“But what if Aylin has been brainwashed or is off her game?” Drew asked.
I listened with half an ear as I called out to Aylin. Aylin, hon, can you hear me?
“Humph!” Bryn placed a hand on Liam's leg and wiggled deeper into the couch. “Aylin's never off her game. I'm still not convinced that she doesn't have a seat at the Table of Seven.”
The Table of Seven? It made sense. Aylin was absent a lot growing up and she had special abilities and knew things that she shouldn't have.
Connor. Aylin's voice was faint, but echoed through my mind. Instead of being comforted, my heart rate spiked. She was too far away. The power too weak. I need to go see the elders. I'll... When...Can...
Her voice faded.
“Fuck!”
The others in the room eyed me.
“Sorry, I have to go.” I started to leave and almost ran right into a filthy, distraught Luna. Her face and white gown were covered in soot. Twigs tangled her platinum hair as if she had battled a tornado and lost.
“Oh, Luna, dear.” Bryn started to rise, but Drew was quicker and stomped toward her, his face heated to the same color as his hair.
I stepped between them. “Drew, calm down and let her explain.” I pointed to her, hoping he saw the same distraught, shocked person before us.
Luna placed a soft hand on my forearm and jerked backward, her eyes wide. “This can't be.”
“Where have you been, Luna?” Liam’s voice carried the no-nonsense command of an alpha.
“I don't know.” She flitted through the room and returned to me. Her eyes shone a silvery white as she eyed my imprint.
“This can't be,” she said again, before walking to the desk and leaning against it. Her face whitened to the color of her gown.
“How do you not know where you were?” Drew guided her to the chair, his fury fading into concern.
“Wait, wait a minute!” My hand shook as I held it forward, revealing the fading glow of my bond. “You're referring to this, aren't you?”
“It can't be.” Luna repeated as if dazed. “The last thing I remember was having tea with Bryn. I went to my room and”—her hands shook as she looked at me—“woke up at Aylin's. Right smack dab in the middle of the ashes of her home.”
“Luna, what did you see when you grabbed my arm?” I knelt beside her. She knew something, and I would find out. The blackness of her pupils was dilated until her silver irises looked like eclipses. Luna, in this state, looked like a transfixed witch. I prayed she wasn't being controlled by her father.
She tilted her head toward Bryn, who wobbled forward and took Luna's proffered hand.
“With the power of three, let us see.” Luna circled her hand around my wrist. The half moon sizzled, charged with a new energy. “So mote it be. So may it be.”
My world spun in circles wrapped around black cursed tendrils. An average-looking man stood beyond a cauldron, chanting and sprinkling drops of blood. The black pot hissed and smoked, the tendrils rising until they manifested themselves into a fiery sword.
The same sword that Gabriel had used to stab me.
The same tendrils that Aylin had exorcised from her body last night.
The man shuffled forward. His spell called forth dark magic to overtake someone's power. Although, I couldn't make out his words, his intentions were clear. Steal magic. Please master. Be free.
He tossed in a lock of red hair and ended the chant. The black char faded into the sword, now dormant, waiting for its target. A target I suspected would be Aylin.
The vision faded, and I fell flat on my ass. “ Did you do that? You encouraged Aylin to extract the poison from me, then you helped pull it from my body and now she's powerless!” I grabbed Luna's wrist and tugged. “Did you know?”
“I suspected that there might have been a slight interruption in your bond with Aylin, but I wasn't sure until I combined our powers to see what that invasion could have been.” Luna pulled her hand free and straightened her gown. “But no, I didn't know the tendrils were power suckers.”
“I was never meant to be the target of the poison.” It was always Aylin and now, she was in trouble. I had to get to her.
A tear trickled down Luna's cheek. “It was the only thing that could save you. I didn't know what it would do to Aylin.”
Luna's mystical voice sent chills down my spine.
“Ease up, Connor. It's not her fault.” Bryn placed an arm around Luna. “We need to figure out how to help Aylin.”
“Aylin has no power?” Drew stood dumbfounded.
I jumped to my feet, ready to fight a battle like no other and glared at Drew. “That's right, Drew. Gabriel and his servant took her power!”
Chapter Fifteen
Aylin
The smell of bleach wafted through the air as I scrubbed the same spot on the kitchen counter for the third time. I tossed the loose tendrils of hair that escaped my bun behind my ear and chucked the rag into the sink.
What did other people do? Those without power? Well, I wasn't sure about everyone else, but I needed to clean. And clean some more.
The kitchen sparkled. The bathroom had been disinfected, and I'd spent the better part of two hours physically tiring myself on household chores. What else could I do? Control a two-hundred-pound shifter with my mind? If Connor wanted to take off without so much of a “goodbye,” fine. But I couldn't communicate with him or read his mind.
Nope. Not anymore.
The power that had swam through my body yesterday lay dormant. I doubted it was completely gone, because I still felt the pull of its voice calling to me, but it was too feeble. Prior to last night, I was powerful, strong, forceful. But now? I wasn't sure what I could do and what I couldn't.
I smiled. When I called to him, my bond with Connor