CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE PRICE OF THE PULL
957 Words
Damien's POV
Sienna's chest barely moved. Each breath came shorter than the last, and I'd stopped being able to tell how much time had passed since the hall.
"Damien, you are going against the rules. You know the consequences."
Morrigan's voice came out quiet and stripped down.
I didn't turn around, and I didn't answer. I looked down at Sienna for a second, adjusted my hold, felt how cold she'd gone against my forearm, and walked.
My boot hit stone. Another step.
Air behind me tore open, force aimed at the center of my back, and every muscle in me locked.
Nothing hit me. Room went silent. I turned.
Noble lady stood between me and Morrigan, one hand raised, fingers spread. Morrigan's strike hung frozen between them. Her face had gone pale, her fingers clawing at nothing, her whole body straining against something she couldn't move.
Behind her the hall had gone still. Nobody spoke. Nobody moved to help her.
"Go." Noble lady didn't raise her voice. "You don't have long."
I tried to read her. Something pushed back against my mind before I got anywhere, and pressure built behind my eyes.
"My price is your Alpha title when this ends." Her eyes stayed on Morrigan. She never looked at me once.
I didn't answer. I found Lucas for one second. He stood near the dais, pale, his silk hanging loose.
I pushed through the doors and cold air hit me, straight through my shirt.
I ran for the treeline. Branches tore at my arms and I didn't slow for any of it. I pressed my mouth to Sienna's forehead as I ran. Her skin was cold against my lips. It tasted faintly of iron.
"Sienna, I'm here."
Her lower lip moved. Barely.
I found a clearing where the ground was soft between the roots and lowered her into it. My hands weren't steady. Damp leaves pressed cold against my knuckles as I set her down, and for a second I just knelt there, one hand still on her chest, listening for the next breath.
"She's crossing." My wolf's voice came out rough. Get up. Move.
I dropped to both knees. Ground bit through my trousers. I pressed my fingers to her forehead and pushed heat into the contact, sharp, and started the ritual.
Air cracked. Blood ran hot from my eyes, down my face, as I pushed myself out of my own body.
Gray and empty in every direction. Cold bit at my lungs with every breath, and there was no ground under me, just the sense of standing in mist. Somewhere off to the side, a sound came through that might have been crying, thin and far away. I called her name once. Nothing came back.
I called my wolf to find her and something hit me across the chest, driving me back hard enough to empty my lungs. I got up anyway.
"Sienna!"
A hundred yards off, she was there, wrists and ankles in black chains hanging from nothing. Her head hung forward. Not moving. I ran, closing the distance fast, faster than I should have been able to. I reached for her. Air around her started to shake, low and grinding, a sound I felt in my back teeth more than heard.
Don't. My wolf, all instinct now, no room in it for anything gentle.
I yanked my hands back. Air snapped shut where my fingers had been.
Trap. Empty. Touch it and you don't come back.
Something hit me from behind and the gray world tore apart.
Cold forest air first, then my own body, copper thick in my mouth. My fingers were already in the dirt next to her. Sienna's head had rolled sideways, her skin gone the gray of wet ash.
"What do I do." It barely made it past my teeth.
"Calm, brother. Not dead yet."
Voice stopped me cold. Old. I hadn't heard that register in years, and I shouldn't have been hearing it now.
I turned.
Jennifer stood at the edge of the clearing. Her skin had gone the color of old paper, her scent thinned down to almost nothing. Black chains lay loose at her feet, slipped free.
"Jennifer." Her name left my mouth without any sound behind it.
"I can buy you time." Her smile didn't reach her eyes. "Price is your peace. Every time you close your eyes, you carry what I carry. The years. The dark. The fire."
"I'm ready, sister."
Her hand landed on my shoulder and the ritual caught. White heat tore through my skull, and everything she'd been carrying came into me at once.
I choked on it first. Held it down. Then I fed it into the ritual instead, one breath at a time, because there wasn't another way through it. My arms shook. Something in my chest tore, and I let it keep tearing, because stopping wasn't a choice anymore. I found the thread in the dark and closed my fist around it.
I pulled.
It fought me. Whatever held her on the other side didn't want to let go, and for a second I thought my grip would give out first. I pulled harder.
Thread snapped taut. Sienna's chest lurched. A rattling breath tore out of her loud enough to send a bird up out of the trees above us.
Her eyes opened.
They weren't brown anymore. No color in them at all, just black, and I kept my hand on her chest, waiting for her to blink, to focus, to be the girl I'd carried out of that hall.
She didn't.
I looked down at her and my hand went still against her chest.
Something had come back through that door with her. It wasn't waiting.
- Writer
