Ashlee cocked her head to the side. “Still don’t believe?”
“And you can do that?” Summer’s voice shook.
“Yes.”
Ashlee watched as Summer approached their mother, slowly. “And I’m going to do that?”
“Maybe.”
Ashlee looked back at her circle of stones. She had her two female shifters, her circle of rocks and her understanding of how things were supposed to go in the spell. Which meant she just needed the pack and Tristan. They should all be arriving momentarily.
Michael had warned her that they would be bringing Tristan out in chains to keep him from hurting either himself or her.
Ashlee’s mother called the shift back onto herself and stood before them naked.
Summer closed her eyes and turned around. Ashlee grinned and wondered suddenly if it had only been a week since she’d met Tristan and had the same reaction to her mother’s nude form?
A sharp pain hit her abdomen and she doubled over onto the ground. Her mother quickly stepped over the stones and grabbed her shoulders as she pulled her into a sitting position.
“What is it, Ash?”
“Pain in my abdomen.” It passed, but she still felt shaken. She didn’t know what it was, and the last thing Ashlee needed was anything else to distract her.
Voices in the distance alerted Ashlee that the pack’s arrival was imminent. She stood up and brushed herself off. By the end of the ceremony she’d most likely be naked, but she wanted to start out looking presentable.
Ashlee’s mom still had a worried look on her face. Not wanting her mother to obsess about pain they couldn’t investigate at the current time, she changed the subject. “You left Dad where?”
“In one of the abandoned cabins. I can’t believe Tristan burned down the Institute.”
“When this is over, he’s going to beat himself up about it.” It was important to sound confident, Ashlee reminded herself. She reached down deep inside to touch her beloved’s soul. His love flung outwards to her and she closed her eyes and smiled. When this was over, she would never be separated from him for any length of time again.
Her eyes suddenly fell on the chained form of Tristan. Azriel and Theo led him up the hill. Michael walked a pace behind them, Rex to the left of the group. Tristan raised his eyes to look at her and she sucked in her breath. His pupils were huge, the whites bloodshot. What she could see of the skin on his arms and legs looked burned. He’d really been through hell while she’d been gone.
She fought back the urge to rush to him, throw off his chains, and embrace him with so much love it healed his wounds. There would be time for all of that after she succeeded in removing the spell from him. There had to be.
Tristan fought his chains, causing Ashlee’s heart to lurch. One way or another his pain would end today, she would see to that. She would either remove the spell or give her life for him. Either way, it would be her gift to him.
“Listen up.” She kept her voice authoritative; she was the only person here who could conduct this ceremony and everyone was going to abide by her rules. “Once I have started the ceremony, no one, and I mean no one, is to cross the rock barrier. It could harm you. I’m going to be calling on the communal magic of the pack to assist me towards the end of the spell. You may feel strange when I do that, but don’t worry, you’re perfectly safe.” Ashlee paused and swallowed her fear.
You will be fine.
Ashlee was glad for her wolf’s vote of confidence and she took a deep breath. “Theo, please put Tristan in the center of the circle and take the chains off of him.”
Tristan growled and tugged on his chains as he tried to get to her. Theo stared at Tristan and then back at Ashlee. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, sister.”
Ashlee shook her head and clenched her teeth. She would not compromise the legitimacy of the spell. Those chains were made of metal; they might alter the purity of the stone circle. “He has to be unchained for this to work, Theo.”
Michael interrupted Theo’s argument with Ashlee. “As you say, Ashlee.” Theo brought Tristan to the center of the circle and took off his chains. When the chains came off, Tristan fell to the ground and stayed there for a moment before he sat up and glared at Ashlee.
“This isn’t safe for you, little one.” He growled. “I thought I told you to run.”
“And so I did, Tristan.” Ashlee looked out of the circle to Michael. “Is it done?”
Ashlee needed to know if they had disposed of the witch. Before that very moment, Ashlee would have thought the idea that someone she associated with had killed another person would make her feel repulsed but she felt just the opposite about it. They needed Mina dead—her blood was part of the ceremony—and besides, the woman had signed her own death warrant thirty years earlier when she’d maliciously cursed the wolf-shifters. Ashlee had watched her mother, Rex, and Tristan dispose of the would-be kidnappers outside of the zoo without many mental ramifications. Evidently, she was stronger than she’d given herself credit for.
“Cullen completes it now. You don’t need it until the end of the ceremony, yes?”
Ashlee sighed; she really would have preferred to have had it now. But the sun was right in the sky so she’d have to count on Cullen to show up with the blood.
“As long as I have it by the end. Actually, it’s not a bad idea for you all to know this in case I am not able to do it myself. Pour the witch’s blood in the center of the circle. It will finalize the spell and call off the magic.”
“Ashlee,” Michael stared at the ground. “I’m not the Alpha. Not really.”
Ashlee nodded. “I know who the Alpha is.”
“Do you think I have enough power without the Aunts to handle this?”
“You’d better.” She couldn’t be any more assuring than that. Truthfully, Ashlee had no idea what would happen if they failed.
Ashlee closed her eyes to prepare for her task. She wished she could have practiced this once before she had to perform it in front of the entire pack. Tristan made a groaning noise and she opened her eyes. She could see he was struggling, and she knew that she was running out of time.
The first thing Ashlee needed to do was invoke protection on her stone circle. She raised her left hand towards the setting sun in the sky.
“I call upon thee, Watchtower of the West. Protect this circle and those who surround it. I call upon you for sanctity against those who would cause us harm.”
The breeze picked up and bounced through Ashlee’s hair. The skirt she wore fluttered around her ankles. Ashlee smiled, she felt powerful and capable.
Keep going. Keep focus.
Ashlee might be new at mysticism but her wolf acted like she was an old expert.
“I call upon thee, Watchtower of the South. Protect this circle and those who surround it. I call upon you for sanctity against those who cause us harm.”
Lightning struck in the sky followed immediately by a loud boom of thunder. Ashlee raised her eyes to look at the clouds. They swirled above their heads, counterclockwise.
She’d gotten someone’s attention.
“I call upon thee, Watchtower of the East. Protect this circle and those who surround it. I call upon you for sanctity against those who cause us harm.”
Inside the circle, rain started to pour on Ashlee and Tristan, but Ashlee could see that the others remained dry. Her mother called out something to her, but Ashlee couldn’t hear it over the wind and the rain; she could see her mother’s mouth moving, but the words just sounded like nonsense. She turned to stare back at Tristan, who had stood up.
He seemed glued to the ground on the other side of the circle, his hands in fists.