“Yes.”
“A few hours ago, I would have said absolutely not. But now, I don’t know, Red. She’s broken. We all thought she was coping, but she was simply hiding everything.” Jen let out a sigh. “I saw Costin earlier in the hall. He’d come out of their room breathing like a bull about to charge. I tried to get him to tell me what was going on, but he wouldn’t budge.”
“He left her?” Jacque asked.
“I saw him head downstairs. From there I don’t know where he went.”
“For Costin, the most patient of our males, to leave her side after everything she’s been through … that’s not a good sign,” Jacque pointed out.
There was a knock at the door. “Just come in. We don’t want to wake her up,” Jen told Decebel.
She heard footsteps, and then the light from the bedroom was blocked by four bodies.
Jen pressed a finger to her lips and whispered, “Rachel, we need you to work some of your gypsy mojo on our healer. But she needs to stay asleep.”
Rachel nodded as she stepped forward and knelt beside them. She placed a hand on Sally’s head and closed her eyes. Rachel’s hand began to emit a soft glow, and then it faded.
“She won’t wake,” Rachel said.
“Dec, can you put her on the bed, please,” Jen said as she and Jacque climbed to their feet.
“Why do you need all of us?” Alina asked.
“We need moms,” Jen said. “And I don’t mean us new moms who are still walking around like chickens with our heads cut off. We need the kind of moms who have been in the trenches. You’ve endured the horrible childhood hairdo disasters and dragged yourselves through the PMS valleys mixed with hormonal teen emotions. You’ve given advice to young men who needed guidance into manhood and cuffed a few who didn’t take your advice. We need those kinds of moms. That would be you.” She pointed at Lilly and Alina. “Congratulations, but your job isn’t done.”
“Is it ever?” Lilly asked dryly.
Jen deadpanned, “No. Never.” She looked at Rachel. “Can you dig around in her head and see what’s going on?” Jen held up her hand. “And before you tell me how intrusive that is and an invasion of privacy, blah, blah, blah, I’m calling the possible suicide card. Sally was talking like she was ready to walk off a cliff. She’s given us an idea of what she’s thinking, but she’s one of the few people in this world that I will not live without, so if I have to invade her privacy to make sure she keeps breathing, then I will. Can you do that?”
Rachel gave a curt nod. “I care about Sally too.”
“You can’t really know Sally and not care about her,” Jacque said. “She’s like a cute kitten. Can’t not love her.”
“True story,” Jen agreed. “Now.” She breathed out and pointed at Alina and Lilly. “You two, if you don’t mind, join me and Jacque outside. We have plans to make, a life to save, a marriage to restore, and all that noble crap.”
The four women stepped out into the hall leaving Rachel to sift through Sally’s mind. Decebel was the last one out and shut the door quietly. Fane was striding down the hall looking as grave as Jen felt.
“Jacquelyn,” he said as he reached his mate. “Are you alright?”
“I don’t know the answer to that question, wolf-man. Sally is in a bad place.”
“Dec, can you and Fane go and keep an eye on Costin?” Jen asked. “We don’t need him busting in on our intervention and going all caveman on us.”
Decebel leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “She will be alright,” he said softly. “She’s strong.”
“Yes, she is,” Jen agreed. “But everyone has a breaking point. I’m afraid Sally has met hers.”
Once Decebel and Fane were gone, Jen took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She looked at Jacque, then Lilly and Alina. “We need to send Sally home.”
“What?” Jacque asked quickly, even as Lilly and Alina both nodded. Jen had known the two women would get it.
“I agree,” Lilly said. “Sally believed her parents to be dead for months. At first, we thought maybe giving her time before going to them would be wise, but after hearing you say she’s suicidal, I agree she needs a sense of normalcy.”
“To go back to what is achingly familiar,” Alina added.
Jen gave a curt nod. “Exactly.”
“Are we going with her?” Jacque asked.
Jen shook her head. “No. I think she and Costin need to go. Titus can stay here with us, and we can corrupt him. Maybe in a few weeks, we can fly with him to Coldspring. But I think Sally needs to be reminded of where she came from, who she is, and that she is still the same amazing woman. She needs to see her family fall in love with Costin the way we know they will. That way, she will understand he still fits in her life.”
“Do you think Costin will go for it?” Jacque asked.
“He’ll do whatever it takes to get his mate back,” Jen said confidently.
“I’ll call her parents,” Lilly said as she pulled her cell phone from her back pocket.
Jen pulled out her own phone. “I’m booking their flight.”
“Couldn’t we see if one of the Fae could take them?” Alina asked.
Jen shook her head. “Let’s let her do everything the human way. The travel will give her time to prepare herself to see her parents.” Jen looked at the flights and prayed she was making the right decision.
Rachel sat on the bed next to the sleeping young healer. There were dark circles under Sally’s eyes, and her skin looked drawn as though it were stretched too tightly across her face. She ran a hand gently across Sally’s forehead and pushed back her long brown locks.
“You’re too young to be going through this,” Rachel whispered. “You should be worrying about whether Titus is learning his ABC’s and how to keep Jen from corrupting him too terribly. Not this.”
She knew she didn’t need to stall any longer, but the truth was, she didn’t want to see into Sally’s mind. Not because she didn’t want to invade the girl’s privacy, though that did prick her conscience, but because she was afraid of what she might find there.
Rachel let out a sigh and then pressed her hand to Sally’s forehead. The older healer closed her eyes and let her light and power flow into the young woman. She was met with immediate resistance and fought the urge to pull away. Darkness cloaked Sally’s mind. It whispered to Rachel like a lover, but the words that filled Sally’s mind were poison. Over and over, Rachel heard the hiss of a voice caressing Sally’s thoughts, telling her how unworthy and tainted she was. You are ruined, it crooned. Ruined and stained.