“That isn’t your choice,” the lady said as she moved forward. “Your father and I agree that it’s too risky to wait. They know about her. They will try to take her again. For her safety and ours, we need to make her one of us. We have a forty-eight-hour window to get your blood in her to bind her once you drink hers. We need to do this now.”
“I won’t do that to her. She spent her whole life not knowing about this stuff because you guys were afraid she was one of them. Now that you know she isn’t, you’re forcing her to join us without any time to process all of this. I refuse to bind to her without her consent.”
The older witch looked at him, measuring his words. With a nod, the witch turned to the first one she had addressed.
“Make the healing potion,” she ordered the younger woman.
“Just know this: she will be your responsibility if she joins them instead. You will be the one that will have to hunt her down and kill her,” the coven leader told Nate.
“I accept that, Priestess Carson,” he replied, nodding to her.
The coven leader clapped her hands and the women that were all standing around watching the exchange hurried out of the room into the kitchen. Nate was left alone with Cassie. She didn’t know who the lady was until Nate called her by name. She was the leader of the coven and had been since her mother died several years before.
“You promised to explain.” She barely had the energy to sit, but she had plenty to listen to him.
“Which part?” Nate asked.
“First about me being your responsibility, and then about your magic healing abilities,” Cassie replied as she leaned back on the couch.
Gracefully, Nate sat down and slid her over to his lap. Cassie couldn’t help but snuggle into his arms; he was warm and safe.
“Remember how I told you there are several clans of night humans?”
Cassie nodded.
“Well, one of them hates skinwalkers. They’ve been trying for years to stop the clan from binding to witches. Back many years ago, the witchling that passed her apprentice exam would be given as much time as she wanted to find her mate. In that system, you would have had years to learn about us and what it all means, but we had to change when the other clan would come to take our witchlings before they could choose a mate. Remember, it’s an eye for an eye with us. Everyone has to have a partner. When they took one of the witches, then that meant we would have a skinwalker without a mate. Now we bond within two weeks to keep the witchling and the skinwalker safe.”
“My two weeks isn’t up,” Cassie pointed out.
“Yes, because of that they especially want you,” Nate replied.
“Is that what all those extra protection details were for that I kept overhearing Whitney and Owen talking about?”
“Yes. We’ve had to be extra diligent with you. They know it won’t just be crippling to our coven if they take my mate, but to the whole skinwalker clan in general. I might be able to find another mate if you’re gone, but it won’t be a perfect fit, like you and I are. They know that, and will do anything to keep you from bonding to me.”
“That’s why the coven wants to do it now?” Cassie asked.
“Yes. And by not doing it, we’re giving them a chance to take you again.”
“What happens if they take me?” Cassie really didn’t want to know, but she needed to.
“They will enslave you to them. We’ve found the bodies of the witchlings they have taken in the past. They drain all the magic from them and then turn them into night humans. By the time we find them, they are no longer the humans we knew, but monsters that only follow orders and crave blood.”
“And it will be your job to hunt me down if they get me?” Cassie asked, horrified by the idea of being forced into that situation. It was bad enough they wanted to marry her off, but a life of being a monster that lived on blood sounded even worse.
“Yes. I’m putting everyone at risk by letting you not bind to me,” Nate replied, stroking her hair as she lay against his chest.
“And your magic?” Cassie asked, changing the subject.
“I told you. I’m no magician. I don’t do magic or magic tricks. What I did, any night human can do. I healed you with my blood,” Nate explained quietly.
Closing her eyes, she nodded. She was out of energy again.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“We don’t get sick. Our blood is kind of like super healing. Night human blood can heal day humans. Just one drop was enough to get the wound on your leg to close. It took a bit more to get your insides to stop from shutting down.”
“You gave me your blood?” Cassie asked, yawning. “Ewww.”
Nate chuckled and made her head bounce as he did so.
“Only you would be less afraid of dying and monsters chasing you in the night, and more grossed out by sharing blood,” Nate told her.
“Oh, they were gross, too,” Cassie added, feeling her world fade as she drifted off to sleep. Nate’s lips pressed to her forehead.
“Sleep, gorgeous. You will be all better soon.”
Cassie woke on the couch in her uncle’s house. It was perfectly quiet. She sat up and waited to hear something—anything. It was still silent. Slowly, she stood and walked to the front door. As she passed the front window, she looked outside at the street. There was a slight haze, and she knew what that meant—the coven had put up a protective spell all around the house. Cassie went to the front door and tried to open it. The handle didn’t budge. No one was in the house because they had sealed it from the outside.
Hurrying, she ran to the back door in the kitchen and tried to open that. It would not budge either. They had locked her in. She was trapped.
She began to feel lightheaded and leaned against the counter to keep herself stable. Everything came back to her quickly. She had been sleeping. Someone had taken her. She ran from those half-transformed skinwalker monster things, and one ended up cutting her. Cassie pulled up her sleep pants. There wasn’t a mark on her leg. Yes. That came back, too. Nate had used his blood to save her, and the coven tried to force him to bind to her. He refused. Cassie slid to the floor. He actually refused.
Cassie tapped her fingers on the tiled kitchen floor. There had to be something she could do. They made it very clear that none of them planned to summon her aunt even when she was dying from loss of blood. They were more willing to let her die than let Aunt Maria come back. That was the key. There was a way to join the coven without bonding to a skinwalker. But how was she supposed to do that without her aunt to help? She was sure there was nothing more in the library to look at. They didn’t find a single thing to help in the books they had borrowed. Cassie tapped her fingers more. There had to be something.
The picture. That was something.
Rising, Cassie hurried upstairs quietly in case her uncle was home. She passed his bedroom door, which stood wide open. He wasn’t home. She opened up her door and paused. Sprawled across her bed was a familiar form with a dark hair. Cassie froze in her tracks. She didn’t want to wake him.
Quietly, Cassie made her way from the door to her book bag. She slid her hand into the half-open back pocket and pulled out the picture just as quietly as she came in. All those years of practice being quiet were worth it. Cassie stood up and snuck out of her room. Cautiously, she walked into her uncle’s room. She wasn’t really allowed in there, but he wasn’t home, and thus couldn’t stop her.
Cassie pulled out the folded-up picture, certain she had seen it once before in one of the frames on her uncle’s wall. She walked over to his bed and began looking at all the pictures. There were some from his childhood, and a large set of his parents. Nearby was one almost as large that was of her mother. Cassie stared into the eyes of the lady that she never met. She saw how much she looked like Maria, but Cassie knew what those eyes were saying—her mother felt just as trapped in the coven’s secrets as Cassie now was. John had always said her mother was kidnapped while out with one of the coven travels
, but Cassie had a feeling it was otherwise. Those eyes told her all she needed to know. She had to be sure the coven knew that she was in charge and not them. This making her bind when she didn’t want to stuff was the first step of losing herself to the coven and all of its rules. Cassie had wanted, since she was little, to join and be part of the family she was never allowed to be around, but now she wasn’t so sure. Maybe running away was a better choice.
A cough behind her told Cassie she wasn’t alone in the room. She didn’t need to turn around to know who it was. Nope, running away wasn’t an option. Nate would be able to find her anywhere she went.
“Did they lock you in here with me, or did they give you a choice?” Cassie asked without turning toward him.
“I offered to stay. I knew you’d be pissed when you woke, and I didn’t want you to be alone after last night,” Nate explained.
Cassie paused at each picture, searching for the match to the one in her hand. There had to be at least sixty pictures on the wall. She smiled as she found her own face.
“What’s going on up here?” Nate asked, close enough to gently touch Cassie’s head.
“Last night, or rather this morning, isn’t completely clear, but I do remember it. They were going to force me to bind to you without my permission,” Cassie replied, still looking through the photos.
It was near the end and up high, but Cassie found the one she wanted. Cassie turned to find a chair to climb on, but Nate was already close enough. He reached up and took it down, handing it to her without being asked.
“Yes. They take the word of the seer seriously. She said you’d be the end of us if you didn’t join us,” Nate replied, watching Cassie as she turned the frame over and opened it.
“How could she know that? She had never touched me,” Cassie replied. She had heard of the seer, but had never met her. There was no way the seer could have predicted Cassie’s future without them actually meeting.
“She didn’t meet you; she met your mother.” Nate watched her intently.
“My mother was part of the coven,” Cassie replied. At least that’s what everyone told her.
“Yes, without a mate,” Nate explained.
Cassie looked at him. Then where did I come from?
Nate saw her confusion. “You mother was added to the coven without a mate because it was predicted that her child would bring about the end to our ways,” Nate answered. “She was never allowed to have a mate, and thus they thought they could stop the future from happening.”
“But she had me,” Cassie added.
“And that’s why they easily agreed with John to keep you from the coven until it was proven you had night human blood in you. It was against skinwalker law for anyone to mate with your mother. Obviously, someone broke that law. So they’re all worried that you will leave us and thus bring about the end to the coven,” Nate explained. “What’s with the picture?”
Cassie glanced down at her hands. She had stopped opening the frame, but refocused when Nate reminded her of the task. She began to unscrew the knobs holding the frame together. Gently, she set the frame on her uncle’s bed and pulled off the back. The paper underneath kept the picture hidden, but she pulled that off, too. As soon as the paper was gone she knew this was the same picture. It had been bent back so that the full picture wasn’t visible in the frame. Cassie pulled it out carefully, unfolded it, and laid it flat next to the one she held. It was identical.
“Who’s that?” Nate asked, pointing to the fourth, previously hidden person from the framed picture.
“My uncle, I guess,” Cassie replied, looking at the two photos.
Sure, it was easy to Photoshop something, but the framed picture had been hanging on her uncle’s wall for as long as she could remember. It was even covered by years of dust. The guy who met her in the library was speaking the truth. She had an uncle; one no one had ever told her about.
“Where’d you get this picture?” Nate asked, pointing to the one she had brought in the room.
“Some guy gave it to me and told me he was my cousin. He said this was proof, and I took it without believing him.” Looking closer at her unknown uncle, Cassie asked, “Who’s this guy?”
She had always thought it was strange, how far apart in age Maria and John were because her mother and John were close, but now she could see. The mystery uncle was older than Maria, and another middle child.
“I’ve never seen him before, or even heard anyone talk about him,” Nate admitted.
“But if he’s one of my family, then he must be a skinwalker, right?” Cassie replied.
Nate picked up the picture and stared at it.
“He had to be. Maybe he died or something,” Nate suggested.
“Or maybe there are just more secrets that they don’t want us to know,” Cassie added. “How much does your dad share with you?”
Nate shrugged. “I’m not part of the clan yet as a full member, just as you’re only a witchling. When you join the coven, then I get to join the clan. Until then, they let me keep track of all the people our age, but I don’t attend meetings.”
Cassie nodded. It seemed that Nate was beginning to feel a bit like her. He was busy thinking of everything as it had played out over the past few days. There had to be as much kept from him as from her since the coven and clan were quickly trying to get them to bind.
“What do you think is their problem? What are they keeping from us?” Cassie asked as she put the picture back. She didn’t have to keep it out. She had her proof, and now all she needed was her uncle to ask about it.
“I don’t know.”
“John will tell me,” Cassie said confidently, even though she wasn’t completely sure he would. He had been nicer and more forthcoming, but even he couldn’t tell her everything.
“No, he won’t. I’m sure my father has forbidden it. All we can do is wait and see what they are up to at the meeting tonight.”
That was one option Cassie hadn’t thought of. She also didn’t know Nate would easily join her side on everything. Nate Bay was full of surprises lately.
The moon was hidden by the clouds, but Cassie wasn’t worried. For some strange reason, she trusted Nate completely. Granted, she still didn’t want to be bonded to him; however, he wasn’t her enemy in all of it. In fact, he was as much of an ally as Whitney was.
“You sure this will work?” Cassie asked. She had spent all afternoon making a counter-spell that would allow them to leave, and no one would know as long as they returned in two hours’ time. In theory, the spell would do just that, but Cassie doubted that she could stand up to the strongest witches in the coven that had set the spell.
“I know it will work. Why do you think they’re so set on binding you to me? Because you have power, and they’re all afraid of you,” Nate told her for the tenth time.
She didn’t feel like she had power. Sure she had set the wards around her room, yet someone had come in and taken her right from her bed.
Cassie took the potion and put it in two cups, then gave one to Nate. It turned out that in offering to stay, he was as stuck as Cassie was in the house. The coven seemed to trust him about as much as they did her.
“Bottoms up,” she said, clinking her glass to his. Nate grinned and downed the potion all in one gulp.
Cassie tipped up her glass and tried to do the same. It would take her more than one gulp, but she knew from previous experience all potions she made tasted horrible. She never got the knack of covering up the natural taste of the plants used.
Cassie sputtered, but kept the potion down.
“That wasn’t bad,” Nate told her. She had forewarned him of the taste.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. I could cook better meals at the age of five than how those taste.”
Nate reached down and took the bag they were going to have to take with them. They needed more than just a spell to get out of the house. They would have to get past the skinwalkers and the coven to get to the meeting.
Leading the way outside, Nate took one step and sniffed the air.
“There’s no one this direction.” He pointed as he began to walk into the dark of the night.
She paused before deciding to follow him. Her last nighttime excursion wasn’t a pleasant memory. Turning to her as if he could sense her hesitation, Nate held out his hand and waited for her to take it. Cassie took a deep breath and ignored the fear that told her to go back inside. At his touch, everything faded away and was replaced by confidence. Cassie was sure it was his confidence, because it wasn’t hers.
They walked a brisk pace through the backyards of her neighbors before turning toward town. It was going to be a ten-minute walk, but Nate kept the pace fast enough that they wouldn’t need the ten minutes they had planned. As they paused in the last yard of the neighbors, Nate lifted his head again and sniffed the air. He pushed Cassie back in the yard and covered her with his body as he pressed her to a tree. Two young men came walking down the sidewalk. Cassie peeked from under Nate’s arm. One of them seemed too distracted to notice them as they hid in the shadows, but the second paused mid-step to sniff the air just like Nate. He shook his head and continued with his friend down the path.
“There are a few people out,” he explained quietly. “They’re lower skinwalkers. Just follow my lead, and we can make it past them without a problem.”
Cassie nodded as butterflies twirled in her stomach. He was so close that all she would have to do was tip her head back, and she could kiss him again. She hated that she felt that way, but she really wanted to feel his lips against hers again. Nate looked down, and his eyes glowed in the dim light. He seemed to feel the exact same way.
Nate took a deep breath and pulled back. “Ready?” he asked.
Cassie did not trust her voice and could only shake her head. Nate held her hand gently but firmly. He showed the way, sticking to the shadows of the buildings as they made their way down the street. When they arrived at city hall, Nate ushered Cassie around back. He led the way by climbing up to a window he knew was left unlocked. He had explained beforehand that he used that entrance often because he was running late. Once inside, he showed Cassie the way through unlit corridors to a hiding spot above the stage. It took longer than normal because she had to continue to break the spells that had been cast to keep them out. By the time they made it to the stage, the auditorium was filled with the noise of people talking while they waited. Nate sat down first and made room for Cassie to nestle between his legs since the height of the latticework was much higher than she was comfortable with. Nate kept his arms around her waist even though she was tucked in tight enough not to fall.