Claimed by the scarred Alpha

PRIM

I let my spirit self begin to unravel, let go of the tight, careful hold I’d kept on my own edges since I first understood what I was, and just as I reached the point of no return, the air around me changed entirely.

A voice cut through the dark behind my eyes.

"I did it."

It did not sound like any of them and that caused me to open my eyes.

I stood somewhere bright now, somewhere that looked distinctly like a healer’s infirmary, with clean lines and quiet order replacing whatever black, formless space I’d occupied inside that creature. A small shape drifted toward me, nearly human in proportion but no larger than a finger, with wings on them that caught the light in ways that made my breath catch even though I no longer needed breath at all.

Beside her stood a woman, wrapped in a faint, shifting light I recognized immediately, the same quality of glow I’d noticed clinging to Margaux ever since I returned to the world as a spirit.

"Where the hell am I?" I asked.

"My name is Arania," the small creature said, her voice impossibly clear given her size. "I’m a fae. I pulled you out of the belly of that vile demon after your friend Margaux asked for our help. Now you are in our wellness center."

I looked down at my own hands, which were still ghostly and translucent. I then turned in a slow circle taking in the room around me.

"I’m really free," I breathed.

Then I remembered.

"What about the others?" I asked, scanning the room like Étienne’s mother or brother might materialize somewhere in a corner I’d simply overlooked. "There were two others. They were with me."

Arania’s expression fell.

"There were others?" she said. "I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have been able to pull them out regardless. You splitting yourself the way you did gave me an anchor to work with. For them, there was nothing I could do."

Something heavy settled in my chest at that, grief and guilt tangling together in a knot I didn’t have time to properly untie.

The woman beside Arania spoke next, and something in her bearing told me she was another whisperer, the same kind Margaux was slowly becoming.

"Our job here is done, then," she said. "You can go find Margaux now. She was very worried about you."

I shook my head.

"I don’t think so," I said. "Margaux is in grave danger. She’s been kidnapped by some psychotic witch who wants to swap bodies with her, and there’s a demon in her head right now trying to convince her to make a deal, to give in willingly, to protect the people she loves by sacrificing herself instead. It’s manipulation, and it’s good. It won’t be long before she breaks."

Both women went still.

"My brother," the woman said, her voice suddenly urgent.

"Ophelia," Arania said, turning to her, "the girl. Your brother has protection on him now. He is warded and safe. Per your request. But the girl is not."

Ophelia, I understood now, began pacing, her hands pressed briefly against her temples.

"Fuck," she said. "I did not expect any of this to move this fast." She stopped abruptly, some horrible realization crossing her face. "That means all of it was planned. Every step of this was the demon’s plotting from the very beginning. The witch might be nothing more than a tool being used." Her breathing quickened, something close to panic creeping into her voice. "This is a dangerous, dangerous demon. It reminds me of that sidhe, the one obsessed with me, the one that nearly—"

Arania flew close to her immediately, resting a tiny hand against Ophelia’s cheek.

"That’s in the past now," the fae said gently. "You are safe. Protected. Stronger, too. We have a pact, remember. Nothing gets through that without going through me first."

The panic in Ophelia’s face slowly eased.

I watched all of it, impatient despite the tenderness of the moment, before I finally spoke up.

"I take it that means you’ll help me."

Both of them turned toward me.

"Yes," Ophelia said, steadier now.

"Is there a way you can figure out where she is?" Arania asked me.

I nodded immediately.

"My obsession has always been the witch," I said. "Wherever Séverine is, I can find her. It’s practically instinct at this point. I already know exactly where they are."

"I’ll connect with you," Arania said. "You lead us there."

She flew closer, and I braced myself for her hand to pass straight through me the way everything solid usually did, some old habit built from days of existing as something nobody could properly touch. Instead, her palm settled against me, resting there with real weight and real contact.

"Envision us there," she said.

I did.

The room around us glitched at first, then flickered, before it dissolved into something formless for one disorienting second, and when the world solidified again, we stood in front of a gas station, with fluorescent light spilling out across cracked pavement.

The whole building was radiating a wrongness I could feel in whatever passed for my bones now.

I moved toward the entrance immediately while the other followed behind me.

To my surprise, I did not even get far as I hit something invisible instead, a barrier that stopped me cold, and understanding settled into me with a bitter, familiar taste. Séverine had prepared for exactly this. She’d known I might come, might try, and she’d sealed the place against me specifically.

I turned to tell the others, only to see them stopped as well, both of them pressed against something none of us could see.

"This is concentrated magic," Arania said, already reaching out, her small hand pressing flat against the invisible wall. "It’ll take me a minute to break through it. But I can definitely shatter it."

"Please do." I begged.

She nodded and began to work. I watched as the barrier shuddered under her touch, vibrating with a low, resonant hum that I felt more than heard, and I stood there, helpless, watching the gas station through a wall I couldn’t cross, praying that a minute was a price we could actually afford to pay.