Ashlee nodded. “So, if I fail at this, then you will need to clear the island. No one can take their mates here.”
Clarinda shook her head. “Not an option, darling girl. Don’t you understand? No, of course you don’t, how could you? We were wrong. Terribly wrong. We assumed Kendrick had the island cursed. We cleansed the land. There is no curse here anymore.
There wasn’t last night when you mated. No, no, we mistook the spell. It was never on the place. It was on the pack. The people themselves. So when Tristan mated with you, he awakened the curse that was already on him, lying dormant all these thirty years.
“But to leave the island? No, dear. This is our home. We have been here for one hundred years. Before that, the stories say our people ran into trouble at an almost constant pace. This is the first peace we have had for a century, and we will not lose it.
To remove the spell’s presence from the island was not complicated. We checked on it this morning. The others will be safe here with their mates as soon as the spell is removed from Tristan.”
Ashlee shook her head. “Why? Why will they all not suffer as Tristan did?”
Clarinda raised an eyebrow at her. “Because he’s very important, Ashlee. Or haven’t you figured that out yet either? Tristan’s fate is hinged to the pack. Where he goes, so does everyone else. We had hoped he would realize it by now. But the boy seems to have invested in self-denial and won’t let it go. Perhaps when this is over he will finally see.”
Ashlee’s head whirled. What they had just told her, it all suddenly made sense.
Michael had never fully assumed the role of Alpha. Why hadn’t he? Tristan thought he would. But he was wrong. Tristan was Alpha. Oh dear god, Tristan was their Alpha and he was caught in a spell that would not only end his life or hers but everyone’s. He was their Alpha and she was his mate.
Only he still had no idea. She’d been resolved to save him from the moment he’d been afflicted, but now she knew she’d walk through the fires of hell to bring him back if that was what he needed. She might not have known her wolf for very long but she could feel her in every pore of her body.
Tristan was their Alpha and they would be strong again.
As long as they both didn’t perish in tragedy.
Ashlee swallowed hard. “You removed the spell from the island. Can you remove it from Tristan now?” Any chance that this could just end and she wouldn’t need to go to Mexico was one she would take.
“No. We’re sorry, dear.” Adeline’s voice was so much more serious than Clarinda.
“You are not stupid, so I suspect you already know what needs to be done to save Tristan.
The witch will have to die; that much you have felt. Then a ritual cleansing spell, a very complicated, powerful undertaking will need to be done on Tristan. Even then it will take magic, strong pack-magic with the whole pack working together to fix him. Clarinda and I never had the chance to save anyone who had succumbed to the spell. Clearing an island is one thing, saving a person already inflicted, that is another matter altogether.”
“Can you do a spell that powerful?” Ashlee’s question had both the Aunts making twittering noises that must have been laughter.
“Yes, we can. But the spell will have to be done by you. You are his mate.” Clarinda explained. “And the bad news is, you are nowhere near powerful enough to even attempt the ritual. It would kill you, and then this would all be for naught.”
“Even if we had trained you since you were ten, you’d still not be strong enough,”
Adeline finished.
A sense of dread filled Ashlee. She swallowed it away.
“I will have to be strong enough.” There was no other choice. Tristan’s face as he’d writhed on the floor in the hall, the look in his eyes when he’d told her to run, all of the images from before his change filled Ashlee’s mind. He was hers to honor and protect; she could not fail him. “I have to be.”
Adeline smiled. Ashlee took a step backwards from the hardness she saw in a gesture usually saved for happiness or reassurance. “If only it were that simple.”
“We can help you,” Clarinda, always more gentle than her sister, stated. “And we admit that it suits us too. We are tired. But it will be a great burden for you. We are of two minds as to whether you can handle it.”
“Handle it?” Ashlee suddenly wanted to be somewhere else immediately. She needed to escape. “Look, my plane leaves in six hours.”
“We know that, so we will hurry.”
Ashlee heard thunder crackle in the sky. She looked up. It had been clear and beautiful only moments earlier. Lightning struck the ground in front of her and Ashlee leapt back in terror. She turned to run for the door to the arboretum. Instead she hit the ground, hard. Her hands stung beneath her and she turned on all fours to stare at the Aunts. They were both bathed in white light.
Adeline lifted her arms and the light from her body flew from her and into Ashlee.
The power hit Ashlee hard and she screamed in agony. The food in her stomach turned over and she retched on the ground.
“Stop!” She begged, pleaded, anything to make the pain stop.
“We’re sorry, Ashlee, there is no other way. Be a good girl and take care of Tristan.”
Ashlee must have passed out then, because she heard nothing else.
Chapter Nine
When Ashlee came to, a fifteen-member band played in her head.
She opened her eyes, but the bright light hurt too much and her hand flew to shield them. Where was she? A little less dazed, she sensed the soft sheets and mattress under her body. She was not on the roof anymore.
“They gave you their power. They’re gone now, but they sacrificed themselves so you would be strong enough.”
Theo was with her.
Ashlee squinted at Theo who stood to the left side of her bed. She swallowed. Why did Theo have to be with her when she woke up? She knew, out of everyone, he liked her least. He probably blamed her for Tristan’s condition. Truth was, she held herself accountable for it too. If they had just taken the time to even consider the possibility of the spell still being active, they wouldn’t be in this predicament now. Her heart panged in her chest. If she lived another hundred years, she would always blame herself for this.
Ashlee pulled herself up into a sitting position. Her head reeled. She didn’t want Theo looming over her.
The Aunts were dead?
So that was why they’d behaved so strangely. They’d given her their power, which had ended their lives. A pang of regret pierced through her. Ashlee hadn’t even had the chance to tell them goodbye.
Theo cleared his throat. “I don’t know if they’d call it a sacrifice. They’ve wanted to be with their loved ones for a very long time.”
She touched her head and groaned. “I think they could have found a better method to give me what I needed, or at least a less painful one.”
“I’m sorry, perhaps ‘sacrifice’ wasn’t the right word. It was a bit of a shock when the ground started to move and we all heard you scream like you were being murdered. By the time Michael got up to the roof it was too late; they had all but vanished. There was nothing left to hold on to. They just faded away into nothingness. But it’s not your fault and I certainly don’t blame you.”