Page 58 of Tethered Magick

“What was the point of them attacking this small town? Was it heavily occupied with any other supernaturals?” I questioned in a quiet voice. It felt wrong to speak above a whisper, as if by remaining quiet I was paying homage to the lives lost.

“No. Very few lived here.” Dason scratched his chin. “It’s just one more mystery to add to the growing pile. I’ve spent years trying to figure out the rhyme and reason behind the attacks, this one in particular.”

I rubbed my chest, Dason’s anguish over the devastation almost tangible. Or… was I feeling it firsthand through him? How was that possible? I held onto the tiniest spark of hope that it was true.

Dason was still peering around as I studied him.

“Were all of you here that day?” The rest of my mates had been listening silently.

Chayton shook his head, seeming sad. “We weren’t even shadow touched yet.”

“We were.” Jolon motioned to Sy and himself. “But we weren’t here that day. Heard about it though.”

“You were by yourself?” I gaped at Dase. How old had he been? He had to have been young. Much too young to shoulder the responsibility for such a loss.

“I was here with a few others who had taken me under their wing. They trained me until I was ready to lead my own pack. I was an alpha from the day I turned.” Dason picked up a broken chunk of rock and tossed it in the air a few times before winding back and throwing it as far as he could. It sailed through the air and clattered in the darkness far beyond where we stood.

I moved to his side and lightly touched his arm. “You can’t possibly blame yourself for—”

He silenced me with a hard look, though all his anger was internalized and not focused on me. “It was my responsibility. This is our life. These people, whether they knew it or not, depended on us, and I failed them that day.”

I swept down and picked up a ratty teddy bear abandoned in the gutter, and my heart felt like it might disintegrate until there was nothing left but dust. The sulfur that hung in the air burned my eyes.

Every battle I’d faced with a shade, I’d won. Through the blood, sweat, and tears, I’d always emerged victorious, but my men had faced more battles than I could ever imagine. More heartache and loss too. While I was busy with high school and the Witching Academy, blissfully unaware of who or what I was, people had been dying, affected by shades that only I could stop for good.

I squeezed the bear, putting its stuffing to the test.

My perspective shifted.

I didn’t want Dason to hurt, but I realized why he shouldered the responsibility, even at such a young age.

My heart ached for him. For all of them.

“When I brought you here, it was to keep you safe. I made a blood promise with Mama Dunne years ago and received a strong enough ward to place around this town to keep it hidden, even from other supernaturals.”

“That’s why we couldn’t trace you here,” Axel commented.

Dason walked to a nearby building, all of us trailing after him. His palm flattened against the charred surface, soot staining his skin. “When I need a reminder of why we fight so hard, I come back here. It reminds me of what’s important.”

“Dason’s right.” Jolon trailed his fingers along the splintered remains of a light pole, rubbing gray ash between his fingertips. “Syler and I have seen our fair share of devastation from shades as well. Mundanes who are possessed by them are never the same. Floaters wreck lives with their temptations. Supernaturals’ territories are threatened, and it’s caused them to retreat into their own areas and mingle less. The world is divided, each of us to our quadrants of the globe—the fae in California, the vampires in New York, and the shifter packs all keeping to their own territories. Whoever’s summoning the demons past the gate of the shadow realm and into the mortal realm has coordinated their attacks with twisted purpose. One with a body count in its wake.”

“How many more towns like this one?” Did I really want to know?

The guys exchanged glances, and Syler signed while Kota interpreted. “We don’t have an exact number, but there have been a lot of them. At least twenty-five, though this is the only one that was completely destroyed.”

Slowly, I set the bear back down where I’d found it. This entire place was like a morbid movie set, frozen in time, and I didn’t want to disturb it.

I wrapped my arms around myself, daring to let the question that had been burning on my tongue and in my mind free.

“What if everything has changed now?” I studied the bones of the houses lining the crumbling street, wondering if I was now as useless as the shells of these homes. “Am I still the veil keeper?” I mused, sweeping my hands down my body to indicate my vampiric state.

“You’re still a shadow touched, sweetheart. You still smell the same, and it still calls to me.” Axel tried to ease my mind, and my men voiced their assent.

“And you still have your magick,” Dason reminded me. “The essence was strong when I sipped from it.”

Jolon raised a brow at Dason but didn’t press for more information. Dason’s power was intimate, and I got the impression that it wasn’t something he advertised.

“Once you feel more in control and we bind ourselves to you again, we can test your ability to travel to the veil,” Chayton offered.

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