“Okay,” she says. “Let’s do this—together!”
“Now you’re talking,” I reply, moving to sit behind her so I can put my hands on her shoulders. “My strength, my heart, my life is yours, Hyacinth. I trust you.”
The energy between us pulses again, rippling outwards in shimmering waves. I realize that even after my big pep talk, I’m still scared the spell won’t work—or even worse, that Hyacinth could get hurt, or die.
I can feel the strength between us now, and I’ll never doubt it again—but will it be enough?
Chapter 24 - Hyacinth
“Please, Shane, get back,” I beg once more.
He shakes his head as he puts his arms around me. “No,” he says, resting his head on my shoulder from where he sits behind me. “I’ll never leave you alone. Not ever.”
My heart aches as if a blade has sliced it in half, and the pain is worse than anything I’ve ever experienced.
“I came here to save you,” I moan. “It’s no use if you get killed, too, don’t you see?”
“Hyacinth!” Shane grabs my shoulders and gives me a little shake, making me look over my shoulder at him. “You have to listen to me—you can’t do this alone. It won’t work.”
“Of course it will,” I reply, confusion spilling into my guts and diluting my certainty. “I saw it all, like it was written in the rhythms of the earth. I know what to do.”
“No,” he shakes his head. “That’s not true. I don’t understand it, okay, but Sadie told me it has to be both of us. If you try it alone, you’ll die, and all the packs will be doomed.”
I stare at him, not quite believing it, but feeling enough doubt that I’m not sure I should continue. The clarity I had when I left has already waned, and now it’s about to shatter completely.
I look around, seeing Owen outside the force field. The barrier itself is almost transparent, rippling with waves of milky white. The atmosphere in here is dense, as if pressure is rising. My head is starting to ache in response.
What happens if I do this wrong?
With a sinking feeling, I realize I never once considered this. I don’t even know where the certainty I felt came from—except that I felt so much harmony with the natural world, I trusted it completely.
A rough breeze begins to flick around the edges of the dome, and I can sense the pressure changing. The air is spinning, lazily for now, but with enough force behind it that it could whip into a tornado.
We’ll be shredded in here. I don’t even know if we can get out.
“Hyacinth?”
“I don’t know what to do,” I sob. “I thought I did, but now you’re here… what does this even mean?”
Shane puts his arms around me, rocking me back towards him. “It doesn’t matter. We’re together, and that’s all I care about.”
“That’s not how it’s supposed to be!” I snap at him. “I didn’t come out here so both of us could die. I came out here to heal you and your pack.”
“My pack is important,” he says, hugging me close. “I care for all of them. But if they were cured and I had to live without you, I would live with an empty heart. My wolf would howl the loss of you into the sky every night. That isn’t how we end the curse, Hyacinth. It has to be love, not sacrifice.”
“But I felt it,” I insist. “Written in the wind. We have to make a sacrifice.”
“I don’t know how any of this works,” Shane says. “But maybe all we need to do is offer it. What exactly did you come here to do?”
“I…” I raise my hands, looking at them for a moment before placing my palms flat against the ground.
“I heard the earth singing,” I say, closing my eyes. “And I saw glowing threads linking everything together. A pattern of life, ever renewing itself. There were dark threads within us, and I saw the curse growing inside you. I had to come here, to the source of Lynette’s pain. I have to put my light into the heart of the curse.”
“Then do that,” Shane says, tightening his grip on my shoulders. “Pour our love straight into it.”
I keep my hands pressed against the ground, feeling the pressure stabilizing a little now that I’m paying attention. I can feel Shane’s energy flowing into me through his hands, and I can also feel the dark energy of the curse inside him.
“You aren’t strong enough,” I say. “This could kill you.”
