My attention was divided for only a nanosecond, a microscopic sliver of time. But that was all it took before what felt like a bowling ball slammed into me, and the entire world winked out of existence.
Chapter 21
Paul
The Scheme Unravels
“CHERRY!”
Even from where I was, I could tell her lights went out instantly when Luther decked her right in the face, her body going limp as he grabbed the front of her shirt and threw her off him.
I had already been fighting his influence, but that was enough to fully break me out of it, and I dashed after her. But she was going too far, too fast, and she hit the floor hard once before bouncing into the waterway that divided the two halves of the room, sinking as its current carried her off.
“Cherry! No! I’m coming! Hold on!”
My shifter voice was screaming of its own accord, even though I knew she was incapable of hearing it. I didn’t care. I launched forward to dive into the water after her.
Only for someone to grab my leg and swing me around before slamming me to the floor.
I snapped and clawed, my vision taking a moment to clear from the stars filling it to see Luther kneeling over me, his eyes blood red but still no emotion on his face.
“Sleep,”he ordered, and I couldn’t help but wonder how he could issue a command in shifter-speak while he was in humanform. He was so many contradictions and impossibilities all on top of each other. Dead, but alive. My brother, but not. A wolf, but now a magic user.
“No!”I screamed, twisting my head and sinking my teeth into his thigh. I jerked at it, and while most people would scream in agony or try to get me to stop, my brother just stared at me.
But I didn’t give that much thought. My mind was replaying the instance of Cherry disappearing under the water. Was she dead? She couldn’t be dead! If only she had run!
Then again, if she had, we’d all have been within seconds. For being a very squishy mostly human, the oracle had proven once again that she was invaluable to the longevity of my family.
But even with her help, we’d reached the end of the line. Because Luther just squeezed me tighter and repeated his command.
“Sleep.”
“Sleep.”
“SLEEP!”
I could sense my siblings dropping out of consciousness, but I fought. With all I had, Ifought!
Cherry had risked so much for me and my family, multiple times. I had to save her; there was no space for failure. So no, I wouldn’t let this pretender of an alpha command me to slip under when I could still save her.
I heard words being spoken, and for a moment, a hazy joy filled my mind, thinking it was somehow Cherry. But then I realized it was the assassin telling Luther to hurry because it was“almost time.”
Almost time for what? I didn’t know. And I didn’t bother asking. No, instead I dug my teeth deeper into my brother’s leg, tearing through tendons. Luther pulled back his fist and punched me in the head once, twice, three times. But it wasn’tuntil he moved in for a fourth blow that my wolf decided enough was enough. It receded, my body shrinking into its human form.
The fourth hit landed, and my part of the fight was most certainly over.
The last thought I had as I plummeted into oblivion again was that we had failed. After everything we’d done, after all that Cherry and I had tried to investigate, we had failed.
Everything hurt. While I’d had my share of injuries and sore muscles throughout my life, I was unaccustomed to waking in pain. I assumed most shifters were. But this time, as consciousness began to ripple slowly through my mind, agony was one of the first sensations that hit me.
As for the rest of it, it returned in waves, urgently trying to coax me back to the surface.
I couldn’t say how long it took me, only that lucidity arrived in lazy peaks and valleys, until I could groggily open my eyes.
At first, everything was a blur, the low light of wherever I was not exactly doing me any favors. But then my vision cleared enough to see that me and my three non-hijacked siblings were all tied up to five tall, thick stakes, the kind that wouldn’t look out of place in a historical depiction of a witch burning.
Huh.