“Yes, I can feel you can.” Drea nodded. “You took it from me. I don’t know how but you did. I’m still capable, little girl. Don’t think I can’t take down Westervelt. I still can.” Of this Rex had no doubt.
“Wait.” With a flick of her finger, Elizabeth pointed at two figures who had tried to hide in the hall. Penny and Charra. Rex raised an eyebrow. What would she do?
His question was answered seconds later. Both girls dissolved from their human forms into small kittens. Hissing, they began to run in circles, chasing their tails. Drea screeched, running after their escaping forms as Kendrick took off after her. He shot Rex a look on the way out. His meaning clear: he was not done with him. Not by a long shot.
They would meet another day.
Before him, Elizabeth began to shake. Her glow lessoned. Rex was beside her in a heartbeat, grabbing onto her arm. “I don’t feel well.” Her mother nodded, grabbing onto her other arm. “You just took the power of the whole coven. Violently. I would imagine you’re going to faint, daughter.”
“Faint? I’ve never in my whole life.”
Rex shrugged. “There’s a first time for everything, witch.” She groaned before she slumped against him. Gently, he laid his now powerful witch down on the floor. Silently he memorized her face, knowing he would never see her again. “Ma’am.” Rex had never spoken to Elizabeth’s mother before. He could see her beloved features in his mate’s mother’s face. Older, weathered, the resemblance was distinct.
“I owe you a debt, Rex.”
He nodded. “I would argue but I can’t imagine it would matter. There is something you can do for me.”
Her mother stroked Elizabeth’s hair. “What?”
“I am returning home now to a fight I don’t believe we can currently win. I would not risk anyone against Drea and Kendrick. They are too powerful together.” Certainly no one in Elizabeth’s coven had ever been able to take Drea even by herself.
“We would help you.”
He nodded at the sincerity in her gaze. “I know. I appreciate the offer but I would not have you all die, which is what brings me to my favor.”
“Yes?” Elizabeth’s mother rose to her feet from where she knelt next to her daughter.
“She mated me. I don’t believe she wanted to. She saw no other choice. I would not have her pay with her life for something she had to do to save her loved ones. When I die, see she doesn’t. See that the spell binding her to me, if it even worked, doesn’t take her too. Her life is how you can repay me and how I can thank her for all she did.” Rex kept himself straight, his face impassive even as his wolf howled and his soul died.
Chapter Fourteen
Elizabeth opened her eyes, and the bright light of the sun coming through a window assaulted her. She felt like she had the worst headache in the world. Had she drunk too much alcohol? Suddenly, the whole experience came back to her and she jolted upward, nearly falling off the bed as she did.
“Daughter, calm down.”
She swallowed, her mouth very dry. “What is going on?”
“You became coven leader. The goddess gave you back our heritage. It was violent and sudden. You’ve been asleep for over twenty-four hours. I was starting to worry.” Elizabeth gripped her forehead like it might explode from her skull. If she was so powerful why couldn’t she make her head stop hurting? Just like that, it did. She blinked away the sensation of pain and everything seemed clearer. “I took the power. I could sense it flowing, throwing everything. They were going to kill Rex. Kendrick had him.
He’d sacrificed himself to save me because I screwed up. Again.”
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Her mother smiled. “I can remember. As for us, we all have our powers back. You’re not stealing it, like Drea did.” She shook her head. Now that she could feel the power the way Drea must have, the way it made everything whole, the way the goddess fed everything with such light and beauty, she couldn’t begin to understand how Drea had distorted it. How had she taken what was such a gift and polluted it with such evil?
“Where is Rex?” She needed to talk to him, to explain. When he’d briefly opened their connection she had felt his pain. He really believed she’d betrayed him to Kendrick, and to make matters worse he seemed to have forgiven her, which only made her feel more sick to her stomach.
Her mother’s eyes widened at her question. “He left. Of course.”
“What?” The room spun in front of Elizabeth’s eyes. He had left her? What? He was her mate, her other half. He held her soul. And he’d left?