Page 71 of Season of the Wolf

There was no telling how many had been lost tonight. Yes, our chances of surviving such a disaster were greater than had we been only human, but there was no supernatural cure for drowning.

I’d nearly proven thatmyselfa short time ago.

As we passed through, angry conversations turned into fiery monologues declaring a newly deepened hatred for Sebastian. While some gathered round in solidarity, others simply cried—deep, desperate sobs for what had taken place.

But even through fatigue and the chatter, even with half a mile still separating us from home… I heard something.

Heardhim.

… Liam.

I lifted my head the instant his raw, unbridled fury broke through the woods, assaulting my ears. Rage spewed from his very soul and I felt it from here. My entire body stiffened with tension.

I took off in that direction, suddenly forgetting the recently healed injury and extreme exhaustion that plagued me just a moment ago. My brothers flanked me at either side, matching my speed. Each time Liam yelled out, I moved faster, and so did they.

It’d been hours since anyone at home had heard from us. I was sure Elise, Dallas, and Hilda were beside themselves with worry, too, but … none as distraught as Liam.

I needed to get to him, to let him see my face, that I was alive.

What he must have assumed when I didn’t come back …

“We have to hurry,” I urged, weaving between trees and the displaced.

I tried to prepare myself for what I’d find when I made it to the house, tried to come up with something to say to justify my actions to Liam. Something to explain why I asked Dallas to do anything in his power to keep him from coming after me …

My heart and mind both raced, wondering what it must have taken to get him—the fiercest warrior who ever lived—to meet their demands and stay put while I was out here amidst the chaos without him.

The screams billowing through the woods like a battle cry weren’t screams of sadness … they were steeped in anger. Anger like I’d never heard before. Each one sent daggers straight through my heart. I never meant to hurt him, only to protect him from what went on out here. Tonight, difficult decisions were made, butallwere made with the ones I love in mind.

I did what needed to be done.

The seven of us burst through the door and it didn’t surprise me to find Elise pacing the foyer—her face bright red with distress, her eyes tinted the same shade from what I guessed to be hours of crying. She rushed my brothers and I immediately, squeezing as many as she could in her arms.

Dallas stood nearby as well, looking just as relieved as Elise, but nowhere near as emotional. She’d practically just watched her seven children return from the dead … again.

I knew she was owed an explanation, a breakdown of the reasons I’d behaved so recklessly, but that explanation would have to wait.

“Where’s Liam?” I blurted the instant she released me from an embrace. As if in answer to my question, a loud, roar of a scream filtered up through the floorboards, from the basement, sending a chill racing down my spine.

I turned to rush that way, but a hand caught my wrist. I met Elise’s gaze, confused at first, but then understanding when a key was dropped into my hand.

“You’ll need this,” she sighed, leveling a grave stare on me. “If Hilda had been here, her magic could have held him, but she’s been out trying to aid the people since the first explosion.”

I didn’t wait for anyone to tell me how or why Liam ended up down there, I just went.

Taking the stairs by two, I slowed when I reached the bottom, trudging across the wide-open space toward a door at the end of a corridor, one usually concealed behind a false wall. With the façade removed, and a sliver of light filtering beneath that door I focused on, I moved ahead slowly. And there, where I stood in the shadows, my vision was met by a sight I hadn’t expected.

Drenched in sweat, bleeding at the wrists where shackles had been secured around them, Liam was beside himself with rage, grief. My guess was that this setup was all they could do to keep him inside, safe, when Dallas told him what I’d done, the decision I made to head deeper into town to save my parents.

I was staring at a broken man, one who whentreatedlike an animal, had begun to behave like one.

The strands of his hair were weighted with moisture, sticking to his face, neck and where they rested on his shoulders. The braces where these chains had been linked to the wall were bent and twisted in sharp angles, fresh fragments of cement on the floor beneath them. I knew they couldn’t have been in this condition when he was first brought down here. These were signs of what lengths he was willing to go to in order to save me.

He’d fought hard.

Even for a human, he was unbelievably strong.

I lifted the toe of one shoe to step forward, to step out of the shadow from where I watched, but couldn’t move.

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