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I’d never felt more helpless in my life, and I prayed for some miracle. For someone to find me. For Clawdia to hear me. For the council to get wind of the attack and protect everyone. But miracles were for believers, and I knew I was well and truly fucked.
“That’s not your concern anymore,” Karin said, and I saw it in her eyes. The dismissal. The end.
This is it.
With a few mumbled words from her, the place lit up like a rave. But this wasn’t a party I wanted to attend. I screamed as pain, the most I’d ever experienced, caused my knees to buckle and my mind to shatter.
It was like being back in that clearing, being drained by the witches but only ten times faster. In seconds, I was falling to the ground. Magic tore from me like I was bleeding out from every pore, and I genuinely thought it was the end. Images of my life flashed before my eyes. Smiling faces of people who knew me, liked me, cared about me. Friends, co-workers, foster parents. My birth mother and the pictures of the sisters I’d never met.
And then there was this cat. A fluffy cat with violet eyes that seemed to smile with mischief. The same eyes that looked at me so adoringly from a beautiful human face. Zaide. Savida. Even Daithi.
I don’t want to say goodbye to them. I don’t want this to be the end.
Tears leaked from my eyes as I held on to the image of them until the gold thread, the magical tether I’d tied to myself, snapped, and I took my last breath.
CHAPTER27
ZAIDE
Iglanced at the door for the third time in the last few minutes. “Charlie has been gone for a while.”
“He’s probably run away so he doesn’t have to look at the book again,” Elizabeth remarked without looking up from her book.
“I don’t think it’s that. He promised to bring back food.” I tapped my fingers against the desk and continued to stare at the door.
Something felt off. The day had been going well, but upon waking there, had been something in the air that was making me nervous. I thought it was something to do with Baelen, but considering Charlie’s reaction to the news that the task teams were unsuccessful and how long he’d been gone, I was starting to worry.
“What do you think it is?” Elizabeth asked, drawing my attention back to her. She was looking at me, and concern darkened her eyes.
“He made a call at the party before you arrived to tell an old friend about finding the hunters that broke into our apartment to find us. I think the phone call is his friend calling him back with news.” I closed my book.
“What makes you think that? It could have been anyone.”
“Charlie doesn’t have anyone other than us,” I said, and her face shuttered. It hurt her to know that her son had been alone for many years, but she’d made her choice, and I wouldn’t withhold information on account of her feelings.
“Why would that news make him stay away so long?” she asked, trying to understand why I was agitated.
“Maybe he’s planning something we wouldn’t approve of.” Charlie was the type to rush in without a second thought if something was urgent.Maybe the information he gained about the hunters is prompting him to act quickly.I stood up. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
Elizabeth stood with me. “Let’s go find him if you are so concerned. It’s about lunch time anyway. He’ll probably be eating.”
It frustrated me that she would make such a remark, and I snapped, “You might think he is silly and immature, but Charlie is hardworking, loyal, and very insightful when he wants to be. He often pretends he is not so no one expects too much of him and he can’t let anyone down.” I raised a pointed brow. “Something I think he learned with families that weren’t his own.”
“Yes.” She coughed and looked away. “Well.”
We were walking down the stairs as lightbulbs suddenly burst above us and the earth shook, causing the paintings on the walls to crash to the ground. Glass shattered everywhere. And the underlying feeling of magic that the island had from his ancient protective wards suddenly vanished.
“What was that?” I gasped as I grabbed the railing to steady myself.
Elizabeth crouched against the wall and held on to the stairs as tremors shook the house, her face pale. “I think it was the wards.”
“They’ve failed?” I asked, horrified.
As soon as the shaking stopped, she stood up and ran down the remaining steps and out of the house with me following closely behind. Screams sounded from down the hill, but from our vantage, I could see the edge of the lake. And there were large boats heading toward us. Three large boats carrying cars and figures in uniformed clothing decorated with an embroidered red arrow.
Hunters.
“We’ve been found,” I whispered.
