Sixpence & Whiskey (14 page)

“You,” he spits in Jack’s direction, “have sworn not to come on my lands.”

“True enough.” Jack gives a thin smile. My eyes dart from one man to the other, not sure what to make of this. “But you’re going to give me a dispensation, as this is a special case. Where are the wolves, Kivistö?” Jack’s voice is hard.

Georg shrugs, heading back into the woods. “I don’t give a shit. Get off my land.
They
have a goddamn ‘dispensation,’ but you don’t.
Either
of you.”

“They took Syana, Georg!” I can’t help it, my voice breaks as I watch him go. “And …
Carly
.”

The bruin’s massive back goes taut. He whirls, his face paling under that perpetual golden tan. His brown eyes flicker from me to Jack and back. His voice cracks. “I didn’t know, Seph. Luna asked for safe passage through our lands to make a run up to Michigan. She said she was only doing it to avoid a confrontation with you.”

“And you believed her?” Jack’s voice is cold.

“Why the hell wouldn’t I?” Georg answers him, looking only at me. “Plus, I owed her—Luna was the one that pulled me from the harbor that night with Jett. I never thought…Sephie. You know I’d never deliberately put Carly in harm’s way.”

I just stand there, feeling sick. So, Luna was in on all of it. As one of the alphas, I knew she had to be, but hearing it confirmed…
shit
. My head feels like it’s splitting in two, torn between raw fear and growing fury. How dare she. No matter what went down with her father and my mother, laying hands on my sister is beyond the fucking pale.

I believe Georg about not knowing what the pack was up to, but I don’t want excuses right now. There’s only one thing I want to hear. “Will you help us find her?”

In answer, he turns back to the forest and roars. And I do mean
roars
. All around us the pines shed their coat of winter white in a flurry of sparkles as the sound ripples over the forested hills. Georg’s shoulders ripple, too, the broad expanse of naked muscle bursting apart into thick golden brown fur, and growing even wider and taller. Jack stands his ground, but pulls me in closer. When the shift is complete, Georg is at least nine feet tall and almost half that wide.

Two other bears are rambling down from the dark tree line now, both reddish in color. The twins. They catch up to an enormous black—Stephen—already halfway down the hill. Seeing them eases some of the panic in my chest. I’ve known all of them since I was a child. This is their territory; if the wolves are still here, the bruins will find them.

I clench Carly’s blood-stained scarf in my hands and shudder. Jack brushes his lips over the top of my head. It’s wrong how comforting that feels, but I can’t protect myself from Jack right now. All the energy I have has to be put into finding Sy and Carly.

The bruins race forward. Jack ignores the Fiat, tucking me against his side to join them.

Georg and his crew are far from slow, lumbering creatures. Normal bears are plenty quick when they want to be, and shifters are even quicker.  Though of course none of them can beat Jack in a hurry. Even though he tones it down for my sake, we are neck and neck with Georg in seconds. One of my palms is pressed flat against Jack’s chest. I can feel the steady pump of his heart as he runs. There’s only the slightest increase in beats, even as trees, fields and farmhouses start to flash past in a vertigo-inducing haze. Great swirling slices of white and grey, green and brown. Forest quickly overtakes all.

We finally stop on a bluff overlooking a long empty beach. Or almost empty. At the far end, I can see figures milling in the bright light of the full moon. Some upright and slender, others husky and low to the ground. Whines and snuffles reach my ears, faint over the lapping of dark water against ice and rock.

The wolves.

23

“Before
we do this, I need to speak to Seph for a minute—alone.”

To my surprise, Jack doesn’t protest Georg’s low command. He just steps away, giving a short nod, before turning back to Rochie, who showed up at one word from Jack, but pretended she hadn’t seen me in years. I went with it, because honestly, I don’t give a shit about one fairy and her secrets at this point. Stephen is huddled with them, in human form at the moment, going over the strategy we agreed on one last time. The two redheads are already gone, moving into place. Rochie will join them shortly.

We’ve established the bones of a plan. The bruins say Syana is down there on the beach, with over a dozen wolves. Rochie is going in to help Ajax and Dominic grab her while the rest of us keep Owen and the bulk of the pack’s attention. Once the redheads have Sy, they’ll let Georg know—the bruin way, via mind speak.

No one is sure where Carly is. Ajax, who did the recon along with Dominic and supposedly has the best nose of the bruins, took her scent from the scarf. He admitted that he smelled her, but her trail disappeared at the water’s edge, somewhere well behind the wolves’ current position.

Jack and Georg almost took his head off for telling me that, but I appreciated the honesty. It makes for a nice change—even if it made me even sicker with worry for my sister. I keep telling myself that Carly is a fully realized witch, and it’d take more than drowning to do her in. I have to put my sister out of my mind; Syana is definitely the more fragile here. We’ll get her free—then we’ll find out where the hell Carly is. I will myself to believe it’ll work out as I follow Georg through moonlit night.

He leads me into a copse of snow-drenched pine just a few feet off. It’s so cold out here; dark, quiet and peaceful. But my heart hasn’t stopped pounding since Thomas’s text.

“You do believe me, right?”

I do. It’s hard to accept Luna pulled this shit, and I can tell Georg doesn’t want to either, but neither of us can ignore the obvious.
Goddamn you, sunshine.

“Of course I do. I know you’d never put Carly in harm’s way—or Sy for that matter.”

Those brown eyes crinkle around the edges briefly, then tighten again. He takes a deep breath.

“This isn’t about your sister or Syana.”

“I know. Jack told me everything.”

“I highly doubt that SOB told you everything,” he bites out, “but the wolves mean to kill you, and they’re not the only ones.”

Georg obviously expects more of a response to this, but I’m too busy pondering something that just hit me. “Exactly how long have you known about this bullshit, Georg?”

His smile is faintly bitter. “I got the head’s up you could be in serious danger last summer. Right around the Fourth of July.”

The day before he got down on one knee. “Who told you?”

He shakes his head. “Can’t tell you that, sorry.”

Of course not. “I don’t fucking believe your sneaky bruin ass! Your whole proposal thing was just a way to try and protect me, wasn’t it?”

He smiles for real this time, all white teeth and charm, deepening the dimple in his chin. “I’m not quite that altruistic, Sephie. I think being married to you would come with a lot of perks. But I might’ve been a little less…insistent if I hadn’t been so worried.”

“Why not just
tell
me what was going on?” Fucking alpha males. After years around women, I’m surrounded by testosterone. It’s threatening to choke me.

“I didn’t want you to know about this crap.” For the first time he looks uncomfortable …and angry. “Inside the Den, it wouldn’t have mattered.”

“So you planned to keep me in a cage?”

His mouth tightens. “Better a cage than death.”

“Sure about that, are you? What if it were you being imprisoned?”

“Is that what I am, Seph? A prison?” His tone is light, but I can feel the pain beneath it.

“Dammit, Georg. Of course not.” I look at him and memories pound at me. Georg laughing at me from the tree in our back yard when we were kids, the two of us swimming naked in the big lake many years later, freezing our asses off, but laughing like a couple of loons before coming together after and warming up…

Georg has been in my life a long damn time, longer than Jack. Always there. Annoying me, making me happy and pissing me off. I can see his face in a thousand different memories that make me smile. “I love you, you idiot. Just not…”

“Not like him, eh?”

I shake my head, unable to speak.

Georg looks at me, and his brown eyes are sad. “I don’t want you hurt. And he’ll hurt you, Seph.”

“It’s what he does.” I give him a weak smile. “I’m almost used to it by now.”

He looks like he wants to say more, but instead Georg takes a deep breath and offers me his arm. As we head back to the others, I have to ask. “Do you believe it, about the crowns and all, about
me
going psycho?”

“Shit, no. I mean, the magic bit—maybe. But you causing some form of hell on earth or whatever?
No way.
You’re a lot of things, Seph, but wicked witch isn’t your style. Doesn’t matter what I think, though. Not when so many hard-asses think otherwise.
The Dark Council
, for fuck’s sake. Even if you had married me, I don’t know if I could have kept you safe—not anymore. Shit is really hitting the fan.”

He won’t look at me, but I can see his eyes glittering as he peers down at the lake below.

Impulsively, I go to my toes to kiss his cheek. “Thank you, Georg. For at least having a reason for being such a bastard. Even if it was a bullshit one.”

He manages a wink, but I see him swallow.

“And thanks for helping us out here. I know you made an oath to the wolves.” Georg is risking a lot by standing with us, but I know him too well to expect anything less.

“Fuck my oath. Carly must be so scared,” he breathes, almost to himself as his eyes go back over the water.

“Carly isn’t weak. She’ll be fine.” I say this to bolster my own failing spirits, but Georg gives me a look.

“She also isn’t you, Persephone.” There’s a tone in his voice that I can’t place, but that feels almost like an accusation. I blink at him and he sighs, patting my hand on his arm with one big paw.

“Never mind, I’m just worried. You’re right, she’ll be fine,” his voices hardens, “but those wolves aren’t gonna be.”

“No,” I say as we head back, glad Georg and I are in agreement about one thing. “They won’t.” The pack is gonna pay for messing with my family. And by the Horned One, if Luna is down there….

Well, I don’t want to think of what might happen if my childhood friend and I run into each other tonight.

Jack looks over at Georg when we step back into the glade. “Your little heart-to-heart over already?” I’m taken aback at the venom in his voice, but Georg is unfazed.

“You should try it sometime, Frost.” He gives Jack a thin smile, then turns his eyes to Stephen. “We set?”

Stephen nods. The moonlight catches his face, and for the first time I notice the dark circles under those baby blues. The black bear doesn’t look so good. Georg seems to agree with my assessment.

“You up for this, brother?” he says in a soft voice, his big hand clasping his second’s shoulder. I wonder what is going on there and whether it has anything to do with Jett’s sudden absence. But I’m not given time to ponder Stephen’s woes. He only nods shortly, leaning into Georg’s hard squeeze briefly, before trudging back into the trees.

Time to do this.

24

Yips
and whines grow louder, distinct over the biting wind as we approach the water. Jack and I have barely stepped onto the beach before we are surrounded. No one touches us, but we are effectively herded by the thickly circling mass of bodies. The smell of damp fur and the low rumble of growls are everywhere. Owen is one of the few still in human form. He’s wearing a hoodie that leaves his face in blackness but I catch the gleam of a smug smile when he sees me. It’s the smile of a man who knows he has the upper hand. I hate seeing it on this bastard’s face. His smile vanishes when he notices Jack, but only for a moment.

“You crashed the party before everything was ready. I was going to call, you know. Set it all up properly.”

“So sorry to blow your plans. Where’s Luna?” Yes, I want to know, but more importantly, the plan is to keep Owen talking as long as possible. The bruins swear to me they are good enough to hide their scent from the wolves, but even Georg admitted the slightest change of wind could toss all the skill in the world out the fucking window. Rochie is with them to prevent any unwelcome surprises, should anything go wrong.

This is the wolves’ most powerful time. The height of the full moon. We have to be careful. Otherwise, Syana will die. She has to be clear of the wolves before we make a move on Owen.

He grimaces. “Luna refused to be here for this part. I tried to insist, but she’s stubborn like that.”

I force a smile. “Must suck to know that your mate is more powerful than you. Nails you right in the old gonads, eh?”

A growl escapes bared teeth, but Owen holds himself in check. Several of the betas farther back shift their feet and whine, something uneasy in their shining eyes. Owen throws a snarl over his shoulder and the sounds taper off, but don’t quite cease.

Hmmm. If he doesn’t have full control of the pack without Luna here….

I chance a look at Jack, who inclines his head slightly. He noticed, too. And there is no doubt in my mind that behind those trees, Georg is taking it all in.

“Believe me, Luna’s just fine with the rest of it.” Owen grins in satisfaction. “The pack needs the money handing you over will bring in…and the goodwill of powerful people. She knows that.” Heads lower, and the murmurs of discontent turn to uneasy silence. “Don’t fuss about that, though. You should be concentrating on your sister…and your poor human friend. I’m afraid she’s in pretty bad shape, but then she shouldn’t have tried to fight. Damn bitch broke my nose.”

I laugh outright, pushing it out over the sickness in my gut. “Good for her.”

“She’s regretting that now, believe me.” His smile slices through the night again. “I finally got a taste of her without you around to stop me. I do love the way humans scream. Too bad your sister didn’t give me that pleasure when it was her turn.”

He bit them, the bastard bit them both.

“You blooded Carly?” My heart nearly stops. “You fucking asshole.” I raise my hands just as Jack moves to flank me, his hip brushing mine. I can tell he thinks I’m losing it, and he’s not wrong.

Owen’s smile is wide as he wags a finger at me. “Of course I did. They were delicious. You’ll really have to work to save the human, but the likelihood that your sister will turn is pretty slim. She’s still a witch.” He tuts when I curl my fingers into fists. “Of course, you’ll have to find her first. We left her in one of the ice caves. Had a sprite who owed us a favor take her over the water. But only
I
know where they went.”

That explains Ajax’s disappearing trail. The lake is starting to freeze over, but not nearly all the way to the islands, not yet.

“Did you check the weather tonight? Minus ten, with wind chills down to thirty below. It takes a lot to kill a witch, but that just might do it.”

He has a point. Unconscious, bleeding out…Carly really could die. Ana’s vision makes sense now. What she saw wasn’t teeth, but ice. Row upon row of glistening white icicles. There are ice caves all over the islands that dot this part of Lake Superior, as well as along parts of the shoreline. Caverns that tourists and photographers love for their deadly beauty. One of them could be my sister’s tomb. I can’t think of that right now. I just have to tell myself she’ll be okay and focus on Sy.

“You can spare her the pain of finding out.” Owen’s voice crawls across the sand, burrowing into my bursting brain. “Come to me, Persephone and I’ll tell the bear king where your sister is. I
swear
it. And I’ll let the human go, too. You know the faster she gets treatment the less likely she’ll turn.”

I stare into the shining yellow eyes under that dark hood. What else can I do? I lower my hands and take a step toward him. Jack yanks me back. This is part of the plan, we expected Owen to try for a trade, but I can’t play this game anymore. Not with my sister’s life.

I shoot Jack a look, letting him know I’m done, but he turns away, addressing Owen.

“You’ll kill Seph.”

Teeth shine in the darkness. “Of course I will. Right here and now, Frost. The bounty
is
dead or alive. I prefer dead. Why do you think Luna chickened out? She wanted to turn the witch in alive, but that’s too risky.” The werewolf turns back to me. “I will go to Kivistö and tell him where your sister is. Scout’s honor.” He laughs softly. “
After
.”

“Not happening.” Before I can move, Jack picks me up and pivots, throwing me at the trees. Georg steps out, catching me as neatly as if they’d rehearsed this. Which of course they have, if only in their heads. I slam into a rock-solid chest hard enough to knock the wind from my lungs, but that doesn’t keep me from screaming at Jack, who ignores me, his eyes on Owen.

I kick and buck at Georg, but he just squeezes his big arms, pinning my hands so tightly to my sides I can barely wriggle my fingers. Anger is growing inside me, turning into something icy that drives away my fear for the first time since I got Thomas’s text. It’s not like I’m anxious to die, but I need to know where my sister is. Jack and Georg know this—so what the hell are they doing?

Owen’s eyes widen at the sight of the bruin king, looking uneasy. “You promised to stay out of this.”

“No, I promised you safe passage.” Georg’s words rumble over the beach. “Which, considering I was lied to, is hardly what I consider a binding agreement.”

“You know what happens if you break an oath with us, Kivistö?
"

“I don’t really care.”

“But she cares. You kill me, and her sister is a dead woman. You won’t find her without—” Abruptly Owen stiffens, and in the same instant so does Georg.

The bruin inclines his head to whisper in my ear. “They have Syana. Ajax says they’re clear. She’s alive, but in bad shape. They’re heading back to the Den to get her to a healer.”

I slump briefly at the surge of warm relief, even though I know if Owen really bit Sy, she’s hardly out of the woods yet.

Owen shakes his head, slathering, his rage evident. He obviously got the same word that Georg just did. For an instant the wolf flashes over the human, then Owen is back, his eyes paler than ever. He whips up a warning hand at Jack. “So you got the human free, Persephone. I still have your sister. You’re trapped, and you know it.”

That
something
slithers inside me again, cold and dark and hungry. “Am I? Here’s what
I know, Owen. You’re so hyped up to snag me and get that bounty—a bounty raised because certain people are scared shitless I might go all psycho evil queen on their ass. And yet somehow it slipped your tiny mind to be afraid of pissing me off.”

Let go. Now.

At the thought in my head, innate magic surges over my skin in a cascade of sparks. Georg drops me at once, his huge arms shaking as if he just hugged a transformer. Shocked, he staggers as I dance out of reach.

I raise both hands to the stars, “
Sing a song of sixpence
…”

Magic hums down my arms. For the first time in hours my heart’s not pounding frantically. In fact, it barely feels like it’s beating at all. I feel so calm, it’s almost scary.

Owen backs away, looking skittish. “You’ll never find her without me.”

“Oh, you’ll tell me where she is. You’ll tell me
everything
.”

The dark expanse of water starts to boil and roar behind him. Owen turns to Jack, but Jack is staring at me, his expression utterly blank. Because the lake isn’t responding to him, it’s responding to
me
.

I hold my breath as I watch the water forming into a wall of ice that rises and rises into a glittering tower behind the wolves. It’s beautiful, backlit by moonlight as it sways and creaks. Far below, the wolves whimper, cringing in that monstrously gorgeous shadow, but unable to leave their alpha. Owen is stunned immobile, his mouth half open as he looks up in disbelief.

“You can’t—”

But I can.

With a roar, the towering monolith breaks over the beach. The sound of shattering glass blots out everything, even the end of my rhyme. But I don’t need it for this. Furry bodies bolt left and right, the lucky ones leaping clear. The not so lucky are left shredded and bleeding on the frozen sand, whining pitifully.

Owen tries to run, but with a flick of my wrist, the magic snakes out like a lavender whip, catching his foot even as that foot turns into the hind flank of an enormous yellow wolf. A wolf that is tossed into the air like a child’s stuffed animal, howling, his hood falling back to reveal amber eyes marbled with pearlescent white, the mark of moon madness.

Wolf Owen slams into the beach, gaining his feet faster than I thought possible. My magic is faster. In seconds I have him wrapped in thin lines that slice and burn both fur and flesh as he twists on the sand. The smoke drifts into the air in spiky coils as I approach. “Tell me where she is, Owen.”

He makes a sound that wavers between laughter and a high-pitched howl as his body shifts back and forth. Wolf, man, wolf, man.

I’m killing both. And I don’t care, because Owen is beyond my reach.

He won’t tell me, I can see the truth of it when I look into those gleefully mad eyes. He’s aware of what I did to his pack, and no matter what, he is an alpha. My mistake is going to cost me more than I can bear. I don’t want Owen’s soul, but I take it anyway, tearing it apart with my teeth, hating the taste of him, desperately hoping I can catch a glimpse of where Carly is. My sister’s name pounds over and over in my head. I may never see her again. Because of this monster.

With a scream, the lines of my magic burst apart, ripping Owen’s body into pieces that fly across the sand, scattering blood and bone in their wake.

I fall to my knees. Barely aware as Georg cautiously approaches. In the corner of my eye, I can see Jack still standing there. He hasn’t moved. There is something dark and fathomless in his eyes. Almost resigned.

“Seph.” Georg’s low voice brings my attention back to him.

“Sy’s at the Den now, Seph. She’s fine, or they think she will be.” He clears his throat, and I know he’s trying not to draw attention to the fact my friend was bitten—by a psychopathic werewolf at the height of the full moon. Fine is probably not the best word to describe what Sy is right now. “Dominic says she hasn’t let go of Ajax since they found her. I think it’s best if you leave her where she is for now.”

I nod, my insides shaking, but Georg’s words pull me out of the lethargy caused by Owen’s death.
Sy’s alive
. That’s something, a big something, no matter what may come later. And not everyone who is bitten turns.

“Does Syana know anything about Carly, Georg?”

He shakes his head, eyes blank as he communicates with his men, long, golden-brown hair dancing over his face in the rising wind. “No. She didn’t even know they had Carly until she heard you screaming at Owen just before the twins grabbed her. She never saw your sister, only the betas Owen passed her off to. And we won’t get anything out of them. Unless you can raise the dead.” He indicates the bodies around us. If any wolves survived my assault, they’ve cleared out. I stare at the blood-soaked sand, unable to absorb the fact that I am now a mass murderer. I know it will hit me later, but right now Carly’s life is the only one I can think of.

I should’ve let Owen kill me.

Georg clears his throat. “There’s a dozen or more ice caves along this part of the shore, three times that many on the islands. Even Frost can’t search them all fast enough. And that’s a storm rolling in, looks like a bad one.” He points at a billowing grey curtain coming down over the inky night, erasing the lake mile by mile. “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing else we can do, Seph.”

It’s not Georg, but Jack who catches me when I fall. My sudden weakness has nothing to do with the magic I unleashed. Magic doesn’t exact that kind of toll, but the knowledge that I’ve just sentenced my sister to death does.
 

Jack doesn’t speak on the way back to the car. His jaw has been locked since he watched the lake rise at my command. He keeps to a pace I can tolerate, his arms solid and warm around me, but he doesn’t say a word.

The only noise is the whistle of the wind and the tinkle of Rochie’s wings. She rejoined us sometime after helping the twins get Syana to the Den. I don’t know how much she saw, because the fairy isn’t talking either. The silence makes my ears ache.