"I'm glad you came to your senses," Gertrude said the next day. "What changed your mind?"
I decided not to tell her it had been a near-drowning which had made me realise that leaving wasn't the right thing to do. "I just had a bit more of a think about it," I said instead. "I realised that sometimes it's okay to be a little bit selfish. And I can't picture being a solitary."
"Neither could I," Ashley said, smiling as she squeezed my hand. "You won't regret it."
"I certainly hope not," I teased, but deep down, I knew I wouldn't.
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Unfortunately, a last-minute snag threatened to put the kibosh on my plans. That snag came in the person of - you guessed it - Ben. Ben was, in a word, Not Happy about the current state of affairs. He was even less impressed when he found out Micah was ready to approach the surviving Saltwaters and offer them alliance.
But Ben was particularly Displeased when he found out I was planning on properly joining the Darkshards. The Keystones weren't as virulent enemies with the Darkshards as the Lightshards had been, but there was still a bit of bad blood between them, mainly on the Keystones' side, but that was because the Keystones had run afoul of the Darkshards a couple of generations back for a mistake that was their own fault.
Ben didn't care about the whys and wherefores. He wanted two things; control of the Keystones, and control of me. Micah and I discussed this when he came to Gertrude's house two days after I'd made my decision.
"I'm not giving him control of the pack," Micah said firmly. "I'm not sure if I told you this, but just before the battle, we had a council, and everyone unanimously decided to remove him from the leadership. We also cast him out of the pack, not just because of his actions towards you, but for several other misdeeds as well. I won't go into them, but they're pretty nasty. He's now a rogue, and the word is already spreading. Give him a fortnight, and he won't have a friend on his side."
"What about the remaining Saltwaters?" GiGi asked anxiously. I couldn't blame her for being worried about Barry, having not heard of him in the aftermath of the battle.
Micah sighed. "None of them want to join with us," he said. "I tried talking some sense into them, but they were all determined to stand with their former Alpha. We're not running the risk of letting them run free; they're currently locked up, and guards are on them day and night."
GiGi gripped my hand as we came to the same conclusion. "Don't let Benjamin get near them," she urged.
"We've no plans on that," Micah assured us. "Believe me, that was one of the first things that sprang to mind when I heard Ben had been released; he won't have a chance to whip them into a vengeance run. Thankfully, everyone else we talked to have agreed to listen to reason, and we're in talks to get them integrated into other packs. I think that should go smoothly, but the packs we approached have told us they're going to be doing a very thorough screening on those pack members who survived the battle, particularly the surviving Lightshards. That's certainly their prerogative, and we don't blame them in the slightest. We're not housing any of them, though. We'd rather they went elsewhere."
"Fair enough," I said. But I had a bad feeling the suriving Saltwaters weren't going to heel so easily. Micah would need to have them executed as soon as possible; Ben would not let a prison stop him.
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Nor did he. Two days later, we got the bad news that Ben had broken the surviving Saltwaters out of their prison, killing or kidnapping the guards in the process. That was about the time we found out the surviving Lightshards had been in on the whole mess. And the bad news kept piling on when Stephanie and Caleb came to take Ashley home to Penzance. Finn, the former Alpha of the Blackwater pack, had teamed up with Ethan, a former member of Stephanie's pack, and they, together with Ben and his cohorts, had formed a new pack, calling themselves the Nightstalkers. Already there was talk of revenge on everyone who'd come on them, and we were all worried.
"Short version, we're screwed," Stephanie said grimly. "Ethan and Finn were supposed to be under twenty-four hour guard, but the Nightstalkers have got some very talented magicians amongst their lot, and they're gaining more recruits by the day. I hate to say it, but things are going to hell in a handbasket again. That's why we need to get you and Ashley out of here."
I nodded, feeling the blood drain from my face. As much as I longed to see Harry again, I knew I was safer in Penzance. "We've got a billion protections around the packhouse," Caleb added, giving Ashley's hand a squeeze. "No one can get in, and if they try, they're in for a hell of a time. Giselle, you and Gertrude need to come with us as well. If the Nightstalkers can't get to Ashley and Charlie, they're going to go after you two."
"Consider it done," Gertrude said, her face grim as she stood. "I can add a few nasty tricks of my own to bolster your protections, and hopefully anyone who tries anything gets a good reminder of why the Blackpaws are second only to the Darkshards in power." She almost seemed to glow with a dark aura as she said this, and I was suddenly very glad she was on our side. 142Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8i808hoIg5
