The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,105
blocked once more when Tiger shut the door.
Millie sidled through the Shifters to the bed. “This might not work, dear,” she said to Rhianne. “I do not wish to give you false hope. But he is a goblin, and Shifter magic might be useless on him.”
“Please.” Rhianne sent Millie a desperate look across the bed.
Millie opened her handbag and removed what appeared to be a small iron bar. Rhianne saw as she brought it closer that it was a statue, about five inches long, in the shape of an upright man, so ancient its features had nearly been worn away.
Millie placed the statue on Ben’s chest. She closed her eyes and began a chant. Unlike Zander’s smooth, almost musical words, these were in the harsh, guttural language of goblins.
Rhianne felt the magic in the talisman. It was old, so very old, it must have existed long before the Tuil Erdannan. Some historians claimed that goblins were the first race of Faerie, but none knew where they’d come from or how they’d arisen. The earth itself had given birth to them, was the speculation. Goblins were powerful, strange, and connected to the earth like no others.
The jangle of wind chimes came to Rhianne, more insistent now. They sounded exactly like the chimes at the haunted house—Kim or Carly must have hung up a set of the same type.
A whisper that sounded like laughter wove among the chimes. Rhianne thought she felt the ground tremble, though that might simply be her own shaking. None of the others reacted to it.
Outside, rain fell in a gentle patter. Millie continued to chant. At long last, she fell silent and straightened up, though she left the talisman on Ben’s chest.
“Old magic,” she said. “It is the only relic I brought when we fled Faerie.”
She’d carried it from that day to this, Rhianne thought with sudden insight, to help her and her family survive.
The last threads of the mate bond were dissolving, and Rhianne’s thoughts scattered with the profound pain of that loss. A part of her had wrapped itself in Ben, and he in her.
The wind chimes became more insistent, the whisper audible in her mind. Save him.
I can’t. The words wailed inside her. I’m losing him.
Rhianne clung to the final strand of the mate bond, let the music of the wind chimes surround her, and leaned down and kissed Ben’s unmoving mouth.
His lips were cold, so cold. Rhianne warmed them with hers and silently repeated the syllables of his true name once more. “Ben,” she finished in a whisper. “I accept the mate claim.”
Under her, Ben jerked. Rhianne popped up, about to scowl at whoever had shoved the bed, but Ben’s body jerked again.
His limbs began to twitch, as though some unseen force controlled them. The thrashing increased violently, and Zander and then Tiger leapt forward to hold Ben down.
Rhianne joined them, lying across Ben’s chest, kissing his neck, fearing what was happening to him.
Ben continued to convulse. The iron statue didn’t move, as though it was fused to his chest. The wind chimes jangled frantically, but no heavy wind was evident to move them. The rain came down harder, beating on the roof of the porch outside the open window, a rumble of thunder booming in the distance.
Under Rhianne, Ben gasped.
She shot upward, and Tiger and Zander sprang back. Ben’s chest rose with a sharp breath, and a flush infused his skin.
Ben’s eyes flew open. For a moment, he saw nothing, staring without comprehending.
Then Ben blinked, glanced at those around the bed, and tried to raise his head. He crashed back down to the pillow with a groan.
“Whoa.” Ben’s voice was a croak. “That was weird. Hey, sweetheart. Did we get him?”
Rhianne, tears flowing, flung herself onto him. She heard the others sigh, relax, sniffle, even sob. The tension of those bracing for grief eased away to rejoicing.
“Yeah, you got him,” Connor answered shakily for Rhianne. “Got him and a half.”
“That’s good.” Ben weakly stroked Rhianne’s hair. “That other eagle. Was that your dad, Rhianne?”
The man with the red-brown hair and deep brown eyes was outside the room, waiting. Eamon, he’d said his name was. Rhianne nodded at Ben.
“Well, that’s something.” Ben continued to caress, trying to comfort her. “You did it, Rhianne.” A tiny note of triumph entered his whisper. “And I heard you say yes to the mate claim.”
The wind chimes slowed to a soft shimmering, which matched the mate bond that wove with renewed strength around Rhianne’s heart.