Panther Curse: Shifters Bewitched #3 Read online

  But she was still clinging to me, her fingers gripping my chest like they were made of iron.

  I tried to tell her through the bond that I was going to get her out of here. But the bond wasn’t locked between us yet. My panther had to come back for that.

  I contented myself with rubbing my thumb along her arms encouragingly in a movement subtle enough I hoped the Order didn’t notice it.

  “He’s no good to you dead,” she said sharply.

  I repressed a grin. My brave girl was back.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Declan said carelessly. “Once the Raven King is back, we won’t need to borrow power from lesser creatures.”

  The look on his face was pure ecstasy.

  “You can’t open that portal, Declan,” Kendall told him. “You might release some magic, sure, but you’ll also put the whole world in mortal danger.”

  “Mortal danger, maybe,” he said. “But that won’t matter to us. Once the Order has our rightful magic, we won’t be mortals. We’ll be gods.”

  He made a motion with his hand and his minions descended on us.

  33

  Kendall

  I stood on the stone bridge, all the way back at the old mill.

  We’d run so far, just to end up right back where we started.

  The march back should have been exhausting. We’d traveled from dawn until dusk with hardly a break. But I had spent so much of it lost in my thoughts and fears that I hadn’t even noticed that my feet were sore and bloodied until we stopped.

  The water rushed under me, feeding the mill. But with a collar tight around my neck again, there was nothing I could do with it - no way to save myself or Jared.

  Jared himself was being manhandled by the men below. They were leading him to some sort of stone altar at the foot of a huge stone arch. Jared was fighting them every inch of the way.

  He got in a good kick, but the guy he kicked backhanded him, and another yanked him down to the altar.

  I twisted my neck, trying to find a weakness in the collar without putting my hands to it.

  “I think you’ll find this one is a little harder to break out of,” Declan whispered into my hair.

  “For someone who was only faking being interested in me you sure do like to cuddle,” I scoffed.

  The truth was that he was seriously making me uncomfortable standing so close and touching me so much. He’d been at it all the way here. I figured it was for Jared’s benefit on the march. But Jared wasn’t paying any attention to me now, and Declan was still all over me.

  “You know why you were able to escape the first one?” he asked, ignoring my jab.

  “Because you guys are idiots who can’t even construct a sturdy collar,” I said.

  “Because I wanted you to escape it,” he said. “It was all part of the plan.”

  “You planned to have to go get us and bring us back here?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “I knew who you were when we met,” he said serenely. “I knew who your so-called friends were, the ones you so pathetically want to fit in with.”

  That actually hurt - enough I couldn’t think of a comeback.

  “Want to see something fun?” he asked, pulling a silver mirror from his pocket and holding it up to me. “This is connected to the bracelet I gave you. Thanks for leaving it with your friends. It will be useful much longer than you will.”

  Instead of my own filthy, exhausted face I saw Bella and Cori. I leaned closer, as if I could jump through the mirror and back to the safety of my friends.

  “Shouldn’t we go after her?” Cori was asking.

  Bella shrugged. “Would she have gone after one of us?”

  “That’s not the point,” Cori said.

  “Isn’t it?” Bella asked. “I mean, you don’t remember it, but she was never exactly nice to you.”

  I winced, waiting for Cori’s response.

  Cori nodded, looking thoughtful.

  That was fair enough. Cori didn’t actually remember.

  “And hey, if she were a real friend, she wouldn’t have tried to kill me in Combat class,” Bella pointed out. “Besides, we all know she sneaks off to see that townie boyfriend at night. She’s probably just with him.”

  Cori wrinkled her nose in distaste.

  “We’re not even her real friends,” Bella added. “If anyone should go get her it’s the legacies.”

  “Can you really imagine Dozie or Esme trying to help her?” Cori asked.

  “Not really,” Bella said. “But that would make more sense than us doing it. We have real stuff to worry about - our mates and the Order of the Broken Blade. We have a long night of research ahead of us if we want to figure out what they’re up to.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Cori said, leaning back and opening a dusty book.”

  So, no one was coming for me after all.

  I wasn’t exactly surprised. Bella’s opinion of me was pretty much what I had thought before.

  And the new Cori didn’t really know me yet.

  But it still gave me a sinking feeling. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized that hope was still alive in my chest.

  “Poor Kendall,” Declan said in mock sympathy.

  As he was pulling the mirror away, I realized I didn’t recognize the room Bella and Cori were in.

  That was odd, I specifically remembered putting the bangle down for a second on Bella’s dresser.

  Was I such a lost cause that they were already dividing up my stuff?

  “So, your friends are trash-talking you, and your beloved secret boyfriend has betrayed you,” he said. “And I planned every instant of this, Kendall. From your capture, to the shoddy clip on your first collar, to the water escape, to the ranger’s cabin up on that bluff. Do you want to know why I needed you to escape?”

  I turned away from him, refusing to answer.

  He paced to the other side of me, sticking his mirror back in his pocket.

  I spotted the flash of a dagger when he lifted his jacket.

  “I needed you to fuck that pathetic shifter’s magic back into him,” Declan said sharply. “And, my stupid little slut, you did exactly what I wanted. So thanks for that.”

  “He doesn’t have his panther back,” I retorted. “If he did, you would all be dead.”

  I expected him to come closer to me again. In fact, I hoped he would. If I could grab the dagger, maybe I could hold him hostage and get the others to let Jared go. It was a long shot, but it was starting to look like our only chance.

  Frustratingly, he stepped farther away, his attention taken by whatever was happening below.

  I turned to see that Jared was strapped down to the stone table now, leather bands holding his wrists and ankles tight.

  One of the robed men beside him held a tangle of dark vines in his hands. The twisting tentacles of plant life seemed to originate by the water wheel.

  The robed man with the scar on his face lifted his hands to the sky. Something between them caught the twilight and I realized he was holding up what looked like a sword, only the blade had been snapped off about six inches above the hilt.

  The Broken Blade.

  The one that had been used to banish the Raven King. Now they were going to use it to bring him back.

  The wielder glanced up at Declan.

  “In the name of the broken blade,” Declan cried out.

  All the others turned to gaze up at him, their faces greedy with excitement.

  “In the name of the broken blade,” they repeated in unison.

  “By the blood of the beast,” his voice rang out.

  “By the blood of the beast.”

  “We call on the gods of old to tear open the veil,” Declan said. “And bring the Raven King back to us.”

  The broken blade flashed through the air and came down on Jared, opening a wound on one side of his chest.

  He roared with pain as the stone beneath him turned scarlet with his blood.

  Tears blurred my vision and I f
ruitlessly clawed at my collar as the blade flashed again, opening a fresh cut on the other side of his chest.

  Once the blood was flowing freely, the second hooded man stepped forward and thrust the ends of the vines into Jared’s wounds.

  Even from the bridge, I could see the wicked things burrowing deeply into his chest, feeding on his essence as he moaned in agony.

  At the other end of the vines, the water wheel groaned to life in the river, as if Jared’s life were powering it instead of the flowing water.

  There was an awed hush among the gathered members of the Order.

  Suddenly, the vines bristled with fresh growth, shooting out tendrils that crawled across the stone altar to the foot of the archway behind it.

  I watched in horror as they twined around the arch, glowing a sickly green as if they had been planted in a nuclear zone.

  No, the plants weren’t glowing.

  The stone was glowing through the tender green leaves. Light escaped its pores, illuminating the members of the Order and casting Jared’s pale chest in an otherworldly glow.

  The silhouette of a man began to form on the other side of the arch.

  The Raven King.

  I felt my magic surge inside me, and I desperately tried to hurl it at the archway and close that awful portal.

  The magic towered in my chest like a tsunami, but when I tried to release it, the collar blocked it all, as if a mountainous wall had been placed in front of the cleansing wave.

  The silhouette grew darker, taking on a more defined shape.

  I flung my magic against the collar again, only to have it hit the dam and fall back inside me.

  Tears leaked from my eyes with the effort as I tried and failed for a third time.

  The Raven King was going to come back, and Jared was going to die, and there was nothing I could do. A river flowed beneath me, but my magic barely prickled at the surface of my skin.

  I was alone here against these dozens of evil warlocks and a wicked fae king. There was nothing left for me to do.

  I lifted my eyes to the sky in a wordless prayer, and blinked twice at what I saw.

  Two snow white ravens circled overhead.

  Winter ravens were incredibly rare. The only pair I knew of were never far from my friend, Anya.

  Which meant that no matter what they thought about me, my friends were on their way. I didn’t have to fight alone.

  But I did have to fight.

  Just figure something out until they arrive, I told myself.

  Anything.

  34

  Kendall

  I continued to surge my magic, trying to force it through, hoping the collar would eventually fail to contain it.

  And I kept a sharp eye on Declan, slowly moving closer to him, now that his attention was fixed on the portal.

  The stones were cold and hard under my feet and my heart was breaking for Jared. But I inched toward my goal.

  Declan’s dagger was my only hope, since the collar was immune to my magical efforts. If I could get to that dagger, if my friends came, if Jared could hold out under the pain of his life force being drained…

  My hope was slim, but it was all I had, so I pressed closer.

  A surge of light from the portal drew gasps from the warlocks gathered below.

  And made Declan take a single step backward.

  I wrapped my hand around his arm, but before I could reach for the dagger, I felt it.

  My magic was surging through him.

  I had been trying to overcome the collar, but somehow touching him diverted my magic.

  He turned to me, eyes wide with shock as the power of my magic flowed into him.

  Declan had obviously never experienced real magic at this level. If he found a way to turn it against me, I would be dead in an instant.

  My education wasn’t complete. Most of the spells taught at Primrose were meant to be used for Good. But I didn’t need a spell.

  I reached into Declan’s blood and wrenched.

  His face twisted in surprise and agony.

  Eve’s words of warning echoed in my head, along with one other important fact.

  “This works better when you have an emotional connection,” I spat at him as I took control. “Thanks for that.”

  There was no room in me for mercy. And Declan deserved none. I used my magic to move him exactly as I needed to, jerking him forward, like a small child with a marionette.

  He released the pin in my collar, and it fell from my neck. Immediately, my magic pulsed into the world around me, searching for water, searching for power.

  I felt Declan’s heart beating frantically in the palm of my hand. His life was mine to end. But I wasn’t a murderer. I wasn’t like him.

  I released my hold on him and let him fall at my feet.

  That was my mistake.

  “She’s free,” he screamed to the others.

  The Order all turned to me as one.

  I lifted my hands and the magic rushed into me, I could feel them all, every heartbeat, pulsing blood toward every heart, I felt them all and froze the members of the Order where they stood, so many hearts, racing in terror.

  All but one.

  Through them all, I felt Jared’s weakened pulse. His heart throbbed once more, then faltered.

  I waited for the next heartbeat, my soul in agony.

  But it never came. His blood had gone still. I was too late.

  He’s gone.

  The pain shattered me.

  No. No, I won’t let this be true.

  I let myself fall backward into the river. The frigid water seeped into me, swirled around me, and filled me with its power. I could feel myself swelling with magic until it threatened to burst out of my pores.

  Now.

  The water lifted me up until I was suspended over the bridge, looking down at the frozen Order beneath me.

  Jared lay lifeless on the stone altar, with the glowing portal behind him.

  I fixed my eyes on his pale form, willing him to open himself to me.

  Calling on every bit of magic I could muster, I reached out to my mate, pouring my power into him.

  I could feel traces of him as the magic flowed back to me, in a reassuring loop, like before.

  But that would not bring him back to me.

  I closed my eyes, picturing the way the collar had felt, the solid wall between my magic and me.

  And then I pushed my magic outward into Jared with all the force I had, holding a wall against the return flow, preventing it from coming back to me.

  Pain crushed my chest as my magic left me. My body knew this was wrong. But I didn’t care. All I wanted was to hear his heart beat one more time. I didn’t care how much it took from me. Without him, none of it mattered anyway.

  The water wheel groaned to a stop, then began to roll backward. I pushed harder, feeling my magic weaken.

  But there was no sign of life. My mate still lay motionless on the stone slab.

  “No,” I moaned, blasted my magic into him, filling him with every spark I had left.

  My soul was like a desert now, sucked almost completely dry. I pushed out the last drops of my magic into my doomed mate.

  And then my magic was gone. The wave that had held me like a massive hand fell back into the river, dropping me bodily.

  The last thing I heard as the final trace of my magic departed was a single heartbeat.

  Jared.

  I hit the frigid water. Without my magic protecting me, it was cold enough to almost stop my own heart. I flailed weakly as the current overtook me, unable to believe that I might actually drown.

  Then the great hand lifted me clear of the water again.

  I turned back, trying to understand how my magic could have returned when I couldn’t feel it dancing in my veins.

  But it wasn’t the water holding me up.

  It was Bella.

  “Are you guys having a party without inviting me?” she asked with a wink as thunder boomed overhea
d.

  Grinning, I let her drag me out of the river and onto the bank where the battle awaited.

  35

  Jared

  The feel of the cold slab beneath me was the only thing tying me to the real world. As I felt the last of my life force slip away, I could only think of Kendall.

  She had to make it out. I couldn’t die knowing she was doomed.

  But I was drained now, magically and in every other way. The vines that pierced my chest drank my blood and essence quickly and efficiently.

  I was going to die knowing that it was my life that paid for the return of the Raven King and chaos on Earth as we knew it.

  Darkness settled in around me, and it was a relief in a way to feel its embrace. I knew it finally meant an end to my pain.

  As the last bit of light winked out, warmth surrounded me suddenly, filling me with a sense of peace and love.

  Was this death?

  Nothing in the great books or myths had made it sound this way. I felt cherished and invigorated at the same time.

  As a matter of fact, I felt incredible.

  Something wonderful was bubbling up inside my chest, something invigorating and strong. Something familiar.

  Kendall?

  And then I felt the panther sprinting for me, paws splayed wide as he pounded back into me.

  I exploded off the slab as I shifted, tearing free of my bonds and tasting the night air as the panther took me.

  Fury ripples through me as I land on four paws, a snarl ripping from my throat.

  The scarred man who tortured my human for twenty-four lost moons and cut his flesh with the broken blade tonight stares up at me. I reach down and effortlessly maul his soft face, reopening the old scar swiftly before I slash his throat with my other paw.

  He puts his hands up to his neck, as if he can stop the flow, but his blood already washes the stone they strapped me to and I turn from him, not even offering him the dignity of observing his death.

  His flunky with the vines gasps as my eyes rest on him. He doesn’t even try to get away, just waits for me to kill him too.