Heart of Ice

Chapter Thirty-Four

Song: Cold As You- Taylor Swift

"I'm sending you a location. Get there immediately and don't ask any questions," Click. I stare at the phone in astonishment, wondering how the hell Owen got my number. It's a silly thought though when I know there are much larger things to ponder, such as if where he's sending me is a trap to end me, or if he's genuinely trying to help me. I still haven't figured out what he meant the last time I saw him when he mentioned the "more pressing issues" he had to deal with before killing me-- not that I'm complaining, though.

The outside world is almost entirely dark, but that also means the entire pack is inside, mingling around the downstairs, which means I can't just walk out the front door without getting some questions or having someone leave with me. I also can't be too long or someone will come looking for me and come into my bedroom. So, I look at the location Owen sent me, mold it in my mind, and close my eyes, white surrounding me as wind gushes through my hair, and transport to the location. I land between trees where not even the last inklings of sunlight reach. I can barely see two feet in front of me.

A hand envelopes my shoulder and I jump, almost letting out a yelp, but they slap their hand over my mouth. As my eyes adjust to the light, I find Owen's face mere inches away from mine. He frowns and whispers, "Try to be a little more discrete, yeah? They can't know we're here."

He removes his hand from my mouth. "Who's they?"

Owen turns me around and shoves me a little closer to a tree, still far enough that I'm hidden from what's in front of it, which I finally see is a circular clearing. The moon above illuminates the dirt, and I squint to see what he's talking about. In the middle of the clearing are two people, one who I recognize as Demetrius, and the other is a woman who had long, poker straight, brunette hair. She looks unfamiliar at first, but then she turns slightly, and I have to slap my own hand over my mouth to keep from gasping.

Blair.

I knew she had something to do with the supposed deal Hunter saw! As much as I'm unsurprised, I still can't believe my eyes. I stare, wide eyed, as Demetrius drags another person to Blair, throwing them down in front of her. The person is crying, begging them to let her go, but Demetrius looks at Blair and nods, and the smirk that crosses her face is nothing short of evil. She digs her nails into the person's shoulders and I watch as her eyes fade to red, fangs emerge from her gums, and she sinks her teeth into their neck, a bloodcurdling scream erupting from the person's throat.

I want to throw up. Blair is a newborn under Demetrius' wing.

Which can only mean that she shapeshifted into me and Demetrius posed as Owen to make the deal that Hunter witnessed. It was all fabricated to pin him against me when I needed him most.

A sharp ringing erupts in my ear as I face Owen once again, my eyes losing focus as I stumble away from the scene. Owen grabs me and throws me over his shoulder, zipping through the woods until we land right outside the back gate of Noctis. We weren't far away from the house at all, and that's the scariest part-- they were right under our noses, probably the entire time since I came out of limbo. Owen sets me down on my feet, steadying me as I readjust to the world around me. "Let me guess, an old fling of your lover?"

"I knew she was involved. She came back a couple days before he accused me and she hadn't been around in years," I pace back and forth, a cold sweat forming on my spine. "How could I miss that she was a newborn?"

"I'm assuming my uncle kept her well-fed to prevent her from giving it away."

I continue pacing. "Hunter's never going to believe me."

"It can't hurt to try and tell him, now can it?" Owen grabs my shoulder, forcing me to stop and look at him. "Look, if I'm gone for too long, they'll get suspicious. I'll keep doing the work on my end. You work on making him open his eyes. I have no doubt you can do that. There is no possible way he doesn't still have a sliver of trust in you."