Spring Rain (The Witchling #4)(30)

If Beck had learned anything from watching Summer’s trials, Morgan’s relative importance likely meant her trial was going to test her ability to help him. If she weren’t strong enough in any aspect – mentally, physically, spiritually – to help him save the Light, she was going to fail. It pained him to admit that he really didn’t know if she’d pass, given everything they’d been through to date.

“Okay. Help me shield the Light,” he decided, aware of how determined Dawn was.

If we do, you realize only Light witchlings will be able to cross the barrier.

“Good.”

There will be no refuge for the Dark witchlings or those caught in-between. No refuge for Decker and if Morgan chooses Dark, none for her either.

Beck met the yeti’s gaze, understanding crossing his thoughts. “So if Dawn gets the stone and awakens Darkness, then only the Light students who are on campus will be spared.”

Potentially.

“The alternative is she or Bartholomew destroys it trying to get to me.” He swallowed hard, unable to fathom a world without Dark witchlings. “I don’t have a choice, Sam. If I don’t protect what’s left of the Light in the world, there will be nothing left to salvage if she succeeds.”

Then let us begin.

Not entirely convinced what he planned to do was the right thing, Beck didn’t think there was any other option. This was his fault. He had pissed off a woman who went above and beyond the norm when it came to plotting her revenge. Dawn wasn’t content with upsetting him; she wanted him destroyed and was putting everything else at risk to see it come true.

I did this, he thought. Shaking his head to rid it of such thoughts, he knelt beside Sam, whose earth magick was more powerful than that of ten earth witchlings combined. I have to fix this.





Chapter Eleven





Noah was hiding something. The instinct had been tugging at Morgan since they left the hospital. Not yet recovered from her ordeal, she sat on one of the two beds in the hotel room, watching him stand at the window and stare out at the night sky. He’d been withdrawn and quiet, his thoughts elsewhere.

I don’t trust him. Not all the way. He wasn’t going to hurt her, but she had an idea of what secret he kept from how he ducked his head every time someone mentioned his sister at the hospital. Morgan understood wanting to take care of a sibling. Her brother was a year younger than she was, and she had always protected him.

But Dawn … Dawn was a monster.

You’re Beck’s counterbalance, like it or not. Why aren’t you trying to help us with the Light? As hard as she tried, she couldn’t get Decker’s insistence she was supposed to do more out of her thoughts.

What more was there? She was staying away from Beck and the Light and using her fire magick to prevent the soul stone from hurting anyone around her. What was she missing? What else could she do?

From her few weeks at the witchlings’ boarding school, she had learned that fire was a purifier. But it had no affect on the Dark contained in the soul stone, which made her think her magick wasn’t strong enough to purify anything.

Still … there had to be something she could do to help Beck. Seeing him made her yearn to be with him, to figure out some way of balancing her duty safeguarding the stone with what he deserved: a Light witchling who could protect him and the Light.

Morgan clutched the phone in her hand. Beck had texted her the number for his new phone. If she messaged or called, he’d come to her in seconds.

Whatever Noah was planning, she was banking on him not being stupid enough to bring Dawn here, but she wasn’t certain he wasn’t going to give them away, even if by accident.

“Noah, is something wrong?” she asked him.

He blinked and shifted away from the window. “No.”

He crossed the room to his bed and sat heavily on a corner. “I need to go out.”

“Where?”

He glanced at her and put on his shoes without answering.

“I think I know where,” she said. “Don’t, Noah. You can’t reason with what she’s become.”

“I owe it to her to try before Beck and Decker slaughter her.”

“She’s not herself. She’s possessed.”

“She’s still my sister.”

Morgan fell silent, disturbed. She would do the same for her brother and could think of no logical argument that would persuade her otherwise.

“If I’m not back in two hours, leave,” he instructed her. He placed the room keycard and credit card on the bureau opposite the beds.

“Call Biji first,” she said. “If something happens, she deserves closure.”

He nodded stiffly and left.

Morgan watched him, gut twisting.

She had no intention of being there when he got back. If Dawn didn’t kill him, she or one of her minions might follow him back or start tailing them wherever they went. There were a million things that could go wrong with his plan. He was operating on emotion, not sense, and she knew very well the danger accompanying this.

Morgan went to the window and watched him start his motorcycle and roar away from the highway motel. When she saw him merge onto the freeway, she pulled on her shoes and swiped the cards from the top of the bureau.

Shoving her hands into her pockets, she emerged from the hotel room into the chilly spring night and started walking to the office. They were nowhere near a bus station, but there were always cabs willing to come at any hours to the hotels. She pulled out money from the ATM in the lobby and had the night clerk call her a taxi.