AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I. Don’t. Need. To,” I spat, turning left, leaping over a broken tree trunk.
I took another three strides, and my foot caught on a branch, forcing me to tumble. I tried to catch myself, but my hands slipped on the leaves and brush. My body flipped end over end, and the ground tilted beneath me. I came to a rest at the bottom of an inlet, my right foot submerged in the bayou muck.
I wanted to expel a string of curse words, but I couldn’t catch my breath. My chest rose and fell in uneven waves. Sleeping with Jackson had left me weak. Poppet’s spell had made me even weaker. I wasn’t going to be able to keep sprinting for much longer. I had to think of a way—
A puff of energy hit the dirt a few feet to my left and a familiar voice cheered, “Finally!”
“What the—” My eyes flew open, and I threw myself to the other side of the inlet. My other foot sank into the muck, and the water washed over my calves, nearly to my knees. It took a second for the sudden appearance of my cousin to register and then the tension in my shoulders eased by a fraction.
“Shado, how did you—It doesn’t matter. Keep quiet and get down. She’s looking for me.” “Who? Wait, are you with the shifter?” Her eyes turned wide like saucers.
“Can you teleport us out of here?” I asked, sloshing through the water. “I have to get some distance before she activates the spell on the cuff.”
“I’m projecting,” she said, as my hand swept through her form.
“Shit,” I growled, motioning for her to crouch out of sight, as I scanned the horizon for any sign of threat.
Shado rolled her eyes, and sank into the muck with me, her transparent form passing through the water’s edge. “Is that better?”
“We have to stay out of sight.”
“How far is she?” she whispered, eyeing the top of the inlet.
“I don’t know, but I can’t stay here long. You have to get Jack and the wolves. I’m not far from the estate. A few miles at most. Near my parent’s cabin.”
“I’m on it,” she said, her eyes flicking back and forth between my eyes and the cut on my forehead. She sighed. “Jack is gonna kill her.”
My heart leapt into my throat. “No! He can’t. We can’t kill her.”
“Why the hell not?”
It was a good question. Why couldn’t he kill her? She was a murderer. But—she was more than that, too. She was family. I held a finger to my lips and leaned into the dirt a little further. “She’s my sister.”
“What!” Her voice echoed in the inlet and startled a bird in the canopy overhead. “She’s who, now?”
“Quiet,” I hissed. “I’ll explain everything later. Just get here with the wolves, as soon as you can. I managed to do some damage to her knee, but that’s not gonna buy me much time. I don’t have any weapons or magic, and I can’t get this cuff off on my own.”
“I’m on it!” She nodded curtly. “Now, run as far and as fast as you can. Help is coming. I promise.”
I flashed her a grateful smile and scrambled back up the inlet as she disappeared. Bits of leaves and brush stuck to my feet.
“Rebekah!” Poppet shouted again. Her voice was closer this time.
I bobbed through the trees, running faster and faster, until my chest started to burn.Help was on the way. Jackson was on his way. The runes on my cuff flashed red and pain exploded through my ribcage, like a defibrillator to the chest. My legs folded, and I dropped like a rock. The muscles in my arms and legs tensed sharply, on the verge of seizure, and then the pain was gone.
“Why run? What’s the point? I could be standing in the fae world, in the deepest reaches of Sidhe and still reach you,” Poppet said, hobbling into my line of sight, trying to keep the weight off her injured knee.
“I may remember you, but that doesn’t mean I trust you,” I spat, struggling to stand up again. “You tried to kill my husband!”
“Stay down.” She snapped her fingers and the cuff around my wrist pulled me to the ground like a high-powered magnet.
“You got your wish. I remember you. So, what do you want from me?” I snarled. “Why are you doing this?”
Poppet laughed. “I was about to tell you and then you hit me with a floorboard.”
“Well, you’ve got me. A literal captive audience. So, tell me,” I said, shifting slowly into a seated position. That, at least, didn’t seem to bother her. “I’m all yours.”
Poppet shuffled towards me, gnawing on her lip as she sized me up. “I need your help.”
