Chapter 85

Chapter 85

“I’ll tell you everything, I promise, I promise,” Freya repeated. “But we need to keep moving.”

Jamie glanced up at the sky, then ground his teeth. “We need to find somewhere to camp. If Isla’s wolf has truly been completely cursed out of her, she won’t be able to see to walk at night.”

Freya fretted her hands but conceded the point. “It won’t rain tonight. I’ll make a fire.”

“Yes, you do that, Jamie said. There was fury in his tone.

Though I was hurt. I still put a hand on Jamie’s arm. “Let her explain. Please.”

Jamie sighed and nodded, then, grumbling under his breath, went to collect to big logs that we placed around a magic fire Freya conjured into the air.

Freya looked positively miserable.

“Save that look for someone who’s sympathetic, Jamie growled. “Tell us what the HELL is going on. Right now.”

“1-1 was the one who found you for Alpha Ashlar.” Freya whispered, making little circles. in the dirt with her toe.

“I don’t understand. Found me when?” I asked.

“When you ran away. When you ended up with King James,” Freya said. “When… when you had the accident. I kept tabs on you. For your fami

“Yep. I’m going to kill her.” Jamie began to rise to his feet.

My soul felt as though it were ripping in half, but I tugged Jamie back down just the same “Why?” I asked brokenly.

Tears rolled down Freya’s checks “I prayed to the Moon Goddess to help me hone my powers so I could find you. I didn’t know your family treated you badly. I had no idea. about the prophecy or Alpha Ashlar’s plans for you. I just thought… I thought you were a spoiled princess who lost your way. I thought King James had ensnared you. I thought it. was the right thing to try to get you back!

“Why the f*ck would you think that?!” Jamie bellowed.

“I… Alpha Ashlar told me really convincing lies. About you. About how evil you were and how evil the council was. Hera kept asking me to help her find her beloved sister’ She even cried. My powers were just starting to grow, and I was just this lowly member of the pack. I had no reason to doubt what Alpha Ashlar and Hera were saying.” Freya said.

“If you found me, why didn’t you come to ask me yourself?” I murmured.

Freya dropped her face into her hands. “That would have been the smart move. But like I said, they were convinced King James had some hold over you. And I had no reason to doubt them. So… I helped. I helped. I did this awful thing, and I am sorry. So sorry.”

“You took my wife. You hurt my child.” Jamie’s voice cracked. He put an arm around met and held me to him. “Did you curse them as well?”

“Nol” Freya shook her head vehemently. “No, I would never! It was Hera.”

“Hera found another witch to do her bidding.” I inferred.

“No,” Freya said. “Hera IS a witch.”

I sat in silent shock, as did Jamie. Then I burst out into hysterical laughter. “Freya, Hera can’t be a witch.”

“She is!” Freya insisted. “She’s a witch, and she did TERRIBLE things. I saw them after they found you. I saw the truth. And there was nothing I could do about it! I was threatened with the pain

of death and sent away. I went to the council then, but they didn’t believe me, either. Please, please, I’m not lying. You have to believe me.”

“Hera… a witch?” I stopped laughing, trying to get my head around the concept.

“Yes. And we have to find her so she can break the curse,” Freya said.

Jamie wasn’t convinced. “You’re saying we need to find Hera now. After you were so sure, we needed to find Ralena.”

“Hera IS Ralena!” Freya replied. “Or rather, she was. She used a spell to disguise her appearance. And she put a spell on you to try to break you up. I’m sure she wanted a way to get herself in and out of the castle whenever she wanted, maybe to poison Isla some more so she wouldn’t recover her memories. But I confronted her.”

“You confronted her. Then WHY isn’t she sitting in my dungeon?” Jamie rumbled.

Freya looked sad. “She’s a more powerful witch than me. She threatened to tell you the truth, and I couldn’t let you send me away. I had to protect you from her as best I could.”

“That’s why she disappeared,” Jamie murmured.

without

“Yes. That’s why she disappeared. She knew I wouldn’t let her just come and go putting up a fight or making some kind of trouble. She used a spell to disguise herself, but I knew it was her. I could sense her unique magic, Freya said.

“You’d think she would have tried another way, then,” Jamie mused.

“She did. She attacked you and took Margot. She wanted to take Margot all along just as soon as she realized you had a daughter,” Freya responded. “I know because she tried to rope me in, telling me I should be loyal to the Ashbluff Pack and to her. But Isla, I am only loyal to you.”

“You have a funny way of showing it,” I said, my voice cold and bitter in my ears.

Freya knelt before me. “I know. I know, and I’m sorry. I don’t expect you to ever forgive

me.

“I… I can’t forgive you. But, I will trust you going forward, on the condition you never lie to me again,” I murmured after a pause.

Jamie nestled his chin in my hair and sighed. “She’s not the only one who needs to ask forgiveness. I accused you of plotting against me. I-I believed you left me on purpose. I treated you so badly when we reunited.”

My scalp felt wet with little droplets, but it wasn’t raining. I realized Jamie was crying.

“I’ve already forgiven you for all that,” I reassured him. “I wouldn’t have known what to

think, either. It all sounds so far-fetched, like some evil fairytale. Yet, here we are.”

“Here we are.” Jamie turned to Freya. “Can you break the curse?”

Freya bowed her head. “Your Majesty, I cannot. Hera is so much stronger than I am, and so the curse is beyond my ability to break. Plus…”

“Plus?” I asked, afraid to find out what more there could be.

“It… it gets worse,” Freya said softly.

“You’d better just tell us how it gets worse,” Jamie sighed.

Freya wiped tears from her cheeks. “She cursed the baby as well. I don’t think she meant to, but she just blasted all that magic into the car, probably thinking Isla was the only one in there. She didn’t know about Margot until recently. I-I have no idea how to break a curse split between two people.”

“Hera cursed my baby?!” I yelled, the words ripping through me.

Freya winced. “Yes.”

“She’s dead,” Jamie intoned. He hugged me tightly to his bare chest. “Isla, I am going to kill her. Don’t worry. That bi tch is dead.”