I wondered, briefly, if I could tell him to die. What would that do? Would he hurt himself? I shuddered and lost my grip on my arcana. I wasn’t going to make him do that. Alvin didn’t have to die to lose his position as Alpha. I would find another way to stop him if it meant keeping another death off my hands.
The cold presence behind me seemed to pout, but it didn’t disappear.
I prowled through the house, following Alvin’s sour scent. The taint of blood lingered in the air, too. It made me tighten my fists so hard that my nails bit into my skin. He’d taken her upstairs. At first, a frigid sliver stabbed through my chest as a thought occurred to me.
Without stopping, I leapt up the stairs. I yanked a bathrobe from a door hanger as I passed it and slung the robe around my shoulders. As I tied the sash into a knot at my waist, I bumped a bedroom door open with my hip.
In a mound, Cerri slumped on a rug in the center of the room.
Relief flared bright before dying. I hesitated. Alvin couldn’t have gotten far. I expected him to be waiting behind the door. Slowly, I pushed it open. When the door hit the wall behind it, I let out the breath I’d been holding and took a cautious step into the room.
The scent that I’d followed vanished there. Though I could still smell blood, Alvin seemed to have disappeared altogether. I suspected there was another witch spell on this room, which would explain why Alvin had brought Cerri here.
Though I could have relied on my vision, I had a better idea. “Alvin. Reveal yourself.”
My arcana writhed through my voice, turning it into a barreling force that slammed into the room. I could feel it searching for Alvin. When the arcana came back to me, I knew that we were alone.
“Cerri!” Nearly tripping over my own feet, I ran to her.
I knelt beside my friend and tried to scan her for any life-threatening wounds. Though there was blood on her skin, I didn’t see it pooling beneath her. If anything, she seemed broken but alive.
Though I wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, I knew this wasn’t over yet. I lifted my head and searched for Alvin, but he was gone. Even his scent had disappeared. That must have been another spell from the witch. Alvin would run out of money soon. He would lose the tricks he’d had up his sleeve.
“Cerri, what happened? Are you okay?”
She wasn’t okay. It was a stupid question to ask.
My friend ignored me. She didn’t look up, didn’t acknowledge me in the least. Her gaze remained on the floor a few spaces ahead. My heart shattered, the ice in my chest melting away once and for all. I couldn’t keep ahold of it when my friend was suffering.
My arcana slipped away, too. It slithered back to its hiding place somewhere deep inside me. Though I wished I could have met Alvin here, I knew this was for the best. I couldn’t kill him. That wasn’t my job, so death had nothing to claim from me today.
I curled around my friend, but she jerked away from me. She hissed in pain and settled a few inches away from me. I watched her. She wouldn’t look at me. What could I do here? Though a million apologies crowded my throat, I couldn’t find the one that conveyed all the guilt I felt for this.
Cerri’s skin was mottled with bruises. Blood caked her hair and marred her split lip. I reached for her, wanting to comfort her, but I pulled back and let my hand fall. She didn’t want anything from me right now.
“Cerri,” I said, my voice breaking.
She continued to ignore me. I wanted to touch her, to reassure her and say that she was safe now. She would never be safe as part of this pack. Fate had made her something other than a shifter, even though both her parents had their own beasts. It was a cruel thing to do, especially when we had an Alpha like Alvin. Fate had betrayed her.
I had failed her.
Lowering myself, I pressed my forehead to the floor and tried not to cry. I expected Cerri to ask me why I was the one crying, but she didn’t say a word. Her silence was even worse. I wanted her to be angry with me. If she would just tell me how awful I was, then I could work to make it up to her.
Her silence grated on me. She didn’t accuse me of anything. I’d failed her. I’d gotten her hurt. She’d suffered because of me. Yet, Cerri didn’t say any of that.
She pulled away and refused to acknowledge me. There was no loud outburst to relieve the pain she was trapped in. Instead, Cerri seemed lost in her own mind and there was nothing I could do to set her free.
I stared down at my useless hands and wondered if I had made a mistake.