Tainted roots

For the rest of the afternoon, we checked out all the locations of the blackouts, and where the missing were last seen. Other than more traces of unusual elemental energy, and scents that abruptly stopped, we didn't find anything new.

We finally got the chance to meet Reed's older sister, Rosie. Unsurprisingly, her hair was the same shade as Reed's, but instead of brown eyes, hers were hazel. She was so petite in stature that she made me feel tall, which was a rare thing in our group.

Her mate was busy helping the others try and retrieve their lost memories. As far as she knew, they hadn't remembered anything, but maybe the sorcerer they called would be able to find something they missed.

Ander and I helped her cook dinner, while the others tried building a house out of cards—without using magic for some reason. The house was several feet tall when it collapsed, and shouted swears followed in its wake.

Rosie shared countless embarrassing stories about Reed from his childhood while we ate and had some after-dinner drinks. During which, Reed dropped his forehead to the table, muttering that this was why he never let us meet before today.

We didn't stay up late and instead retired to our assigned rooms.

"I hate this tiny-ass bed," Ari complained, not even a minute after she turned off the lights.

The beds weren't that small, but compared to the king-sized beds we both owned, these were tiny. Of course, Ari wasn't sharing hers with a fully grown wolf like I was.

I opened my mouth, ready to make a joke, when the cord tying my soul to Koa's pulsed with a surge of energy, unlike anything I'd ever felt from him. My chest clenched as a sob tried working its way up my throat. The cord thrummed and a fresh wave of agony slammed into my chest, freezing my insides.

Gasping for air, I sat up and clawed at my chest. The pulsing cord kept pouring fresh waves of pure torture. I couldn't focus on what Ari or Rowan were saying, in fact, I could barely hear either of them—and with Rowan's ability to speak in my mind, that was cause for concern.

Scolding hot hands pressed against both sides of my face, earning a scream from me as they forced my head up to meet Ari's practically luminescent eyes. As she studied my face, worry lined her features, her lips continued moving, saying words I couldn't process past the pain.

Blinding light filled the room, overloading my already overwhelmed senses, and not helping my building headache in the slightest. Thankfully, the hands burning my chilled skin left. Only to be replaced by equally searing hands. My eyes fluttered open, tears streaming down my face at the unbearable brightness of the room, and met the multi-hued eyes of Ander. His face was easy to read for once: pure panic. Releasing my face, he began hastily drawing sigils on his arm.

While he cast, hands yanked at my arms covering my torso. I couldn’t remember doing so, nothing was making any sense right now, not through all the unbearable pain. All I knew, was that I wanted to stop the sharp stabbing cold from taking root in the center of my being. Once the scorching hands had successfully pried one of my arms away from my chest, they held it out to the side in a steel vice grip—preventing me from folding it back to my chest. Ander began drawing more sigils, this time on my arm, my skin burning with each stroke of his fingers.

I kept trying to wrestle my arm away, not understanding why they were torturing me like this when I was already suffering. Nearly all of my thoughts centered around the ice forming in my chest, the burning heat, and the hollow emptiness threatening to swallow me whole.

Another set of hands tugged my other arm away from my chest and held it out. Their grip was unyielding as I tried fighting their hold. My feeble attempts at freeing my arms ceased when another stab of sharp icy torment flowed through the bond—along with what felt like a shard of ice being driving through my skull—I tried curling in on myself, but those damn burning hands wouldn't let me.

Fire licked the skin of my chest, as yet another pair of fiery hands rubbed all over my chest. There was nowhere for me to go to escape the burning, it kept following, feeling like it was trying to burn me alive. Finally, the fire licking my chest died down, having done nothing to thaw the perpetual chill.

Nothing could thaw the cold.

The scalding hands that had been holding my arms captive, slid up to my shoulders and forced my back against the mattress. No matter how I thrashed, those fucking hands kept me pinned down, preventing me from curling into a ball.

My eyes snapped open when, what felt like lava scalded my chest, and found Parker hovering over me. Like the others, a frown shrouded his features as his mouth moved with words I had no hope of deciphering. A searing golden glow lit up his hands and forced my eyes to shut once more as pure white hot agony poured from his hands and into my chest.

Why was he doing this to me? I thought he was my friend.

My back arched away from the bed as pure fire took root in my chest and burned its way through not only my body but my soul. The heat was almost too much as it burnt away the icy shards of agony and emptiness.

Just as quickly as the fire appeared, it vanished down the cord, leaving behind no pain or chill. My body tingled as feeling returned to my hands and feet. The clenching in my chest had ceased, allowing me to breathe deeply. Exhaustion weighed on me, not just my body, but my soul. I tried opening my eyes, but my eyelids were too heavy. Unconsciousness dragged me down, and I was too exhausted to fight it.

* * * * * * * *

Hours later, I woke up squished between two bodies. One was laying behind me as a big spoon, while my face was buried against Rowan's coarse fur. A quick peak over my shoulder revealed Ari was the one behind me.

At first, I was confused as to why Ari was crammed in my bed—Rowan wasn't a surprise, she'd taken to sleeping in my bed lately—and why my head was pounding. Worse than any hangover I've ever had. All at once the memories of the pain, the unbearable chill, and the scorching heat raced through my mind. Gasping, I sat us and dislodged the others. My head and body protested the movement.

Ari immediately woke up and began checking me over. "Do you feel any pain?" Her eyes scanned my face.

My focus was pulled from Ari when I heard rusting over on the other side of the room and found Ander, Harmony, and Reed, climbing out of the same bed Ari said was too small earlier. Ander gently cradled my face and turned my face toward him. "Her temperature is normal, the chill hasn't returned." He directed his words at the others, all the while his focus remained on me. Sighs of relief filled the room.

"Jade, can you hear me?" I mutely nodded in reply to Ander's question, before cringing at the throb of pain stabbing into my skull, somehow this was worse than when I almost drowned in enchanted water. "Do you remember what happened?"

Ander's hands slid off my face, a good thing too because I swore I felt a twinge in my stomach. I wasn't sure if it was my bond going into overdrive, or if it was just my imagination going wild.

"I remember," I finally whispered, my voice hoarse. My throat ached as I tried clearing my throat. How the hell did this happen?

"You were screaming the entire time."

Fuck. A raspy groan slipped free as I adjusted and felt a sharp jab at my temples. "Did I actually say anything?"

"Yes." That was all Ander said as he continued watching me, with that same worried expression. He was now leaning against the wall beside the bed, but there was nothing relaxed about the way he stood.

"You mainly kept repeating the same words over and over," Harmony said, climbing onto the bed on Ari's side, and began pulling my hair back from my face as she combed her fingers through the tangled strands. "Stop. Make it stop. It's so cold. It burns. Get out. Why won't you leave us alone?"

Most of them made sense. I vividly remembered the icy cold and how their touch burned—even though my skin showed no signs of being burned. And while I now knew my friends were only trying to help me, at the time I thought I was being tortured.

The last part didn't make sense to me. I scrubbed my hands down my face, wondering how much longer this headache would last. "Are you sure I said leave us, and not me?"

Harmony nodded, her lips pursed as she focused on my hair. 'That's not all of what you said.' Rowan's voice was softer than usual, but even then, it still sent a sharp jab to my brain.

"What else did I say?" I asked, looking around at the others, wondering why they left something out. Their expressions ranged from carefully neutral, to hesitant. Part of me no longer wanted to find out what they kept hidden from me. I had a suspicion, but I hoped I was wrong.

I met Rowan's steady gaze, and nervously waited for her answer. 'Where is he?'