64

64
Haylee's POV

Morning sunlight peeping through the curtains of the twins’ bedroom casts long shadows over the wooden floor as I visit my sleeping boys. Kael sleeps like a log in his bed, his dark hair ruffled and splayed across the pillow, although Lior’s bed looks to have catalogued its occupant’s departure – the sheets are laying in a heap, lumps and bumps betraying the absence. The panic rushes through me, and my heart jumps up to my throat.

"Lior?" I say softly, wishing like hell he’s only gone to the bathroom or out in the kitchen for an early breakfast. The silence that answers me turns my blood to ice.
"Have you seen Lior?" Not at the entrance, I beg my way into the home of one of the guards at the entrance, my voice strained with the effort to control my fear.

"He went to the garden twenty minutes ago, Luna," the guard replies, gesturing toward the side of the house. “He looked fine, just said he needed a breath of fresh air.”

It is a huge relief, but short-lived as I walk out to find my son sitting alone under the old oak tree. His undersized silhouette seems even slighter next to the monstrous trunk, and he is whispering to someone I cannot see. The words he’s saying are enough to freeze my blood as I get closer.

“She will not come easily,” says Lior, though it is not his voice. The voice, the low pitch, the smugness — it’s Xavier speaking from my child’s mouth. "But she will come. The link becoming even stronger by the day, giving her no option but to succumb."

"Lior, baby?" I call, voice trembling as I inch closer to him, as if he’ll skitter away like a spooked deer.

He whips his head back to me, and for a moment his eyes flash with recognition — my sweet, sweet boy looking confused and scared. But soon, the expression changes, going cold and calculating in a way that no six-year-old should ever appear to be.

"Hey there, buddy of mine," Xavier's voice comes out of Lior's mouth, and I struggle to suppress a scream. "I trust you slept well? I sure had fun watching you through my son's eyes."
“Back off of him,” I growl, feeling my wolf take over his protective anger. "He's just a child, Xavier. "Whatever twisted game you’re playing, let him be."

Lior cocks his head in that disturbingly adult way Xavier used to when he was trying to parse a situation. "But he is mine, isn't he? Blood of my blood, tied to me with a magic that was older than any pack law. I can communicate with you through him, anywhere, anytime. I know you can't hide from me, Haylee.

"What do you want?" I ask through clenched teeth as I have to fight every urge to scoop my son up and run.

“It’s obvious,” Xavier says through an artless expression that is no longer his own. Be at the ritual combat area the night after tomorrow. Bring both children. Be there to watch, as I take what is rightfully mine – you, our son, and the power that should run through all twin's blood."

"Never." My fists curl at my side. “I will die before I allow you use them for whatever twisted prophecy you are chasing.”

Lior's face turns into Xavier's famous smirk, but grotesque on the young face... “Then you condemn our son to a fate worse than death. The bond I've created is one you cannot cut from afar, my dear. Everyday it is getting stronger and everyday more of his life force is required to keep it in check. I’m going to eat away at little Lior until nothing remains but a husk for me to occupy.”

“He is just a measure to an end,” replies Xavier coolly. "As are you. As is his brother. The prophecy requires sacrifice and I am willing to offer whatever it takes to take the power bestowed upon the controlling of the chosen children.

"Please," I say quietly, hating what my voice sounds like but not able to control the plea. “He’s been caught in the middle of this. What do you want from me, what revenge are you after, but take it out on me. Leave the children alone."

For an instant, Lior's own voice emerges, tiny and afraid. "Mama? Why does my chest hurt? Why can’t I stop the bad man’s voice?”

Tears are rolling down my face as I fall to my knees in front of him and yank his tiny body to my chest. He’s so cold, so breakable, and somehow I can feel that there is something so very wrong about his wolf power going up and down this way. "It's okay, baby. Mama’s going to take care of this, I promise.”
But even as I hold him, Xavier’s presence returns, and Lior’s voice slips back into that insidious rhyme. ‘You have until tomorrow night, my dear fellow. You either come willingly, or I will take everything, one by piece, starting with the child in your hands."

The link goes so suddenly, and Lior falls in my lap, his tiny body letting go with the burden of exhaustion. I gather him in my arms, carrying him against my chest as I break into one of my fastest runs back to the packhouse, thoughts whirling with what just occurred.

Inside, I place Lior on the couch and check his pulse, which is stable but worryingly weak. His skin has become white, nearly transparent, and when I push his hair away from his forehead, it is brittle beneath my touch.

“Find Dr. Chen,” I snap to the nearest guard, using my command voice. "Now."

As I wait for the pack doctor, I drop down next to Lior, his head on my lap, soothing him with my hand and the sound of my voice, although my mate is far from conscious. My phone vibrates with an incoming call and I look to read the unknown number with my previous pack's area code.

"Hello?" I answer cautiously.

"Luna Haylee? I’m Dr. Silverton, Moonrise pack’s healer.” I served your father’s pack before you ran from it.”

("I know you," I say, my voice distorted by puzzlement. "How did you get this number? Why are you calling?"

I have been looking into blood magic rituals since the rumors started flying about them going after children. Your name appeared in some extremely ancient texts and some warnings about a certain kind of binding ritual.

Dread pools in my stomach, my grip on the phone tightens. "What kind of ritual?"

“A soul tether,” Dr. Silverton says somberly, her tone full of worry. "It's an old, dark magic and it binds two people together, usually without the other person's knowledge or agreement. The ceremony enables the caster to exercise, dominate, and even take over the body of the restrained individual."

“That’s what Xavier did,” I whisper, and everything begins to make horrifying sense. When he took care of me when I passed out six years ago. But he worked a wizardry to fetter off one of my children to him.

"Yes, but Luna, you have to realize something else. It’s not just about control, this soul tether — it’s parasitic. The life force is siphoned from the bound, feeding the caster and poisoning the victim to death.”

My hand shakes so much that the phone almost falls from my grip as the true implications of her words sink in. "And how long will it take for the victim to die?"

"In one that is even younger than my own? Texts hint maybe 48 hours after the process gets into high gear, usually once the caster starts to use the link a lot for possession or long distance work.

I stare down at Lior’s wan, sleeping body and sense my world being tipped off its axis. "Is there a way to break it?"

“Just one,” Dr. Silverton says, morosely. "The caster has to be killed during the performance of the mate bond severance rite. The timing must be right – if the soul tether is cut before the caster expires, the magical blast will slay the child. If the caster is killed before the tether is dealt with, the child also dies.

"So I need to kill Xavier at the precise right moment of a ritual I've never done," I conclude, my voice empty with hopelessness.

“There might be another way,” she says quickly. "If you can disrupt a ritual up close, you may just be able to reverse the tether briefly, giving you a bit more time to come up with a proper plan.

"What would I need?"

"Blessed silver by the light of a full moon, wolfsbane, and blood of the true father of the child. It has to be cast at the same place the original binding ritual was performed.”

I close my eyes and attempt to recall the exact details of that night six years ago whenever I fell in the woods. I’m not even sure where, exactly, it went down. I didn’t wake up for days.”
“There would still be the magical residue,” Dr. Silverton says. After all these years, the scent trail should still be good for any halfway decent tracker.”

“Thank you,” I whisper, grateful and helpless for this lifeline, as tenuous as it is. “If this happens, I owe you more than I can repay.

“Save the child,” she tells him, simply. "That's payment enough."

I hang up just as Dr. Chen arrives with his medical bag, worry lines writing across his weathered face. He glances at Lior and at once gets to work: Pulse, temperature, reflexes — with the perfunctory method of someone who’s seen too many crises.
“Everything is deteriorating as we know, but his vital signs are weak and stable,” he says, minutes later. "But there's more – his energy feels…" She sipped at her wine, searching for the right word. "Inadequate, as if a portion of it is being drained from him."

It does,” I agree, and explain briefly what Dr. Silverton said about the soul tether and the side effects.

Dr. Chen’s expression becomes somber when he hears the news. If what you are telling us is true, then we have to get on this so fast. I can support him, keep him stable, but I cannot stop the drain of magic beneath the surface.

"How long do we have?" I hate to ask, but I’m not positive I want to hear the answer.

He glances at his watch, then back at Lior’s blood-drained face. "With the quickness this kid is declining? Perhaps twelve hours before it would be too late.

My phone is ringing again, this time it’s Aiden’s number blinking. I respond right away, skipping the small talk.
"Aiden, I need you here now. Lior is—"

“On my way!” He breaks in and I hear the sound of running feet. "Marcus just heard that Xavier's shifted the combat zone. We’re thinking trap, but Haylee, there’s one other thing. The new location is atop an intersection of magical ley lines. If he’s got some kind of ritual —”

He is," I snapped him, my voice filled with angry terror. “And we can’t wait for your bubbling combat. Xavier’s soul leash is murdering Lior at this moment, and we have less than twelve hours to rescue him.”

There is a moment of silence on the line and I can almost hear Aiden's thoughts as his mind races to process this news.
“We’re going to come to you,” he says eventually. “However this turns out, we will face it together.”

I put the phone down and stare into the downward-turned faces of my son and daughter: the safe passports, the strategic positionings have, I know, suddenly counted for nothing. Xavier has backed us into the most brutal corner, and we're going to be lured right into his trap with no other alternative.

Now the only question is whether or not we can spring it in our own trap, or be crushed to death in the process of trying to save the child I love more than anything in this world, or any other.