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9
SHANE
DuMoir Castle hadplenty of ownerless vehicles—cars, SUVs, trucks that could be used by anyone at any time. I picked a nice black Maserati. As I drove to the airport, I tried not thinking about it all, otherwise I'd lose my temper.
I still couldn’t believe I hadn't questioned what I had seen. That I had allowed those damn witches to trick me. They had lied to me and I had believed it like a fool. Confirming my entire pack had been killed and the entire town had been burned was another way for them to torture me.
If only I had known earlier …
I wanted to be mad at Lord Drake for not knowing about this, but the truth was, it was my fault. The ache of the loss and the months of torture had left me feeling hollow, broken in a way that was difficult to piece back together. But I had found a big piece last night—the spark that would fuse the pieces and make them whole, make me whole.
I couldn’t change the past, but I could change the future.
Before I left, I helped myself to some potions. I grabbed a new one Lavinia had learned from her friend, Evelyn.
Lavinia and Killian would kill me when they realized I was gone, but after the battle with the warlocks and the Dark Devils’ coven six months ago, they deserved a break from the fighting. This was on me. Drake said he would send vampires there to assess the situation, but I wanted to see it my own eyes.
Besides, they wouldn’t be able to cross the barrier.
I hoped I still could.
I arrived at the airport, left the car there so someone from DuMoir Castle could pick it up later, and took a late flight to the Saskatoon International Airport, the largest airport near the pack lands. I rented an off-road Jeep and drove it north until I saw the first inn by the road.
I didn’t want to sleep, but I had to force myself to rest. I hadn’t slept in almost forty hours. If I continued like this, I would collapse before I even reached my destination.
I had underestimated how tired I was—I passed out as soon as I lay in the bed, and woke up hours later, right before the sun was up. I took a shower, changed, grabbed something to eat from the inn’s breakfast room, and jumped on the road again.
The sun rose, shining down on this beautiful land. Being May, it wasn’t as cold as it could be, and the green grass and flowers of spring extended for miles, alongside snow-topped mountains, and crystalline lakes.
My tension only increased the closer I drove to the pack lands.
It was past noon when I was five miles from the barrier. I drove the Jeep off the road and parked it between a pair of thick evergreens. If Conri's lackeys patrolled this far out, then there was a chance the Jeep would be seen, but I hoped that Conri wasn’t that smart.
I took off my clothes, rolled my pants, and tied it to my ankle, then shifted into my black wolf. I ran toward the barrier.
A normal person or supernatural wouldn’t be able to tell where the barrier was, or even notice where the landscape changed. At some point, the roads ended and the green landscape seemed to engulf the earth. Rocks jutted out from the ground here and there, small streams appeared, and the trees thinned.
A seamless path big enough for a large SUV appeared between the trees.
The barrier.
After listening for other wolves or demons—there was no one here—I ran toward it. I braced myself, expecting the barrier to stop me.
I passed through it.
My wolf lips tugged up in a triumphant grin, but I wiped that away from my face. There was no time to celebrate. This was just the first step.
In wolf form, I made my way toward the town.
Twice, I heard Conri’s demons nearby, but I evaded them. Hopefully, they didn’t notice me, and if they did, they thought it was some of the wildlife in the forest.
I couldn’t pretend this place wasn’t special. The Nightshade lands were a paradise. The flowers always bloomed, the water was always fresh, the grass was always soft, and it was always a nice warm temperature.
I paused at an outcropping of rocks overlooking the town. Half of it looked like a sack of charcoal had spilled on the ground, and the other half looked like a ghost town. I focused on the intact structures. The houses, the buildings, the roads, the flowerbeds lining the streets, everything abandoned and not cared for.
A pang cut through my chest.
Once more I felt guilty for not knowing, for not helping sooner.
