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Fear, real and raw.

I couldn’t lose my sister. I couldn’t lose my Roe.

I wouldn’t survive it.

Chapter 15

Willow

I stepped out of the shower and looked at my ribs. A couple of the vines had stretched out, creeping closer together. Tracing one of the thorny tendrils with my finger, I breathed in deep when sharp fear tried to push forward again. Time was running out.

Fear only paralyzed, it got in the way of getting things done.

I didn’t have time for fear. My family wouldn’t come out the other side of this with their powers intact if I gave in to fear. And Roe wouldn’t get any better.

Since my discussion with Clayton four days ago, I’d been either holed up in Else’s library or online while I was at the shop, researching, learning everything I could about malevolent souls, hoping there might be something that could help. So far, I’d found nothing I didn’t already know.

And at night, I searched the city for any sign of them. Nothing. And no sign of Edric since his fight with Warrick, only the bodies he left behind. Torn to shreds without mercy.

I felt the weight of every single casualty. This was my task, it was my job to send those souls back to where they came from, and if I didn’t find a way to stop them real fast, more people would die.

I assumed Warrick was having as much trouble as me.

The hellhounds’ alpha hadn’t called, so I could only assume. It wasn’t like he needed to call to check up on me, though, the male knew where I was at all times, and more than once over the last couple of nights, I’d clocked him shadowing me. Okay, I’d felt him before I’d seen him. God, the weight of his stare was like black velvet across bare skin, lifting goose bumps all over me, causing heat to swirl through my entire body.

He hadn’t approached, though, or announced he was there, so I’d pretended I didn’t see him. It was better for both of us that way…that’s what I kept telling myself, anyway.

He’d made a promise to provide backup and he was keeping it, even if he was doing it from a distance, which only made me feel like more of an asshole, honestly.

I’d seriously angered him the night of the ball with my complete and utter loss of self-control. Yes, the male was obviously used to getting his way, and no, I didn’t owe him anything, but I’d seriously thrown out some mixed signals in those woods. He wasn’t human or witch; he wasn’t just a man, and he didn’t play by those rules.

He was an alpha, a hellhound, created in the fires of Hell by Lucifer himself. I needed to remember that, and I needed to heed the warning he’d given me.

I shook off thoughts of Warrick, because I needed to find Edric, now.

When souls lingered after a person’s death, it usually meant unfinished business. Since brutally murdering a bunch of innocent people seemed to be the only goal, it had become clear that these souls weren’t stuck here, unable to move on, but had been summoned here from Hell, or some other unpleasant place, by a twisted individual.

The pure evil that had emanated from the one inhabiting Edric had sent icy tendrils through me just being near him. If I was right? Souls like that usually picked up where they left off—doing all the evil, twisted things they had done before they died.

Which meant, right now, Edric and the other one still on the loose were probably out there, hurting people.

But there would be no sending them back if I couldn’t find them.

Pulling on a pair of leather pants and a long-sleeved shirt, I went to my room and shoved on my boots, slid my dagger into the sheath at my hip, grabbed my jacket, and headed downstairs to the kitchen. If I could find Edric, I could question the soul and make it spill its secrets—namely, where it was from, and most importantly, who brought it here.

Magnolia was standing by the kitchen table.

“Hey,” I said, taking my phone from my pocket.

She had her black hair down, wavy around her pale face. Her amber eyes were surrounded by black eyeliner and her full lips were deep red. She was wearing black ripped jeans, chunky black boots, and an oversized black T-shirt with the name of some band I’d never heard of printed on the front. She’d always preferred to wear black, even when she was young. She’d leaned into it more the last couple of years though. She and Bram looked like a goth prince and princess when they were together.

Bram, currently in his human form, stood at the counter behind her. Staying close to Mags as usual, even while he made himself a snack.

“Another night out hunting?” Mags asked.

There was something in her voice that had me looking up from my phone. “Yeah.” Her lips flattened. “You okay?”

She gripped the back of one of the chairs. “Let me come with you. I want to help. Iris and I have been talking and we’re worried. Don’t get me wrong, I know you’ve got this, but we hate seeing you go through it all on your own, Wills.”