It was when he sat up that the real shock came. The numbness dropped away. The invisible bulk he’d been carrying—the phantom limbs of tail and flippers, the dragging mass of extra fat and muscle that seemed to exist on the periphery of his awareness—all disintegrated. The effect was of a heavy blanket lifting off his senses… and the world hit him like a punch of icy water.
He wheezed, knocked back by the intensity of it. The air wasso coldon his bare skin. The wet grassprickledagainst his palms, all at once stinging and slimy where the snow had melted. His clothesitched, their uneven textures thrown into sharp relief with every seam and crease.
There was also heat, still radiating from The Lucky Teapot as it turned into a beacon against the night sky. Lachlan noticed the ground around him was smouldering, a contradictory mess of wet and charred earth where Cam had been at the centre of a ring of fire. Where Cam had begun to burn before his eyes.
He couldn’t see Cam now. Lachlan swung around frantically on all fours before stumbling clumsily to his feet. He tried to call Cam’s name. Realised he was panting desperately and could barely make the sound leave his throat.
Lachlan’s knees buckled. He landed on them painfully. He felt soweak.
Still wheezing, he looked up through teary eyes to find Bryce watching him. The man’s grizzled face was impassive.
When Bryce spoke, his tone was mild, nearly friendly. ‘That was a bit clever, I’ll give you that.’
I didn’t want to do it.
Lachlan managed to direct his gasping mouth into a scowl. He couldn’t summon the strength to move again.
Bryce stooped, meeting his eye level. ‘I was surprised to see you here, y’know. Thought fer sure you’d have passed the curse onto some other bugger by now. Or did you like the taste of immortality?’ He grinned. ‘There’s something I can relate to. Hard to let go of, isn’t it?’
What… ?
Lachlan swallowed, shocked by his own urge to spit in Bryce’s face. He’d neverwantedto keep his curse. But the thought of tricking someone else into taking it was revolting. What he’d done to Cam… God, Cam.
He shuddered, holding back a sob. Caught halfway between fury and shame.
‘Who are you?’ he choked out. ‘Are you Elspaith’s twin? Are you… Are you a…’
‘Spit it out,’ Bryce said pleasantly. ‘Too many words you could put there. Murderer? Witch?Survivor?’
He bent onto one knee and caught Lachlan’s chin in his hand.
Don’t touch me!Lachlan tried to scream. Both his hands wrapped around Bryce’s wrist but couldn’t budge him.
Bryce’s gaze flicked to the Wulver. The wolfman was an unconscious heap, his breathing rattling and dry as smoke poured over his head from the Teapot’s windows.
‘I suppose the hound told you I killed her,’ Bryce said conversationally. ‘Elspaith sealed her fate when she tried to trap me in that lake. She could have enjoyed eternity with me, but she chose her own path.’
Lachlan’s eyes widened, the words slowly tumbling into his fuzzy brain. Bryce pulled him closer, a mockingly intimate gesture as though he might kiss him.
‘Thank you,’ he breathed against Lachlan’s lips. ‘For allowing me to escape, all those centuries ago. You played your part in the Walkers’ fate, my lad. How does that feel, to know your lover would have been safe, if not for you?’
No.
Bryce finally let go, drawing back with a huge grin. Lachlan gasped, felt like he was hyperventilating. The scene crowded in on him. The burning building, the wounded Wulver. The horrible absence of Cam.
Please.
Had he caused this? Had he released the monster that killed Cam’s parents? That would’ve killed… that would’ve…
Not Cam.
Bryce chuckled. ‘Your face. That’s a delight. I’ll take it as compensation for tonight. Cam was my last one, y’know. It was going to be Plan B fairly soon anyway, but I’d hoped to stave it off a little longer.’ He brushed some soot from his jacket. ‘So much effort to choose the right individual to drain. And normal people aren’t nearly sogivingas witches.’
He scratched his beard, looking off into the distance as though mulling his next steps. As though he hadn’t caused unfathomable devastation on this remote hilltop.
‘Evil,’ Lachlan managed to stutter out. ‘You are evil.’
‘No lad,’ Bryce said distractedly. ‘Just on a different level. You stay there on the ground, where you belong. Rejoice, perhaps, that you can finally leave your prison.’
