“Adalyn!” Erin shouted her name, hoping for some sort of response.
None came.
It was as if she hadn’t said a word.
“Adalyn, can you hear me?” Erin clapped her hands in front of her cousin’s face, hoping the loud sound would pull her out of it.
Still nothing.
“This has to be Mariska’s doing,” Brenna said as she entered the room.
“Mom! What’s happening? How can we help her?”
“I’m not sure. Give me a minute.” Brenna closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath before reaching a single hand toward the majik surrounding her niece. Lightning danced around her fingertips and up her arm.
“Mom! Stop!” Erin shouted, but it was too late. A deafening clap of thunder knocked her on her ass. Brenna flew through the air and crashed against the far wall. She covered her ears as the sound continued. The room shook, hell, it could have been the entire house for all Erin knew. A sticky wet substance coated her fingers. The smell of blood filled her nose, fear racing through her mind as she tried to regain her bearings.
“Erin, can you hear me? Are you okay?”Lucas shouted through their mating connection.
“Mariska is attacking Adalyn. I have to help her,”she tried to explain.
Erin glanced over at her mother, who had been knocked out cold. She closed her eyes, pushing past the pain, past the unrelenting sound created by Mariska’s majik to hear Brenna’s heart beating.
“Babe, wait for me. Don’t try to do this on your own,”Lucas begged.
“She’ll die if I don’t.”
Erin didn’t have a choice if she wanted to save her cousin. It was as simple as that. Find a way to break whatever spell was killing Adalyn or watch her die.
Not something she was willing to do.
Her wolf pushed against her mind, begging to be let loose.
“You’ll kill her.”
“Maybe, but it would stop the spell before they destroy Rafe’s house and everyone in it.”
“No! There has to be another way.”
Erin may not have known Adalyn very well—it wasn’t like they’d grown up together or anything, but she still didn’t want to see the poor girl suffer or worse—die.
There had to be something she could do. But what? Anyone who tried to get anywhere near the majik quickly regretted it.
“Erin, can you stop this?” Rafe yelled from the doorway.
She glanced his way. The fear on her face was as plain as the sun in the sky. “Get Mina out of here now!” she screamed before turning back to the problem at hand.
Erin called upon her witch to see if she could offer up any help. The creature stirred inside of her, pushing against her mind.
She’d wondered why the witch had been unusually quiet under such duress. When the majik had been so thick Erin had nearly choked on it, she’d gotten nothing but silence from the witch.
The answer came to her in an instant. The witch had been studying, calculating—determining a way to break through the majik and free Adalyn without killing her. The majik was familiar, the same that lived deep in her bones. She expected her standard cerulean flames that usually danced from her fingers. Instead, a gold glow started in her palms and radiated up her arms. Heat radiated through her extremities, making her wonder if this was something she would survive.
“Oh god!” Brenna shouted as she came to.
“Mom! Are you okay?” Her heart pounded as the gold glow continued to consume every inch of her body. Erin felt like she would implode if anymore majik poured into her. Her skin felt tight, her organs felt as if they were being crushed by an invisible weight.
“We can’t do this. It will kill us,”her witch warned against trying to control the unknown.
