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I struggled to curb my curiosity and concentrate on the task at hand. Maybe I’d see his wolf one day, but until we knew if his bite would affect my magic, it was a risk I couldn’t take. My elemental magic was still unpredictable at times. I wasn’t ready to add shifter DNA to the mix.
Ruby called in the moon’s light to assist our magic to free the spell locked in the broach. I closed my eyes, visualizing the metal opening and releasing the source of the talisman’s power.
“Mother moon, guide our voices and our magic, release the taint on this metal.” Ruby lifted her arms to the sky and the rest of us followed. She continued, “I call on the power of the earth to aid us.”
The Earth answered Ruby’s elemental call, and the ground tremored beneath our feet, causing the broach to bounce around the ritual table. That was my cue.
“I call on the power of ice to aid us.” My skin tingled with power as a small blizzard contained within the center of our circle formed. This wasn’t the gentle floating snowflakes I’d shared with Jackson last night. The ritual table was buried under snow.
Amelia stood directly across from me in the circle. “I call on the power of fire to aid us.”
The flash of flames over the ice heated my skin in stark contrast to the frigid night air. Goosebumps rose on my arms as the fire melted the snow. Our coven was missing elemental witches who controlled the elements of wind, water, and lightning, but Lillian, our retired high priestess believed we could accomplish this without them.
Ruby stepped into the center of the circle in her red hooded cloak marking her as our high priestess. The rest of use wore black. We kept our arms raised while Ruby traced her finger in a circle through the melted ice around the broach.
“We release the magic within that it may not expose our coven to hunters.” She lifted her wet hand to the moon. “Our sisterhood is protected and free.”
Behind me a man screamed, and a gunshot echoed through the night. My heart raced as I spun around peering into the darkness. The silence seemed ominous.
“Everyone find cover, get down.” Ruby ordered.
Her voice snapped me out of the shock and I rushed for shelter behind one of the cars. The shadows seemed to be moving in the distance. Amelia crouched down beside one of the farm trucks. Her hand glowed with a small ball of fire.
Her element seemed a little more badass than mine. If I pulled something like that, it would look like I wanted to start a snowball fight, not torch something. Something splashed in the pond behind us.
Now this I could handle. I narrowed my eyes, allowing the cold to work through my veins and reach out, the ground around me iced over in frost and then shot into the night. A man cursed in the distance. If he’d been walking through the lake to hide his scent from the werewolves, he was stuck in the ice now. He wasn’t going anywhere.
“What the fuck?” The unmistakable sound of the slide on a gun cut through the night. “Let me go and no one has to get hurt,” he shouted. “Give me the talisman and we’ll call it a night.”
Talisman? I looked back at the table. The broach.
Ruby called out, “Stay back! He has a gun!”
I scanned the shadows. She had to be warning the wolf pack, but could they understand her in wolf form? Maybe Zeke would. She was his mate.
Did that mean Jackson could…My thought was interrupted by the sudden realization that Jackson might try to attack this man and get shot to death. Oh shit. My heart raced, but instead of my palms sweating, my hands turned ice cold. The frost around me grew, forming an ice storm that covered the cars in ice and sleet.
My mind started playing tricks on me, showing me a huge wolf with blue eyes bleeding out on the snow. As the panic swelled, the temperature dropped. Ruby shouted for me, but it seemed faint and distant. I got up from behind the car, walking into the clearing. I could make out the man’s form in the moonlight. He didn’t move. Frozen.
“Winter.” Ruby’s teeth chattered. “You have to stop.” Her voice trembled. “Please.”
The cold had consumed me. I understood her words, but I couldn’t seem to break the spell I was under. The ice was an extension of me, part of my soul. It called to me like a siren, promising me peace and safety and acceptance. It needed me to give it freedom. I’d toyed with it before and lost control a few times when I was younger, but this connection was new.
I had surrendered to it.
My body shook with waves of shivering. My teeth chattered. And I still couldn’t pull it back. I wasn’t sure I wanted to. A world without Jackson was cold and barren. Just like the ice in my veins.
Something came out of the woods to my right. I turned my head as a massive brown wolf came toward me. I should’ve been afraid, but maybe I was too far gone to care. As he came closer, his blue eyes flashed in the moonlight.
And I knew him. Jackson.
He was alive.
My head snapped to the pond. The man hadn’t moved. Frozen solid. Something warm on my hand shocked me out of the spell I’d been under. I blinked to find the wolf at my side. He panted and chuffed.
I studied his face. “Jackson?”
He tipped his head back and howled.
