Chapter 109
Xander POV
She needs to control this, to begin accepting that it’s real and this is happening. I can’t help her if she continues to try to smother her magle, thinking it won’t matter when it clearly does. She doesn’t know about the crops yet, or that people are beginning to suspect it’s caused by her.
I keep hold of her hands, trying to hold her steady. Inside, though, I’m waiting for the shift, for the moment she lets go. I’m waiting for the first flicker of something to break through the walls she has built without even realising.
Her skin is still warm against mine, but the heat has dulled now from an unbearable heat to something just shy of a fever. When she woke, it shifted, it disappeared like it knew she was going to take control.
Her eyes are closed now, her lashes trembling against her cheeks, and she breathes slowly and shallowly. I can tell she’s focused, trying to reach that thing that exists beneath everything else.
“Good,” I murmur, keeping my voice quiet as I try to reassure her that she is doing well, and she is, just trying is a big step right now. “You don’t have t force it, Serafine, just breathe, and let it rise itself.”
Nothing seems to be happening, but I wait, I don’t push because pushing her will make her try to force it which could make it hide more.
Suddenly, I feel it, a ripple beneath her skin. It’s like a current of energy almost, it’s not aimed anywhere though. It just hums low in her blood, and is sluggish at first, then it becomes sharper, it quickens and it feels like a heartbeat thundering away.
She twitches her fingers against mine, and her lips part slightly as if she now feels it, her head tilts forward slightly.
“I feel something,” she whispers, and it’s barely audible.
“That’s it,” I say, leaning closer. “Don’t chase it, don’t pull it, let it come to you.”
The air begins to thicken again, and a faint scent of wildflowers blooms stronger in the room, the magic is coming back stronger this time, but it’s untamed, even I can feel that it’s not tamed. The hairs on the back of my neck rise and around us the candle flames begin to bend inward. I look and see the wax shivering in place, and the windows begin to fog again. The condensation streaks the glass as the room tightens under the weight of the magic.
“Xander-” Her voice cracks.
“Stay with me, it’s fine, just stay, keep it,” I say quickly, but she’s already pulling back, shaking her head as her hands jerk from mine. She needs to do this, she needs to focus on it, accept this will happen and learn how to tether it to herself!
“I can’t, it’s too much and I can feel it, it’s slipping-” Her voice rises, eyes flying open, wide and wild. “I’m not holding it, I can’t hold it, or change it, it’s moving on its own.”
The bed creaks as she scrambles away from me, she wraps her arms around her chest like she’s trying to hold it in her. Her entire body pulses with the energy of the magic now. I can still hear it, like a second heartbeat beneath her skin, trying desperately to break free.
A loud sound has me turn and I see a wooden chair in the corner splinter and break as a vase topples down and shatters to the floor, even though no one is near.
It’s not safe in here, she’s not safe to do this in here.
I rise instantly, and reach my hands out in front of me, trying to be calm but firm. “Serafine, you need space. This place, this room anywhere inside right now, is not where you should be until you’ve got it controlled.”
There’s no argument from her, she nods frantically, her eyes filling with tears as she stands up and grips the edge of the window frame. Her knuckles are white from the force. The air begins to crackle around her like a thunderstorm about to break.
“Outside,” she gasps. “I can’t be here, I need to go outside, away from the house, away from everyone.”
1/3
She panics as she cries, the words landing like knives in my chest. I don’t argue, but I don’t like it either. I want to stay with her but to stay with her outside means taking Eryx, I can’t leave him alone in the pack house with me outside.
I want to help her though, guard her from whatever this power is until she can fix it, I can see the desperation in her eyes now though, the fear the has of hurting someone, of being seen like this.
“Okay go, I will make sure no one comes,” I say as I move toward her. “You will be alone, go south through the threes, just beyond the tree line. The patrols there don’t switch for hours so no one will be passing by.” It’s the safest place for her to be right now, it’s the only place that I can think of that she
can go to.
Nodding quickly, her expression flickers between fear and resolve. “Thank you, don’t leave Eryx.”
She doesn’t wait after that, she moves quickly, still barefoot and shaking, disappearing through the corridor before anyone else can see her. I don’t follow, I let her go, I’ll do the one thing that she asked me to. I’ll keep Eryx with me until she returns.
For a moment, t stare at the doorway, I stand here for a long moment after she’s gone, until the silence settles and the air begins to calm again. The candles steady and the magic disappears.
Turning I focus on what I need to do, I walk through the pack house and head for the war room, on the walk I knock at at door and the maid smiles.
Taking Eryx from her, I gesture for her to follow, and she does.
Getting back into the war room, I stand at the table where the reports are still spread out. Each page that arrives is another confirming more bad news. The last one we had was Twinpine’s outer fields, which are gone. Blackened, dry and lifeless.
Everyone is talking about the strange and sudden decay that’s spreading in a pattern that makes no logical sense. It skips borders, but weaves through territories like it’s hunting for something, or maybe someone?
The crops aren’t dying from nature. Rubbing a hand across my jaw, my skin feels raw now, from the length of time I was sat in the magic. It hadn’t meant to be malicious but it was reaching out. Now that I’ve felt it stirring, wild in her bones, I can’t shake the sense that whatever is happening beyond our lands, is connected to whatever this magic is that’s awakening within her.
I should call for another round of scouts to survey the western edge, that’s’an area that can also be checked, but hasn’t yet. The door slams open and Garrick barrels in, his hair is wind–swept and he’s half armored. His face is pale beneath the sharp lines of his jaw.
“Alpha,” he says, voice hard with urgency, if he’s addressing me as Alpha, it’s bad. “We’ve had a breach.”
I don’t move, I nod, needing to hear the rest before I plan our approach to stopping it.
“Where?”
“South part. The Hawthorne clearing.”
My stomach drops, that’s close they are nearly at the second border which isn’t manned.
My hands curl into fists. “That’s the stretch near the river, right?” I ask, just to confirm before I panic.
“Yes, it is,” Garrick says, he’s already moving to the map and pointing out the place where the border things. “But the breach wasn’t physical, there’s no fight, no blood, the warding stones are shattered, and the air around the whole area feels burned clean.
I move, handing Eryx to the maid, my jaw clenches and my heart pounds. “That’s where Serafine is,” I snap.
Garrick’s eyes widen. “Alone?”
I don’t answer him, because I’m already gone.
