness and I floated away into an icy dream of water, blood, and tears.