Page 99 of The Witch and The Blood Oath

When Freya’s tears quieted, Cady faced Ryder. His stoic façade crumbled, and worry lined his face.

Saving Elle was the new top priority. No one who was willing to sacrifice themselves for a child should be at the High Witch’s mercy. At the thought of Cordelia, a fresh wave of anger stirred. The High Witch was powerful enough to avoid harming a child, yet she and her Handmaidens had chosen not to.

She would pay.

“Do you have any idea where she could be?” Ryder asked. He clenched and unclenched his fists.

“Yes and no,” Freya said. Ryder rolled his eyes. “She definitely would’ve taken her to her court, but…”

“But what?” Ryder demanded.

“Cadence was right,” Freya answered. “No one knows where it is. The secrecy behind the court's location is part of why Cordelia is so powerful. Magic can’t trace her home or any of its inhabitants.”

“Maybe they haven’t gotten there yet?” Cady suggested. “Maybe we could still track Elle.”

“We can try,” Freya agreed, “but rumor has it that the court is hidden in the pockets of the dimensions, and Cordelia can portal to those pockets in seconds.”

Ryder raked his hands through his hair, and Freya grimaced.

“But a tracking spell is worth a shot,” Freya offered.

Together, Freya and Cadence stood to perform a tracking spell. Part of me recognized that I should be rising to help them. I should’ve offered ideas as to how we were going to save Elle, who had sacrificed herself for my sister, but I couldn’t bring myself to move. The weight of what had transpired and what was yet to come froze me in place.

As I watched Ryder pace, his glowing eyes shifted like an animal’s, talons replaced his fingernails, and hair tufted from his arms. I had never seen him struggle to contain a shift.

Within less than twenty-four hours of meeting his mate, he had lost her, yet it still destroyed him.

I wondered what I would look like in his place. Freya and I shared a magical bond unlike anything else on the planet. We had known each other for months, and we had fought our greatest battles together.

Would I be any better than Ryder?

Would I be worse?

A more sinister thought crept into my mind.

How would Freya respond ifIwere taken?

Months ago, she had brought me back to life, but that was in the wake of losing the two people closest to her. She hadn’t wanted to lose anyone else.

Freya had chosen to save me before she realized the full weight of that decision and how it would lead to her coven’s waning faith in her and the High Witch’s anvil placed over her head. She had chosen to save me before she had learned what a mess I would make of her life.

If I trust anyone,she had said,I trust you.

But that couldn’t be true. Even when faced with a spell thatrequiredtruth-telling, Freya hadn’t warned me that she had called the High Witch.

As she and Cadence chanted the tracking spell, their magic twined together and hummed in my ears. It was a song I couldn’t live without, and for a moment, I had thought I would have to. I had thought my little sister—my brave, annoying, wonderful little sister—was gone.

Cady had been hurt because I wasn’t there to protect her. I was with Freya, who so eclipsed my good sense I had almost lost the only family I had left because of her.

My poor choices weren’t Freya’s fault. Throughout the entirety of our trip, she had tried to clarify that she didn’t return the soul-crushing devotion I felt for her.

I had never been more stupid.

Though we were magically bound, nothing else tied us together but a messy history. Freya was tethered to me by her choice to save me, but she didn’t feel for me what I felt for her. What I felt for her had a word Freya would never confess.

Love.

As I finally the confronted the truth of my emotions, they hit me like a ton of bricks. I loved Freya’s ferocity and her kindness and her dry humor. I loved how she was as nurturing as she was protective. I basked in her smiles like they were sunshine, and I loved her enough to doanythingfor her.

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