The Witchling Seer

  When they had made it back to the Winter estate, Nate insisted they head straight back to their home. He said the seer had told him he was needed immediately there, and something big was happening. He didn’t question what to do or what it meant. He ordered them to pack and leave right away.

  While the boys all packed the trunk, Nate was lost in thought and Jared, being the gentleman, offered to help. Then, the mysterious sidhe Fiona showed up out of nowhere, handed Cassie a book, and disappeared before anyone else saw her. Cassie thought it was strange enough when she just appeared, but when the lady melted into a tree not even two feet away from her, she wanted to know more about the sidhe.

  Cassie would have already cracked open the book to read it if there wasn’t a note on top saying to keep it a secret and only open it when she was alone. She had tucked it into her coat, and it was now between her legs as she sat. Cassie was itching to get her hands on it and see what it was. Instead, she had to distract herself with other thoughts to keep it a secret from everyone.

  So Cassie was left staring out the front window, trying to sort through her very busy trip. They drove just over a mountain pass when Whitney swerved the car at something invisible. Owen reached over and kept the car on the road before he groaned just as Whitney had.

  “Stop the car,” Nate ordered Whitney.

  Whitney’s slight fog seemed to lessen as she pulled off the road and onto the side. As soon as the car was in park, she hopped out and ran around to the passenger side before puking. Owen opened his door to go out and help but didn’t leave the vehicle. He just sat there, watching Whitney.

  “What’s going on?” Cassie asked of her two sick friends.

  Nate opened his door and stepped out of the car. He held out a hand to help Whitney up before turning to Owen. Owen nodded and swung his feet back inside. Nate shut his door before helping Whitney sit beside Cassie.

  Cassie looked between her friends and Nate. She hated that he was able to keep his emotions and secrets covered so well, unlike her—broadcasting every emotion across the bond.

  Nate slid into the driver’s seat.

  “What’s going on?” Cassie repeated.

  “My father’s dead,” Nate said, turning the car on.

  In an instant, Jared was out of the car and opening the driver’s door. Cassie’s eyes went wide at how fast he moved. Nate looked up at him and didn’t put up a fight.

  “I’ll drive us back,” Jared suggested.

  Nate left the driver’s seat and slid in next to Cassie without a word.

  ‘Can you please explain this to me?’ Cassie asked Jared. He seemed to be the only one that wasn’t affected by everything.

  ‘When the alpha dies, the whole clan feels it. I’ve been told it is physically painful. I wouldn’t know since my father’s been the alpha since I was turned. I’m guessing whoever told me that was right.’

  ‘What about Nate?’ Cassie asked as he sat beside her, staring out his window.

  ‘He has to feel it, too, but it’s different when you’re the beta and next in line. Maybe he doesn’t feel it. I don’t know.’

  Cassie reached over and took Nate’s hand in her own. It didn’t matter if he could manage physical pain better, or if he didn’t feel the pain. His father was dead. Nate turned to her and gave a small smile, the corners of his mouth only lifting a tiny bit before he turned to look back out his window. Cassie didn’t know what to say or do. She had never lost a parent. She never had parents. If anything happened to John or Maria, she would be crushed.

  ‘Do you know what happened?’ Cassie asked Nate. Was this what the seer had told him? Was it the reason they had come back quickly? Had he been expecting to find out?

  ‘Poisoned. I can hear every person in the clan now. They’re saying he was poisoned. Most of them want to attack the wendigo when I get back to lead them,’ Nate told her.

  Her eyes grew large. A war was starting. That was the last time she was going off on a trip. She had only left town twice, and each time her world had been turned upside down when she returned.

  ‘Did the wendigo do it?’ Cassie asked. Surely, Jared would have warned her or Nate if that was the case. Yeah, he was a wendigo, but he wasn’t bad.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Nate replied.

  Jared looked at Cassie through the rearview mirror.

  ‘Poison?’ he asked, reading her thoughts.

  ‘Yeah.’ Cassie replied, staring back at him, trying to see if she could feel anything across the bond. Jared let more leak than Nate did, but she still couldn’t just go inside his mind and see what he was hiding.

  ‘It wasn’t us,’ Jared replied to Cassie’s unspoken thoughts. ‘You can look at every memory in my head. My father didn’t order anyone to attack Mikel.’

  Cassie was tempted, as Jared seemed to open a door in his mind. Stray thoughts flitted over to Cassie. But she didn’t need to look. She trusted Jared.

  ‘Could your dad have ordered it once you were gone?’ Cassie asked. It was no secret there was no love between Mikel and Ben. It was only a week ago they had each tried to kill each other’s son. The idea of one killing the other off wasn’t that far of a stretch.

  Jared gave Cassie a sly smile from the mirror.

  ‘My father doesn’t know, but he isn’t alpha anymore. The moment I bonded to you, I became the alpha, and he became the beta. I’ve been letting him continue to order everyone around so that he doesn’t know, but he couldn’t give an order without me knowing,’ Jared replied. ‘I wouldn’t have ever let him order Mikel’s death. I hate Mikel as much as every wendigo that was thrown out of the clan, but poison is the chicken’s way to kill someone. A true night human would never poison another. They would face him head on.’

  ‘What do we do now?’ Cassie asked Jared.

  She believed him, but she doubted anyone else would just take his word for it. Whitney was already staring daggers at Jared’s back as he drove, even though she looked like she was ready to puke at any moment. Her momentary forgiving and trusting of the wendigo was instantly gone with the death of her alpha.

  ‘It won’t be a problem. The bond keeps him honest with me, too, since you seem to show everything between us,’ Nate replied. ‘I will order the skinwalkers to back down, and we will have to do an investigation. The people blaming the wendigo don’t have a reason. You are right that they want war, and it is possible, but this won’t be the reason. The seer said I needed to get home now to stop all of this.’

  ‘Let’s stop by my father’s first. I don’t want him knowing that he isn’t in charge yet. I’ll convince him to let me help you and stay with Cassie. If someone can sneak in and do this to your father, then no one is safe,’ Jared added.

  Nate nodded, the truce back in place as they moved into protection mode.

  Jared drove the rest of the way back to his place. Whitney seemed to change her tone at Nate’s order, but that didn’t stop her from stealing glances at Jared. She didn’t trust him, and the whole clan would feel the same way. She was glad that Nate did, though. That much made her life easier.

  When Jared stopped, Whitney finally noticed they weren’t going home.

  “What now?” she asked, the sick feeling obviously gone.

  “Jared wants to go ask his dad to let him stay with us and help find out who did it,” Cassie replied.

  Whitney stared at her friend in shock. “You mean they really didn’t do it?”

  “No. This wasn’t the wendigo. I promise you that much, Whit. He wants to help.” Cassie watched her friend stare at Jared in complete confusion now.

  “But he’s a wendigo. They hate skinwalkers.”

  Jared opened his car door as Nate did the same. Nate slid out, and Cassie followed him.

  “I don’t know where you got your stories, but the wendigo don’t hate skinwalkers. They want to be left alone. It’s the skinwalkers that hunt the wendigo. We just want our own land and peace.”

  Whitney’s mouth was literally hanging open. Cassie s
hook her head as she closed the door. She didn’t want to disagree with Jared in front of Whitney, but she was pretty sure his father hated the skinwalkers and possibly others. It was Jared that wanted peace. But then again, he was the alpha. That kind of made his view the view of the clan. Cassie wondered if they would be that easy to change.

  Jared opened the door to his house and led Cassie and Nate down the hallway. He didn’t knock as he pushed open the halfway closed door. Ben Colley was seated behind a large wooden desk. The size of it would make a normal person look small, but it seemed just right for him. He gave them a smile as they walked in, but she didn’t feel like it was a friendly, welcoming smile.

  “You’ve brought us a guest,” Ben said coolly to Jared.

  “Mikel is dead,” Jared told him, cutting to the chase and not taking the bait to banter with his father.

  Ben looked momentarily surprised, but then a genuine smile spread across his face. Cassie knew instantly Jared was completely right. Ben had no previous knowledge of Mikel’s poisoning.

  “And you bring good news.” Ben’s smile wasn’t one of joy. It was too sinister-looking for that to be the case.

  “I need to go with Nate to keep Cassie safe,” Jared told his father. Almost like he was asking, but not quite asking.

  “Oh, but that wouldn’t be a wise decision. Let my son go off with the current alpha of the skinwalkers while there’s a murderer running around? I don’t think I could chance it.” Ben made a fake face of concern. He was interested in sending Jared off to get more information, even if he said otherwise.

  Jared stared at his father and didn’t add anything. Cassie and Nate stood silently behind him. It was his game to play, and Jared knew his father better than anyone.

  Silence stretched on, seeming like forever as Jared just looked at his father. Ben stared back equally, but wearing a bored expression. Finally, Ben broke eye contact and shrugged.

  “Fine. You can go with them, but we need something in return for you helping them,” Ben replied.

  Jared didn’t protest, neither did he add anything. He just waited for his father to speak more.

  “What do you want?” Nate said, taking the bait.

  Ben smiled sweetly at Nate, more like sickly sweet. There was no kindness behind his eyes as he stared at him, even if his mouth curved in a smile. Cassie saw nothing but contradictions in the man.

  “I can’t send my second-in-command off on a quest to help you if that means he’ll be in danger. What if the assassin comes back to finish you off? If Mikel couldn’t defend himself from this person, more than likely you won’t be able to either. Nothing against you, but you’re just a babe. Your father had decades of experience.”

  “Get to the point. We need to get back before the skinwalkers get any more out of control,” Nate said, interrupting Ben’s rambling. Ben pretended to be shocked by Nate’s words, but Cassie doubted Ben was ever truly shocked by anything. He was a smart man and very much in the know about what was going on.

  “Jared can go if you teach him how to break the bond between him and Cassie. I need to know that if someone attacks you, and you’re dying that Jared can break the bond and still be safe,” Ben replied, acting like a concerned father.

  There was no concern behind his evil eyes. The older man wanted to know how to break the bond, but not for some unknown assassin. He had already tried to kill Nate once and couldn’t now without killing Jared as well. Cassie doubted his goal was anything less.

  Nate and Jared were more different than alike, and their dealings with Ben emphasized that much.

  ‘Cassie, just watch these images in my mind, and Jared will get them,’ Nate told her.

  Images began to flicker quicker than Cassie could grasp what was going on, and it all happened swiftly enough that she didn’t get to protest. Nate had to know Ben wanted Jared to know how to be able to kill him.

  “Fine,” Nate replied, not waiting for a showdown like Jared would do with his father. “He knows how.”

  Ben looked surprised. It was the second time in five minutes they had surprised the older man.

  “He knows how?” Ben asked, still not fully thinking it was that easy. He looked between Jared and Nate. Jared gave a curt nod, and Ben’s smile stretched ear-to-ear. “He must prove it before I can let him leave. Show me your right hands.”

  Cassie didn’t want to go anywhere near Ben and the desk he was sitting behind, but Jared took her hand and urged her forward. Nate stepped up beside her on her other side, stopping just in front of the desk. He laid his right hand down, palm up on the desk. Jared did the same, but Cassie hesitated. Any cut would heal quickly; she just didn’t expect Ben to be nice about it. Nate reached down to his boot and pulled out a knife, flicking it open. Nate would be nice. Cassie slid her hand down between Jared and Nate’s.

  Before she could react, Cassie found her hand covered by both Nate and Jared’s hands. Nate was touching her hand closest and Jared hand his hand on top of his with a knife, not Nate’s, sticking out of the back of it.

  Jared glared up at his father but didn’t say a word. He pulled back his hand while Nate’s still covered Cassie’s hand. There wasn’t a single mark on Nate’s hand, and Cassie didn’t feel anything from it, either. Jared pulled out the blade as it made a sucking noise. Ben had stabbed hard enough that it would have gone completely through Cassie’s hand. Jared dropped the blade on his father’s desk as the skin started to knit back together.

  “Satisfied?” Nate asked, holding up his own stab-free hand.

  Ben shrugged like it didn’t matter, but none of them believed that. He was almost salivating at the idea of how he could now get even with the skinwalkers without having to kill his son in the process.

  Nate ushered Cassie in front of him toward the door. Jared followed behind, not turning his back on his father. Once Cassie was through the doorway, Jared finally spoke one last thought to his father.

  “Just so you know, that only works if I’m prepared to break the bond ahead of time. After, or even a second late, and it won’t matter,” Jared explained before stepping back with Cassie and Nate.

  Cassie could only see Ben a little bit from behind the two guys, but she was pretty sure his smile faded a little bit.

  “Then I better hope this mystery assassin doesn’t come knocking while you’re there. But in case they do, make sure to give them my thanks,” Ben added as Jared pulled the door shut. “Don’t forget to bring your brother and Jack with. Since the bond is hard to control and all. They’ll be your insurance that you stay safe.”

  Jared shut the door and immediately led them back out of the house.

  “I don’t remember your father being such a …” Nate didn’t have a word to finish with.

  Cassie could think of a few, and she was sure both guys heard them.

  All three stepped out of the house to find Ryder and Jack already waiting. Cassie had a good feeling that taking Jack and Ryder with had already been mentioned to Jared before Ben told them. Jack was leaning against their car, talking to Whitney. She only seemed to be half listening. As they approached, Jack reached down and took Whitney’s hand, holding it palm side up. Cassie was ready to march over and tell her cousin to leave her friend alone.

  ‘He’s showing her where to press to relieve the nauseous feeling she’s having,’ Jared explained mentally.

  Nate must have known that as he wasn’t worried about it either. Cassie still didn’t trust her cousin. It was only a week ago that he was trying to torture Nate into his animal to strip him of his tiger and make him a wendigo.

  “We’ll be right back,” Jared said to Jack and Whitney. Neither seemed to have noticed they came outside. Ryder nodded to Jared.

  Jared led Cassie and Nate back into the house and the door on the other side of the parking spaces, the door farther away from his father. Cassie had no clue what was going on now and neither did Nate it seemed, but he didn’t ask anything. They had that whole silent male thing going on. It was al
most like the last eight years apart never happened. Jared led them back down the hallway to his room.

  Once inside the room, he opened his desk and began to dig through the only drawer that didn’t look perfectly organized. In fact, Cassie was greatly surprised. It was like everything in his life was in perfect order, but to have that one messy drawer was so out of sorts.

  ‘You guys both need one of these,’ Jared explained as he finally pulled out two pea-shaped objects. ‘They’re to get in and see past the spells around the wendigo houses. You can’t tell anyone I gave them to you, but I know it can be hard to find this place once you get outside the spells.’

  Cassie took the small pebble-like objects from Jared.

  ‘We all have one in our body somewhere, except for the witches that are part of the coven. They’re immune to the spell.’

  ‘So we have eat it or something?’ Cassie asked. She didn’t feel any dark magic coming from the objects, but she still didn’t like the idea of eating them. So many spells could react badly when ingested, just like people had allergies to food.

  ‘More like insert it under the skin, somewhere where I won’t know, just in case my father can look into my mind when we break the bond temporarily,’ Jared replied.

  Nate nodded as he heard the conversation with them.

  ‘I’ll wait outside the room for you guys.’

  Nate took out the knife he had stored on himself after their encounter with Ben.

  ‘But what about the bond?’ Cassie asked. If she got cut, then Jared would know where it was on them because he would be cut there also.

  ‘I can keep it broken for about two minutes, so be quick,’ Jared replied as he walked out of the room.

  ‘Where should we put these?’ Cassie asked, looking at the two small pieces.