Displeasure pulsed through our bond, but he didn’t say another word.
She ran at me again, her focus right on my stomach. I wasn’t sure what she planned, but at least I knew her target.
I forced myself to wait until the last second before spinning to the side. She hadn’t expected the move and stumbled forward, landing on her knees.
She pounded the ground. “I’m just getting started.” She jumped to her feet, her knees dirty, and swung at me.
I blocked her punch and countered with my own. My fist connected with her chest, knocking the wind out of her.
Her breathing became ragged, and Logan growled beside me.
He’s about to lose his shit. Aidan moved closer to me. End it now.
She bent over and took a few gasping breaths. “Now, I’m pissed.” She ran at me again, letting her emotions rule her.
At the last second, I bent over, causing her to only hit air, and her body stumbled over mine. I used her momentum against her and straightened my back. She fell to the side. Right before she hit the ground, I spun around and put her in a headlock.
This was what I’d done to her last night while she’d been in wolf form. Aidan was right—it was her weakness. She didn’t focus on anything but the kill.
She bucked underneath me, and I heard Aidan growl, “Stay out of it. She’s not hurting her.”
“Like hell, she’s not,” Logan grunted.
I heard the crunching of bone.
Gabby stopped fighting.
Both of us locked in on the huge man on the ground. Aidan stood over him. Blood poured from Logan’s nose, but he got back to his feet.
“Fine, I give up.” Gabby sighed, forcing the words out. “I’ll go with you. Just leave him alone.”
“Gladly.” Aidan retreated a few steps but kept his eyes on Logan in case he attacked.
“This was a little anticlimactic.” Beth pouted but then shrugged. “But you gave up, so it’s an official loss. No fighting dirty.”
“I said I give up,” Gabby growled.
“Okay.” I released my hold on her and stood. “We need to leave immediately.”
“If she goes, so do I.” Logan wiped the blood from his nose with his hand.
“We figured you’d be coming along,” Aidan grumbled. “But what are you going to tell your pack?”
Logan’s jaw clenched. “They don’t care where I am.”
“Why the hell not?” Aidan tensed and jerked his head in his direction. He’s too risky to bring along.
Doesn’t matter. He’ll follow us. Dammit, each time we made progress, something held us back.
“My sister mated with the alpha.” Logan stared off into the trees. “And one night, I saw him beating on her. I attacked him.”
Oh shit. I knew what his next words would be.
“They rejected me for going against the alpha.” He rubbed a hand down his face. “Banishment was my punishment.”
The air was clear of any lie.
Aidan tensed. “So you’re a rogue?”
Their stories were very similar, but Aidan had our bond to rely on. He wasn’t truly alone.
“Yes, but so far, I’ve been okay.” He focused on Gabby. “Because of her.”
Gabby sucked in a breath. “Then I guess you better come with us.”
At least, that was one thing we didn’t have to worry about. “What about your pack?” If no one had truly taken her in, it made me nervous that I’d told them the truth.
“I’ll tell them I’ve met up with some wolves and am going with you all.” Gabby winced as if it hurt to admit. “They won’t care.”
“Fine, but you leave your cell phones here.” Aidan glanced from one to the other. “We have to make sure no one tracks us.”
“I don’t have a cell phone. I lost it a while ago when I shifted and went hunting for Gabby.” Logan nodded.
It was all settled. “Well, let’s go get Amethyst to help us with the locator spell.” I motioned for Gabby to follow me, and thankfully, she complied.
When we walked back inside the house, Olive rushed over to her. “It’s for the best. You need to help them.”
Gabby’s shoulders drooped. “It’s just that I want to get to know you.”
“When this is all over, you’re welcome to go wherever you want.” I would never force someone to stay with me. “We just need to break this curse first.”
“Can you have breakfast with us before you leave?” Hope filled Olive’s eyes as they met mine.
“Sure. Let us pack up, and we’ll head over.” I’d hate not to let them have a little more time together. They’d gone so long without knowing each other.
“Great. My house is the one right across.” She pointed across the road and inhaled. “Just come on in. I’ll cook enough for all.” She hurried out of the house.
I turned to Amethyst. “Do you have the map to do the locator spell?” The sooner we knew where we were going, the better.
“Yeah, it’s in the bedroom.” Amethyst ran down the hall.
Gabby’s eyes went to Samuel and Coral. “What do we have to do for that spell?”
Trying to encourage her, Samuel grinned. “Just a little bit of your blood.”
“Oh, hell no.” Logan shook his head. “Blood is the most powerful thing a witch can have.”
“Trust me when I say they’re just going to ignore you.” Aidan huffed and leaned back on his heels. “Believe me.”
“Why do we need to use our blood?” Gabby chewed on her lip. “In TV shows, they always need something of the person you’re looking for.”
Amethyst came back into the room. “That’s true, but you all are interconnected with the original witch’s magic,” she explained as she laid the map on the table. “Using Emma’s blood was how we found you. From what the original witch’s journal says, the combination of blood from the two of you will find the third girl, and so on.”
Needing to make Gabby feel more at ease, I bit into my fingertip and dribbled my blood in the center of the map. Just like last time, my blood crept to the very spot we were now standing in.
“Holy shit, that’s scary.” Gabby took in a deep breath and then bit into her finger too. She placed her hand over where my blood had settled and let the blood drip onto the same spot.
Amethyst mumbled some words I couldn’t understand, and then our blood began to inch northwest.
“That’s impossible,” Logan gasped as he watched the map with us.
The blood settled in the south-east side of North Dakota, right on Jamestown.
“We head here,” I said, stating the obvious. “That has to be at least a full day’s trip.”
Coral tapped on her phone and said on an exhale. “It’s a nineteen-hour drive.”
Great, we’d thought the almost twelve-hour drive had been bad. Nineteen might kill us if The Hallowed Guild didn’t find us first.
Chapter Twelve
It was a rough two days of traveling to Jamestown. Ten hours in a car was not natural for either wolves or witches. Our nerves were frayed, and piling into two hotel rooms wasn’t ideal. However, we were trying to keep our expenses down since Aidan, Beth, and I couldn’t use our cards in case someone was tracking us. We also wanted to keep our scents to a minimum in case anyone from the Guild was in the area.