A Dangerous Pact (The Arcana Pack

Chronicles Book 2) Emilia Hartley

Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/a-dangerous-pact-the-arcana-pack-chronicles-book-2
-emilia-hartley/
A DANGEROUS PACT
THE ARCANA PACK CHRONICLES BOOK 2
EMILIA HARTLEY
 A LL RIGHTS RESERVED.

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, businesses and incidents are from the author’s imagination, or they are used fictitiously
and are definitely fictionalized. Any trademarks or pictures herein are not authorized by the trademark owners and do not in any way
mean the work is sponsored by or associated with the trademark owners. Any trademarks or pictures used are specifically in a
descriptive capacity.

Emilia Hartley © Copyright 2022

 EMILIA’S HEARTLIES

Join my mailing list! Sign up to my newsletter where I send out free books, promotional offers,
giveaways, and more!

GET YOUR FREE COPY OF PROTECT BY THE MOUNTAIN WOLF HERE

JOIN MY EXCLUSIVE READER GROUP BY CLICKING HERE !
 CONTENTS

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23

What’s New & Coming Soon!

Heartlies Box Sets
Thank you!
 1

N ess

I LOOKED right and left as I leapt up the steps to Ryder’s door. It’d been a few days since I’d last seen
him. The memory of Queen Beryl’s gossamer dress in the storm fluttered through my mind. Right after
Ryder had delivered the evidence I needed to take down my corrupt Alpha, the local fae queen had
swept in and stolen Ryder away.
I didn’t need two local leaders ruining everything. Ryder had been just about to leave, too. He’d
made it clear that he had to go or else there would be more trouble touching down in Lakesedge. As
badly as I wanted to keep Ryder around, I hated the idea of him in the devious unseelie queen’s
clutches.
Ryder’s scent had all but vanished. I couldn’t find him anywhere, not even here where he’d been
staying. I suspected he’d asked Beryl for another favor so that he could enter Alvin’s house
undetected. He’d done that for me.
This all came down to me.
My stomach churned uneasily. My Alpha stopped trusting me when my first shift revealed that I
would be his downfall. Before then, I’d had no intention of turning against Alvin. The witch’s
prophecy that a Black Hound would take down an unjust Alpha had gone to Alvin’s head and turned
him against me.
Ryder’s appearance had seemed like a stroke of good luck, but I had my doubts now. I’d gotten
him caught up in this mess that I wasn’t even sure he could escape now.
Pulling myself together, I lifted my hand to knock on the door. It was flung open before I could
bring my knuckles down. A tall redhead filled the doorway. Her eyes were wide with hopeful
expectation. Upon seeing me, her expression faltered. She managed to pull it together before looking
me up and down.
I took a startled step back. “Oh, I didn’t expect Ryder to have company.”
He had a girlfriend? Well, maybe she wasn’t his girlfriend, but there was clearly something
happening here that I did not want to know about. This woman hadn’t beat me here. She must have
stayed the night.
Disappointment turned heavy in my stomach. It dragged me down, lower than I’d felt in a long
time. I swallowed and dragged in a deep breath so I could force a friendly expression onto my face.
The redhead was beautiful. I couldn’t compare. My own curls were untamed and frizzy, while
hers were silken and shining. She had bright green eyes that sparkled with flecks of gray in the light.
Her sleeve lifted when she reached for the door frame. The little bit of skin that showed was speckled
with freckles and a few lines of an inky tattoo.
“I’ll just see myself out. Uh, Ryder can…” He can what?
Ryder didn’t want to talk to me anymore. If anything, he wanted to leave Lakesedge behind. I
knew that meant leaving me, too. I shouldn’t have even visited.
“Hold up,” the redhead said as she reached for me.
I froze when her fingertips brushed my shoulder. She must have noticed my tension because she
grimaced and pulled back.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Ryder told me to meet him back here a few nights ago, but he hasn’t
returned yet. I’m beginning to worry. If you know where he might be, I need you to point me in the
right direction.”
Ryder had mentioned an old friend, a woman, finding him at Alvin’s. I wondered how she’d
tracked him there with his scent obscured, but the light in her eyes told me that she was a dragon, too.
This redhead was likely his mate.
The thought only made this harder. I swallowed my feelings and lifted my chin. His car still sat in
the driveway, which meant that he hadn’t left town yet. That left me unsettled.
When I looked the redhead in the eye, she seemed hopeful. I didn’t want to tell her that I’d gotten
her mate caught up in my fight.
“My name is Brigid, by the way.” She flashed a shy smile. “You can call me Bri. I don’t mind.
Ryder and I…well, we go way back.”
That did not help. I was almost certain now. Ryder’s mate had tracked him down only to find him
in peril. I wanted to think that he was strong enough to handle this on his own because he was. I knew
firsthand how strong Ryder could be. Yet, this was my fault. I couldn’t just point Bri towards Beryl’s
court and let the dragon woman fall into the same trap.
I sighed. “All right. I think I know where he is. Just…follow me and don’t make eye contact with
her.”
Bri blinked. “Her?”
“I’ll explain on the way. I’m Ness. You might have heard Ryder complain about me.”
Bri’s laugh nearly charmed me. It was bright and tinkling like small bells. She nearly jumped out
of the door, quickly closed it behind her, and pulled a set of keys from her pocket. When she pointed
the key fob toward the street, I noticed a car I must have overlooked earlier. The lights on the small
SUV flashed as the locks clicked open.

I SUCKED down the last of my hazelnut mocha coffee as I stared at Beryl’s restaurant. The last thing I
wanted to do was go inside, but I didn’t have any other choice. I reminded myself that this was my
fault. If I hadn’t used Ryder like a means to an end, he wouldn’t be in this situation.
Had he asked me to do something for him, too? Sure, but his problems weren’t the cause of this.
He’d gone to Beryl to ask for help so that he could do what I had asked of him.
I explained some of the situation to Bri. She narrowed her eyes, her small lips twisting to the side
as she listened. If she caught on that I wasn’t telling the whole truth, then she didn’t bring it up. In the
end, she nodded.
Was this a bad idea? I wondered if I should have asked her to stay in the car while I went in. If
Ryder found out that I’d brought his mate in Beryl’s court, he’d strike me down. I was more worried
about his safety than hers, if I was going to be honest. That might have been a cruel thought to have,
but Ryder had already risked too much for me.
Perhaps my jealousy had tainted that idea, as well. Finding out that Ryder had a girlfriend wasn’t
the best way to start my day. My feelings for him warred inside me as I pushed through the
restaurant’s door. My chest was so tight that every breath was shallower than the last.
I had no claim over Ryder. He didn’t love me. I couldn’t…I certainly did not…
A thin man in a butler uniform greeted us, breaking me out of my twisting thoughts. He looked Bri
up and down before his gaze settled on me. I watched as his eyes flickered with recognition. The
corners of his mouth lifted hungrily.
“Give me my dra—” I cut myself off and kept myself from looking in Bri’s direction. “Take me to
Ryder, now.”
If Bri noticed my slip up, she let it fall by the wayside. I wondered what kind of mate she could
be if she wasn’t ready to fight me over that little display of possessiveness. Perhaps they had a
comfortable relationship filled with confidence.
Was that what happened with mates? Were they so smitten with one another that nothing could
threaten their love?
I recalled the way that Ryder had held me the night he almost died. Jackson, a wolf from my pack,
had poisoned Ryder. The poison had drained Ryder of his life force, but he’d still clung to me with all
he’d had left. That meant something, right?
Filled with conflict, I blindly followed the butler downstairs into a dimly lit cavern. At the other
end of this underground court, a window into Lake Onondaga let in pale light. Beryl lounged on a
couch facing the magical window.
“The Queen will see you now,” the butler said with a bow.
He vanished, leaving behind wisps of black smoke. My nose curled at the acrid scent. Shaking my
head, I pushed forward and scanned the room for signs of Ryder. There were other fae present. They
inhaled smoke from ornate burning censers and blew it towards the ceiling. Others picked at plates of
food that gleamed with a golden light.
I reached for Bri’s wrist when she began to trail away from me. Were there fae in her neck of the
woods? I knew better than to touch the food down here. Maybe the food upstairs was fit for our
consumption, but down here everything had come from the fae realm.
Faery food, especially wine, tended to have intoxicating effects on those who weren’t fae. I’d
heard that faery food could be addictive, too, if consumed too often. My stomach clenched as my
concern for Ryder tried to send me into a panic.
Now was not the time to lose my cool.
As we approached Beryl’s couch, I released Bri’s wrist. I vaulted over the back of Beryl’s couch
and landed beside the unseelie queen. The wine in her glass sloshed precariously but didn’t spill. She
slid an annoyed glare in my direction.
“You are a bold little pup,” Beryl said with no amount of amusement in her voice.
I gave her a wide, sharp-toothed grin. If I acted confident, then maybe I would feel it. Looking into
the fae queen’s eyes terrified me. They were depthless. If I stared too long, I might fall into the void
and never find my way out again.
 “I need Ryder back,” I said. “Give me the dragon, and I will…”
What? Promise her a favor? I didn’t want anyone else to have power over me. I was tired of the
boots on the back of my neck. Giving Beryl a chance to put her foot there, too, wasn’t the best idea.
But Beryl’s attention slid past me. Her expression lit up when she noticed Bri. I mentally kicked
myself. I should have asked Bri to stay in the car.
Leaning forward, I asked, “What is your deal with dragon shifters? Do you have a fetish or
something?”
Beryl laughed. Her laugh was nothing like Bri’s. Beryl’s laugh whispered like leaves on the wind
in the dead of the night. It was dead and empty and wanted to devour everything.
“I enjoy the company of our fae-touched cousins,” Beryl said. She tossed her dark hair over her
shoulder and studied Bri. “Like yourself, Vanessa, the dragons are a kind of shifter who have distant
ties to my kind. They are not animals, like your pack. They are majestic beasts of legends who are
capable of far more than any mortal mind could comprehend.”
I didn’t roll my eyes even though I so badly wanted to. Instead, I dragged out a single word.
“Okay.”
Beryl’s attention shifted back to me. The smug lift of the corner of her mouth left me
uncomfortable. She seemed to have the upper hand no matter what I did. Perhaps that was what it
meant to be a queen.
“Ryder has to finish his own legend,” I said. “He’s in the middle of a story that he needs to see
through to the end. You shouldn’t hold him back from that.”
Beryl ran her finger along the rim of her wine glass. It hummed softly, but the sound soon grew
unbearable. Bri and I both cringed. My ears burned, as if they might start bleeding soon.
Then it stopped.
“All right,” Beryl said.
“All right?” I gaped at the queen.
That smile hadn’t disappeared yet. Beryl’s brows rose. She lifted her chin in Bri’s direction.
“Leave the other dragon here with me. I have no desire to keep her the way I keep the stormrider.
I only wish to bask in her company for a while. Will you give me that, at the very least?”
I eyed Beryl, but she kept an unreadable smile on her lips. I didn’t dare look into the voids of her
eyes for fear of falling into them.
Bri pushed past me and nodded. “I can do that.”
I grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “You don’t have…”
Bri cut me off by putting a reassuring hand over mine. “It’s all right. I don’t mind. This lady seems
nice. I don’t mind keeping her company.”
I clenched my jaw. I should have left Bri in the car. Ryder was going to kill me for this. My head
spun with thoughts better left unsaid. My jealousy spiraled out of control. It told me that maybe Beryl
would do me a favor and open a place for me in Ryder’s life by taking Bri out of it.
I shook off the cruel thought. There was no room for it in my life. Ryder didn’t belong to me. He
and I had nothing other than this bond we could not break. At this point, I suspected the bond was a
consequence of my lies. I rubbed the back of my hand where the lightning mark had been. It no longer
flared with light, but I could tell it was there, nonetheless.
Because I’d failed to tell Ryder that I didn’t know how to help him, Fate thought it would be funny
to bind me to him so that I would eventually have to figure it out.
I cast one last glance in Bri’s direction. If she was afraid of Beryl, I couldn’t tell. Bri’s
composure was immaculate. She kept her expression friendly as she addressed Beryl. I couldn’t even
see a hint of a tremor in her hands.
Maybe the dragon woman feared nothing. Sometimes, I thought being a dragon must be nice. It
was bad enough that I was a hound surrounded by wolves. Now, the dragons had to come and remind
me just how small I was compared to the rest of the supernatural community.
The pale, gaunt butler returned. He crooked his finger and led me away from Beryl’s couch. I
didn’t look back this time. My heart thumped nervously, pumping icy fear into my veins. I checked in
every direction but couldn’t find a hint of Ryder anywhere, not even a faint trace of his scent.
Led away from the open cavern, my eyes had to adjust to the darkness of the winding tunnels. I
tried not to think about how much earth hovered over my head or how it could come crashing down
and smother me. Beryl’s underground fae court had a nice, built-in fail safe. All she had to do was
collapse the ceiling to destroy her enemies.
My skin crawled just thinking about such an uncomfortable death. The butler stopped suddenly. I
nearly ran into him but managed to stop before I slammed right into his bony shoulders. This close,
however, I could smell the stink of death on him. It was a good reminder that though Beryl was a fae
queen, she led an Unseelie court. Her followers were the most twisted and unsettling denizens the fae
realms had to offer.
And I’d just walked into a dark alley with one of them.
I backed up, nervous. My hound prepared herself for a fight. A growl rumbled in my chest. The
storm that followed me would not be able to find me down here, under the earth. No lightning would
touch down here. The same went for Ryder, too.
Down here, he was separated from the skies that his dragon called home. My heart fumbled as I
thought of him trapped down here by himself. The halls felt too small, even for me. I couldn’t imagine
how cramped and trapped Ryder must feel.
Rolling my shoulders back, I held my ground. I looked the butler in the eye and dared him to fight
me. The presence that was my arcana unfolded itself and rose to caress my tongue. Though I was
woefully inept with it, the new arcana allowed me to issue commands much the way an Alpha could.
But the butler didn’t attack. He reached out and ran one long, spindly finger down the wall. The
earth shuddered and parted. Warm light spilled out of the room beyond it. I hesitated, barely a moment
as I realized that the butler could easily close this door behind me. The sight of Ryder, sprawled out
on a pile of pillows in front of a hearth, sent me rushing towards him.
I dropped to my knees and shook him. He didn’t wake. My breath hitched. Frantic, I fumbled for
his pulse. I couldn’t find it, not at first. Then my fingertips felt the soft and steady beat of his heart. I
let out the breath I’d been holding.
My hound rioted inside me. She slammed into my stomach and my lungs as if she were corporeal.
My whole body turned against me.
“You’re going to be okay,” I whispered to Ryder.
He stirred at the sound of my voice, but only barely. As his eyes fluttered and closed, I caught a
glimpse of gold in his irises.
I twisted, my jaw clenched when I glared at the butler. He paid me no mind.
“You fed him faery food,” I growled.
The butler continued to ignore me.
Ryder groaned. He snaked a fluid arm around me and pulled me tight to his chest before I could
stop him. When he lowered his face into the crook of my neck and inhaled, my heart flipped excitedly.
Ryder moaned deep in his throat. His splayed hand slid up my back before dipping dangerously low
towards my ass.
 I sprang out of his grasp even though the hound wanted me to lie down with him. Ryder growled
and reached for me again. This time, he caught the front of my shirt and yanked me closer. He brushed
his cheek along mine, our breaths mingling. I braced my hands against his chest but couldn’t bring
myself to move.
My hound rolled over and bared her stomach. I called her a slut and curled my hands into fists.
“This isn’t you,” I said to Ryder. “Besides, your mate is waiting for you. She came all this way to
see you.”
Ryder didn’t acknowledge my words. He used his hold of me to roll me onto the floor. The weight
of his body made my entire being thrum with need. My lips trembled as I dragged in a shaky breath.
While my hound told me that this was good, this was exactly what we wanted, I couldn’t let this
happen.
Not with Bri in the other room.
I had already made enough mistakes involving Ryder. I wouldn’t make this one, too.
Pulling my fist tight to my chest, I brought my elbow up and slammed it into Ryder’s temple. He
reeled back. The gold in his eyes flickered before flaring bright again. I sighed and wriggled out from
under Ryder. While he cradled the side of his head, I lifted his free arm and slung it over my shoulder.
Ryder was a solid man, and it took everything I had to help him to his feet. My knees and back
groaned in protest, but I couldn’t stop now. The butler lingered by the open door. I glared at him. His
pleased grin didn’t make any of this better.
“Why did they feed you faery food?” I asked under my breath.
“Well,” the butler cut in. “The stormrider was displeased with the queen. He made all sorts of
threats in a tone one should not raise in the presence of royalty. She thought it wise to soften the
stormrider’s attitude while he stayed with us.”
“So, you fed him faery food?”
“I do whatever the queen commands.”
Though I wanted to tell the butler to eat shit, I kept my lips pressed together. I dragged Ryder out
of the room, stopping only when he nuzzled and bit my ear. My stomach lifted with hundreds of
fluttering butterflies.
No matter how many times I tried to tell him that his mate was waiting for him, he paid me no
attention. It was as if the mention of her meant little to him. Bri seemed dedicated to Ryder, but I
couldn’t see the same kind of loyalty in him. The faery food might have addled his mind.
Still, I thought mate bonds overcame all sorts of magic.
Fate thought to further confuse me, because the marks on our hands flared to life in that exact
moment. I gaped at the light painting the earthen walls. I wished I knew what this meant. The marks
revealed nothing about the bond tying us together.
No mates had marks like these. Besides, Ryder already had a mate. Why else would Bri drive
across the country?
“Come on, Ryder,” I grumbled.
He laughed. “Cum on where?”
I just about dropped him on the ground right then and there. Instead, I gritted my teeth and pulled
him down the hall. The sooner we could get out of here, the sooner we could clear his system of the
faery food. I hoped that he wouldn’t develop an addiction to it.
There was so little that I knew about faery food. Maybe I would call Cerri again. It would be nice
to talk to someone, too. I definitely needed to vent about this horny asshole as soon as I dropped him
into his mate’s hands.
 Back at the court, Bri shot up out of her seat the moment she saw us. Beryl slowly turned. She bit
the tip of her tongue as she grinned. The way she looked Ryder up and down, hungry like a wolf
taking in a field of sheep, left me uncomfortable.
The queen had plans, and we were doing exactly what she wanted. I hated playing into her games,
but I had to get Ryder out of here. Once we were away from Beryl’s court, then I would worry about
whatever tricks she had up her sleeve. I would even go back to the witch if that was what it took to
get Ryder out of this deal.
Bri glanced back down at Beryl. I watched her lips form a quick apology, to which Beryl bowed
her head and waved her hand, dismissing Bri. Relief hit me instantly. Released from Beryl’s
company, Bri rushed up to us. I expected her to take Ryder from me, but she hesitated.
So, there was something between the two of them. Perhaps it had to do with what Ryder had done.
He’d already told me that he’d killed his clan leader. The way Ryder had spun the story, I figured that
he’d done it to protect everyone. At this point, I trusted Ryder. He did the right thing, no matter the
consequences.
Bri swallowed. She nodded and took a step back, her gaze sliding to Beryl once more. “I’m sorry.
I promised her I would stay a little longer.”
“Oh, hell no,” came out of me before I could stop it.
Bri gave a shake of her head. She pressed her keys into my free hand. “Take care of him, okay?”
I nodded, my jaw clenched. I’d gone and done it. I’d delivered another dragon shifter right into
Beryl’s hands. How stupid could I be?
Bri made this decision on her own. I couldn’t fault her for trying to help, but I wanted to tell her
that her trust was misplaced. Bri shouldn’t have trusted me or Beryl. I had a penchant for running
headfirst into trouble, and today that trouble was Queen Beryl.
If Ryder hadn’t been drunk on faery food, he would have been pissed. I was safe, for now. When I
got him sobered up, then I would have to deal with the consequences.
That was, if I could sober him up. I pushed back my doubt because there wasn’t time for it. Once I
had Ryder loaded into the SUV, I got into the driver’s seat and adjusted it so that my legs could reach
the pedals.
“Your mate is really fucking tall, you know that?”
Ryder ran a hand down his face and groaned. He flicked the button on the side of his own seat so
that he could recline. Still, he didn’t remove his hand from his face. If he heard me at all, he wasn’t
responding.
The engine turned over easily, much smoother than my old sedan. The quiet ride gave me far too
much time alone with my own thoughts. I tried to blast the music, but Ryder shot up and slapped the
radio to turn it off. He giggled to himself before plopping back down into his seat.
This was a mess. I should have been busy with the box of dresses that Ryder had stolen from
Alvin’s house. While I’d been fighting for my life during the recent pack run, Ryder had found the
evidence I needed to turn the pack against my tyrannical Alpha. We knew those dresses belonged to
women that Alvin hunted and killed, but I needed more to back that up. A box of dresses wasn’t
enough.
I needed a body.
The thought brought bile up to sear the back of my throat.
Thankfully, Ryder’s rental apartment came into view. When I pulled into the driveway, I scanned
the area for any signs of an impending ambush. Paranoia sung in the back of my mind like a constant
siren. I couldn’t escape the fear that someone would leap out of nowhere.
 As badly as I wanted to be confident, I’d come close to dying too many damn times in the past
weeks. My calves still burned from the hunt. My packmates, people who should have protected me,
had bitten me and tried to drag me away.
No, I couldn’t count Marcus, Jackson, and Harvey as packmates. They were monsters hiding in
plain sight. Alvin gave them license to run rampant. My packmates were…just cowards.
I spilled out of the driver’s seat and went around to help Ryder out.
“Come on, you big oaf.” I tugged on Ryder’s arm.
He lurched out of his seat and stumbled forward before righting himself. I stood off to the side,
chewing on my lip as I watched him stagger towards the door. There was no telling how long this
would take. No matter how many times I checked over my shoulder, I saw no sign of Bri, either.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek. Jealousy whispered in my ear like a little devil on my
shoulder. I shook myself to clear the unwanted thoughts. Ryder didn’t belong to me. I had no right to
hate Bri, let alone leave her in the hands of the fae.
Bri clearly loved Ryder. Why else would the dragon woman trade herself for Ryder’s safety. I
couldn’t get in the middle of that, even if my hound let out her loneliness in a pained howl that rang in
my ears.

Ryder

THE WORLD SWAM WITH COLOR. Dancing color.

I reached out and ran my fingers through the vivid colors. They melted and reformed in the shape
of a woman. Her dark hair reminded me of storm clouds. Her sharp eyes struck me like lightning.
The sight of her stole my breath. Her presence pulled me in, like she was a celestial body that I
couldn’t ignore. I drifted in her direction, but she pulled away. Undeterred, I pursued. Without her, my
hands were empty. I needed to fill them, to feel her skin under my touch. The world would end, the
colors would fade, if I could not touch her again.
She went inside, into the dark.
“Sit,” she told me when I followed.
Now was not the time to sit. My visions slowly turned gray. Full of color and life, she remained at
the center. I moved fast this time. I swept her up from the ground and spun her in my arms. She
weighed so little yet felt like the weight of the world in my arms. I didn’t mind carrying her. If
anything, I wanted to hold her until the light faded from the sky and never rose again.
Ness, the Barghest. Ness, the hound. Ness, everything I’d ever wanted.
A part of me knew that this was wrong, even as I tucked my bent knuckle under her chin. She made
a soft sound. I could barely hear the word. Her lips moved, enchanting me. Then, what she’d said
finally sank in.
“No.”
I gritted my teeth and dragged in a ragged breath. My head spun, but the growl of my beast cut
through the intoxication. The beast would not let me hurt her. For that, I was grateful. I set Ness down
and staggered away from her.
The couch hit the backs of my legs. I let myself fall onto the cushions. The room spun until Ness
stepped into view again. Her brow furrowed as she stared down at me.
 “I’m sorry,” I mumbled.
Still, I flexed my fingers for they were too empty. I needed to feel her. I needed to know that she
was real and not some figment of this wild ride I was on.
Hadn’t I just held her? Wasn’t that enough?
No. Reach for her again. Hold her. Keep the hound close, keep her safe.
The beast snarled once again. The sound cleared my mind like an eraser over a chalk slate. I
gulped down another breath to settle myself. Ness said something under her breath that I couldn’t
understand.
“Let’s get you sobered up.” She retreated away from me.
I covered my eyes with my arm and forced myself to stay put. The addled part of my brain wanted
me to go to her. The beast held me so that I couldn’t move.
The unseelie queen had fed me something. I remembered, now, how she’d swept in when I had
been about to leave. Beryl had taken me. I’d tried to put up a fight when she’d brought me back to her
court. I’d gotten out the door several times, but she kept pulling me back in.
That damn bitch wouldn’t let me go. When I realized that she wouldn’t let me escape, I’d decided
to make life hell for her. I’d trashed her court more than once. Each time, she snapped her fingers, and
everything fixed itself.
Trapped in the nightmare with her while Ness and Bri were on the outside, I’d come close to
losing my temper. My calculated destruction had turned violent. The beast had raged inside of me. It’d
been close to foaming at the mouth.
I shuddered, thinking about what I’d experienced. Had my father felt the same way? Was that what
the sickness felt like?
All just so I could get back to her.
I lowered my arm and sat up just as Ness set a glass of water and a microwaved breakfast
sandwich down in front of me. The room tilted back and forth as I stared down at the offering. I
scowled and waited for everything to settle.
Not even tequila made me feel like this. I ran my hand over my face. My head didn’t throb, but the
way my stomach pinched tight, I had a sneaking fear that there would be other repercussions to what
Beryl had done to me.
I chugged the water, but it was bland on my tongue. I yearned for something cooler and crisper but
said nothing. The sandwich should help. Cheap, greasy food always helped. But when I bit into it, I
tasted nothing. Angry, I took another bite. Still, the sandwich was nothing more than a ghostly
presence in my mouth.
My stomach tightened. Hunger gripped me and stirred my beast. It growled for more. I had to keep
going. I had to go back and find that gold-tinted food again. That was all I needed. Nothing else would
ever compare again.
Ness grabbed the back of my shirt and yanked. The world came back into focus. I wasn’t on the
couch anymore. At some point, I’d stood and started making my way to the door. My breath rushed out
of me like I’d been hit in the chest.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Ness said, her voice low and threatening.
“Like you could stop me.” I couldn’t help myself. The hunger reared its head again and
overwhelmed me.
“I’ve stopped you in the past. I can do it again. Just watch me.”
The way she defiantly lifted her chin captivated me. I turned so that I could breathe her in. The
scent of her filled my mouth and stirred my beast. A new kind of hunger rippled through me. I wound
an arm around her and pulled her tight to my body. If I could not get the gold-tinted food, then I would
have her.
“Ryder,” she said softly.
I dipped my head so that my lips hovered over hers. She would taste wonderful, I just knew it. I
wanted to push my tongue past her lips and explore the depths of her.
“Excuse me?” a new voice called out.
I straightened. My head cleared, the world becoming solid once again. When I turned my head, I
found Brigid standing in the doorway. She took in Ness and me, but I couldn’t read the emotion
behind her shadowed eyes.
I curled my fingers against Ness’s back before releasing her.
It was time to go. My mouth tasted like ash. My beast writhed just beneath my skin.
Uncomfortable and exhausted, I stepped away from Ness. Bri watched me with a curious tilt to her
head. I ignored her.
I was in enough trouble here. If Beryl showed up to keep me from leaving this time, I would run
her down with my car. It was old enough that there was enough iron in it to take her out. I wasn’t
playing around with Lakesedge anymore.
That was the final straw.
Ness followed me. Her scent tried to pull me back. It made my head light, like I’d taken a bite of
the gold-tinted food again. I pushed the thought from my mind and yanked open the driver’s side door
of my car.
“Ryder, what happened?” Bri reached for me, but I ducked out of range.
Head down, Ness pushed past us. I thought about calling after her. My beast nearly made me do it.
I held my breath and swallowed my words back down.
No. I couldn’t stay.
It was time to go. Bri had warned me that Morgan would be here soon. He was taking care of a
few things back in Thunder Pass. I had lost too much time to Beryl’s manipulation. The time for
hesitation was over.
Still, I watched Ness get into her car. She didn’t look back once, even though I desperately
wanted her to. I wanted to know that she would be safe out here without me. That was something that
she couldn’t promise me, though. I’d seen what her Alpha was willing to do.
“Ryder?” Bri asked again.
 2

N ess

I DIDN ’ T MAKE it far before I was stopped. I didn’t smell him. Not at first. Alvin Combs appeared
beside me as if he’d apparated out of thin air. He grabbed ahold of my arm and gripped it tight, his
fingertips bruising my flesh.
I stiffened and prepared to run. There was nowhere to go. Alvin’s grip on me was like iron. Alvin
had become Alpha of the Lakesedge pack for a reason. He had the strength to back up his claim, that
same strength that he used to keep us all under his boot.
“You got lucky the other night,” he whispered when he leaned close.
I swallowed the bile burning the back of my throat.
Alvin removed his grip from my arm and placed it on the back of my neck instead. His nails had
lengthened into claws. My stomach churned. Though I looked around for help, the residents of
Lakesedge must have noticed Alvin and chosen to turn a blind eye to his behavior, because all the
curtains were drawn. Not a single soul dared look in his direction.
“I’ll survive whatever you throw at me.” I meant it, too.
Alvin laughed. “You think you’re tough and powerful because of that prophecy, but the moment I
kill you is the moment that the pack pulls together to fulfill it. The prophecy has nothing to do with
you, yourself. This little hound is weak and foolish.”
His words slithered past the barriers I threw up. Doubt darkened the back of my mind, like clouds
rolling in before a storm.
Alvin could be right. Though I wanted to believe my arcana made me special, I would never
know exactly what that witch meant. She’d left behind nothing more than a couple of cryptic lines that
didn’t exactly explain what needed to happen. I could read between the lines and come up with my
own definition, but that wouldn’t make it true.
“Be a good little hound and submit. Do as I tell you so we can all go back to living a normal life.
You realize that your behavior has been upsetting the pack, right? None of this would have to happen
if you would get on your knees and bow your head to me.”
I stiffened. Alvin’s words wormed their way into my mind, tainting my thoughts with rot. This was
my fault. Every time I pushed back, Alvin had to retaliate. Giving up was the last thing on my mind,
but I couldn’t help but think of my pack and how this might be affecting them.
Would Alvin go back to pretending to be kind if I knelt? I doubted it, but that part of me that was
willing to do anything for my pack shuddered. They deserved to be safe. If that was what it took,
could I do it? I wasn’t even sure at this point.
My hound growled at the thought. I tried to reason with her, but even she saw the fault in my ideas.
I had to admit that Alvin’s suggestion wasn’t an option. I had to hold firm and help the girls that he’d
killed, even if it was only to put their ghosts to rest.
“Eat shit,” I muttered.
Alvin tightened his grip on the back of my neck. His claws pricked my skin. Warmth welled and
dripped down my back, making me shiver.
“Then your days are numbered,” Alvin said.
I’d always known that. His threat meant little to me at this point. As badly as I wanted to live, I’d
been aware of the ticking clock over my head for years now. I’d thought that Ryder could stop it, but
not even a dragon shifter could save me from this fate. A witch had already written my fate.
Alvin tightened his grasp one last time. Pain burned along the back of my neck. My knees
trembled and threatened to drop me. Inside me, my hound thrashed. She wanted to break out and run,
but there was nowhere for us to go right now. Alvin would catch me if I ran now.
“Remember that when the consequences of your actions turn your precious pack against you. They
will hate you for everything that you do to save your own skin.”
My hound howled. Her voice echoed in my ears, but the sound couldn’t drown out Alvin’s
warning.
He released me, shoved his hands into his pockets, and strolled past me. Blood trickled down my
neck from the already healing wounds. The smell of metal and flesh danced on the air. It would get
stronger if I continued to push my limits.
I stared at the back of Alvin’s head and watched him disappear before I moved. Though I didn’t
want to fear him, my body refused to comply when I told myself to move. Several moments passed.
My body remained locked.
I wasn’t going to let him kill me. I dragged in a deep breath and settled my hound. She growled in
agreement with me. That clock might have been counting down, but I would take it down and break it.
I wasn’t going to let Alvin win.
The hound’s howl didn’t hold pain and fear this time. When her song filled my ears, I heard
determination. Even if everything felt like too much, I would find a way to do one thing at a time. I
wasn’t the weak little pup that he assumed I was.
After shaking off my fear, I reminded myself to practice my arcana. If I could get a handle on it,
then maybe I stood a chance. I didn’t know how to describe my arcana. It seemed, to me, to be similar
to the same kind of power an Alpha had over his pack. I could issue commands to more than just
pack, though.
I’d forced Ryder to stop hurting Harvey once. Ryder was not pack. He owed me no allegiance,
especially not now. This arcana was a power that I needed to learn to control. The command I’d
given Ryder had been completely accidental.
If I couldn’t control it, then I was no better than Alvin. My intention wasn’t to make anyone do
anything against their will. If I kept relying on this new power in the heat of the moment, then I might
hurt someone with it.
But who could I practice with? I didn’t want to ask my friends at Bad Moon Café. They didn’t
need me to keep pulling them into my problems. If I issued the wrong command to Vi, then disaster
would strike. I wasn’t comfortable using this with Cerri, either. Though she was pack and had a talent
for making potions, using my arcana on Cerri seemed cruel. She had little to defend herself with.
I glanced back, in the direction of Ryder’s rental apartment outside Lakesedge. He and I shared a
bond that neither of us understood. I knew that I’d done wrong by keeping secrets from him, but I
hoped that he could help me. Ryder was the only one I could trust to hold his own.
Perhaps I placed too much trust in him, though. I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that my hound
wanted to go back to him. She wanted me to see if he’d left town yet. I knew that if he had, she would
howl with despair.
I didn’t know what her obsession with Ryder was about, but I had a feeling it had something to do
with our bond. If he had a mate, then what was this bond?
Lifting my hand, I tilted it back and forth to see if the lightning mark would glow. Nothing
appeared for a moment, making me wonder if it’d vanished. Then, a pale light flickered under my
skin.
It was still there, but why? I didn’t have anyone who could tell me what this meant. Cerri had
given it her all when I’d asked her to help me remove it. Thankfully, she’d failed because now I
wasn’t even sure I wanted it removed.
The thought of being bound to Ryder in some small way comforted me more than it should have,
especially now that I knew he had a mate.
I was a fool for thinking about this. It would have been better had I moved on, but I couldn’t let go
of him yet. Couldn’t I have at least this one, small joy? Perhaps not, since I’d chosen to lead him on
from the beginning. Ryder deserved better.

BACK HOME, Dad intercepted me before I could get far. He called me into the kitchen and gestured to a
plate of food once I stepped past the doorway. I hesitated. Not out of fear of anything, but because
what happened today was technically his fault.
Exhaustion dragged at the bags under my eyes. Even walking from my car into the house put me on
edge. The feeling of being watched had returned. It was as if there were eyes on me at all times. Even
after running into my Alpha, I still felt like one of Alvin’s blood-thirsty wolves would leap out of
nowhere and drag me back to him any moment now.
But I’d made it inside without a problem. No one had been lying in wait. Maybe I was just
overreacting. I’d made a stand and proved that I wouldn’t go down easy, not with my friends by my
side. It might be a while before Alvin tried to attack me again.
I blinked at the plate while my brain tried to process what I was looking at. It seemed like Dad
had taken the time to cut vegetables and had even put hummus in a small bowl for me. My lips twisted
to the side. While my stomach grumbled for the veggies, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to accept the peace
offering.
Dad brought his own plate to the nearby table, sat down, and looked up at me. His expression
softened the longer he watched me. Finally, he sighed.
“You can’t be mad at me forever,” Dad said.
I scowled, fury hitting my gut. The dark presence unfurled again. It hissed like a snake. I didn’t let
it reach my tongue, though. This time, my hound blocked it and kept the arcana from bleeding into my
conversation.
 “I’m not mad. I’m tired.” I lied to his face.
Dad could probably tell that I’d lied. Even if he was an asshole, he was still my father.
He hung his head. “I did what I could to protect you. I put myself in harm’s way. I went to Alvin to
talk to him on my own. That dragon can do what I cannot. I can tell he cares for you. Someone had to
force him to stay or else you’d both end up losing out.”
I clenched my fists at my sides to keep from throwing my hands in the air. “You don’t get to make
those decisions for me.”
He pressed his lips into a thin line. He looked as though he had more he wanted to say, then shook
his head. His frustration slipped away and left him looking just as tired as I felt.
“I’m sorry,” Dad said, his voice so low it was almost a whisper.
What did I say to that? I wasn’t ready to accept his apology. I didn’t know if I ever would be. This
man had spent half my life complaining about what I’d become. Hearing him bitch and moan that I
wasn’t what he wanted me to be left me feeling like an invader in my own home. His sudden,
misplaced altruism couldn’t make up for any of the things he’d said.
But I couldn’t say that to my father. I couldn’t tell him that he’d hurt me as much, if not more than
the rest of the pack.
I just had to accept that this was a step in the right direction. “Next time…next time, can you talk
to me first? I know what’s best for me. I’m the one who has been dealing with all of this.”
He opened his mouth, like he wanted to argue. After a moment, he closed it and nodded. I had the
feeling that he wouldn’t stick to this agreement for long, but I appreciated the sentiment now.
I grabbed the plate of food that he’d prepared and climbed the stairs to my room. The box still sat,
unopened, on my bed. It’d been a while since I’d last slept. I hadn’t told Bri or Ryder that my concern
for him had kept me awake late into the nights. I hadn’t mentioned how badly I wanted him to stay,
either.
I slumped on the floor, my back to the bed. The box radiated awful vibes, enough to make me sick
to my stomach. I had to open it and look through its contents again, but I kept putting it off. The box
held the last fragments of lives that had come to an early end, a violent end.
Anger turned my blood hot. I sucked in a deep breath and prepared myself for what I had to do.
The dark presence of my new arcana writhed deep in my gut. There was nothing I could do with it
now. Though my wrath had summoned it, the arcana had nowhere to go.
Okay, I can do this.
On my knees, I turned around and pulled the box closer. The sundresses were cheery, but the life
had been drained out of them. Stains marred the floral and plaid prints. I let my vision blur, so I didn’t
have to know which stains were mud and which were blood.
The scents of humans rose from inside the cardboard. Alvin kept his trophies in a cardboard box.
One would have expected him to at least put them in a safe or some sort of lock box. Instead, they
were hidden in plain sight, the ghosts of young women trapped in a box right next to tangled Christmas
lights.
If I could trace these back to their owners, maybe talk to their families, then I could get what I
needed to convince the pack to turn against Alvin. If my packmates listened to the stories of those who
missed these women, then they would understand what they were allowing to happen when they let
Alvin be a monster.
I couldn’t dig through the box too much or I would get my scent all over the dresses. The scents
inside the box had already faded quite a bit. Too much more handling, and I would lose the last lead I
had.
 Instead of handling the box’s contents, I reached for my phone. With my thumbnail between my
teeth, I did a quick search to find the dresses. When I figured out which year the dresses had been
manufactured and sold, then I searched missing persons lists for those years. No one would think that
a town in New York had a lot of missing people, but the list went on and on. My stomach sank with
sorrow for those who’d never been found.
How many of these people had fallen to Alvin? To vampires? How many had been murdered by
people who should have kept them safe?
My thoughts turned dark. I tried to shake myself out of it, but the recent events weighed on me. I
told myself that there was nothing I could do for these people, but I wished I could help them all the
same. My heart should have been heavily guarded by now.
It seemed I was a fool.
I couldn’t dwell on my misplaced hopes. There was work to be done. I shook myself and reached
for my phone. If anyone could give me the answers I needed, it would be my friends at Bad Moon
Café.

Ryder

BRI LINGERED IN THE DOORWAY, her lip caught between her teeth the same way she was caught
between her indecision. I had no idea which choices tugged at her or why, only that she seemed far
too hesitant. When she stepped inside and closed the door behind her, I noticed that her gaze was
distant.
When she inhaled and lifted her chin, I saw determination in those same eyes. Bri never took long
to make a decision, and when she made one, she held firm to it. She marched into the kitchen, grabbed
a bottle of water from the fridge and tossed it to me.
I was slow to catch it. The gold-tinted food had taken its toll on me. I needed to eat, but nothing
else tasted the same anymore. If I stayed here, then Beryl would get another chance to tempt me with
her, ah, illegally imported foods.
“It’s time to go,” I told Bri as I turned towards the door.
She caught my sleeve and kept me from leaving. Frustrated, I tilted my head and glanced back at
her. The expression on her face was expectant, like she was waiting for me to realize something.
My shoulders slumped. “Not now, Bri.”
The corner of her mouth lifted. “Sit. Talk to me.”
I narrowed my eyes at her and wondered what kind of game she was playing. As she commanded,
I sat. I cracked open the water bottle and chugged it in one sitting because it tasted like nothing
anyway. My stomach sloshed with the water both women had given me.
This wasn’t like a typical hangover. I didn’t need to rehydrate. I needed food…that lusciously
glimmering fruit and tempting wine. I wanted to feel the sticky sweetness dribbling down my chin
once again. If only the world would tilt beneath my feet and drop me into a pile of pillows where I
could forget the madness of my life.
With a growl, I shook off the hunger gripping me. It didn’t work. I was able to shove it to the back
of my mind so I could focus on Bri, but that was about it.
I ran a hand along my stubble. “How did you find me at the local Alpha’s place?”
 “I ran into the same witch you met. She said you’d be here and that I would come face to face with
you if I went to that exact address when I made it to town.” Bri smiled sadly. “I didn’t…I wished I’d
stopped to think about what I was doing. It never occurred to me that the house might be dangerous.”
I grunted. She was right. Even though she was a dragon shifter and might be able to protect herself
against a few wolves, I didn’t trust this pack. They’d used poison once before. There was nothing
stopping them from using it again.
Bri watched me intently, like she could see right through me. We’d been close at one point in time.
We’d even dated for a short while. Bri knew me inside and out. If anyone could read me, it would
have been her. Yet, I wasn’t so sure anymore.
We weren’t the same people we’d been.
“How’s Morgan holding up?” I asked.
She sighed and slouched in her seat. She wouldn’t look directly at me. I wondered if her thoughts
were on Morgan or if I’d reminded her of what I’d done.
“Morgan is…distraught. He’s angry and looking for answers.” Bri finally looked me in the eye.
Her gaze sent a shock through my body that I didn’t expect. “He deserves answers, at the very least,
but you took off without telling a damn soul what happened.”
“Had I stayed, Morgan wouldn’t have waited for answers. He would have acted without thinking.
I couldn’t let my brother do something he would regret.”
Bri swallowed. Her nose wrinkled for an instant, like she was fighting against herself. Then, she
exhaled and rolled her shoulders back. “I don’t think that situation has changed. If anything, Morgan is
angrier than ever. He isn’t going to be nice when he finds you. I left Thunder Pass before Morgan, but
he might be on his way.”
“Then why am I sitting here? We should get going.” I moved to stand, but Bri made no such effort.
I hesitated, watching her.
Bri had something up her sleeve.
“You want me to stay,” I said, trying to unravel what it was that my friend wanted from me.
She grinned, her brows lifting victoriously.
I threw my hands in the air. “No. I can’t. That’s out of the question. I’ve stayed here long enough.
This place is a…a…” I couldn’t think of anything bad to say about Lakesedge.
While I’d had my fair share of trouble here with Ness and Beryl, my beast loved the territory. The
dragon loved the open skies and the pink haze of the sunsets. Lakesedge was a beautiful place, and I
wanted it all to myself.
That wouldn’t happen, though. I’d given up any right to lead a pack or a clan after what I’d done.
The blood on my hands would never wash away. I might have done what I thought was right at the
time, but now I could see the harm I’d done to everyone around me. I’d learned that I would never be
a good leader.
Lakesedge deserved better than me.
“Stay and help your girlfriend,” Bri said. “I know you think you can drink faery wine and escape
your guilt, but that’s not how that works. Nothing is going to erase what you did. All you can do is
move forward and become better than your past. Your girlfriend deserves that much, at least.”
I paused, the gears in my head finally starting to turn. Bri had said something several times now,
and it’d only just now dawned on me.
“My girlfriend?”
Bri grinned again. She must have thought she was being smart.
“No.” I shook my head and paced away from Bri. “You have this all wrong. Ness is not my
girlfriend. That witch convinced me that Ness could help fix what I did, but the witch was wrong.
Ness is nothing to me.”
Bri laughed at me. She openly laughed, her head thrown back as she clutched her stomach. When
she wiped tears from her eyes, I stopped pacing so I could glare at her. It took her several minutes to
stop laughing, but I suspected most of that was purely theatrical.
“You can go back to Thunder Pass now,” I told her.
Bri playfully flung her hand toward the direction of the door. “It’s clear that the two of you like
each other. It’s all right if you want her. I won’t be mad. You’re allowed to move on.”
I clenched my jaw so hard the screech of my teeth grinding together nearly drowned out the fury of
my beast. “Excuse me? I’m allowed to move on?”
“Yes. And you really should. I know that you haven’t dated anyone since we broke up. The entire
clan was worried that you would never find a mate to bear the next generation of leaders. While that’s
not really a concern anymore, I still think you should explore whatever it is that you have with that
woman. Ness? Right?”
I flipped Bri the bird and stormed outside.
The reason I never got over her wasn’t that I still loved her. Bri had left me for my brother. She’d
told me that she loved me only to drop me three weeks later. While I respected her and wanted the
best for my childhood friend, her actions had left a crack in my heart that refused to mend.
Perhaps I was unlovable. I could live with that. No one needed to deal with a man like myself. I
had too many ghosts, too many sins. That didn’t make for good mate material. Still, I wished I hadn’t
found out that way.
I yanked open my car door, pausing when Bri came to stand outside. I didn’t want to look at her,
yet found myself glancing in her direction anyway.
“You should talk to Morgan,” she said. “Tell him what happened. If he understands, then the two
of you can be brothers again.”
Morgan and I shared everything, even girlfriends, apparently. This wasn’t something that I wanted
Morgan to understand. If anything, I wanted his righteous rage so that he wouldn’t have to live with
his own guilt.
If Morgan thought that I’d lost my mind or that I’d become corrupted, then that was for the best.
He would never forgive himself for not noticing our father’s decline. Morgan would blame himself
for the atrocities he’d overlooked.
“A conversation like that can’t happen anywhere near here,” I said, instead. “Morgan and I cause
destruction when we fight. I’d like that to happen far away from Lakesedge.”
Bri didn’t look convinced, but I didn’t have the time to make her understand. I got into the car and
set out to see just how far I could get before Beryl pulled me back. If she materialized inside my car
and whisked me back to her court while I was driving sixty miles an hour, I was going to charge her
for the inevitable repairs.
 3

N ess

“TRUST ME,” Cerri said as she knocked on Addie’s front door.

“You left Vi at the café by herself. Audra is going to have our asses if it’s burnt to the ground by
the time we go back.”
Truth be told, I didn’t really understand why Cerri had brought me here. I’d asked her for help,
and she’d been quick to reply that she had an idea. However, Cerri had been secretive about what that
might entail. I hadn’t expected to pull up to Addie’s house.
The little cookie-cutter house matched just about every other house on the street. It’d likely been
built during one of the post-war booms, when the country realized there were more citizens than
houses once the soldiers had returned. That also made it very cheap and inconspicuous.
I glanced at Addie’s neighbors. The lawn to my right had a chain link fence and a Beware of Dog
sign attached to it with zip strips. The lawn on my left housed a riding lawn mower with four flat
tires. With neighbors like that, Addie’s non-descript house blended into the background.
Addie answered the door with sweat dripping down her face. She wasn’t dressed to work out,
and her eyes were ever so slightly too wide. I sniffed the air to see if there might be anyone hiding
beyond the door, but the only scent I caught was earthy and cold. It wafted off Addie despite her
clearly sweaty skin.
Of all my friends from Bad Moon Café, the coffeeshop we worked at, Addie’s arcana was the
most mysterious of them all. She rarely spoke of it. If she did, her words were cryptic. It seemed that
Cerri had deciphered that code, though.
“Ness needs your arcana,” Cerri said as she pushed past Addie.
Addie gaped at Cerri before taking me in. I gave her a grimace and hefted the box in my arms as if
that would mean anything to Addie.
“Can I come in?” I asked. “I can explain inside.”
Addie stiffened, clearly hesitant. When she looked back at Cerri, who’d disappeared inside,
Addie’s shoulders slumped. “I’m not sure how much help I can be.”
I nodded. “That’s fine.”
It wasn’t. My hopes were high. Cerri hadn’t failed me yet. I hoped that she was right about Addie.
 Finally, Addie stepped aside and let me through. She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the
hem of her shirt before closing the door behind me. Cerri was already in the kitchen, prying the
cabinets open. She pulled out boxes of tea that Addie eyes suspiciously. If I had to guess, I would
have figured Cerri had planted those boxes here when Addie hadn’t been looking.
While Cerri prepared tea, I set the box down on the coffee table. Addie didn’t approach it. She
stared, her jaw clenched. One eye twitched. She almost looked like she could hear something that I
couldn’t.
“Are…are you okay?” I didn’t dare touch her. Addie looked like she might shatter if I made any
sudden moves.
Several heartbeats passed before she jerked her chin upwards. She almost looked startled, like
she’d fallen headfirst back into reality without warning. She blinked several times before moving to
kneel beside the coffee table.
“Where did you find this?” she asked.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Ah, about that. Ryder stole it from Alvin’s basement.”
Addie groaned. “I shouldn’t be surprised. It reeks of death. You know what this means, right?”
I nodded, unable to speak the truth. Cerri stopped what she was doing. Her gaze fell on the box
while we all acknowledged what had happened.
“You can help, right?” Cerri asked. She gathered three steaming mugs and caried them out to the
living room.
I accepted one. A chill that had gripped me since I’d stepped inside suddenly vanished. It was as
if it’d been hovering over me, and I hadn’t even noticed until the warmth of the mug banished it. I
glanced around, uncertain of the source of such a chill.
I couldn’t find where the chill came from, but I noticed the way Addie clenched her fists atop the
coffee table. She didn’t reach for the mug. It sat, untouched, near her tight fist while she glared at the
box.
“I can’t do it,” she said, finally.
My stomach dropped. I opened my mouth to argue, but quickly shut it again. I had no right to make
demands of my friends, no matter how badly I needed help. They could only ever do what was within
their abilities.
Cerri, however, didn’t take no for an answer. She set down her mug and looked Addie right in the
eyes. “You’re never going to get any grasp on your arcana if you don’t practice.”
Addie swatted her mug off the table. The mug and its contents went flying across the room before
cracking against the far wall. I stiffened, wary of what I’d just started.
“You have no right to tell me what I can and cannot do with my arcana.” Addie lifted her head and
scowled at Cerri. “You got lucky. Maybe the shifter genes passed you over, but you found some
power in brewing potions. That’s really nice and easy, you know. I wish I had it that easy.”
Cerri narrowed her eyes. She had the presence of a very disappointed mother, and it made me
want to flee. How Addie met her glare head on, I would never know.
Finally, Addie grumbled something and ripped the box open. I called out for her to stop, but no
one listened. Addie slowed, though. She dragged in a ragged breath and held it for several moments
before slowly exhaling.
The room round me chilled again. A soft wind whipped through the living room even though I
could see no vents or fans. Cerri grinned, but it slowly slipped away as she watched Addie. A
hesitant expression took its place. Concern rumbled in the pit of my stomach.
I tried to make eye contact with Cerri because I wanted to know if this would be a situation like
Vi’s, where we would have to bring Addie back from whatever darkness was lurking inside of her.
Cerri wouldn’t look at me, though. She kept her attention trained on Addie.
Whereas Vi sank into her demonic lineage when she used her arcana, Addie seemed different. The
room remained cold, cold enough that my breath fogged in the air. Addie seemed tense, but not caught
in something trying to overwhelm her. If anything, I noticed a slight tremble in her shoulders.
Addie feared her own arcana. I don’t know why it took me this long to figure that out. Her
hesitance stemmed from a fear. Cerri had mentioned that Addie would never gain control over it
unless she practiced. I couldn’t imagine trying to practice an arcana that terrified me.
Finally, Addie let out a haggard breath. “You’re looking for three human women. I…I can help
you find their bodies if you need me to.”
Excited, I stepped forward. “You can? I mean, thank you. I would appreciate any help you could
offer.”
Part of me didn’t want to ask this of my friend. I could already see her reluctance. She had turned
to me, but her gaze kept slipping back to the box. I wondered, for a moment, if she could see the
ghosts clinging to their belongings.
Cerri pulled out her phone. The screen was flashing with an incoming call. From the look on
Cerri’s face, I knew something had happened at work. Cerri answered the call, pressed the phone to
her ear, and quickly rushed out of the door. As she passed, I could hear Vi’s panicked voice.
Great, work was on fire again.
Addie stood up. “Let me shower, and we can head out.”
“You want to go looking now?” I didn’t expect Addie to be ready after all that.
She lifted her chin in the box’s direction. “I don’t think that can wait any longer. The sooner we
get this done, the sooner I can go back to normal.”
I wanted to tell her that our arcana didn’t understand normal. It didn’t sit back in silence. Arcana
struck when we least expected it. At least, it had for me. From the way Addie acted, I was pretty sure
that’s how it worked for her, too.

Ryder

NO MATTER which direction I drove, every road led me back to Lakesedge. Worse even, every road
led me right back to Beryl’s restaurant, the one that sat above Beryl’s court.
I parked the car outside the restaurant and stared at the sign hanging over the door. The golden
fruit beckoned me. I yearned for another taste of bliss. My head throbbed with the sheer force of my
need. I could forget everything that’d happened if I could get another taste.
But no. I couldn’t let Beryl have any more of me. That wretch was not going to take what was left
of my soul.
Bri’s SUV pulled up behind my car. She parked and got out. When she stood outside my window,
I rolled it down and looked up at her.
“I lost you a few times,” she said. “I’d look away and suddenly, you weren’t there anymore. It
took me a few turns to find you again. This is looking like a bust.”
She was right, but I wasn’t going to admit that. Instead, I tightened my grip on the steering wheel
and eyed the sign over the restaurant again.
 Just one taste. That’s all I needed. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about everything so much. I
wouldn’t have to think about the blood I’d spilled or the woman I couldn’t save.
Groaning, I pried my hands from the steering wheel so I could run them over my face. I needed to
get a grip on things. Ness didn’t need me. She had everything she needed to take Alvin down. Her
pack would do the rest of the work for her.
At least, that’s what I hoped. I wasn’t sure if her pack really would stand up for her. If they were
going to do that, then they would have by now.
When the witch told me that the Barghest would be able to help me, I’d thought I would meet a
wizened old man with arcana that would clean my slate for me. I did not expect to run into Ness or
her broken pack. Though I wanted to stay and help so she could have a better pack, I couldn’t ignore
my own problems.
Morgan, my younger brother, was on his way. When Morgan arrived, the confrontation would turn
into a fight. I knew it the same way I knew the sun would rise. It was inevitable.
I had no right to forgiveness. I wanted Morgan to believe that our father had been a good man to
his last breath.
Bri casually leaned on the roof of the car. “What even happened here? You haven’t explained
anything to me yet.”
“A lot of things happened here,” I said. “It’s going to be a long night if you want to hear the whole
story from start to end.”
Bri looked up and scanned the shops on the street. Her gaze fell on a liquor store, which made her
grin. “I’ll grab us some drinks, and you can spend the night filling me in.”
Once upon a time, those words would have made me laugh. I would have turned them into a
euphemism to flirt with her. Right now, my thoughts slid back to Ness. I hadn’t heard from her in a
while. I shouldn’t have been so worried for someone I planned on leaving behind, but my beast would
not let her go.
The dragon held onto her like she was a treasure. I didn’t want any kind of treasure hoard,
certainly not one that consisted of people. That was how my father fell. The Sickness claimed his
mind and stole a good man from us.
Bri tapped the roof of the car, startling me back to the present. She said something about drinks
and made her way to the liquor store, leaving me in the car by myself.
Since I wasn’t going to get anywhere any time soon, I put the car into gear and turned back
towards the rental.
 4

N ess

THE SKIES BEGAN to cloud over. I felt bad for anyone who’d been preparing for a sunny summer day,
because the moment I shifted, the storms started rolling in. I needed to be in this form in order to help
Addie.
We’d packed the box of dresses into the car and followed whatever arcane thread connected
Addie to the dead. We arrived near a field a few miles outside of the city. Addie and I shared a look.
She drummed her fingers along the steering wheel. I could tell that she was still nervous.
I nudged her with my snout in a show of solidarity. She inhaled sharply, like I’d startled her. Her
gaze focused and she issued a soft apology.
I couldn’t tell her that this would be alright. I couldn’t even tell her that I could do this on my
own, because I couldn’t. I would have never gotten this far without Addie’s help. If she didn’t get me
closer, my nose would never be able to pick up the scent I needed to find.
We got out of the car and went around to the trunk. Addie opened the box so I could root around
with my nose and pick up the last of the lingering scents. They were faint, but still there, nonetheless. I
wasn’t sure how I would be able to catch these with all the other smells around me.
Fear of failure gripped me tight. The clouds above rumbled with thunder. Addie bumped me with
her thigh, the same reassuring touch I’d given her earlier.
“Let’s do this,” she said under her breath.
She knelt and put a collar around my neck. A pair of tags dangled from it. Though they would
chime like bells for any predator to hear, we didn’t expect to run into any real danger here. The collar
would put humans at ease. They wouldn’t see me and think that I was a wild creature or a stray.
Addie had brought a leash, too, but I wasn’t about to let her put that on me. She’d argued that it
might come in handy because there were leash laws, but I’d drawn the line.
Together, we stepped off the shoulder of the road and into the field. Small birds and mice
skittered away from us as we pushed through the tall grass. The trees ahead were bunched close
together and left the world beneath them shrouded in darkness.
A shiver ran down my spine before we plunged into that shadow. My eyes slowly adjusted to the
darker world. Branches and dead trees stuck out at odd angles, reminding me of skeletons. I didn’t
want to know what we were going to find.
The scents around me didn’t give anything away. I caught hints of frogs and moss among the heady
aromas of the earth. I braced myself for the reek of death and rot, but it didn’t hit right away. Addie
and I made our way deeper into the woods, past fallen logs and sleeping creatures.
After what felt like an hour or more, I heard the sound of a creek ahead. I glanced up at Addie.
Her face had gone white. She stiffened, her head tilted like she could hear something that I couldn’t. I
nudged her again, but it did nothing. She remained trapped in whatever held her.
I lifted my head and sniffed the air. Here, something else reached towards me, past the smells of
earth and fresh water. This was something far more sinister. It burned my nose and made me sneeze at
first.
The sound of my sneeze broke Addie from her daze. Her attention fell to me as I rubbed at my
snout with my paw.
“It’s here,” she said.
I wanted to warn her. Something was wrong. Before I could do anything, the temperature dropped.
The sound of the creek drowned out the earth breaking open. I felt it, though. The ground shuddered
under my paws.
Addie whimpered. She shook her head and stumbled back. Her feet tangled and nearly tripped
her. I grabbed the leash in her hands and tugged to keep her upright. It gave her time to straighten, but
the look of fear never left her face.
I looked back to the small chasm in the earth. A spindly hand rose above the broken ground. My
stomach flipped. Desiccated flesh peeled away from the bones. The hand came down and tensed as
the rest of the body pulled itself out of the ground.
I positioned myself between the undead thing and Addie. The air between the two was impossibly
cold. It was as if I’d stepped out into a winter night. My breath frosted in the air. The wind pulled me
towards the undead creature as if everything in the area was being pulled into it. I watched the foliage
around it turn brown and crumble.
The undead creature began to look less and less dead. That’s when I realized that Addie was
doing this. This was what she feared. Her arcana was capable of things no one should have to
witness.
I reached up and bit Addie’s hand. I didn’t bite hard enough to break the skin, but the pain was
enough to snap her out of it. She leapt into motion, spinning on her heel. I watched her dive back into
the woods and race back to the car we left by the road.
When I turned to inspect the undead creature rising out of its grave, the thing had gone motionless.
Without Addie present, it’d stopped. The life that the undead creature had sucked in had vanished,
leaving it limp and lifeless.
Well, at least I knew where the body was now. This wasn’t a public trail. Hell, it was likely part
of Alvin’s property. His scent wasn’t anywhere to be found, though the acrid smell from earlier left
me uncertain.
I couldn’t leave Addie alone, though. She was a skilled hiker, but she’d come this way with no
maps to guide her. After committing this creek to memory, I turned and ran after Addie. It was easy to
pick up her scent in the woods, much easier than finding a dead body.
She’d gotten turned off course. I caught up to her and leapt ahead of her to push her in the right
direction, but I startled her. She stumbled back, crashed into a tree, and lurched away from me. She
didn’t slow or stop to see what had jumped in front of her. I let out a soft bark to get her attention.
She didn’t seem to hear me at all.
 Shit. What had I done? I didn’t want to keep leading my friends into dangerous situations. Any
time I asked Vi for help, she struggled with her demonic blood. Asking Addie for help seemed just as
bad. If only I could have done this by myself. Then I wouldn’t have had to involve anyone.
Ryder wouldn’t have gotten trapped in Beryl’s clutches. My friends wouldn’t have to struggle
with their personal fears for my sake.
I hated the position that Alvin had put me in, yet I couldn’t help but think that this was no longer
Alvin’s fault. I’d been the one to ask Ryder for help. I’d gone to my friends. If I hadn’t done that, then
I would be the only one suffering.
Addie had gotten ahead of me. Something told me she needed to see a friendly face, so I paused
and shifted back. My chest heaved with the force of all the energy I’d poured into changing. I had to
do this quickly. If Addie got too far ahead, she would get lost deeper in the woods.
Barefoot and naked, I charged after my friend. “Addie! Get back here.”
The trees parted and revealed my terrified friend. I cried out just as her foot caught a fallen
branch. Unaware of the branch, she looked back in my direction and immediately fell. Her trip gave
me time to catch up.
The forest floor hurt the bottoms of my feet. I couldn’t wait to shift back. Especially now that I
had to cross my arms over my breasts.
“Addie?” I asked tentatively.
She didn’t move. Her hair hung over her face like a veil hiding her true emotions. I stepped
around her and carefully crouched so I could get a peek at her face. A twig poked me in the rear, but I
ignored it because my friend needed help.
“Everything is all right,” I said. “Nothing happened. No one got hurt.”
She made a pained sound that turned into a dismal groan. Burying her face in her hands, she let out
a sob. Awkward because of my nakedness, I patted her on the back. If I’d had a change of clothes, I
would have pulled her into a hug and let her cry her heart out. The lack of fabric between us kept me
from comforting her properly.
Addie deserved more right now. My attention slid back in the direction we’d come. We’d found
one of the bodies. I was sure of it. The undead creature had been one of Alvin’s kills. If Addie could
bring the girl back long enough for her to speak, then I would have the evidence I needed.
I would never ask that of Addie, though. The body itself would have to be enough. I could go back
and unearth it on my own.
“Thank you for this,” I said.
She picked herself up but wouldn’t look at me. “I hate this.”
I had the feeling she wasn’t talking about the pile of dead leaves and twigs that’d broken her fall.
The memory of the undead creature crawling out of the ground haunted me. I would see it when I
closed my eyes tonight.
“You know you can talk to us about this kind of stuff. Right?”
Addie hung her head. “It’s better to just ignore it.”
I made a sound in the back of my throat. “And when that happens a second time?”
“That wasn’t the first time. This…it happens a lot. My grandma used to raise chickens…”
Addie’s voice trailed off.
I had the worst image of an army of headless chickens storming through my mind. I shuddered and
tried to shrug it off. I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting when it came to Addie’s arcana, but this
was not it. Cerri had known, somehow. Perhaps my friend paid closer attention than I did.
Maybe I was just drowning in my own problems.
 “Let’s get back to the road,” I said.
Addie didn’t say anything. The clouds leftover from my storm blocked out the sun and left Addie’s
face bathed in flickering shadows. I wondered how many of those shadows were light and how many
were from her arcana.
I stepped away and shifted once more. After, I laid on the ground for a while, my limbs too heavy
to lift. Shifting this many times, back-to-back, drained me of energy. I felt as though I’d been able to
do this in the past. When I tried to remember what I’d had to eat for the day, I realized that I’d missed
breakfast, like a fool.
By the time I returned, Addie had pulled herself back together. She seemed impassive, like
nothing had happened at all. That made me worry there would be a fallout that she would have to deal
with later. I couldn’t help her through that, as badly as I wanted to.
My co-workers at Bad Moon Café were like pack to me. Hell, they were more pack than the
shifters I knew. Involving my friends in this had been a bad idea. I would get them hurt, eventually.
I had to figure out how to handle this on my own. If I could stop leaning on others for support, then
no one would have to get hurt. That meant figuring out this arcana inside me. If I could do that, then
there was a chance I didn’t need anyone else. I wouldn’t have to put those I loved in harm’s way.
I led Addie back to the road. She had a few scratches on her arms and a smear of dirt across her
cheek, but she looked fine otherwise. When I turned to look back at where we’d come from, I
committed the landscape to memory. The clouds even broke to let a bit of sunshine peer through and
illuminate the scenery.
Now that I knew where the body was, I would be able to come back. For now, I climbed into the
backseat of Addie’s car and dropped down for a nap. The sky trembled in warning. My presence had
brought a storm with it, one that would likely rage into the night. I thanked the sky for giving voice to
my frustration when I couldn’t.
Several women had died at Alvin’s hands. I’d watched one dig herself out of a shallow grave. My
heart broke for her. Alvin had preyed upon her. He’d chased her through the woods and filled her last
moments with fear. The others must have felt the same.
I recalled the last pack run. Alvin had turned it into a hunt, with me as the prey. Most of the pack
had stayed far away from me. I must have only experienced an ounce of the fear these women must
have felt. The thought filled me with grief.
“You couldn’t have saved them,” Addie said.
I growled, annoyed that she’d somehow anticipated my thoughts.
“That body has been there a long time. You were a teenager when that girl died.”
Ah, but that girl had been a teenager, too. That made us about the same age. I wondered why Alvin
hadn’t outright killed me yet. He’d never bothered to hide his hatred of me. The prophecy that I would
be his downfall remained until I died. Hell, it might even stick around after I died.
Perhaps that was what kept him from killing me. Alvin toyed with me. He made my existence
miserable so that the rest of the pack would know their place. No one wanted to trade places with me.
If they could get away with being spineless in order to protect their own asses, then they would do
just that.
I sighed.
“Don’t blame yourself,” Addie said.
Well, at least I knew she wasn’t a mind reader. I wasn’t blaming myself for the girl’s death. The
parallels scared me, though. I prayed that Alvin had stopped hunting humans. For now, he had me to
focus on. Maybe that was enough to keep him from collecting more trophies.
EXHAUSTION from the long day of shifting dragged at my body as I stepped past the threshold of my
home, what should have been a safe place. An unfamiliar scent hung in the air. My hound picked it up
and began panicking. I tried to talk her down, but her panic seized my body. Stuck in the doorway, I
looked around wildly.
“Vanessa!” Dad called out from the kitchen.
His voice didn’t calm me. If anything, the hound growled in angry anticipation. At least now I had
control of my body again. I held onto the door frame as I slumped. The scent remained strong. Dad
wasn’t alone.
The fact that I did not recognize the person’s scent comforted me a little. At least the visitor
wasn’t one of Alvin’s wolves. Besides, Dad wanted to help me in his own way.
I gathered myself and closed the door before heading into the kitchen. A burly blonde man
dwarfed our kitchen table. He hunched, his massive hands wrapped around what should have been an
oversized mug—in his grasp, it looked miniature.
He unfolded himself from his seat and rose to an amazing height. I gaped up at the man. The smell
of bear rolled off him. It was all at once comforting and terrifying. He smiled down at me. His grin
was sheepish, as if he were afraid to startle me. I wondered if that was a preventative measure from
his past interactions.
“I’m Thor,” he said, his hand extended.
I blinked. “Yeah, I would believe that.”
He chuckled. “No. Not the god. Just a man.”
I wasn’t completely convinced, but I also wasn’t ready to have this argument. He could figure out
that he was a god among men from someone else. I took his hand and shook it. The warmth from his
body eased the last of my hound’s fear away. This man had a strange effect on my hound. It was as if
he radiated safety, which wasn’t surprising given his size.
That made me think of Ryder and how I felt in his arms. I wondered if he was doing alright after
what happened at Beryl’s court. Had the enchantment from the faery food worn off by now? He’d
seemed almost normal by the time I’d left him.
Why did I care? Bri was likely taking care of him right this instant. Ryder didn’t need me to worry
about him when he had a mate.
I shook myself, casting off my wayward thoughts, and focused on the matter at hand. Dad watched
me from his seat at the table. The expectant rise of Dad’s brow made my jaw clench. Wary of this
conversation, I tried to say good night and back out of the room.
“Just a moment,” Thor said, his hand outstretched to stop me.
I clenched my jaw. Did the stink of death hover around me? Did I have the energy to deal with
this? Not right now, I didn’t. It seemed that I wasn’t going to be given a choice, though.
“Your father and I were speaking about maybe getting you set up in a new pack,” Thor said. The
light, hopeful lilt of his voice invited me to stay and consider.
I shook my head. “That’s all right, sir. I’m good right where I am.”
Dad’s expression darkened. Thor glanced back at him, as if to ask if I was insane. The two of
them must have covered my situation while I’d been gone.
“I have work to do here,” I said. “I’m going to see it through, and no one can stop me. I appreciate
the offer to take me into your pack, Thor, but I’m going to have to decline.”
 “Vanessa,” Dad said with a note of warning in his voice.
I ignored him. There were at least three dead young women whose voices needed to be heard. I
had to show the pack what kind of man Alvin really was. They saw the fearful man who would do
anything to keep his position, but they needed to see the man who took joy in preying on the
defenseless.
“I want you to have more options. You deserve the kind of life that you can’t have here.” Dad
gave me a pleading look. “Let Thor take you back to Tennessee. You can lead a safe life there. Alvin
will stop hurting the others when you leave.”
My blood turned to ice. “That’s…that’s not my fault. I didn’t ask for any of that. Don’t put Alvin’s
actions on me!”
Dad sighed, defeated. Thor stepped in, but I threw my hands up. I was done with this.
Alvin’s behavior wasn’t my fault. The pack had convinced themselves that Alvin had changed
because of me. I hated it. I didn’t deserve any of their anger or hatred because of something I could
not change or a man who saw a threat in a thirteen-year-old girl.
I heard the two of them talking to one another as I stepped out of the room.
“What’s gotten into that girl?” Thor asked.
Dad groaned. “Determination, unfortunately.”
Unfortunately, my ass. My hand had been forced. I had no other choice than to fulfill this damned
prophecy. The witch made a declaration that I would bring about Alvin’s demise, and so I would see
that through even if it killed me.
Upstairs, I dreamed of my own place. I yearned for a home that I could go to where no one would
try to change me. I wouldn’t have to listen to anyone berate me in another room. In that imaginary
house, I envisioned Ryder waiting for me.
I knew that he would never belong to me, but I allowed myself to indulge in the daydream just this
once. I savored the idea of crawling into his lap and feeling his arms wrap around me, much like that
night at Cerri’s—just with less danger.
Ryder was almost a stranger to me, but I felt as though we’d known each other longer. He’d
promised not long ago that he would never hurt me. Perhaps I clung to him because I wasn’t used to
such things. His kindness had always been gruff yet reliable.
I rolled over onto my side and reached for the nearest plushie so I could hug it tight to my chest.
 5

N ess

I HURRIEDLY RAN a hand through my hair before pulling my knit cap on. I was late for work once
again. I’d rolled out of bed long after my alarm had given up on trying to wake me. The events of the
day before had drained me so thoroughly that I’d overslept. There hadn’t even been time for
breakfast.
I slowed at the sight of Bri heading my way. She waved and beckoned me forward. I stiffened,
wary of speaking to Ryder’s mate after last night. I’d fallen asleep to the memory of his touch. Had
she found out that he’d almost kissed me while drunk on faery food?
I did not want to see what an angry dragon mate would do to me today. This wasn’t Lakesedge,
though. Bad Moon Café sat just outside of the supernatural community. Out here, in Syracuse, the
humans were oblivious to our presence. No one could act up or use their arcana without risking
revealing themselves.
Any supernatural who revealed themselves risked punishment by the local leaders. Bri didn’t
belong to the local supernatural community, but I trusted that she abided by the same laws. So, at
least, I knew she wasn’t going to smite me with lightning or fire just for thinking about her mate.
I gestured for her to follow me into the café. Cerri was already behind the counter, mixing her
potions for the day. She gave me a wide grin until Bri opened the door behind me. Cerri’s mask of
cheer slipped and revealed her confusion for a moment.
“I’m sorry, but we aren’t open yet,” Cerri said in her sweetest customer service voice.
“It’s alright. I invited her in.” I didn’t want to, but I figured Bri needed to talk and here was as
good a place as any.
While the other two stared at me expectantly, I set out making my favorite coffee. I desperately
needed an iced hazelnut mocha. It tasted like chocolate hazelnut spread, and I could not get enough of
it.
“I know you’re not open yet,” Bri said politely. “But could I have one of whatever you’re making
as well?”
Cerri bent and reached for one of her potion bottles under the counter. When I noticed that she
was reaching for the truth potion, I grabbed her wrist to stop her. As much as I’d like to ask Bri a few
questions, especially ones concerning Ryder, I wasn’t going to force them out of her.
“Yeah, give me a moment.”
It took me no time at all to whip up another mocha. Here, in Bad Moon Café, I almost felt normal.
I savored the soft sounds of the radio, turned low. The heady smells of espresso and flavored syrups
were comforting in their own way.
Alvin had come here and made a scene not too long ago. I’d expected the café to feel tainted, like
he’d left a stain behind. If anything, there seemed to be no trace of him at all. I wondered if Cerri had
cleansed the space with a potion or if Audra, the café owner, had done something to remove his taint.
Either way, I appreciated it. I put Bri’s coffee up on the counter and turned down her money when
she tried to pay. It was the least I could do after leaving her with Beryl the other day.
“How did that conversation go, by the way? The one with Beryl.”
I could feel Cerri’s attention on me. I’d left that part out.
Bri gave a half shrug. “It went fine, I guess. I’m still not sure I understand why Ryder was there to
begin with. I thought that he’d gone to the court to get drunk, but after watching him try to leave town
yesterday, I don’t think that’s what’s happening. Ryder won’t tell me anything, either.”
I pressed my lips into a firm line. Like hell would I give away the fact that I’d roped Ryder into
helping me by lying. It hadn’t been the biggest lie. It was more a lie of omission, but still. This was
Ryder’s mate. She would hate me forever if I admitted that I’d tried to use him.
I hated myself for trying to use him. Ryder deserved better. I knew that much at least.
“Beryl took a particular interest in Ryder,” Cerri said quickly.
I sipped on my coffee so I would keep my mouth shut.
Cerri sidled up beside me. “The two of them were working on something, but Beryl is devious.
She must have trapped Ryder in a deal somehow. I’ve never trusted that unseelie queen.”
Bri took both of us in, her attention flicking back and forth between us. I gave a nod that might not
have been as convincing as I’d hoped. Bri didn’t question it, though.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “I wish that man knew how to ask for help. This is how he gets
into trouble. He thinks he can do something on his own, and then it bites him in the ass.”
Except, Ryder had asked for help. I’d been unable to follow through.
“I’m not sure how all of you got wrapped up in this, but if you could help me, I’d be really
grateful.”
I couldn’t tell if Bri was digging for information because she suspected we’d betrayed him or
simply looking for answers that might help. Bri had every right to both, I guessed.
But I shrugged instead. “I’m not sure what’s happening. All I know is that Beryl wants him for
something.”
It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth, either. Why was I like this? Why did I want to hide
from Bri? The dragon woman had given me no reason to fear her. If anything, Bri had been nothing but
kind up until now. She deserved the truth, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it.
Bri gave a rueful shake of her head. She wandered away from the counter and took a seat at a
nearby table. “He’s always been overly independent. I’ve told him time and time again that he doesn’t
have to handle things on his own. His father told him the same thing. One would think that with the
way he looked up to his father, Ryder would have listened to the old man.”
I leaned forward, elbows on the counter, and cupped my slick drink between both hands. Cerri
glanced at the clock, then at the door. We should have opened ten minutes ago, but no one moved to
flip the sign.
A question reached the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t know how to ask it. Ryder had told me that
he’d killed his clan leader to protect the others. Did Bri know about that? Had he told her? I
desperately wanted to ask, but I didn’t want to give away Ryder’s secrets without knowing if she was
in on them, too.
Once again, I heard his voice in my ear. The day he’d confessed to killing his clan leader, Ryder
had also promised me that he would never hurt me. That’d been after I’d had a panicked meltdown, of
course.
Did he say the same thing to Bri? What did he say to her?
Why was I thinking about this?
I wanted to bonk my head off the counter to see if it would clear my mind. With how thick my
skull was, I doubted that would work.
Cerri broke the silence. “Do you know why Ryder is here, in Syracuse?”
Bri grimaced, her teeth clenched as she studied us. I could see it in her face, the pain of her loss.
Had the clan leader been her father? Perhaps Ryder’s mate bond with Bri had made him the clan
leader’s heir. No wonder Ryder loathed himself so much. He’d betrayed so many just by doing the
right thing.
I nodded. “I know.”
Bri sighed. She seemed almost relieved. She ran a hand over her face. I wanted to tell her that
wasn’t enough to chase away the ghosts.
“I have to go somewhere today,” Bri said. She locked eyes with me. “Can you watch over him
tonight. Please, stay with him and make sure he doesn’t go back to the court for more faery food.”
I straightened. “Why me?”
I couldn’t read the smile that overcame Bri. It was secretive and all knowing all at once. If she
suspected I had feelings for her mate, then she wouldn’t ask me to spend the night with him…unless
she wanted to prove that he would never leave her. I didn’t need proof.
Mate bonds were unbreakable.
“Sure, I guess.” My voice trailed off.
Cerri bumped my hip. “It’ll be safer for the both of you. Call Connor and have him drop an
overnight bag off at Ryder’s place.”
Connor.
Just hearing his name made me livid. He’d made excuses. He’d tried to protect me the night of the
hunt. I wasn’t sure that I would ever be able to forgive him, though. He’d let Alvin whisper lies into
his ear. No one should believe a word Alvin said anymore, but Connor had listened anyway.
“I’m not saying you have to forgive him,” Cerri said softly. “Asking him to do something for you
has nothing to do with forgiveness.”
Bri waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll tell Ryder to do it for you.”
I jumped, heart racing at the thought of Ryder going through my underthings to pack my bag. “Oh,
no. No worries. I’ll ask Vi to do it. No need to involve Connor or Ryder for this.”
As it turned out, Vi was busy. That explained why Cerri had suggested Connor. I stared at his
name in my contacts. His number had been in there for a while, since the pack made sure that
everyone had a way of contacting one another. Yet, I’d only just started trusting him enough to call
him.
We’d been childhood friends, Connor and I. Our parents had raised us together until my first shift.
Before then, I’d thought that there was a chance that Connor and I would grow to love one another. I’d
let myself believe we could be high school sweethearts and maybe even mates.
Then, my first shift happened. Alvin ostracized me for what I’d become, and Connor drifted away
from me to protect himself. Apparently, he never stopped loving me. He just stopped being able to
show it.
When Alvin lied to Connor and asked him to bring me to the Alpha’s house, Connor had believed
him. Connor should have known better. He should have tried to protect me. Instead, he’d handed me
over to the man who hunted humans for sport.
My anger writhed inside me and raised the dark presence of my arcana once more. As I hit the
call button, I lifted the phone to my ear and let the arcana drift to the surface where it could coat my
tongue.
“Ness?” Connor asked. “Is that you? I’ve been meaning to call you…I just…I wanted…”
“Shut up,” I said. I wasn’t sure if the arcana reached through the phone or if he was actually
listening for once. “I don’t want your apologies. Go to my house and ask my mother to pack an
overnight bag for me. Bring it to Bad Moon when you’re done.”
“When I get there, can we talk?”
My stomach flipped before dropping altogether. The soft, plaintive note of Connor’s voice tugged
at me. I tried holding it together and reminded myself that I didn’t owe him anything, but it was hard to
keep in mind when I could hear the apology waiting behind his words.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and held my breath to keep from saying anything I might regret.
We’d been friends, once upon a time. I didn’t want to lose him altogether, but what he’d done…I
could have died. Didn’t he care?
Cerri burst through the door, snatched the phone from my hand, and held it to her own ear. “Just
get the bag. We don’t have time for your babbling.”
She hung up and passed the phone back to me. My stomach still lurked on the floor. Slowly,
breathing out to release the tension in my chest, I took the phone back from her. Cerri said nothing.
She slung an arm around my waist and led me back to the counter where I could lose myself in my
work.

Ryder

BRI LEFT AROUND DAWN . I couldn’t say that I missed her presence. She reminded me too much of
home, a place I could never go back to. While Bri belonged to Thunder Pass, I had given up my right
to call that the place of my heart. No one there wanted me to return. I knew that as well as the back of
my own hand.
Alone in the apartment, I thought about leaving. I spent hours thinking about leaving. It wasn’t just
Beryl’s curse that kept me here. Each time I thought about getting in the car and driving until my gas
tank was empty, my dragon reminded me of Ness.
Alone, Ness didn’t have the strength to defeat Alvin. She was a small shifter. Though she’d
recently discovered her arcana, she had little control over it. I didn’t want to leave her alone just yet,
even if I knew it would be safer for everyone if I left.
Beryl’s medallion sat heavy on my chest. I couldn’t leave, even if I wanted to. She would use her
fae magic to keep me coming back time and time again. The fae queen thought I would be a pawn in
her game, but I refused to play into her hands. She would not control me.
I ran a hand through my hair and tugged, hoping the pain would clear my mind. The hours slipped
by, and still nothing could help me focus.
When there came a knock on the door, it opened before I could even get up to answer it. I
expected Bri, but Ness blew through. She was shorter than Bri by several inches. Where Bri was all
flame with her bright red hair, Ness’s cloud of dark curls framed her sun-kissed face.
She fixed her stormy eyes on me. I expected her face to hold the indignation she carried around
like a shield, but her expression wavered. I shot to my feet and made it halfway across the room
before I could stop myself.
She lifted an eyebrow.
I cocked my head as the gears in my mind started turning. I took in the bags under her eyes and the
literal bag over her shoulder. “What are you doing here?”
“Your girlfriend asked me to babysit you, so you could babysit me.” She paused, her brow
lowering as if she heard what she’d just said and realized it made no sense. She shook herself. “Bri
wanted us to watch over each other tonight. She thinks that you went to Beryl to get drunk. Maybe the
two of you should talk about that.”
Ness pushed past me and slumped on the couch. It didn’t take long for her to sigh and throw
herself down onto the cushions. She rested her head on her folded hands as I stepped around the
couch to look down at her. She seemed smaller and weaker than normal. The urge to pull her into my
lap rose, but I quickly squashed it.
Memories of what I’d done while drunk on the faery wine returned to me. I’d tried to kiss her,
more than once. The memory of her, nearly pliant, in my arms came back in a rush that made my hot
blood run south. I coughed and turned away from her just in case anything popped up.
“I don’t have to tell her anything,” I said.
Ness made a sound in the back of her throat. “That sounds a lot like something I said. I think
you’re still mad at me for withholding information, so maybe you shouldn’t do that to Bri.”
I clenched my fists tight. Ness was right. Because of her secrets, I’d gotten trapped here. I’d
forgiven her, but that wouldn’t change the situation. Eventually, Morgan would find me. He would
descend upon Lakesedge and his warpath towards me would leave behind nothing but destruction.
“She deserves to know what’s going on,” Ness said. She paused, perhaps thinking. “Bri seems
really nice. I’m happy for you.”
Taken aback, I blinked. I had no idea what she meant by that. “Ah, sure. Bri is a good person, I
guess.”
The air between us thickened with tension, but neither of us dared break the silence. I kept my
back turned to her. Ness’s words made no sense to me, but that might have been my dragon’s fault.
The damned beast kept sending my thoughts tumbling back to the drunken haze that had almost pushed
me to do something I wouldn’t have done otherwise.
Was that true, though? That night, the night I’d been poisoned, Ness had been the only thing
keeping me anchored to the world of the living. I hadn’t thanked her for that. Her weight, her scent,
everything about her had made me want to stay alive. I had no way to explain what her presence did
to me sometimes.
Instead of thanking her, I asked, “Do you want a pizza?”
That was how we ended up on opposite ends of the couch while some mindless sitcom played in
the background. Maybe Ness was paying attention to it, but I couldn’t. My attention wandered to her
every few moments. I studied her thick lashes rimming her tired eyes. She seemed smaller than I
remembered.
Leaning forward, I cracked open the pizza box, grabbed another slice, and pushed it into her
hands. She scowled at it until I grabbed another slice for myself. She’d been in a lot of fights recently.
The smell of blood reached my nose, a memory from the night of the hunt. Ness had returned from the
hunt with her calves shredded.
If she hadn’t been eating enough to heal those wounds, then her body would never fully heal.
Shifters required a lot of energy. She needed to be more mindful about taking care of herself. I
wouldn’t always be here to do it for her.
Though, it didn’t feel like that anymore. When I considered leaving, I couldn’t think of anywhere I
wanted to go. Before, I’d let the call of the road drag me along with no real intention of stopping.
Now that I had spent time in Lakesedge, the land called to me.
I didn’t need to claim it. There had been a time when I’d thought I would go on to lead my clan.
I’d been raised to be a leader. The territory that should have been mine was out of my hands now.
My beast raised its head to say that my chances were not gone, not completely. This place,
Lakesedge, needed an Alpha who could end a generation of tyranny. I didn’t know if I could be that
Alpha, but my dragon wanted it. The beast wanted to sink its claws into the earth and hold on tight.
“You’re thinking,” Ness said around a mouthful of pizza.
“Shush. Eat your food.”
She snorted. I gave her a sidelong glare. She grinned, perking up a little. My heart danced
excitedly, but I kept it from showing on my face.
I couldn’t be mad at her for lying. She might think that the omission had tainted my opinion of her
forever, but I couldn’t look at her without seeing the sadness she buried deep. It made me want to pull
her close and see if I couldn’t ease some of that grief.
Ness had pushed me away, though. She didn’t want me like that. At least, she didn’t want the mess
that I had become. She’d never even gotten a chance to meet the person I was before I’d stained my
hands. Ness had only ever met a murderer. It was no wonder she would never feel safe with me.
Even as I thought this, Ness settled back down and put her head on my thigh.
Had I been wrong? There, she sighed and seemed to deflate, becoming even smaller than before. I
hesitated, unsure of what to do. However, she began to snore before long.
I settled back into my seat and watched her, my thoughts tumbling one over the other while my
dragon purred happily. The conflux of thoughts and emotions left me exhausted. I barely had the
energy to pluck one thought from the mess to examine it.
After a moment of hesitation, I set a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t rouse. Instead, she inched
closer. I pulled her hair away from her face to make sure she was still asleep—she was.
Anger simmered deep within my gut. I considered myself a stranger to her, and yet she passed out
on me as if I were the safest place in the world. She should have felt safer in the company of others,
but her pack had denied her any kind of solace. They kept her at a distance and made her feel alone.
When she stirred, I didn’t dare move. She deserved a little more sleep. I knew she had to be
exhausted. But, Ness slowly sat upright. I watched her blink as the last shreds of sleep fell away, and
she fixed her attention on me. Her eyes dropped to a small wet spot on my pant leg where she must
have drooled on me. Her cheeks turned red as she wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand.
I laughed. “That’s not the worst bodily fluid I’ve had on me.”
She glared at me. “The way you say that makes it sound dirty.”
“How was your nap, Princess?”
She snorted. “If I’m a princess then this is an old school Grimm fairy tale. The kind where
everyone dies at the end.”
My laughter faded. The beast made my stomach clench tight. The beast snarled viciously at the
thought of Ness getting hurt. I held the sound back and tried to remind the beast that Ness did not
belong to me. I couldn’t stay for her. Ness was determined to make her pack better. She clearly
wanted to stay here.
I couldn’t stay with her.
It would only put her in more danger. Which was why I needed to figure out how to leave, even if
it meant leaving her behind.
The desire to reach out and brush a curl behind her ear made me tighten my hands into fists. I
didn’t need to get any closer to her. Leaving would only be harder if I allowed myself what I wanted.
She wiggled, straightening her spine before she looked me in the eye. “Can I ask a favor? I will
understand if you say no. This isn’t the brightest idea, but I can’t think of anyone else I can do this
with.”
Her words sent images tumbling through my mind. My blood turned hot.
“Can you help me practice with my arcana…the commands. I’m afraid of hurting anyone else.”
The heat turned to ice. I blinked at her. “You want to give me commands? Like an Alpha?”
“Well, kind of. I guess? I’m not sure. All I know is that my arcana lets me do something similar. I
wish I had a better understanding of this, but I don’t have anyone I can turn to.” She paused, biting her
lip. “There was a passage about another Barghest in one of the old records, but someone ripped the
pages out. The only reason I know it was even there is because they missed a page.”
“Someone is trying to keep information from you,” I said. “That likely means they’re afraid of
what you could do if you knew everything. That’s a good place to start. Let’s do this. Try to give me
some commands.”
She swallowed audibly. “Are you sure? This could go wrong. I don’t want to hurt you. I’ve
already done enough of that.”
“Ness. You haven’t hurt me.”
Ness wouldn’t look at me. I leaned forward and captured her chin in my hand. Still, she kept her
gaze downcast. I growled, tempted to use the command in my own voice to make her look at me.
There was no guarantee that it would work since she wasn’t mine to command.
Mine, the beast whispered greedily.
Ness was not mine, though.
“You’ve never hurt me. I was angry with you, but you’ve never hurt me.”
She finally looked me in the eye. Her ragged sigh said it all. There was sorrow and relief in it.
She deflated, her shoulders falling. Once more, she appeared small. I wanted to pull her into my arms
and keep her safe, but I knew Ness. She would never allow it.
“Are you ready to practice?”
A shy smile crept over her lips. If only I could get a taste of them before I left. I had a feeling that
they would be sweeter than any fae fruit. The hunger in me pushed me towards her.
“The arcana only seems to work when I’m angry.” She cringed apologetically.
I moved my hand from her chin, sliding my palm along her jaw so that I could cup the base of her
skull. She sighed and leaned into me. My stomach tightened with anticipation.
“Tell me to stop,” I whispered.
Her eyes drifted closed. When her lips parted, I thought she would deny me. I tugged her closer
while my heart hammered out of control.
 6

N ess

THE SMELL of blossoms on the night air slammed into me. It filled my nose and turned my stomach. I
opened my eyes just in time to watch a wave of red sweep over Ryder. His expression turned startled,
his lip curling in annoyance right before he vanished altogether.
Without his hand holding me steady, I flopped forward on the couch where he’d been.
“What the actual fuck?” I cried out.
Beryl’s soft laughter echoed in the room before fading into the shadows. I growled and pushed
myself up so I could peer around. There was no sign of Beryl or Ryder.
She’d snuck in and swept him away. I knew, without a doubt, that she thought she was being funny.
“I hate you,” I called out.
No one answered. My voice simply echoed off the walls of the now-barren room. With a sigh, I
threw my feet to the floor and glared at the pizza box like it’d done me wrong. The pizza box wasn’t
to blame.
After gathering my curls into a scrunchie, I got up and paced. I wasn’t sure what to do now.
Should I go home? Would Beryl return him soon? I didn’t know if heading back into Lakesedge this
late was a good idea.
Alvin wanted me to behave. He’d made it clear that he preferred submission so that he wouldn’t
actually have to kill me. I shuddered just thinking about it. If he knew I’d taken his box of trophies
from his kills, he wouldn’t be so generous. It was only a matter of time before he realized the box was
gone.
Had he found out? Would it be safe for me to leave? Or should I just pretend that Ryder was still
here?
For a while, I debated calling my friends to see if they would want to come over. I hated that I
couldn’t be alone. Any desire for privacy was outweighed by a need for safety.
I slumped forward and rested my chin in my cupped hands. The silence should have been
comforting since I always wanted more privacy. Instead, the room seemed barren now. The
comfortable warmth that filled the space while Ryder had been present was gone.
Outside, a dog’s howl pierced the night.
 I thought nothing of it, at first. Outside Lakesedge, dogs were commonplace. There was a lot that
could spook them.
But the second howl was closer. It came from the east this time, as if a wolf were prowling
around the rental. My stomach dropped. Fear kicked in. I leapt to my feet and raced to the door, only
to stop myself at the last second.
If whoever was outside believed that Ryder was still here, they wouldn’t come inside. I couldn’t
find a way to make it seem like Ryder was present, though. This wasn’t an eighties comedy. I didn’t
have a body to prop up.
I cursed under my breath several times, but that didn’t make me feel any better. If anything, my
panic escalated. I paced back and forth, the adrenaline seeping into my limbs and making them
tremble.
Something crashed behind the rental. I jumped, letting out a yelp. I cursed myself for giving away
my fear. There was no more time to hesitate, though.
Running to the bedroom, I grabbed one of Ryder’s pillows and raced to the back door. I shoved
the pillow up against the door so that Ryder’s scent would seep through. It wasn’t like having the real
man here, but I prayed that it would be enough to ward away whoever was outside.
I pressed my ear to the door and listened. The soft sound of claws scraping the porch made my
breath hitch.
Where the hell had Beryl taken Ryder?
No. I didn’t need him. I could do this on my own. I left the pillow pressed against the door with
the hope that it would trick the wolf outside for a while longer. I crept to the front door and eased it
open. The night air greeted me and washed Ryder’s scent away.
I swallowed my fear and dashed to my car. My hands trembled as I dug for my keys. My wallet
and shoes were still inside, but I had no time to go back for them. I had to escape now.
Unfortunately, the wind had carried my scent to the other side of the house. The howl echoed in
the dark as it came closer. I fumbled, dropping my keys. Swearing up a storm, I snatched them and
struggled to find the right button on my key fob in the dark.
The headlights flashed as I clicked the lock button. I heard pounding footfalls racing toward me.
Throwing myself out of the way, I dodged the attack at the very last second. The keys slipped from my
hand and disappeared in the dark. Harvey hit the side of my car, caught himself, and pushed off. He
landed between me and the car. If I wanted to get inside, I would have to get past him. When he
lowered his head and bared his teeth, my heart lodged itself in my throat.
My Alpha’s twisted son had hunted me down once again. Harvey seemed to take great joy in
chasing me through the dark. Would he catch me this time? I hoped to hell that he wouldn’t.
I scrambled back to my feet and into a run. My sock-clad feet couldn’t find the purchase I needed.
I could shift, but I wanted to wait until I entered Lakesedge.
Where the hell was Ryder?

Ryder

THE ROOM VANISHED . Beryl’s court materialized around me. I wasted no time in flipping the first table
I could see. It crashed against the far wall and sent fae fleeing in every direction. The courtiers rushed
toward the exits.
In the center of the chaos, Beryl stood with her chin held high. Her passive, blank expression
enraged me. I wanted to wipe it off her smug face. She need only come a little closer and I would
make sure that she never looked at anyone like that ever again.
“Keep trying my patience, Beryl,” I snarled.
I stalked towards the next table and grabbed it by the edge. She narrowed her eyes at me, but did
nothing. I flung the table against the earthen wall. A chair quickly followed. The sound as they
shattered would have been satisfying if my dragon hadn’t been in a rage.
The beast within me thrashed. I had been so close.
I shouldn’t want her. Ness would never be mine. I couldn’t afford to stay because it would only
put her in danger, and she didn’t deserve that. Still, that did nothing to stop my beast from yearning.
“What do you want from me this time?”
Beryl’s lips split into a wide grin, revealing tiny yet sharp incisors. “You’re going to kill someone
for me.”
Rage hit my gut like gasoline on a fire. A roar clawed its way out of my throat.
“Like hell will I ever do anything like that for you.”
Beryl rolled her eyes, her smile still bemused as she approached me. “You don’t have a choice in
this.” She tapped the medallion around my neck. “You asked for power and protection, and I gave it to
you. Now, it is my time to call in those favors. You shall do as I ask, or you will never escape me.
Lakesedge will devour you, sending you sinking further and further while you struggle. Is that what
you want? Or, would you like the freedom you keep desperately grasping for?”
A growl rumbled deep inside me. The dragon told me to fight, to pin her down and tear her open
because she was a danger. I restrained myself, though. Beryl was not like him. She had her wits about
her. This was not a manic fervor that needed to be squashed. Beryl was, simply put, devious as all
hell.
“I won’t do it.” I clenched my fists at my side.
She could ask me to do anything else, and I would do it in a heartbeat just to escape her clutches.
Murder was too far. I wouldn’t do it for Ness. I won’t do it for Beryl. She could keep me in these
shackles as long as she wanted.
When Morgan came and destroyed her court just to get to me, then she would reap what she had
sown. I wouldn’t have an ounce of pity for her then.
Beryl narrowed her eyes and looked me up and down. I wondered if she could read my thoughts
through her pact, but it was likely my face that had given me away. I wasn’t going to budge on this.
When she lifted her hand and snapped her fingers, that gaunt butler strode forward and handed her
a wineglass of glistening liquid.
My stomach tightened. Hunger rolled over me and wiped away my resolution. My mouth filled
with saliva. I realized, too late, that I’d leaned into her and given away my appetite for her enchanted
wares.
I bit down hard on my lip, hard enough that blood coated my tongue. The iron in it washed away
my hunger. I sucked in a deep breath and staggered back.
“I won’t be your fool,” I told her.
She stuck a finger into the wine glass and twirled it around. The gold-tinted wine dripped from
her finger when she raised her hand. The taste of blood on my tongue vanished. Pain pinched my
stomach. I lurched forward, even though I knew this was a bad idea.
Could I draw more blood to stop myself?
 Did I even want to? The call of the blissful void tugged at me. It begged me to set everything
aside.
This was how she’d done it last time. Beryl had sidled up to me with a slice of fruit between her
fingers. She’d taken a bite, her eyes rolling back. When she leaned in and pressed the other half of the
fruit slice to my lips, I’d thought nothing of it. Beryl had always been flirtatious in her own way.
That fruit stole every ounce of reason from me. The moment it’d hit my tongue, my mind left me.
All the rage and fury and fear that had been driving me for months vanished without a trace.
Now, Beryl ran her finger along my lower lip. I kept myself together, but only barely. The smell of
the wine entranced me. My mouth salivated. I wanted to lick my lips and get a droplet of that sweet
liquid.
The beast reminded me that I’d been close to something good earlier, too. I could almost feel the
weight of Ness in my hands once more. The thought of her lips pulled me out of my enchantment.
Beryl huffed. “You’re defiant to the end, but you will break eventually.”
Her voice tugged at me. I wasn’t back at the rental with Ness. I was here, in the earthen Unseelie
court. The smell of dirt and fresh water and fruit swirled around me. Though I wanted to remember
Ness, I couldn’t hold onto the sensations much longer.
Without thinking, I bit my lip again. The bit of wine that had dried there, now sticky and sweet, hit
my tongue. I groaned almost immediately. The room blurred and refocused. I dragged in a ragged
breath.
“More,” I whispered.
Beryl grinned. When my vision slipped in and out of focus, her alluring smile turned vicious. I
blinked and the demure expression returned. Though I should have staggered out of here, I grasped for
the wine glass in her hand.
Oblivion could have me for one more night.
Then I would not have to worry about Morgan or Treasure Sickness. I spared a thought for Ness
while the wine slipped down my throat. My body warmed, but my beast fought against it. This
enchantment took hold of me, but it could never have my beast.
The creature simmered, furious at me. Ness needed me. The beast knew it the same way it knew
when a storm would roll in. She was in trouble, and I was here, drinking.
I let the wineglass slip from my hands. It shattered on the floor while I staggered away from
Beryl. She lifted both brows before I spun away from her.
“What’s the rush, darling? You could stay and enjoy all the riches the fae have to offer. They’re all
yours so long as you ask.”
But I couldn’t stay. There was work to be done. The dragon yanked me up the winding stairs, the
world tilting side to side the entire time. More than once, I missed a step. I fell against the railing and
pushed myself back up again.
Hold on, Ness. I’m coming.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
“Get up!” she sternly said.
“Here is news to frighten even you into being a man for a day.
Senator Garston died last night of heart disease at the Hotel
Belgravia.”
“Good God! We are ruined!” cried Vreeland.
“For all your fortune was in his hands. You have not a scrap of paper
to show for it.”
“What do I care for the money!” she sobbed. “I am alone in the world
now.”
 CHAPTER XV.

IN THE DARK WATERS.

Senator David Alynton’s first duty on reaching the Hotel Belgravia

was to hold a private conference with the confidential friend in whose
rooms the Senator-elect had so strangely died. The body of the dead
millionaire had been removed at once to his own personal
apartments at the Hotel Plaza, where the travelers found assembled
Garston’s lawyer, his physician, with his body servant. The private
secretary was in charge, under the superintendence of a cool
representative of the International Trust Company.
It touched Alynton to the heart, this lonely death chamber; for it
seemed that “there was no one left to mourn for Logan.”
It is true that Mrs. Katharine Vreeland, in deepest black, was
kneeling silently there at the foot of the coffin, ostentatiously
supported by Mrs. Volney McMorris, whose social splendors were
judiciously darkened for the time being by bits of crepe, like the
veiling of the “bright work” on a fire engine at an old Volunteer
Department funeral.
“Are there no near family relatives?” asked Alynton, in a muffled
voice, as he gazed upon the majestic frame of the man who had
fought himself up from disgrace to the Tantalus cup of triumph. It
seemed a dreary, a lonely, an unwept taking-off!
“It seems not,” guardedly answered the Trust Company’s factotum.
“We have his will in charge. The young lady kneeling there will be a
large beneficiary, and besides her, there is only one other legatee,
who it seems is a ward of Mrs. Elaine Willoughby, the great woman
stock operator.”
Senator Alynton started in surprise. “As the late Mr. Garston was
only a Senator-elect, I presume there will be no Governmental notice
taken of his decease.
“We look, therefore, to you, Senator Alynton, to Mr. Haygood
Apchurch, his old friend (in whose rooms he died) and to these two
interested young women beneficiaries, for all directions as to the
funeral.”
“That is,” hastily added the Trust Company’s Cerberus, “if no swarm
of hungry relatives, no duplicate wives nor mysterious claimants turn
up when the Associated Press dispatches have been read all over
America.
“Such things have happened before.”
“It seems strange,” mused Alynton, after giving a few brief directions,
“that such a man lived and died entirely unloved.”
But goaded on by self-interest, he hastened away to the “Circassia,”
after vainly telephoning all over New York for Harold Vreeland. The
“rising star” was in a dark eclipse!
At the Hotel Savoy, the suave head clerk, with a sigh, admitted that
the young banker’s habits were now very “irregular.”
“He has not been seen to-day. He went out very early,” was the
clerk’s report, and he vaguely indicated Vreeland’s principal
operations with an upward sweep of his lily-white hand.
The clerk was a purist in manner, and only beginning himself to drink
secretly. He was not yet in the dark waters!
Senator Alynton found Mrs. Elaine Willoughby strictly denied to all
visitors. It was to the clear-eyed cripple that he gravely handed his
card.
“Please say to Mrs. Willoughby that I must see her before Senator
Garston’s funeral. I am at the Waldorf, and will come at once on her
summons.”
On his way to the Belgravia, Senator Alynton read the “copious
accounts” in the leading journals. The case seemed to be a clear
one. The newspapers confirmed Mr. Haygood Apchurch’s statement
that the dead millionaire had borrowed his friend’s apartments to use
a couple of weeks in briefing up a great speech upon “the financial
situation.” A speech destined never to be delivered!
In fact, some of the drafts of the future masterpiece, and the usual
personal contents of a rich man’s pocketbook were the only papers
found in the rooms. There was not even the foundation stone of a
mystery.
The checks, railway passes, club cards, etc., were not accompanied
by a single family paper.
It was “justly remarked by all that the country had sustained a great
loss in the counsels of so distinguished and successful a Western
money magnate as James Garston,” etc., in the usual vein.
Alynton glanced over the platitudes as to being “cut off in his prime,”
the usual references, de rigueur, to the “zenith of his powers,” and
his being a man of “an already national reputation”—the lightly
tossed journalistic wreath of immortelles!
One or two daring writers had timidly referred to the long fight which
had raised the deceased from a working Western low-grade lawyer
in a mining town to a money power in the financial centers of the
East and West.
“That no immediate family falls heir to the honorable record of the
departed is an element of sadness crowning a lonely career,
embittered by many hard struggles with fate.”
Such perfunctory phrases covered the gap between the unknown
past of the “man who had arrived” and the lonely splendor of his final
elevation.
After Alynton had satisfied himself that Mr. Haygood Apchurch knew
nothing whatever of Garston’s past, the distinguished member of the
secret syndicate drove rapidly down to Judge Hiram Endicott’s office.
His mind was now agitated with fears of the future of the sugar
speculating syndicate of a “few friends.”
In his feverish haste to make the living safe he had already forgotten
the unloved dead man. He had not disturbed the silent grief of the
repentant woman who bent over the pale silent lips now sealed in
death.
The eyes were sightless now which had thrilled their unspoken
messages into her very soul.
And the stormy heart of James Garston was as cold and pulseless
as the marble wherein the tenantless shell would soon lie in the long
rest.
Suddenly Katharine Vreeland threw up her arms and fell at the feet
of her woman friend, wildly sobbing—
“There lies the only heart in God’s world that ever beat for me!”
“Ah! Some one loved him after all,” mused the Trust Company’s
financial representative. “She deserves her good fortune. I wonder
does she know of the other one?” His mind was busied with curious
conjectures as to the source of the dead man’s generosity.
But the gates of the past were swung forever. The trembling heart of
the “Western heiress” held a secret that was now sealed behind the
mask of Garston’s waxen face.
For the strong man, loyal in his darling sin, was true as steel to the
last, and the hidden crime of two lives “left no dark plume as a
token.”
Alynton, closeted with Judge Endicott, was now urgent in his
demand that Mrs. Elaine Willoughby should at once erase the name
of the dead Senator from the dangerous document held by her in a
mysterious trust. “That document must never see the light.” It must
be destroyed at once, and a new “round robin” signed.
“It will have to be surrendered now, and a new one made,” anxiously
said the excited millionaire.
“We owe safety to our living associates, and perfect faith to our allied
friends of the Sugar Syndicate.”
“Perhaps as Mrs. Willoughby was a close friend of Garston’s she
may know some of the details of his early life. I wish that you would
have her guide me. Go and see her. I am in practical charge of the
funeral, and so shall be very busy.”
“What can she know?” demanded the old lawyer.
“I’m told by the Trust Company’s man that he has left half of his great
fortune to a young ward of Mrs. Willoughby’s—some young girl.”
There was a tinkling sound of breakage.
Alynton gazed curiously at the old Judge as he slowly picked up the
fragments of his shattered eyeglasses.
“You are right. Do nothing till you hear from me. I will go to her, and
come to you at the Waldorf,” said the startled lawyer. “She should
know of this at once.”
“Thank God! He knows nothing of Garston’s mad pursuit of Elaine in
marriage and his schemes about her child. He even thinks them
friends. Better so. But, the girl must return at once. Death has made
her way smooth.” And Endicott went sighing on his way.
Telephoning for Hugh Conyers, the old advocate hastened to the
“Circassia” to a conference with the white-faced invalid who burst
into a storm of tears when Endicott told her the story of the strange
legacy.
“Let Hugh cable at once to Stockholm. Have them come back here
by Havre, without a moment’s delay. Let him sign all three of our
names, and let him also send a separate cable to Sara that Romaine
is to know nothing of the death, and not a word as yet, of this strange
legacy. I will inform her of that myself,” she sobbed. “It is all so
strange, so ghastly,” she murmured.
The self-protective instinct of the mother brought to her a new life.
“No one knows; no one even suspects. There is not a single whisper.
Thank God!” And then she vowed on her knees, when left alone, to
be brave and true for the child’s sake.
And Hiram Endicott respected her imperial grief. When he returned
from dispatching Conyers to recall the fatherless child, he mused: “It
is better that I should know nothing more, for there is a strange
tangle here.”
And so he was not astonished when his client bade him come back
to her on the morrow to escort her to the room of Garston’s last
solemn public reception.
“I must see him again for Romaine’s sake. I must look once more
upon the face of the father of my child,” was the solemn voice of
Nature sweeping away all the meshes of the frail barrier of human
hatred which had held them apart.
“God is merciful,” she murmured. “Romaine shall never know, and
only learn to wonder over the benefaction of an unknown but
generous hand.
“And now, his public name, his barren honors can never be soiled by
man’s cold sneer. It is the blessed nepenthe of the silent grave.”
Elaine Willoughby was recalled to a need of stern and instant action
by Endicott’s demand for the document, the vastly dangerous paper
whose existence now alarmed Senator Alynton. And all alert, she
bade her schoolboy servitor summon Roundsman Daly instantly.
“I must forego my full vengeance on Vreeland,” she murmured, “to
save my friends. The paper once regained, I can leave the Street
forever, but Vreeland’s silence must be first assured. It is better to
steal it from its hiding-place, and not wait to trap him there.”
She was keenly suspicious of Justine Duprez, who, hollow-eyed and
half-defiant, now demanded an absence of a few days on urgent
private affairs. The girl’s burning fever of fear for her lover was
almost an ecstasy of jealous agony. She feared a coming storm.
With a single touch of the bell, the Lady of Lakemere called in the
private detective. “Detain that woman here, even by the strongest
use of force, till Roundsman Daly comes,” she said, with flashing
eyes.
“She is dangerous. Remember! force if needed. And, do not lose her
from your sight an instant.”
In ten minutes, Daly, with a strange light of battle in his eyes, stood
before Mrs. Willoughby. “It is now just the time to spring the trap!” he
said. “I have two men steadily on watch down in South Fifth Avenue.
Vreeland has been lurking around here to warn Justine to meet him
at once. He intends, I am sure, to leave the country, for I have
already arrested Helms and the letter-carrier, Mulholland. You must
act, and at once, or you will lose the bird.”
“Then,” cried Elaine Willoughby, turning ashen in her heart-sinking,
“hasten to the rooms yourself. Arrest him! Get the paper! It must
come to me alone, whatever happens—remember that. There is
human life, public honor and the happiness of innocent hearts all
hanging on your success. For God’s sake, hasten! Bring me that
paper!” A ferocious joy gleamed in Daly’s eyes.
He felt for his Colt’s police pistol and his steel handcuffs.
“Hold the Frenchwoman tightly. Lock her up by force! I will be here in
an hour, and the paper shall reach no one’s eyes but mine.
“But as to Justine, let Dobson arrest her, and handcuff her. Give her
a good frightening, but watch her that she does herself no harm.”
As Daly stole down the side stairs of the “Circassia,” there was a
muffled scream as the handcuffs closed on the plump wrists of
Justine Duprez. It was the beginning of the end, and Harold
Vreeland had lost his last friend. He was in the jaws of Fate now.
“Dobson has made sure. Now for my man, and to pay off old
scores!” cried Dan Daly, as he sprang into a carriage.
“To South Fifth Avenue!” he cried. “Drive like hell. I’ll make you rich
for a year!” he sharply commanded.
Far away, crouching in the squalid room, watching the frail door and
listening for the sound of a well-known footstep, haggard-eyed and
desperate, Harold Vreeland waited like a wolf at bay. His brain,
burning with alcohol, was now reeling with the violence of his
emotions.
“Only to square her with money, to get her away to the rendezvous in
Paris, or to see her safely in hiding among the French déclassées
here till she can sneak away. Then I’ll remove the paper, and after
that take the first steamer and seek safety and revenge!
“I can get a steerage suite at Hoboken. There are several steamers
to-morrow morning. No one will know, and I’ve money enough left for
a whole year.” He felt for the twenty bills of a thousand dollars each
which he had held back from the check begged from Garston. A
legacy of unsuspected shame!
Tired and wearied, he returned again and again to his brandy flask.
And then his head dropped and his cigar fell from his hand as he
dropped into a half-drunken stupor.
He awoke at a slight noise and raised his head. He fixed his glazed
eyes on the door.
“She is coming!” he muttered. “I’ll get the paper out now, and all will
be ready for a start.”
With a knife, he sprang back the loose plating from the door frame.
Standing on a chair, he had already grasped the paper in his
trembling hand when the door suddenly gave way with a crash, and
three burly men leaped into the room.
He sprang to the floor, but strong arms seized him.
For the first time in his life, Harold Vreeland felt the snapping of
handcuffs. “The jig is up!” cried Daly, facing the astounded culprit.
“I arrest you, Harold Vreeland, for robbing the United States mail,”
cried a deputy marshal; but Dan Daly had already wrenched the
stolen document from the hand of the ruined trickster. He
remembered the last injunctions of the woman he served.
It was now safely hidden in his breast and lying against the picture of
the girl whom Daly had sworn to make the happiest wife in New
York. The one who would rule his little home!
“Hold on to him, boys!” cried Daly, as he stepped away into a side
room and anxiously gazed at the paper which he had recovered.
Yes, it was the same one, for he had only waited weeks to catch the
scoundrel with the document in his unlawful possession. The secret
of the hiding-place was his alone. He called the schoolboy a
“shadow” no longer, for the work was done.
“Take my carriage. Get back and tell the mistress that I have got the
paper she wants. Speak to no one else; and tell her that Vreeland
will be put in a cell alone in Ludlow Street Jail as a United States
prisoner. He’ll have no chance to talk!
“I’ll follow you up soon, see her, and then go and have him stowed
away. I will bring the paper up to her myself. Hurry now, for God’s
sake! I’ll take Helms and that French devil away later. Tell her not to
breathe a word to a living soul. I am acting outside of the law.
“Any one of the stolen letters that we found with Helms will do to
convict him with. I’ve got one here to show up,” mused Daly, “and
now the three wretches up there will all be eager to confess. It only
remains to nab that scoundrel Alberg, and to face him with the
returned Wilmot woman. It’s nearly all over. My God! What’s that?”
Dan Daly sprang back into the main room, pistol in hand, as a
deafening explosion rang out. His eyes rested on a body lying at his
feet.
“How did this happen?” he yelled, as one of the detectives excitedly
knelt over Harold Vreeland lying there dying on the floor.
The last words came faintly to Vreeland’s trembling lips, flecked with
a bloody froth:
“Justine, poor girl, tell her—money—oh, God!—water!—water!”—
muttered the dying man, as his head fell back. He lay there, the man
of art and graces—the man who had played out the lone hand in Life
—dead at their feet, with the steel bands still upon his pulseless
wrists. It was a barren victory!
“It was all done quick as a flash, Dan!” whispered the disgraced
detective. “He was seemingly docile, and asked me for a drink of
water as you went out. I turned to get it. He had seen me put back
my pistol.
“With his handcuffed hands he swiftly plucked it out, then one touch
of the trigger, and there he lies.”
“It is the will of God,” said Daly, gravely. “There’ll be no newspaper
scandal and public exposure now. He has gone before the higher
court. Wait here. Let no one enter. We must call it a drink suicide.”
Daly leaped away like a leopard on the chase to be the first to seal
Mrs. Willoughby’s lips forever as to this happening, and to hand over
the document which had cost the dead scoundrel his life. With grave
faces, the detectives watched the stiffening form upon the floor. The
“rising star” had set forever!
Only the silent, weeping, widowed woman at the Hotel Savoy knew
the whirlwind of baffled hate which had filled Vreeland’s wretched
breast as he staggered away from his wife’s rooms that morning.
Their quarrel had been the unveiling of an unpunished crime—a
tangle of sin and shame.
For smarting under the loss of a “financial backer” who could not
refuse him money advances, Vreeland had faced his wife with the
direct query, so long withheld, as to her separate property.
“You must now aid me with your cash, money, property or whatever
else you have. Garston’s death leaves me without a friend.”
Standing among the scattered pyramids of fashion’s evening
uniforms, Katharine Vreeland turned her bright, defiant eyes upon
the half-insane speculator. How she despised him in her guilty heart!
“I have neither money nor friends. All I had to hope for died with
James Garston. You were not man enough to demand an accounting
of the living.
“And now death pays all debts. I have absolutely nothing to show—”
Vreeland had seized his wife’s wrist.
“You were his—”
“Ward,” quietly retorted the beautiful rebel.
“And, sir, you took me as I took you, on trust! They told me that you
were rich. I find you out to be a mere coward—a fool and a weakling,
too! You have thrown away the handsome fortune which James
Garston gave you. What has become of your own money?
“And your humbug ‘business interests’ down in Wall Street. Were
you, too, only an ‘outside agent’ for Mrs. Willoughby—a mere paper
screen for her speculations? What have you to show me?”
Vreeland’s whitened face proved his silent rage. “Our paths separate
here!” bitterly said Katharine Vreeland. “If you have nothing, I have
less. Not even a husband! Do you see that door?” she cried, with
flashing eyes.
“Never cross its threshold again. Leave me to my dead friend, my
dead hopes, my dead heart—and my poverty.” She was brave to the
last, even in her abandonment.
With a last curse, lost upon the ears of the defiant woman now
hidden in her own room, Vreeland had turned away to his flight,
leaving his wife penniless, and he departed with but one last mad
hope.
To bear away Justine Duprez, the only witness, to rescue the
incriminating document, and then divide with the artful Frenchwoman
the remaining twenty thousand dollars of the loan forced from
Garston. For his deserted wife he had not even a thought!
“Once safe in Paris, Justine can easily hide me there. I can easily
extort a fortune from Mrs. Willoughby and her rich associates.
Justine can marry and have her petit hôtel. The document will be a
wellspring of flowing golden treasure.”
And so in his last hours of life, the woman whom he would once
have sacrificed became his only hope, and to draw her to his
presence at their only safe trysting place he had gone to the
“Circassia” for the last time. But she could not see his furtive signals,
his hovering around. She herself was under lock and key now!
The artful schemer proved in death the truth of Mr. James Potter’s
favorite adage, for his punishment “came around, like everything
else, to the man who waited,” and he only waited in vain, for Justine
Duprez’s footfall. But, grim Death found him out red-handed in his
miserable treachery.
Judge Endicott was closeted with Mrs. Willoughby as Roundsman
Dan Daly sprang into the room and led the trembling woman to a
corner.
When they were alone, Daly whispered:
“Just step into your own room and see if this is all right.
“For God’s sake, never tell a human soul how you got it back. I have
gone beyond my duty to get this into your hands. I would be cast off
the force, punished and disgraced.”
The old lawyer heard Elaine Willoughby’s cry of affright when Daly
told her that Vreeland lay dead by his own hand in the squalid
trysting place of sin.
Hugh Conyers, with a fine prescience of some coming tragedy, had
held the boy messenger under his own eye in the rooms where he
sat guarding Justine until her partner in crime should have been
seized.
“Let no one know, not even him!” begged Daly. “Let the world always
think it to have been a suicide induced by drink and overspeculation.
I can cover it all up.
“Your daughter is safe now. Trust to no one but Conyers. Tell him the
whole story, for, he loves the very ground you walk on.”
There was a strange pallor on Elaine’s face as she laid her finger on
her lips.
“You have saved the happiness of three women, their future, and
their peace of heart and soul. Do not stir. I must have time to think,”
she whispered, as she glided away.
Murmuring, “Dead! dead! in all his unfinished villainy!” she walked
calmly back into the room where the old lawyer awaited her final
answer to Senator Alynton’s urgent prayers.
“Go, my friend! Go! Bring Senator Alynton here at once,” cried the
desperate woman.
“In your presence only, I will return to him the document which he
demands. And its return marks my divorce for life from the Street. I
have signed my last check for stocks, and my heart says Never
Again!
“Go quickly; for when Romaine arrives I wish to be only the Lady of
Lakemere. I have stepped down and out. I abdicate! There’s no
longer a Queen of the Street.
“Noel Endicott can close up all my affairs under your directions.”
“And, Vreeland?” anxiously cried Judge Endicott. The woman’s lips
trembled. “I shall never see him again,” she faltered.
“Go now, for my strength fails, and I wish to be rid of the dangerous
trust forever—this terrible paper which is lying a weight upon my
heart.”
When the old advocate hastened away, then Elaine Willoughby
turned like a tigress at bay.
“Bring Conyers here. I must think! Think! You may yet save us all!”
The policeman darted away.
In five minutes, Daly had recounted the whole story to Hugh
Conyers, who sat holding the woman’s trembling hands.
“I must go back now. Give me your orders. The newspapers are all
that I fear! We must outwit them.”
“Is there not a French restaurant on the ground floor of this haunt
down there?” said Conyers.
“Yes, yes!” impatiently cried Daly.
“Then,” calmly answered Hugh Conyers, “the story goes as follows:
Vreeland, after a hard-drinking bout, had secretly wandered, half-
mad, upstairs and took his life in the first room found open.
“You will remove his body to the Elmleaf apartments. I will send
young Kelly down there to prepare Bagley for the last visit of his
master.”
“And must I notify the Coroner when the body is there?” demanded
the Roundsman, in admiration of the plan.
“Yes, and tell your own story. Keep the deputy marshals quiet. I’ll see
that they are all well rewarded. I will telephone down to the Wall
Street office that Mr. Vreeland has died by accident. I will meet
Maitland, Wyman and Noel Endicott at the Elmleaf.
“One of them can go over and notify Vreeland’s wife, and so, the
whole thing rests safely in our hands.”
“Helms and Mulholland?” questioned Roundsman Daly.
“Let them be safely locked up in Ludlow Street Jail, separately. The
poor letter-carrier will soon confess, and he can be pardoned. He
has only been a tool. Helms can be allowed to leave the country. He
will never talk!
“And to-night, I will face Justine with Martha Wilmot, and then have
her whole confession.”
“That scoundrel, Doctor Alberg?” moodily demanded Daly, as he
moved to the door.
“He will never be heard of after the news of Vreeland’s suicide is
published. Let him slink away; that will be the easiest way to get rid
of him.”
When Daly had departed, Mrs. Willoughby clasped both Conyers’
hands in her trembling palms. The grateful light in her eyes was
shadowed with tears.
“You would save me, Hugh?” she faltered.
“All trouble, all annoyance, all sorrow,” said the journalist, as he rose.
“I must be busy now. See no one. Speak to no one, and above all
never tell Endicott nor Alynton nor any single living soul the
baseness of the man who lies dead down there.”
“You are my saviour,” she murmured; “I will obey; I have only one
matter to close up with Senator Alynton, and then, I am free,” she
said with downcast eyes.
As Conyers went sadly away, he moodily added: “And that is to
answer ‘Yes’ to his offer of his hand and fortune.”
Hugh Conyers was absent, engaged in throwing the mantle of
charity about Vreeland’s sudden death, when Senator Alynton was
led into Elaine’s presence by Judge Endicott.
It was only a matter of a few moments for the load to be lifted from
the woman’s agitated heart. “There is no receipt needed,” gravely
said Endicott.
“Of course the possession of such a paper is as dangerous to friend
as foe. I have no fears that any one will ever call on Mrs. Willoughby
for it again.”
Alynton gazed upon the troubled face of the woman whose empire
over his heart only grew more perfect day by day.
“I must come to you at another time. Can I write?” he murmured. And
Elaine Willoughby bowed her head in silence then, for his speaking
eyes told the story of a life’s hopes. He forebore, in sheer mercy, to
press his suit upon her now.
The great Senatorial millionaire gazed uneasily at Endicott. “I heard
a strange rumor down at the Waldorf from young Wiltshire, about
Vreeland’s individual failure on the Street being announced.”
“Not another word, I beg, Senator,” hurriedly said the old lawyer,
courteously taking his arm.
“My client has been too sadly shocked,” and with the promise of his
own return in the evening, Endicott led his captive away.
“Thank God! They know nothing as yet!” cried the Lady of Lakemere,
as she called Mary Kelly to her side.
It seemed to the agitated woman that the iron jaws of fate had closed
just behind her, and in her grateful heart she saw her only champion,
Hugh Conyers—strong, brave, true, silent and tender. Her loyal and
silent knight!
The words of honest Dan Daly came back to her now. A rosy blush
flamed upon her cheeks as she fled away from the tender-hearted
Mary Kelly’s watchful eyes. “Some day he shall know all, he shall
know my whole heart.”
And when the telegraph messenger, just then arriving, had departed,
she fell back in a happy swoon of delight, for she had read the words
which filled her with sweet surcease of sorrow:
“Coming Saturday; Touraine. Love from Sara and Romaine.”
It was nearly midnight when Justine Duprez’s broken sobs
concluded her last hastily constructed tissue of lies. The schoolboy
guard had inadvertently yielded up to her the news of Harold
Vreeland’s death in a moment of youthful pride. And she was
scheming to free herself now of the inconvenient steel jewelry which
had so broken her spirit. It was a sauve qui peut!
When faced by Conyers, with Martha Wilmot at his side, in the
presence of her sternly silent mistress, Justine caught at the last
straw. She knew all the weaknesses of her mistress’ womanly heart.
“I know why poor Monsieur Vreeland killed himself. He loved my
mistress madly, and he feared that the rich Senator Alynton was
going to marry her. He had bribed me to tell him all about Senator
Alynton’s visits and of the love-making. He was surely half-mad
when he married that heartless woman.
“Poor Vreeland! He suffered from a hopeless love! He feared that
Alynton would marry my mistress, and he feared, too, that he would
then be discharged from the Wall Street business.” Mrs. Willoughby
was trembling in a silent rage.
She dared not face a new whirlwind of gossip, and so, the sly
Frenchwoman had saved herself.
“But, you stole your mistress’ letter and gave it to him,” coldly broke
in Conyers. He realized, too, that the story of Senator Alynton’s love-
making would desperately compromise Mrs. Willoughby, and the
maid could easily poison the public mind.
“I did not!” stoutly ejaculated the lying Frenchwoman. “Vreeland
bribed the German doctor—that cowardly scoundrel Alberg—to have
this very woman here steal the love-letter, and she secretly gave it to
Alberg, and then he gave it to Vreeland. They are both liars!
“I was afraid of Vreeland. He threatened to have me discharged,”
sobbed Justine. “And I know that my mistress was very near to
loving him at one time. The whole truth will come out at my trial. I am
innocent. I shall demand the aid of the French Consul.” Conyers and
Elaine shuddered at this threat of noisy publicity.
“You met him at your rooms,” angrily broke in Conyers, who now saw
Elaine’s agony. The girl had skillfully hidden her face in her hands. It
was her last chance.
“He paid me well for my trouble. I am poor, so poor, and I was afraid
that I might be accused of stealing the letter. He himself spirited this
lying woman away. And I am to be sacrificed! The public shall be my
generous jury. I will tell the story to the whole world. You dare not
ruin me!”
Conyers’ eyes met his beloved one’s in an awkward silence. Then
he returned once more to the attack. “There were the tell-tale wires
and the criminal tapping of the telegraph and telephone.” Conyers
was less harsh in his accusations now, for even Martha Wilmot was
appalled by the Frenchwoman’s audacity. Justine Duprez felt firmer
ground under her now. Her glib answer was ready!
“Vreeland undoubtedly paid the letter-carrier and the janitor. He was
madly determined to prevent the marriage with Alynton, at any cost.
He knew that the Senator disliked him, and would soon cast him out.
You can call those two men before me here. I will face the whole
world, and tell them how the poor young man died for a love which
he had been led into. Why did my mistress pick him up? For a
summer’s amusement? The fine lady’s game. She drove poor
Hathorn to madness. And, she is, of course, a fine lady!”
Hugh Conyers was called from the room, leaving Elaine Willoughby
trembling there, with her pale cheeks tinged with a sudden flame.
There was no defense against this flood of vulgar abuse. Her soul
recoiled at the threatened publicity. The sanctity of her heart was
being violated by this brutal traitress, now alert in the defense of her
liberty. And there were the dangerous secrets of the Sugar ring to
keep! She was now paying the price of her own rashness.
Conyers soon returned, and led his beautiful charge to the end of the
room.
“Alberg has escaped!” he whispered. “He sailed from Hoboken on a
Norwegian tramp steamer to-day. Daly reports that Helms and
Mulholland have been eagerly racing to confess.
“Mulholland blames the drink curse, and says that Vreeland paid him
to help steal a rival’s love-letters, ‘only to beat the game’ of that
hated one. Helms stubbornly stands out and swears that Vreeland
bribed the electrician to tap the wires so as to overhear
Mrs. Willoughby’s lawyer talking over the impending marriage. So
you see, the lying jade will have witnesses to back up her story.”
“What must I do? Tell me, Hugh. You are my only friend,” faltered
Elaine, grasping his arm convulsively. “There is my child. Think of
the agony to her—the shame of such disclosures! My new-found
darling!”
“Yes, and there are the newspaper scandals to fear—the worst
feature. We could not try these people and dare to openly prove the
real facts. Even a French maid’s gossip and babble can find
believers,” sadly said Hugh, with averted eyes. He well knew the
callous gossips!
“You would only estrange Alynton, plunge your daughter into a
useless sorrow, and your whole life story would be bruited abroad. I
can not bear to see you disgraced, Elaine,” he faltered.
“I have a plan,” he said slowly. “Keep the woman Justine here. I will
pay her and ship her off to Paris. Dan Daly will see that she goes.
Let us only frighten her! She will be only too glad to escape her
rightful punishment—the lying jade! You have recovered your
dangerous document. You do not need Martha Wilmot now. Let me
separate these people at once!
“Martha goes back first to England. Alberg is gone, and of course the
nurse can not be convicted. There is no direct evidence. I will have
Mulholland quietly released; Daly can answer for him. Helms we will
call quits with, on his frankly signing a full confession, naming only
himself, and I give him a passage over to Hamburg. And this will
stop Justine’s mouth forever.”
“And the disposition of Justine?” murmured the white-faced woman.
“She stays here only till Vreeland is buried, and I then will have her
properly paid off before the Consul, and see her on the French
steamer myself. I know the French Consul very well. She will never
return. It is the only way to bury the whole past in Vreeland’s grave.