Unraveled

answer nothing.”

Aden, please, Caleb persisted.

“I’m sorry.” And he was. He hated for Caleb to want something this much and not get it. He hated for Caleb to beg.

Focus, Aden, Julian said.

Yes. He blinked, blanking his mind. The witches had removed their hoods, and each was watching him curiously.

“You have souls trapped inside your head,” Marie said.

“Yes, I have souls inside my head.” He’d already admitted as much. Denying it now would serve no purpose.

“And once, you asked me if I’d ever known a man who could possess other bodies. Someone who died sixteen years ago. Is he, this body-possessor, one of the souls?”

Aden! Tell her! She might have known me. She could tell me about my past.

Guilt washed through him. He ignored it. He had to stay on course. “Call this meeting to order, and I’ll tell you.”

She grinned without humor. “I don’t wish to know that badly.”

Wh-what? Caleb sputtered with his affront.

“I’m willing to bet we can extract the souls and give them bodies of their own.” Marie tapped a fingertip to her chin. “That way, he can answer all our questions himself.”

Aden tried to hide his alarm. “And where would you get these bodies?”

“People die all the time. If you reanimate a fresh corpse with a new soul…”

“How? It was the body that died, not the soul. The soul simply moved on.” That he knew. “Reanimating a body isn’t the same as healing a body.” Right? “Which means a new soul won’t be able to make a lifeless corpse work.”

“Magic can do many things,” was all she said.

Yes, Caleb rushed out. Yes. Let her try.

No, Elijah and Julian said in unison.

It wouldn’t be that easy, Elijah added. It never is. There will be a catch, I promise you.

Caleb growled his frustration.

“If you can sense my wards,” Aden said, “you know my mind cannot be manipulated. Therefore, the souls’ minds cannot be manipulated.” Could they?

One of her brows arched, making her the picture of superiority. “I don’t need your cooperation. Just his.”

She was bluffing. She had to be bluffing.

Uncomfortable, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Blood had already rushed out of his arms, and now his hands were cold, his shoulders tingling. “If you can do such a thing, why haven’t you? Why are you just sitting there?”

The brow fell back into place, creating a smooth line. “We have more important things to do at the moment.”

Yep. She’d been bluffing.

“Your résumé is growing,” she said suddenly, as if they were seated across from each other at a job interview.

He’d play along. “What do you mean?”

“First vampire king, now beast slayer.”

How had she heard about that? “I didn’t slay them.”

“Tamer, then. Beast tamer.” The very nickname Caleb had suggested. “How did you do that?”

So she could defeat them herself? “Call this meeting to order and I’ll tell you.” His answer would be, “I don’t know,” because that was the truth, but she didn’t need to know that yet.

“You want to save your friends?” Jennifer piped in. “Fine. Renounce your claim to the vampire throne, and give us a blood vow that you’ll remain with us, serving and aiding us.”

Do it, Caleb said.

No, Elijah and Julian repeated in unison.

“Sorry.” Serving and aiding them would require hurting the vampires; he knew it with every fiber of his being. Otherwise, he would have said yes without hesitation.

“Then you don’t care about the others, the cursed, as much as we thought,” Marie said.

“Not true,” he gritted out. “I care about them more than you realized. If I gave you what you wanted, would you give me a blood oath not to ever hurt the vampires or the wolves?”

“No. Of course not. None of us would.”

The other witches laughed at him for daring to suggest such a thing, Jennifer the loudest among them.

“If you won’t aid us, Aden, that means you will work against us, aiding them. If that’s the case, you will never walk out of this cave.”

So they would kill him, too, was what she was saying. Before she could make the threat outright, he switched gears. If he could soften her, just a little, he could gain the upper hand. Maybe.

“The soul, the one who could possess other bodies,” Aden began. “What was he to you? To any of you?”

Caleb went eerily silent, waiting.

Marie shrugged, but a vulnerable gleam lit her eyes. “He was…everything and nothing,” she said, then gave an angry shake of her head. “And now,” she added, standing, “we will leave you. We have reached a stalemate, and you need time to think. And perhaps you should consider the fact that I could have and should have killed your friend Mary Ann days ago, but I didn’t. I let her go. For you. I have regretted the action ever since, and my sense of mercy has been depleted. The more you resist us, the less I want you happy.”

Wait. What? “You never wanted me happy. Now call the meeting to order,” he demanded, panic blooming.

The others pushed to their feet.

“As you left me bound,” Jennifer said, “we leave you bound. Maybe the isolation will loosen your tongue.”

“I demand that you stay! I demand you call the meeting to order!”

One by one, they strode from the cave, silent. Jennifer watched him until the last possible second. Marie stopped at the dark, yawning mouth and looked back at him over her shoulder. “When the clock strikes midnight, your friends die. I am sorry, I truly am, but there are always casualties during war. You know what you have to do to save them.” With that, she, too, left him.

Over and over he screamed for her to call the meeting to order; over and over he pleaded, even though he was alone, his voice echoing off the cavern walls, mocking him. He screamed until he was hoarse, jerking at the ivy until blood ran.

The vine never gave, and the witches never returned.

TWENTY-NINE

ANOTHER SUMMONS.

Tucker tried to resist. Tried with every bit of strength he possessed. But Vlad’s voice called to him— Come to me—and his feet moved forward before he realized he’d taken a single step.

He jumped from the roof of his mom and stepdad’s house, the impact jolting his entire body. He’d been watching his six-year-old brother play in the drizzling cold, nose wet, coat soaked, hands shivering as he talked to an invisible friend.

Twice Tucker had almost revealed himself. Both times, he’d convinced himself Ethan was better off without