Oh shit. Oh fuck.
We should have considered this. We should have—
My body ceased to be my own, throwing itself against the invisible barrier of power that held me captive amidst The Elites.
My screams tore the air and ripped my throat raw and then my head was in a vise, the pressure building and building.
I was going to die.
“What the fuck?” Jasper’s voice was a whiplash against my senses.
“No!” Anna cried. “It’s a test, it won’t harm her.”
“I beg to differ,” Jasper said.
I prised open my eyes through the pain and fixed them on him. “Don’t. Interfere.” I bit out the words before a wave of fire raced up my throat and cut off my air supply.
“Cora!” There was agony in his tone, as if my pain were his.
Fuck, I must be dying to think such shit.
The shatter of glass and the snarl and growl of wolves filled the air.
“NO! Stay back,” Anna ordered. “She’s safe, I swear it.”
The wolves were here. They were here, but my vision was blurred by tears and my senses were in chaos. No way to communicate I was okay.
“She must let it in,” Anna said.
Oh fuck, yes. Poppy’s advice.
Stop fighting.
How the fuck did I do that?
Every muscle and sinew was wound tight. I needed to relax and let the pain take me. I needed to give in to it.
I slumped onto the ground, breathing shallow and even, swallowing my scream as nails tore rivulets across my brain and claws scraped deep into my skin to hit bone.
I was burning, melting, and then the scorch ebbed to a simmer and a strange cold sensation bloomed at the back of my mind, a spot of ice that infected my veins until the pain was gone. Until all that was left was The Elites’ soft chanting, but then even that slowed and petered out.
“Cora…” Strong arms wrapped around me, the scent of the forest and the brush of fur. “You’re okay. We’ve got you.” Tor’s breath was warm on my nape.
I peeled back my lids to look up at the faces surrounding me. Leif’s gunmetal blues, dark with anger and concern, Rune’s hazel eyes gleaming with golden flecks, and Tor’s steel-gray gaze hard and unforgiving and fixed not on me but on Sloane.
“What the fuck did you just do?” he demanded.
“What needed to be done.”
“You don’t get to play with our mate.” Leif’s voice was a growl.
Did you agree to this? Rune asked.
I nodded, wincing when pain lanced up my neck. “We need an Elite. I needed to test.”
“Elite?” Tor’s lip curled. “No.”
“Are you insane?” Leif asked Sloane. He stood to face her, offering me an epic view of his taut ass. “She’s the fucking anchor. You can’t risk her life fighting revenants.”
I sat up on my knees. “I have to do this. There is no one else.” I peered around Leif to look up at Sloane. “I mean, that is if I passed. I better fucking have, ’cause that hurt like a fucking bitch.”
Sloane tore her gaze from Leif and settled it on me with a small smile. “I think so, cupcake. Just one last thing to do.”
Leif bristled. “Hell no.”
Tor gripped me tighter and Rune growled low and menacing.
Jasper stood to the periphery of my vision, and I didn’t need to look at him to know he was pissed, but he was watching this play out, typical Jasper style.
I took a deep breath. “I want to do this.” I looked up at Tor. “Humans will die if we don’t find a fourth Elite.”
Tor inhaled through his nose and closed his eyes. “Fuck.” His grip on me slackened a fraction, his way of conceding. “Hurt her again and I won’t be responsible for my actions, Slo.”
Sloane’s eyes narrowed. “You think I enjoyed this? You think I wanted to hurt her? If there was any other way…” She exhaled angrily and pinched the bridge of her nose. “The painful part is over.”
Tor released me reluctantly.
Sloane fell to her knees in front of me. The wolves backed up but stayed close.
“Let’s find out if it was worth it,” Sloane said.
She cupped my nape and drew me close, so her mouth brushed my ear. Her warm breath kissed my skin and then words filled my mind, words that made sense but didn’t, words that wanted to dance on my tongue. Words that wanted to be voiced.
The negation chant. This was it. It was pouring into me, making sense and connection as if it belonged, like a missing piece of my mind.
It intensified.
“Motherfucker,” Jessie said. “She’s doing it.”
I was. I was chanting, natural and effortless like breathing. I sucked in a breath and cut off the words. They were there, though, in the back of my mind. Mine to use if needed. There was power in those words. A dark, twisted kind of power, addictive but frightening too.
“You feel it,” Sloane said. “But you can control it. It doesn’t control you.”
“Chaos…”
“Yes. The negation spell uses chaos, and only a handful of Grimswood witches can tap into it.”
Fuck.
Silence reigned.
Sloane pulled back and smiled at me. “Welcome to The Elites.”
I perched on the fountain ledge and downed a bottle of water to quell the burning in my throat from all the screaming I’d done. Leif and Rune had left patrol when they’d sensed my distress, and now that I was technically safe, they left to get back to duty.
Tor stayed, naked and glorious, his body a powerful mass of muscles that Jessie and Poppy were blatantly ogling as he spoke with Anna and Sloane in hushed tones. A pang of jealousy shot through me, but I tamped down on it. We might
