A Shift in the Air (27 page)

Farren hadn’t said a word since the
pub. Losing Colin to Fergus and Brian’s death stole the light from
her eyes. Caitlin reached over and squeezed her hand.

“
Turn here,” Caitlin
said.

Cade angled the car down a one-lane
road, past a farm with a dozen goats, then an abandoned shack
missing a wall. Lowering the window, Caitlin inhaled deeply. Fresh
grass, a recent rain shower, and the rich leather of Liam’s jacket.
His spicy scent infused the lining, and she tried to remember his
hands on her skin, his lips on hers. But Fergus hovered at the back
of her mind, looming, ready to compel her at her
weakest.

“
There.” Ahead on the
right, the fence still leaned, though paint peeled off in ribbons.
Up on the rise, a burned-out shell of the home stood sentry over
the countryside, a single support beam and a handful of planks all
that remained. The walls—thick knotty pine that warded off the
worst of Ireland’s damp chill—had disintegrated into ash. The lone
watchman, a five-foot-tall chimney, listed, a collection of stones
gathered at the base.

Cade passed the home and rounded a
bend in the road, finding a makeshift pullout next to a hedgerow of
blackberries. He turned in the driver’s seat. “We stick together.
Farren and I will shift. Mara, you’re with Caitlin. If Fergus is
there, you can’t let her go with him.”

“
I won’t.”

Cade cupped Mara’s cheek. “Are you
sure you’re up for this?”

She leaned forward and kissed him
gently, but when she pulled back, the strength in her voice had
Caitlin’s eyes widening. “Liam’s my brother. I won’t give up on
him, and I won’t let his mate fall victim to that fucking asshole
who tried to kill all of us. Stop treating me like I’m
broken.”

Broken. The word fit, despite Mara’s
objection to the term. Something about Katerina’s element broke
her. Caitlin prayed that the book would fix her. But for now, they
had to find Liam.

Cade and Farren stripped off their
clothes in the fading light of dusk. As the sun dipped below the
horizon, the sky flared with oranges, purples, and reds. So much
beauty all around her, and Caitlin saw only darkness
approaching.

As the werewolves dropped to their
hands and knees, Caitlin couldn’t look away. Bones popped and
cracked, skin rippled. Farren’s small, firm breasts shrank back
into her body, and a magnificent white tail sprouted from her rump.
Her wolf stood proudly, all silver and white fur and glistening
teeth.

Next to her, Cade’s steel and flaxen
fur rippled in the breeze, and Caitlin stared with her mouth
agape.

“
Wow.”

Farren made a soft sound of pride and
tossed her head back, curving her dark lips into what Caitlin
thought had to be a smile. With Cade at her side, they made a
formidable welcoming committee. Mara twirled a flashlight as she
got out of the car. “Come on. If Liam’s here, we’re going to get
him back.”

Creeping slowly, picking their way
over rocks and culverts through a neighboring field, they reached a
squat stone wall just behind the ruins of the home. Tall grasses
billowed in the breeze, hiding the wolves, and fog surrounded
Caitlin and Mara, evidence of the water elemental’s
charms.

The wolves sailed over the wall with
ease, but Mara grunted as she climbed after them. “A little
help?”

Caitlin sent a bit of her element
towards Mara at the same time she cupped her hands under Mara’s
foot and gave her a boost. The two women landed gently on the other
side of the wall, inches from what had once been the basement
doors.

Now, a dark stairway into an earthen
maw greeted them, the steps worn by wind and rain and time. Cade
descended with a low growl, charging ahead with his head lowered.
Farren followed quickly with bared teeth. Caitlin and Mara kept as
close as they could.

Fergus loved this room, and Caitlin
shuddered as she passed under the house’s rotting foundation.
Memories of her time here streamed through her mind, aching for
fresh air, fearful of his return, praying for the sanity to reclaim
him.

They spilled out into the small
basement, no bigger than twenty feet square, and Mara swept the
flashlight beam over everything. “Goddess.”

Nothing had changed. A metal bed frame
with the remains of a frayed and rotting mattress leaned against
the far wall opposite a small bathroom. A table next to the bed
offered a collection of books. Caitlin lifted one of them and
watched as the pages disintegrated into dust.

“
He’d lock me down here
when he needed to ‘teach me a lesson,’” she said. “Every time he
brought me back to him. Days. Sometimes up to a week or two. I hate
being underground. No fresh air, no sunlight. The last time…he kept
asking about Liam. I couldn’t resist him…”

“
Focus.” Mara clutched
Caitlin’s shoulders. “Let’s get out of here.”

They returned to the stairs, the
wolves at their heels.

“
Where else can we
go?”

Caitlin searched her
memories, trying to visualize a life she still hadn’t quite
reconciled as her own. She found the massive structure in her
mind’s eye, the imposing shadow suggesting more mystery than fear.
Would Fergus go there? They’d been children when she’d been there
last. But something about the castle resounded within her, and she
nodded as she worked through the details, her words tumbling
out.
“Halfway between Doolin and
Lisdoonvarna, there’s an old, abandoned castle. We used to work
charms there as children. The wind races right up the hillside from
the sea. He’ll be strong there, and no one’s lived within those
walls for a century.”

Cade’s wolf growled.

Mara gestured back towards the car
“I’m pretty sure that’s wolf for ‘let’s go.’”

***

Five stories tall, with great, gaping
windows that let the wind howl through the spires, the old castle
rose from the mists, illuminated only by the last vestiges of dusk
and the headlights of Cade’s rental car.

He and Farren broke the lock on the
gate, and the four of them raced inside, two-by-two. The wolves
bounded to the top of the main tower with their snarls and rough
vocalizations carrying down the crumbling stone steps. Caitlin and
Mara took a more cautious route, needing flashlights to guard
against the uneven ground. At the top, they spilled out into a
cavernous room, empty save for a few patches of moss in the
corners. Only paw prints disturbed the dust on the
floor.

“
He hasn’t been here,”
Caitlin said and sagged against the wall next to one of the largest
windows. The glass had broken decades ago, long before she and
Fergus had found the place and claimed this room as their own.
Memories of youthful charms—her bouncing rocks upon the air, him
rippling the ground below like a ribbon—brought the melody of
laughter and comfort to her ears. They’d been happy then, free and
full of dreams. When had such joy turned into such pain?

She gazed out over the sloping
hillside. From here, she could see all the way down to the water.
An unearthly glow shimmered at the edge of the horizon. The wolves
scrambled through the rest of the structure, their toenails
scraping against the weathered stone all around her and into the
other, barely-accessible spires that Caitlin knew had to be empty.
She couldn’t sense Fergus, and even if he’d used her air to hide
him and Liam, she’d have felt something if they were close. A vague
presence, the missing part of her reaching for Fergus, or the tug
of her heart towards Liam.

A luminous, yellow moon, peaceful and
calm along the barrier between sea and sky, rose. Mesmerized,
Caitlin tracked the movement from a sliver to a wedge, and finally,
glorious fullness, illuminating the lands for miles. A blazing arc
of light stretched over the water, and behind them, two wolves
howled mournfully.

Deep in her core, a yearning she’d
never known twisted and stabbed, and she braced her hands on the
edge of the stone and screamed into the night, “Liam!”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Without light, time stretched out in
endless agony. The scent of dirt heavy with moisture surrounded
him, along with a vague hint of the sea. Lying on his side with his
broken leg bent underneath his bulk, every breath sent him closer
to the edge. The wound at his collarbone throbbed, though the
bleeding might have stopped.

Rolling onto his back sent him into
pain-induced oblivion again, and he came to with a whimper.
Seconds, minutes, or hours later he couldn’t tell.

Reaching for his wolf, he fought
against Fergus’s charm. His fingers twitched and burned with the
start of the shift, but before the bones in his hands broke, an
invisible force locked around his chest, and he couldn’t breathe.
The beast faded, gnawing inside of him. He tried again, and again,
until exhaustion and anguish turned him into a shivering, shaking
mess.

The moon. Searing pain fractured his
mind, the wolf slamming against the chains that bound him, and the
desperate need to claim his mate giving him a burst of strength
that took him by surprise. He pushed to one knee, bracing his hand
against the cold, stone surrounding him.

“
Caitlin.” The single word,
scraping over vocal cords raw from screaming, brought a measure of
comfort. He’d know, wouldn’t he? If Fergus had killed her? Somehow,
he’d know if his mate died.
Ignore the
pain. Get up. You break bones all the time.
Repeating the pep talk, he pressed his palms to the cool floor
and tried to force his broken leg straight.

His prison shook and dumped him to his
side with a mournful howl that faded into a gasp. The door slammed
open with a screech of metal and a deafening crash. Blinding light
seared his eyes, and Liam winced and turned away—the only movement
he could manage.

A giant thundered into the room, and
rough hands grabbed Liam by the arms and shoved him against the
wall. He blinked rapidly to adjust his vision. Fergus’s dark eyes
swam into focus, wild with anger.

“
You touched my Catie. You
turned her against me.” He shook Liam hard enough to slam his head
into the rough stones. Blood spurted from the resultant wound and
rolled down the back of his neck.

Groaning, Liam struggled against
Fergus’s hold, but too weak, he let his head fall forward—at least
he didn’t have to look at the bastard. “Ya did that all yerself, ya
fucker.”

Liam sailed across the small room,
hitting the other wall with a sickening pop in his shoulder. Agony
sliced down his arm, and after a few seconds, his hand went numb.
Then his elbow, and then everything up to his shoulder.

“
She belongs to me. I hold
her element. We’re closer than any lovers could ever be.” Spittle
flew as Fergus bit off the words, but even as he raged, Liam sensed
his insecurity. “And you thought you could come between us? Thought
you could steal her away? Mate with her? Make her stronger? I’m in
control. Me.”

Liam inched away, using his good leg
and one functioning arm to crawl towards the door. But Fergus
grabbed his ankle and yanked him back. Liam’s scream echoed through
the room with a howlish tenor, and spots floated in his
vision.

“
Did you take her from me
eleven years ago? Did you?” Fergus kicked his midsection, his ribs
creaking with the assault.

“
No,” he gasped. Caitlin’s
words rushed back to him.
“A part of him
didn’t want to hurt me.”

Liam’s breath rattled, his tongue
coated in a metallic tang. “Ya hurt her, Fergus. Ye’re hurting her
now. Don’t ya take something to keep ya from doing so? Where are
your pills?” If he could get Fergus to medicate, maybe he’d have a
chance.

Fergus stopped, took a step back, and
pressed his hands against his temples. “Catie,” he wailed and
thrashed his head from side to side. “No. I protected
her.”

“
She’s in pain now. Ya
don’t want her in pain, do ya?” Liam couldn’t manage more than a
whisper. Fergus stood between him and the door. Another foot and he
could slip past the elemental—if you could call his torturously
slow movements “slipping.”

Fergus dropped his hands, and his eyes
narrowed. “She’s hurtin’ because she’s not with me. Because ya took
her away and turned her against me. Catie loves me. She needs
me.”

“
Caitlin
needs her element back.” Liam gained another inch.
The moon fuzzed his thoughts as his wolf railed, and he stifled the
urge to whimper. “Make her whole, Fergus. Release the charm on me
and let me shift so I can go to her. I’ll help her. And
you.”

“
Catie can help me.”
Fergus’s voice cracked, softening into the voice of a child, pained
and desperate. Then he shook his head and slammed his fist against
his heart. “Ya fucked her, didn’t ya? Did what I couldn’t? Turned
her against me and everything we could be together!”

The suffering youth inside Fergus
faded away, and the snarling, insane man returned with a roar, and
the world shook around them.

“
Let me help ya,” Liam
said, taking advantage of Fergus’s confusion. He stretched out his
good arm towards the door. Another minute, maybe two, of
distraction, and he could escape—though without his wolf, he didn’t
know what he’d do once he got out of this room. “Ye’re in pain,
yeah? I can help make ya whole again. Ya need your
meds.”