The ritual arcana darted toward my core. I tensed. Fear chilled my veins. Even my breath seemed to fog in the air.
That was when I felt it, the brush of death’s fingers across my shoulders. Had death come to take me? Or was this a show of solidarity that I didn’t quite understand? My connection to death was still so new and frightening. I did not have control over it the way that Addie did. Instead, I felt more like a herald.
Or a judge.
I’d sentenced a man to death. I’d delivered the verdict and acted as executioner that day. Harvey, Alvin’s god-awful son, had been tormenting my pack for far too long. When he’d set his sights on me, I’d made the decision to remove him from this world.
Death wrapped around me, a cool wind that enveloped my entire body. The presence coddled me in a way that I did not like. It seemed to cradle my head, as if to reassure me. I wished I could push it away, but I was stuck with this invisible entity.
“Ness?” Ryder asked behind me.
He stepped around me. There was a plastic container in his hand and a jug of maple syrup hanging from his pinky. He looked down at me with open worry.
I tried to force a smile to my lips, but I spoke, instead. “I’m afraid.”
His worry took on a grim cast as he sighed. He lifted his empty hand before letting it fall back down to his side. He didn’t know what to do, either.
Ryder
Ness slepton the edge of the bed. She’d curled in on herself, becoming as small as possible. Every so often, she would shudder like a cold chill had rippled over her.
I wanted to reach out and pull her into my chest, but she’d shied away from every attempt I made. Though Ness had endured a lot before I’d arrived, something had happened recently that’d shaken her to the core.
And I couldn’t figure out how to comfort her. My useless hands could do nothing for my mate. I opened them and flexed my fingers, but that did nothing to release this nervous energy suffusing me. I could have gone to Lakesedge to shift so that my beast could use up some of this energy, but I didn’t want to leave Ness’s side.
So, I was stuck. Restless and churning with a desire to dosomething, I sat on the edge of the bed and buried my face in my hands.
I wondered where my brother was. Had Morgan begun his trek across the country to find me? Colorado was on the other side of the country, but that distance could be closed overnight if he chose to fly. What was he doing? Was he concocting plans? Rehearsing his monologue?
The longer my brother took to come find me, the more anxious I became. He was probably doing it on purpose. War tactics, he would call it.
He’d always been a cocky prick like that. When we played football, he enjoyed coming up with the game plans while I enjoyed the exhilaration of tackling someone. Stuck in his head, Morgan had always needed me to be the one to initiate. He needed my brute force and willpower to make his brainy plans come to fruition.
Was he still like that? I had no idea. I hadn’t been gone long, a little under a year. That didn’t seem like much, but a lot had happened. Morgan had been living with Dad’s death that whole time, and without closure, I doubted Morgan had processed it yet.
Behind me, Ness mumbled something in her sleep. I half-twisted to peer back at her. She snuggled deeper into the blankets while clutching a pillow to her chest. Tense, I waited for disaster to strike. When she didn’t get up or attack me, I let out a sigh.
Ness had been through enough. She didn’t need my brother causing trouble on top of it.
Once again, I pulled out my phone and turned it on. I stared at the bright glow of my phone screen for several heartbeats before opening the phone app. My thumb hovered over Morgan’s phone number. Did it still belong to him? Or would I find a stranger on the other end?
Before I could get lost in my indecision, I tapped the phone icon. The soft ring made the phone hum in my hand. I could barely feel it with my heart hammering inside my chest.