Page 80 of The Witch and The Blood Oath

I stewed in anger and tried to come up with a way to ditch Ryder and contact the High Witch. Beside me, Walker choked on a snore but didn’t move from where he laid on the beach beside me. He slept as soundly, though not as gracefully, as the chimera. On his other side, Cady slumbered. Crickets chirped, and the ocean’s waves gently lapped against the sand. My eyelids grew heavier, but I refused to answer sleep’s call.

Ryder’s voice was hoarse. “Please, Frey. Just get some rest. We can make a group decision about what to do in the morning.”

“Coven Mothers don’t make group decisions,” I said. The words tasted wrong on my tongue.

“You’re not Coven Mother yet,” Ryder argued and said more quietly, “I don’t want to fight you. This-this is confusing for me too. You know I, of all people, have mixed feelings about the whole mate thing, but I can’t let you take her. Not tonight.”

Right.Ryder’s mother had left their pack upon finding her mate. She now had an entire new life built without her first son. Guilt gnawed at me for forgetting. Though he never spoke of her, her absence had always weighed heavily on his heart and on Kai’s.

“Okay,” I conceded and ignored the worry tightening my chest. “We’ll figure out what to do in the morning. I don’t want to fight you either.”

I laid my head on the life jacket that would serve as my pillow for the night, but I couldn’t quiet my thoughts.

“It sucks,” I mumbled. “In any other circumstance, I would be thrilled for you.”

“In any other circumstance,” he replied, “I would do anything to keep you safe. Same for the kid, too.”

I smiled and shut my eyes. “And Walker.”

“The cowboy’s all right,” he grumbled, “when he isn’t hitting on my mate.”

I chuckled. “Or your ex-girlfriend.”

“For real,” he agreed but sighed. “I was kind of coming around to that, though, until she screwed things up with him.”

I opened one eye to glare. “You know the rules. It can’t go anywhere.”

“You didn’t care about the rules when you risked everything to save him,” he argued, “and don’t try to bullshit me and tell me you regret it.”

“I don’t.” I closed my eyes again. The weight of so many lives pressed down on me. “But not all of us can make decisions based on love.”

Ryder whistled. “Love, huh?”

I didn’t feel like joking.

“Lust, love, affection,” I said, “whatever you want to call it, it’s not how witches operate. We make decisions for the good of the coven and for the good of our sisters. For the glory of the Goddess.”

“Sounds lonely,” Ryder said.

I swallowed. “Good night, Ryder.”

He sighed. “Good night, Frey.”

I cringed at the nickname, but Ryder didn’t notice. He was too infatuated with his so-called mate. I wasn’t sure how Elle had spelled him, but I knew that she had. There was no wolf in her to call to a mate. She had merely found what she thought was a lifeline in Ryder.

Her lifeline had cost her the lives of her parents.

Ryder had been the one to leave them behind to save the chimera, but she probably knew he would do so. Her grief was as staged as her mate bond to Ryder. I blocked out any thoughts that claimed otherwise, but as Ryder’s breaths grew steadier, guilt churned my stomach.

Depending on how intense the chimera’s spell was, Ryder might never believe Elle to be anything but his mate, and he would probably never forgive me for fulfilling the Blood Oath.

I remembered how Walker had begged me to find a way to spare Elle, but there was no other way. There was only the choice between everything I held dear and the chimera.

I had already risked my coven to save Walker.

Regardless of the marks it would leave on my soul to place the chimera at the High Witch’s mercy, I couldn’t risk them again. Though Walker, Ryder, and probably even Cadence would loathe me for it, at least fulfilling the Blood Oath would allow them to live long enough to loathe me.

Bearing their hatred would be easier than bearing their deaths.

---