Claiming His Witch (21 page)

“By the Goddess, Amber. What did you do?”

Not when Rebel yelled out his confusion.

“What the fuck happened? Spook never touched him.”

Not even when Beast’s roar of anguish made the ground shake beneath my knees.

“No.” I kept my eyes pinned to his chest. Praying. Chanting. Begging.
 

Just a breath. A single movement of air. That was all I needed to see. All I wished for.

A crack formed inside of me. A deep, dark chasm of pain and loss.

Louder, more angry. Malevolent. Violent in its destruction.
 

“No.”

Clawing and pulling; ripping my soul apart as it separated me from Pup.

“No!”

I scrambled to my feet. Running, sliding in the dirt as I finally reached his side. He was so still. I turned him over. Brought his head to my lap. With shaking hands, I wiped the dirt from his face. He shouldn’t be covered in dirt.
 

“No, no, no.”

But no matter how many times I chanted the word, no matter how much I didn’t want to believe it, I knew. I knew deep down inside where only Pup had ever been. Knew like the waves knew the shore. Knew with a certainty that made me tremble.

Pup was gone.
 

The thread between us had broken in a most brutal fashion. The magick of my family ripping us apart. The force of our separating causing our bond to fray the full length of my half. Leaving what was left of my soul tattered. Damaged.
 

Irreparable.
 

“What happened to him?” Rebel knelt beside me, holding his hands over Pup as if he didn’t know what to do. And he probably didn’t. I didn’t. Magick had killed my soul mate, and I had no idea how to bring him back.

I didn’t speak, didn’t answer him. Didn’t feel the need. I knew my sister had done this. I knew the loss of my Pup was due to my family and our magick. I knew I’d probably never find the strength to forgive her. And I’d be damned if I was going to be the one to tell anyone what happened.
 

“Zuri?”

“It’s my fault.”

“Fix it.”

Voices danced around me, a cacophony of sound assaulting me, but I lent them no credence. Words no longer mattered. There were none to bring him back, none to pull him away from the afterlife. Words had no value to me. Nothing did.

“I thought he was attacking Rebel.”

“Why did you use that spell?”

“Fix it.”

Burning in the agony of being ripped in two, my soul curled inward. The pain spread. Fanning out from a center point, rolling over everything in its way. Nothing to stop it. Nothing to soothe it. Nothing left. Nothing.

“What the hell is that?”

“It’s Zuri. Her grief is causing a storm to build.”

Black. Tied around his wrist. The headband I’d knotted. A spell I’d trusted. But it hadn’t been enough. Childish string magick couldn’t ward off an attack the likes of which Amber had dealt.
 

Huge tears fell from my face, wetting Pup’s chest as I bent over him. Trying to hold them back. My efforts in vain. Dropping my forehead to his chest, I sobbed. Great, gasping breaths rocked me. My cries matched by the scream of the wind through the trees. My tears met with a deluge of rain. Mother Nature mourned with me, wailing her pain as I did mine. Exploding in the agony we shared. I welcomed her. Welcomed her energy around me. Welcomed her anger and her violence, her pain and her loss. For hers couldn’t even begin to compare with mine.

“Why is she doing this?”

“He’s her red thread, Amber. You destroyed half of her soul right in front of her. What would you expect her to do?”

“By the Gods, she’s going to flood the whole town.”

Stabbing, violent pain washed over me, dragging me under a wave of darkness and grief. There was nothing left. Nothing. My family had served me the ultimate betrayal. My Pup was gone to the Summerlands without me. And my magick couldn’t bring him back. I had nothing. Nothing but the wind and the rain and the waves. Drowning me in pain. Pulling what was left of my soul in an undertow of grief.
 

“Fix it.”

“I didn’t know.”

“Fix it!”

Silence. Beast’s pain-filled roar making even Mother Nature pause in her destructive mourning. Breaking through to me, making me take notice of those around me. One breath, two. Then Amber’s hoarse whisper.

“I don’t know how.”

Suddenly, there was someone by my side. Warm and familiar, she grabbed my hand and whispered words that made sense to some part of my brain. Words of healing and renewal. The prayer of a faith so very different from mine.

“He’s gone.” I choked, wailing to the winds again. They wailed back just as loud, the tears of their grief mixing with mine.

“I know.” Charlotte put her arm around my shoulder, offering the comfort of her touch.
 

Beast sank to his knees across from me, eyes so vibrant they nearly glowed. “Bring him back.”

I met his gaze, both of us tortured with grief, neither ready to let go.

“I can’t.”
 

My heart nearly stopped as I admitted my failing. I was no necromancer, no woman able to raise the dead from their graves or communicate with spirits. No witch with the power to control multiple elements at once. I was just Zuri, Azurine Weaver, water witch. I held no dominion over death.

“You have to.” Beast looked down at Pup, an aching sadness sliding over his face. “He’s my boy, my family. You need to bring him back.”

“I don’t know how.”

We stared, mirroring our suffering to the other. I’d lost my love, my heart, my soul—Beast had lost the boy he saw as his family, his brother, his son. Two very different types of pain, both completely and utterly overwhelming.

“Beast, what are you…” Rebel paused, watching as Beast pulled Pup’s head from my lap.

“I’m not giving up on him now.” Beast turned Pup’s still form, exposing the back of his neck. “I fixed him once.”

“That was a changing bite. I don’t think—”

Amber sank down beside me, reaching out to touch Pup’s shoulder. “Let me try to fix it, Zuri. I know I fucked up; I didn’t know he was your thread. Please let me try.”

“Three witches and a werewolf.” Scarlett joined us in the dirt and mud, sitting beside Pup’s knees. “If this wasn’t so dire, it’d make one hell of a good joke.”

“If this works, I’m totally going to expect you to tell me it later, Zippo.” Beast dropped his head back and spread his arms wide, looking to the sky as he released a growl. One I’d never heard before. Louder, fuller, and deeper, this growl warned the world about the strength of the person performing it.
 

His body shook as fur began to sprout. Black covering the painted skin, tattoos disappearing. His mouth lengthening almost to a snout. His ears moving up the sides of his head. Grotesque yet beautiful, unbelievable yet close enough to touch. He stopped shifting when he was at what appeared to be the halfway point. Half human, half wolf. Reeking of power and something that felt very much like magick.

“We have to work together.” Scarlett scooted closer, barely able to keep her eyes off the wolf-man in our midst. “Amber, you start.”

I sat back on my heels, fingers wrapped tightly around the black failure circling his wrist, the pull of my grief too heavy to fight. Meanwhile, my sisters worked in concert. Scarlett’s fire magick warmed me and blanketed Pup. I could hear the wind turn as Amber directed it. Even the pull of my water magick—the swirling, pulsing waves of it—made itself known. My fingers itched to do…something. Cast, call, spell. But it was no use. My soul was torn, damaged beyond repair with the death of my thread. Not even magick could fix that. I sank into my grief, crying as my body shook.

But then a slap knocked me to the side.

“Bitch, help us.” Scarlett stared at me, her eyes bright. And soaking wet. All around me, rain fell in a downpour that drowned the land and made it impossible to see more than a few feet. But where Pup and I rested—in the center of this chaos—was a perfect little circle of dryness. The eye of my storm.
 

“What can we do?” I swallowed as I looked down on Pup’s body. I wanted to touch him, to run my fingers over his skin and feel the way his muscles twitched. But I knew he’d be still if I reached for him. Cold. Gone.

I curled my hands in my lap.

“I’m going to have to bite him, Zuri.” Beast held Pup still, his hands on either side of his head to expose the back of his neck. “It’s how I turned him from human to wolf shifter. He was almost dead; I didn’t know…” His voice trailed off, his eyes going to Pup’s still form. “It worked last time.”

The wind picked up, Amber chanting under her breath and spreading her fingers over Pup’s back. Over his lungs.
 

“Amber?” Scarlett said, looking to our sister.
 

“I’m trying, I swear I’m trying, but the air won’t go.”

As my sisters chanted, focusing their magick on my fallen soul mate; as Beast growled and bent over Pup’s neck; as Rebel and Charlotte gripped my shoulders, offering me the only support they could; I surrendered. Gave up. Let go.

Leaning over Pup, my forehead brushing Beast’s shoulder, I kissed the cheek of my dead lover.

“Wait in the Summerlands for me.” A breath in, a tear, a final goodbye. “I love you, Adam. I always will.”

Darkness. Silence. I floated in a void. A world of nothing. No sensory input, no feeling, no anything.

I’d always thought death would be an ending. Not some pop culture version of Heaven or Hell, no angels singing or pearly gates, no devils and flames. I assumed, when death came for me, it’d be lights-out. No more Adam. No more consciousness.

But I was aware. Awake.
 

And scared.

“No.”

Zuri’s voice tickled my ears, a whisper in the roar of the silence surrounding me. She sounded so lost, so broken. I wanted to find her, to seek her out and comfort her. But there was too much nothing to move. To fight. I floated on.

“No.”

Maybe this was my own version of Hell. Again and again, she repeated her denial, her voice growing louder and more pained. The blackness smothered my sounds, ate my words. I was lost, listening to her grief with no way to help her. To comfort her. Her voice ripped my heart apart, shredding it with every no. Killing me syllable by syllable.
 

“He’s gone.”

Light. Blinding in its intensity. My feet on solid ground, a wind blowing across my skin. I shaded my eyes with my hand and looked around the world that had appeared out of nothing.
 

Grassy hills rolled on as far as I could see, meeting a perfect cornflower blue sky at the horizon. Winds swept across the sea of green, bending the blades, creating waves of dark and light. No buildings marred the landscape; no roads cut through the verdant fields; no signs of people on the oddly vibrant land.
 

Until I turned.

“I can’t”

She stood only a few feet away, her long, dark hair blowing in the breeze. Beautiful, she could have been an older version of my mate. They shared the same almond-shaped jade eyes, the deep golden complexion that spoke of a Latin heritage. Her pink lips tipped up in a smile, one so familiar, it made my heart ache to see it. To see the single dimple appear in her cheek.

“Welcome to the Summerlands, Pup of the Feral Breed. I am Ximena Weaver.” Her voice was soft and kind, something about it making me feel at peace. At least for a moment.

“Where’s Zuri?”

Ximena cocked her head, appraising me, black hair falling over her shoulder in shiny waves. “She’s back in the realm of your existence, of course. Her heart still beats. But yours does not.”

“I want to go back.” My voice came out slightly hoarse, my words choked.

“Yes, I imagine so. It wasn’t quite your time, was it, young one? My daughters made a few mistakes.”
 

She looked over my shoulder, making me turn. Across the field, three small girls played in the grass. Each one beautiful, looking so much like the woman before me that there was no doubt as to who they were.
 

“I don’t know how.”

Ximena smiled at the children as they laughed. “My girls were blessed with the power of the elements before they ever took their first breaths, but that power comes with responsibilities.”

I watched as the young girl who looked like my Zuri raced in a circle, grabbing the hand of the smallest girl. Zuri and Scarlett, together even in this odd place.

“What responsibility does magick require?”

“Equality.” Ximena watched as two girls played and the third looked our way. “Magick must have balance. It must be equal on all sides. Azurine and Scarlett are balanced against each other. Fire and water, opposite powers that keep the other in check. But my Amber…”

The third girl roamed closer, skipping through the grass in a zigzag pattern. Ximena grinned as the girl came closer, her face a perfect picture of motherly love.

“Amber is a powerful air witch, but she is unbalanced. I left the girls with Sarah Bishop so my oldest daughter would have a chance to grow up with an earth witch, to balance against the power of the mother. But Sarah’s time is up. Already, we wait for her arrival. And when she goes, Amber will be alone. Unbalanced. Dangerous.”

The little girl who must have been child Amber walked right up to me, eyes wide and pink lips turning up in a smile. Another Weaver woman with an adorable dimple hidden behind small smiles and tan cheeks.

“She knows you.” Ximena’s voice was soft, a quiet declaration filled with hope. “Amber feels your innate earth power.”

I frowned as Amber reached for my hand, her little fingers gripping my larger ones. “I’m not a witch.”

“What do we do?”

“No, but you carry the wolf within. Spirit of the earth and consort to earth witches. You have the ability to ground Amber. Keep her safe. Keep her balanced.”

Amber grinned, showing me a bright smile that made my heart begin to melt.

“But Zuri’s my mate,” I whispered. Confusion made me quiet, kept my voice hostage.