Unraveled

“Relax.” The moment their gazes met, Caleb took over, Aden’s body dissolving and slipping into the witch’s. He expected pain, had braced himself against it, but there wasn’t even a flicker of discomfort. Maybe, after everything that had happened to him, his pain threshold had increased. Or maybe Caleb was getting better at this. Maybe Caleb had done everything in his power to keep Aden from feeling pain because, if Aden had felt it, the witch also would have felt it the moment they linked to her, whether she was aware of the link or not.

Now seeing through her eyes, Aden took stock. His wrists and ankles were bruised and cut from tugging at the rope. His muscles were stiff. “Free me,” he told Riley. The oddity of speaking with someone else’s voice always startled him.

A frowning Riley strode to him, claws sharpening, and slashed at the ties. Aden pulled his hands into his lap and massaged his wrists. When his feet were freed, he stood. His legs were so weak they almost collapsed, but he managed to walk around the room, increasing blood flow.

She wouldn’t know he’d done this for her, but she would feel better.

“Thank you.” As he walked, he let his mind wander through hers, the world around him fading away. Unlike with Dr. Hennessy, he didn’t see static. He saw—wait. There was that thought again. Static. He must have entered Dr. Hennessy’s mind. Otherwise, he wouldn’t keep thinking about what had happened there. How long had he stayed? Why couldn’t he recall?

Don’t think about that now.

Aden returned his attention to the witch. But unlike when he’d been in Shannon’s mind, he didn’t see scenes from her life. He saw…boxes? There were thousands of them, scattered across a sea of white, each boasting a thick silver lock.

He frowned as he clamped one of the locks between his fingers, and an electric shock tore through him, burning. “What would cause such a reaction?”

Wards, Caleb said, and he’d never sounded more confident. She has wards of her own. Her memories are in the boxes, and the boxes are warded against invaders.

“How do you know?” Aden asked.

Don’t know. Just do.

Well, Aden needed inside them. Each ward could do only one thing, so what—or which—wards did she have and how, exactly, did they protect her mind? There was only one way to find out.

He searched the room until he found Riley, who was once again leaning against the door. “I need you to leave,” he said.

The wolf shook his head. “That would be—”

“The right thing to do,” he interrupted. “She’s warded, so I can’t reach her memories. Therefore we have to see what wards she has, and I don’t think she’d want a guy looking.”

Oh, no, Caleb said. You’re not stripping her down.

Usually, Caleb was the one begging for a peep show. “We’ll work around her clothes, okay?”

“If I’m gone,” Riley said, “I won’t be able to protect you.”

“Don’t care. Go.” He pointed to the exit.

“Fine. But if she somehow realizes what you’re doing and rips at your mind, I can’t be blamed.” The shifter threw open the door, stomped out and kicked it shut behind him.

“If that happened, you wouldn’t be able to help me anyway,” Aden called. “Victoria, you look the body over.”

“Yes.” She glided to him, as graceful as a ballet dancer.

Aden closed his eyes. One piece at a time, she moved the witch’s clothing out of the way, searching. At first, her motions were quick and efficient. Then she slowed…slowed…lingered.

“I’ve never studied a witch this intently,” she said, voice heavy. “Usually I avoid them. I don’t know why. Your scent…”

“Bad?”

“No.” She’d finished her search, but her grip tightened on his arms, holding him in place. “Good. Soooo good.”

He recognized that tone. It was the same one the councilmen had used just before flying at him and chomping at his veins.

Red alert, Elijah suddenly announced.

“I know.” Aden opened his eyes and tugged from her. He rushed to the far end of the empty room. When she attempted to follow, he shook his head. “Stay there.”

Her eyes were glazed, her fangs longer than ever before. “Just one taste,” she pleaded. “I’ll make it feel good. You’ll like it.”

“Riley,” he called.

The wolf entered the room a second later. Clearly, he hadn’t gone far. “Decide you needed me, after all?”

“We have a slight…problem.” Victoria had crouched, ready to leap.

“What—” Riley noticed and grabbed her by the waist, holding her in place. “Oh, no, you don’t.” She struggled against him. “There are bags of blood in the other room. She’ll feed and she’ll be fine. We’ll be back,” he said, and hefted her out the door.

Several minutes passed. Aden waited, wishing he could be the one to feed her, the one who calmed her. But he wasn’t ready to leave the witch’s body, and Victoria couldn’t be allowed to drink from the witch. He remembered what she’d said about the allure of the witches, how addicting their blood was, and he didn’t like the thought of her strung out like a drug user.

When the pair finally returned, a subdued Victoria walked by Riley’s side. He shut the door and stayed there, but she kept moving, careful to give Aden a wide berth. She perched against the far wall, her cheeks rosy with color.

“Sorry about that,” she muttered.

“Don’t worry about it,” Aden said, just glad to see her clearheaded again. “Can you tell me what wards she possesses?”

Victoria nodded. “Her wards are tiny. Actually, I’ve never seen wards so small. I would think them ineffective, yet when you run your finger over them, you can feel their intense power.”

“How many does she have?”

“Nine. Two are purely cosmetic, preventing anyone from cursing her with ugliness. One is for the protection of her wards, so that no one can tattoo over them and ruin or change them.”

Smart witch. Though Riley had told him not many people chose to have that particular ward.

“One is to protect her from mortal injury, one to protect her from mental injury, which is probably what’s hindering your progress. One to anchor her to this world, I guess so that she cannot be taken into another dimension by a fairy. One against goblin poison, one to protect her against a lying male’s seduction and one to prevent her from speaking secrets. Which means she couldn’t have told us what we wanted to know, even if she’d wanted to.”

Riley fisted a handful of his hair, released the strands, then fisted them again. “We should have thought to look for wards before.”

True. “In our defense, we’ve had a lot to think about.”

“And we normally avoid witches,” Victoria said. “We’ve never willingly spent time with one. Why would we have known what to do?”

Good point. “Okay, so. She can’t speak secrets, and her mind is protected from injury. I don’t mean to harm her, but she can’t know that. Even if she doesn’t know I’m here, inside her, her mind probably recognizes me as foreign and therefore views me as a threat.”

“Can you hide yourself from her?” Riley asked.

“I don’t know, but it’s worth a shot.” Maybe if she were conscious, unaware of his presence, her mind would relax. Maybe those boxes would open up on their own. “Here, tie me back up.”

I don’t like this, Caleb said.

Aden didn’t either, but there was no other way.

He plopped into the chair, stretching his arms behind his back and pressing his wrists together. In less than a minute, Riley had him bound back up. Yep. Uncomfortable. Poor girl.