Page 97 of The Witch and The Blood Oath

I reached for her, but my sister side-stepped my grasp. Tears leaked down her cheeks.

“Give me a minute,” she begged.

I resisted the urge to refuse her. “Don’t go too far.”

Cady nodded and walked toward the cliffs.

“Walker,” Freya said. She looked so foreign—teary-eyed and lost and afraid. “You must know I only did it because I thought it was the right thing. I thought it’s what my mother would do.”

I laughed humorlessly.

“When are you going to stop living for a ghost and start living for yourself, Freya?” I demanded.

She flinched as if I had struck her. Part of me wanted to take the words back, but they hung between us like a barrier. When I couldn’t bear the silence a second longer, I spoke.

“You lied to us.”You lied to me.“You said we would figure out what to do together.”

Freya’s breath hitched. “I know.”

“Cady could’ve—” I cleared my throat. “She could’ve died.”

“I know,”Freya repeated.

As we sat in the darkness, I had never felt further from her, not even when she had tried to kill me. I didn’t know the girl with lost eyes staring back at me.

I didn’t recognize her.

Tears burned my eyes, and pent-up sobs ached in my throat, but I bottled my emotions. I didn’t want Freya to see how deeply her betrayal had cut me.

“You finally got your wish,” I whispered. “I amthoroughlypushed away.”

???

Freya

In the darkness, something rumbled so loudly, it vibrated my sternum. Glowing amber eyes glowered at me through half-burned forest.

Not rumbling,I realized,but growling.

In wolf form, Ryder crept closer. His massive black paws dug into the soot and ash-covered ground. His white teeth flashed, and he crouched mere feet away with his ears flat back. In my periphery, Walker stirred.

After waking, Cadence had drifted back to sleep. Her body needed more time to heal, and I had agreed to watch over her.

Walker had stayed awake anyway.

“What the hell?” he asked. As he registered the wolf who towered over me, he cursed.

Ryder growled at him and locked his gaze on mine once more. Fear and magic made my heart race, but I didn’t break Ryder’s stare. I feared he would attack at the first sign of submission. One of my mother’s teachings rang in my ears.

The fastest way to die is to hurt a werewolf’s mate,she had once told me when I had laughed at the absurdly romantic reality of wolves.

“Ryder,” I whispered, “I’ll help you get her back. Let’s just talk—”

He snarled and prowled closer. From only a foot away, his blood-scented breath heated my face. I swallowed. I couldn’t bring myself to wield magic against him.

I wouldn’t fight my friend.

I had already done enough to hurt him.

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