Page 68 of Season of the Wolf

Close by, Tobias was nearly beside himself with frustration that his promise to look after Evie’s father had rendered him useless. Mr. Callahan had come to, but was still too groggy to support his own weight.

The brothers spoke their native tongue again, leaving me to feel even more at a disadvantage as I listened for a morsel of discernible information. All I wanted to do was help.

Blood oozed from a broad gash on Evie’s shoulder surrounded by a fast-spreading, purple bruise. However, I knew the physical injuries would heal. My main concern was whether she’d been under too long? Had I gotten there too late?

They talked over me again and the frustration got to be more than I could stand.

“Tell me what’s going on!” My voice echoed and a few of their gazes shifted to me, but only one responded.

“Pain,” Ivan blurted. “Pain is the only way to bring her out of it. She’s slipping away.”

Confused andbeyondskeptical, I intervened.

“What are you talking about? She’salreadyin pain,” I pointed out, gesturing toward her injured shoulder.

He shook his head and his expression made it clear he didn’t think I’d understand.

So, instead, he showed me.

His hand emerged from beneath the water where it’d been supporting half Evie’s body. I stared at it, still just as confused as a moment ago, but then the pieces started to fit together when the tip of his finger lit with a bluish-green flame like nothing I’d ever seen before. The strange light spread to his palm and eventually engulfed his entire hand.

“No … realpain,” he clarified, a grave and yet sympathetic look overtaking his expression.

I breathed deep, bracing myself for whatever this meant, bracing myself for however Evie would respond to it.

My gaze shifted to Mrs. Callahan, her wide eyes, when I remembered she was present. She stared at the otherworldly blue light that blazed from Ivan’s hand, speechless, in shock, but not frightened.

Among the clans many rules was one stating that we were to conceal our identities at all times, but … these were extenuating circumstances. There was no time to help her understand or go to her to ensure she didn’t flee out of fear.

I’d forgotten this woman had raised one of the most fearless people I’d ever met in my life. Some portion of that had to have been because she, herself, was braver than most.

As if to prove this exact point, instead of cowering in a corner at the sight of something I’m sure she would never understand, she came closer to help. Her hands replaced Ivan’s to support Evie while he acted quickly to save her.

Mrs. Callahan’s eyes went to Evie’s shoulder, the wound that had already shrank to half the size it was a moment ago. Where Evie’s shirt was torn, shredded muscle and severed tendons slowly mended themselves together right before her mother’s eyes. Fresh skin formed over the laceration and it was nearly gone. In some spots, the only indicator anything had ever been wrong was the blood left behind.

The hand engulfed in turquoise-tinted fire moved through the air in a brilliant streak, making contact with the nearly-healed wound at Evie’s shoulder. The sound of searing skin was sickening, as was the sight of her flesh tearing open once again. I was nearly at my breaking point being a bystander while they tortured and maimed her on a whim that itmighthelp.

But then … she twitched, coughed a bit, prompting us to shift her onto her side as we tread water. The liquid that had blocked her airway spilled from her mouth as she choked it out, a blood-curdling scream bursting from within right after. It pained me to see her like this, but Ivan was right. It worked.

I glanced at her mother again, and to my surprise, she still didn’t show signs of running.

Only concern.

I braced Evie’s head to my shoulder while she caught her breath, and as if Mrs. Callahan’s actions hadn’t already stunned me enough … she reached for her daughter’s hand.

Some might have assumed it was a knee-jerk reaction, that people in crisis situations sometimes form strange bonds, but I wasn’t that close-minded. I believed that, on some level, despite the spell that had been cast on her, Mrs. Callahan knew. She knew the brave young girl who risked her life to get her and her husband out of harm’s way was no mere stranger.

“Thank you,” she said just above a whisper as she continued to clutch Evie’s hand. “I don’t know why you did this for us today, but … thank you.”

Still not quite herself, Evie nodded and squeezed the hand she held. “I had to,” she rasped. “I had to make sure you were okay.”

Not even that made her mother flinch, confirming what I suspected—that on some level she felt the connection with the only daughter she’d ever known.

Somehow, we all made it through alive, despite the Sovereign’s best efforts. Today’s attack was a clear sign. A sign I, and the rest of the clan heard loud and clear.

He wanted a war … and we would give him one.

Chapter Twenty

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