Chapter 171: I Just Got You

FREYA -

The grass had soaked through Freya’s jeans by the time she could breathe without shaking.

Casey stayed beside her with one arm around her back. His shoulders were still too broad beneath his shirt, and his breathing came heavy. Through the bond, she could feel the strength he felt coursing through his muscles. He held her carefully anyway, his fingers spread against her side instead of closing too hard.

Grace stood a few feet away with the vision stone cupped between both hands. Her face was pale, and her eyes kept moving past the outer Stones toward the fence line.

Freya followed her stare.

The dead had retreated, but hadn't disappeared. They stood where the land sloped toward the trees, pale shapes scattered between the fence posts and the thin morning fog. They sight of them waiting lifted the skin along Freya’s arms.

The doorway was closed, but she could still feel the seam. It sat low inside her, waiting for her command.

Casey’s hand shifted against her side. “Are they gone?”

Freya looked up at him. His eyes searched the space beyond the Stones, but caught on nothing. He looked through them like he'd looked through Lance.

“No,” she spoke past an aching throat. “They’re at the fence.”

Casey’s gaze moved toward the fence line. He still didn't find them, but his jaw set, and the air around him changed. It pressed outward, low and heavy, not enough to crush the clearing, but enough that the closest dead shapes were pushed farther back.

Freya felt the pressure around the seam ease by a breath.

Casey went still like he'd felt it too.

Grace’s fingers closed tighter around the stone. “You did that.”

Casey looked at her. “Did what?”

“You pushed them back.”

His brows drew together, and he looked toward the fence again. “I can’t see them.”

“No,” Grace said. “Not like we can.”

Freya swallowed, trying to follow the words through the ache in her chest. “Then how did he push them back?”

Casey answered before Grace could. “I felt them.” His voice sounded rough. “When they rushed you. It was like a cold pressure shoving at me. Like a cold wind was trying to get past me.”

Freya’s fingers closed around the damp grass, and Grace let out a shaky breath.

“A Berserker doesn’t guide the dead." Grace said, awe lacing her voice. "He keeps them from tearing through the guide.”

Casey’s eyes moved to Freya, and for the first time she noticed the green flecks hidden in the blue.

Beautiful. The thought slipped through the grief.

Grace looked down at the vision stone in her hands. The milky gray surface had gone quiet again, but the dark blue lines inside it still looked faintly awake, like lightning trapped beneath cloudy glass.

“Can it show it again?” Casey asked.

Grace’s mouth pressed together. “I think so.”

“You think so?” Casey’s voice stayed low, but Freya felt the anger moving under it through the bond.

Grace looked at him then. “It’s not a recording, Casey. It’s witnessed truth. The stone showed what the land kept. It might answer again, but not anywhere and not just because someone orders it to.” She glanced toward the Stones around them. “Here. Inside the circle. With the land awake. Maybe.”

Freya looked at the stone until the memory of the hallway tried to rise again. Her mother’s face. Jared’s voice. Sandy’s shaking hands on a little girl who couldn't understand that she was being hidden from death.

Her stomach turned, but she made herself keep looking.

Casey’s arm tightened slightly, then stopped before the hold could become a grip. “My father needs to know.”

“He does,” Freya said.

His gaze dropped to her. “Freya.”

She forced herself to sit straighter even though her whole body protested the movement. Wet denim clung to her knees, and her palms smelled like mud and grass. “But Jared can lie faster than we can accuse him.”

Grace’s eyes flicked toward her.

Freya looked from the vision stone to the dead waiting near the fence. “I know what I saw, and you both saw it too.” Her throat hurt when she swallowed. “But that doesn’t mean everyone will. Not if he can still bury it.”

Casey’s eyes darkened. “Then we dig it up.”

The words settled between them, and a branch snapped beyond the trees.

Casey’s head turned first. His body shifted in front of Freya before Eric stepped out from between the trunks with two wolves behind him. Eric’s gaze went to Casey’s half-changed frame, then to Freya on the ground, then to the stone in Grace’s hands. The controlled look on his face cracked just enough for Freya to see the fear underneath.

“What happened?” Eric asked.

Casey helped Freya stand before he answered, but he didn't let go until her feet were steady beneath her. Then he spoke to his father in a low voice, giving him only the pieces that mattered.

By the time Casey finished, Eric’s face had gone still in a way that made him look older.

His eyes moved to Freya, and whatever he saw there made his throat work before he spoke. “I should have found you sooner.”

Freya didn't know what to do with his grief. She barely knew what to do with her own.

“You can help me now,” she said.

Eric straightened, and the Alpha returned to his shoulders. “Tell me what you need.”

Freya looked at Casey.

He was watching her like he already knew he would hate the answer.

“I need proof,” she said. “Proof he can’t talk his way around.”

Casey’s hand closed once at his side. “I’ll find it.”

“I need you to,” she said, because if she softened it, he would hear the part of her that wanted him to stay close. “You saw what he did. Help me make everyone else see it too.”

For a moment, Casey didn't move. The bond between them stayed open, warm and aching, and she felt how badly he wanted to refuse. Not because he didn't believe her, but because letting her leave while she was hurting and raw hurt him in a way that moved through both of them.

Then he nodded.

Grace stepped closer to Freya. “I can take you wherever you need to go.”

Freya looked toward the road beyond the trees. “Home,” she said, though the word felt wrong. “I need my phone. Clothes. My bag.” Her fingers curled into the sleeve of Casey’s shirt before she made herself let go. “Something that still feels... like mine.”

Casey leaned closer, his voice dropping so only she could hear. “Don’t shut me out completely.”

A few weeks ago, she would have hated the request. Now she only heard what sat beneath it.

Please don’t disappear from me again.

“I won’t,” she said.

He touched her cheek once, careful and brief, then stepped back.

Freya followed Grace toward the car with her legs trembling under her. Before she got in, she looked back once.

Casey stood beside his father at the edge of the Stones, his shoulders still too broad beneath his shirt, and his eyes fixed on her.

Freya got into Grace’s car before she could ask him to come with her.