Page 90 of Bound to the Wolf
Reece did not expect them to keep talking, so he was surprised when they did.
But leave it to witches from such a prestigious coven to want to stand on their own magnificent intent, explain their brilliant plans.
While Brenda spoke, Reece tested the boundary of the circle with one careful step, and the ward pushed back against him,invisible, but his skin buzzed where it made contact, and a sharp ache shot up through his shoulder.
“Elise would have been broken if that boy died,” said Brenda, “and then she would have come home. It’s as simple as that. We would have helped her through the tragedy, healed her. Eventually all thoughts of him would have disappeared, and she could live her life as the witch she was meant to be. We’ll simply have to try again, though with this one dead, I’m guessing the truce between your coven and his pack will dissolve. Elise will be forced to choose. She is smart enough to not leave her entire life behind for a man. I did raise a daughter smarter than that.”
“But what about the wolves?” Reece asked.
Brenda barely spared him a look, so Reece had to lay it on thick. “Give a dying man some answers before he meets his maker.”
“His maker.” Brenda scoffed. “This one is simpler than I thought. And yet you’re afflicted by the same weakness as my daughter.” She looked at him. “Anyone can be hired for a price. They were supposed to babysit that dwelling in the woods, and they failed. They have paid for that in their blood. Now, I’m sorry, Delainey. This is very likely to hurt.”
Brenda clasped Tim’s hand, and all the witches from Wallace Grove formed a loose circle around them. The five of them stood evenly spaced just outside the chalk line, each one raising their hands, and the air inside the circle changed, thickening, pressing down, until Reece’s ears popped and the oily smell of their combined magic was so strong it coated the back of his throat.
“I’m not going to let you kill him,” Delainey said.
But Brenda gave her a pitying look. “It’s almost cute that you think you have a choice.”
Then she summoned her power, and it crashed into Reece and Delainey.
Chapter
Forty-Two
Pain crashed down over Delainey, and she didn’t have time to brace for it. She didn’t bother trying when her priority was getting free of this damn stupid magical prison, so she and Reece could fight for their lives.
Not that they were a match for the witches of the Wallace Grove Coven, but if those assholes were going to kill her, she was going down swinging.
It didn’t matter that Brenda Nevin had so apologetically insisted Delainey would make it out of this thing alive. Delainey wasn’t letting them kill Reece, not while she still had breath in her body.
The chanting of the Nevins intensified, and, surprisingly, Delainey felt it slam into her, almost like it was giving her more power. Beside her, Reece grunted, and she realized that wasexactlywhat it was doing, draining his life force into her.
The Wallace Grove witches were using the tether as some kind of siphon, and once they drained Reece, the tether would be nothing but a memory, an evil little trick they could forget had ever existed.
How the hell did she get out of this?
Delainey was thankful they hadn’t just shot Reece. That would have broken the tether as well as this complicated spell, but Wallace Grove was too sophisticated for that. They would never dirty their hands with such a mundane weapon.
It had to be magic. It had to beelegant.
It was all fucking bullshit.
Delainey summoned her magic, but not to fight them. Nothing would go through the ward circle, keeping her and Reece in place. She understood the basic structure, and there was no point fighting it yet.
Instead, she built as much of a wall of magic between herself and Reece as she could, trying to reject every bit of him that the siphon was dumping into her, hoping it would rebound and stay where it belonged: inside of Reece. Power surged through her palms, and she could feel the heat of it spreading up through her wrists and forearms, her fingers trembling with the effort of pushing it back rather than letting it settle into her.
She was on her knees. She hadn’t realized she’d fallen, but Reece was there beside her, his skin deathly pale. His freckles stood out dark against skin that had gone white, and the reddish wave of his hair hung limp against his forehead, damp with sweat.
She didn’t know how long he could take this.
She kept her focus on the block between them and turned toward him, cradling his face and resting her forehead against his. Delainey could feel magic spark everywhere they touched and worried it was more of a drain, but when she tried to pull back, Reece wouldn’t let her. He clutched her like she was a lifeline, and she wasn’t going to pull away.
Not yet. Not now.
His broad hands clamped around her upper arms, square-knuckled fingers pressing hard enough to bruise even through her jacket, and his whole body was shaking.
But Delainey did angle her body toward Emerson. There had to be a weak link here, and it wasn’t the Nevins. She didn’t know the other witches they’d brought from Wallace Grove, so she couldn’t really work on them.
