anything but ordinary, and she suddenly realized she preferred it that way. She’d always been an outcast, but now, finally, she belonged.
Except she didn’t. She’d given away the thing that made her different from others, but bonded her to her sisters.
Tierra fixed her with a determined look. “Now that you’re stronger, we need to find that son of a bitch and take back what belongs to you. I felt it inside him when he brought you here, and he ran like the devil when we questioned him.” Her expression fell into a tangle of worry.
“I’m scared to ask what he did to you to get it.”
Claire shook her head as clammy emotion churned in her hollowed out soul. The feeling was foreign, unwelcome. “I’m all right.” Tierra’s concern and pity weighed on her, making her feel less-than. She’d always been alone, always had her strength if nothing else. She’d always taken what she wanted, even if she couldn’t have what she needed.
She didn’t have to worry about that anymore, though. She’d made the choice to give her curse away. She had her sisters instead. That would be enough.
“Did he hurt you?” Moira asked with wide eyes. “Like rape you or torture you to get you to give your magic?”
Heated thoughts of their imagined encounter swarmed her, making her ache for his touch. “No.”
“But your wrists…” Tierra said in a soft voice.
“That was my fault.” She’d struggled when she should have listened.
“How’d he do that, anyway?” Moira watched her with eyes the color of stormy seas. “I can’t imagine it’s like guttin’ a catfish or anything.”
“No,” Tierra interjected before her gaze strayed to Claire. “She’d have had to give her soul to him.”
“I did. I gave him my power.” The disappointment in their eyes echoed the grief in her heart and nearly undid her. What if they no longer wanted to claim her?
“Why?” Tierra asked with a look of bewilderment that nearly broke Claire’s heart.
“So I could find you. So I could have a chance at a real relationship…maybe with him.” His explanation had made so much sense at the time.
“With him?” Moira asked, her expression turning again to pity. “Why would you ever give up your power to be with a man?”
Claire ventured into new territory. She’d never given up anything for anyone. It had seemed so noble. “He’s not like any other man I’ve met.” When she turned to Tierra, she found her face ashen, like remnants of scorched earth.
“Good goddess. Do you even know who he is?”
Claire searched both of their faces, never feeling so powerless in her life. “Dru?”
Moira lifted disappointed brows. “War, Claire. The man is War.”
She wrinkled her expression. “War? I don’t understand.”
Tierra leaned closer. “War, as in one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. As in heated crusades and bloody battles. As in, you willingly gave him your power? What do you think a man like that will do with your fire?”
Claire swallowed as a shadow of her previous essence sparked. “He said it was the only way he could let me go. It was the only way I could find you. It was the only way he and I could be friends.”
Tierra scoffed. “Do you really think War has friends?”
“Now don’t go getting your britches in a bundle, girls. Claire ain’t the first girl to fall for a cheap line.” Moira split her focus between her two sisters.
“Cheap line? Neither of you have a clue what I went through to find you. Tierra sends out this cryptic message to return home. I had no warning of danger, no idea who or what I was looking for, no idea who I could trust. He might be War, but there’s a man behind that title, and he’s not completely heartless.” Whatever fire she’d found fizzled. “If he was, he would have killed me like he’d planned.”
Moira patted her hand. “Don’t feel bad. I had my own demon to fight, too.”
Claire gave her a sideways glance. “What did you do?”
She grinned. “I blasted his ass six ways to Sunday with a huge wall of water. That soggy bastard will think twice ‘afore messing with me again. Seriously, we have to get your power back. I had no idea the stuff I could do. With Tierra helping me, it’s like a Cajun Christmas every day of the week.”
Claire couldn’t deny she yearned to have her power back as well. Without it, she’d be surviving, not living. “Dru said me having my power would bring about the