My face flushed with heat. “Tap, don’t.”
He turned to me. “You deserve the best. Speaking of which, I heard rumors of a dangerous pack in search of the stone—the one around your neck. You need to be careful.”
“What did you—?”
Quinn ran over to us, carrying a dusty wine bottle. “This was the best I could find. I hope it’s good enough.”
Tap grabbed it. “Good thinking. This is the rarest drink you’ll find. It’s been bottled for nearly a thousand years.”
“Don’t waste it on me.”
Soleil covered my mouth. “We’d love it, Tapster. What Victoria means to say is, thank you.”
I shoved her away. “No! I—”
Tap wrapped his thick fingers around the top of the bottle, grunted, and then pulled off the cork. He sniffed the drink. “Perfect. Exactly the thing our Victoria deserves when she comes here.” He poured some into the two glasses that already sat on the table. “Cheers!”
I sipped the thousand-year-old wine that Tap had probably been saving for something actually special. Hopefully I could find a way to make it up to him later, after he wasn’t smitten with me.
Chapter 4
Toby
The movie ended and I turned to Jet. “Do you—?”
“Wasn’t that movie awesome? I feel like I need to watch it again after that ending. I can’t believe he was a traitor the whole time. Now it puts everything else into a new light.”
“Yeah, okay, but about Victoria.”
“What about her?”
I tapped the armrest. “You didn’t notice anything weird when she was here?”
He glanced to the side, looking deep in thought. “Hmm… No. Should I have?”
“What about you, Zia?” I looked around Jet to our pack vampire, bouncing the werewolf-vampire hybrid baby on her lap.
She turned to me. “She seemed fine to me. Great, actually. Really happy. I’m so glad you two finally got married!”
I drew in a deep breath. “Okay, let’s try this again. Did you find anything odd about the way we all acted when she was here?”
“No,” Jet and Zia answered in unison.
“You don’t think it was strange that we were all, you know…” I wasn’t even sure how to describe it. It was like all of us were desperately in love with her, but I didn’t want to accuse Jet of that in front of Ziamara.
“What?” Jet asked.
I sighed. “We were all acting like she was the alpha.”
He gave me a double-take. “What? That’s crazy. We were all just happy to see her. She’s amazing.”
There was that word again.
“Who’s amazing?” Carter sat next to me and opened a can of pop. “Victoria?”
Jet’s eyes lit up. “Yeah. Isn’t she great?”
“So amazing.” Stella sighed dramatically.
“The absolute best.” Carter grinned. “We’re all so lucky to be in this pack. She’s the smartest shifter ever.”
“Right?” Zia smiled. “We live with her. We can learn from her deep wisdom all day and all night. All the other packs are probably oozing with jealousy.”
I scratched my head. “And none of you find this odd?”
They all looked at me like I’d just sprouted a second head.
A warmth spread through me, feeling like Victoria was near. “You’re right. We’re the luckiest supernaturals in the world. Why was I questioning anything? Speaking of Victoria, where is she? Shouldn’t she be back by now?”
“I hope she comes back soon,” Zia said. “I really want to ask her what I should wear tomorrow.”
“Are we going somewhere special?” Jet asked.
“No. I just want to wear something she’ll like.”
“Me, too. Let’s go pick out some Victoria-approved outfits together.”
“Don’t forget me!” Carter jumped up from the couch. “Help me pick out something she’ll love. She’s so amazing.”
A twinge of jealousy pricked me, but it was far outweighed by my agreement with them. Victoria was awesome, and I wanted to wear something Victoria-worthy, too.
The three of them rushed for the stairs. I bounced off the couch and followed them, but stopped when the front door opened. I could almost hear a choir of angels sing as Victoria entered Moonhaven, followed by Soleil. My heart soared high and burst into fireworks.
“Victoria! My beautiful, perfect bride!” I ran over to her and spun her in a circle, holding her as close to me as possible.
Soleil chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” I set Victoria back on the ground.
“I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see with my own eyes.”
“What did I tell you?” Victoria asked her.
“You wouldn’t believe what?” I asked.
“This.” She gestured to Victoria and me.
I put my arm around my sweetness. “She is wonderful, isn’t she?”
Soleil straightened her back. “Actually, no.”
The words were like a slap to my face. “What?”
“Sure, she’s okay. But she’s not all that great.”
Fire burned inside of me. “How dare you?”
Victoria put her hand on my bicep. “Toby.”
“I can’t stand here while she talks about you like this.”
“She’s not—”
I marched past Victoria, stopped an inch from Soleil, and stared into her eyes. “I think you owe our Victoria an apology.”
“Our Victoria?”
“You’re part of this pack, so yes.” I folded my arms and narrowed my eyes.
Soleil flipped some blonde locks behind her shoulder. “She’s my best friend, but I’m not about to bow down and worship her.”
Victoria grabbed my arm and turned me toward her. “We need to talk with you, Toby.” She turned to Soleil. “Stop egging him on. He can’t help himself. None of them can.”
“Can’t help what?” I asked. “What’s going on?”
“That’s what we need to talk to you about.”
Soleil looked at Victoria. “Maybe this should be a conference call—with you on the phone.”
I put my hand on Victoria’s arm. “What is she talking about?”
She turned to me. “Don’t you think it’s weird how everyone’s treating me?”
“Is someone being mean to you? We need to deal with that right away.”
Victoria sighed and turned back to Soleil. “You’re right. I should be out of the room.”
Soleil headed up the stairs. “Come on, Toby.”
“I’m going with Victoria.”
Victoria gave me a quick kiss. “Not this time.”
“Why?”
“Do you trust me?” She stared into my eyes.
“With every fiber of my being.”
“Then go along with this. Please.”
Asking me to part with her again ripped my insides into two. “Okay, but it won’t be long, will it?”
She shook her head. “It shouldn’t.”
“I’ll miss you, sweetness.”
Soleil pulled me up the stairs. “She’ll be on the phone.”
I followed her up to the attic. “Why are we all the way up here?”
“You’ll see.” She sat on a dusty chair and patted the one next to it. “Think about the way everyone is treating Victoria. Do you think it’s odd?”
“Everyone adores her.”
“Right.” She stared at me as though I was supposed to find a deeper meaning in that one word.
“You’re going to need to explain a little more.”
She tapped the arm of the chair. “Before you came back from the honeymoon, is that how people typically treated her?”
“They—”
“Really think about it.”
“There’d better be a point to all this.”
Soleil nodded. “There is. Just think.”
For some reason, it was hard to think about anything other than how great Victoria was, bu
t I did manage to pull some pre-marriage memories. “Well, not as strongly as they are now. Everyone probably just missed us while we were away.”
She shook her head. “Complete strangers at the Faeble are acting the same way.”
That caught my attention. “What do you mean?”
“Mesmers invited her to join their party. Mesmers! And then Quinn brought out Tap’s oldest bottle of wine and Tap insisted that Victoria drink it. A mermaid wanted beauty advice from her. Want me to go on?”
“I think it’s great that everyone can see how wonderful she is.”
Soleil slapped her forehead.
My phone rang. It was Victoria on a video call. I answered and smiled at her glorious face. “You’re so amazing.”
“The phone isn’t enough distance?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Did Soleil explain to you what’s going on?”
Soleil took my phone and looked at the screen. “I’m trying to get there. I think having you in the house is still affecting him.”
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Would you just tell me?”
“Victoria’s presence makes people enamored.”
“And you find that strange?”
“Yes, Toby!” Soleil’s brows came together and her green eyes darkened to almost-black. “It’s not normal, and the fact that you can’t recognize it should concern you. The stone is doing this—the same stone that tried to hurt you. The same stone that won’t let Victoria remove it from her neck.”
I rubbed a bruise on my side that I’d gotten when the stone essentially blasted me out of the bathroom. The gravity of the situation slowly ran through me until I finally realized how unusual and disturbing everyone’s reactions to Victoria actually were. And it made a lot more sense that it was the stone than anything else I could think of.
Soleil handed me my phone. “And now you get it because she’s not on the phone or on the property.”
“Where is she going?”
“My guess is back to the Faeble.”
“Is she safe?”
Soleil snorted. “Everyone she comes across wants to serve her. I’d say so.”
I frowned. “That’s true. Wait. Why aren’t you affected by all this?”
She took a deep breath. “It’s an essence stone. It can’t control me.”
“What are we going to do? Can you control the stone?”
“I don’t know anything about it.” She raked her fingers through her hair. “I’ve studied it, as you know, but I don’t know anything new.”
“Have you studied it since all this started?”
“No. I don’t want to find out if it can injure me.”
“You just said it can’t control you.”
Soleil tapped her forehead. “My mind. Who knows if it can throw me across the room?”
“Aren’t you willing to find out? We need to do something about this.” I tried to understand why the stone was making everyone essentially fall in love with her. “Why is it doing this? What’s the point?”
“My only guess is either distraction or self-preservation.”
“What do you mean?”
“The wolf essence stone is protecting itself.”
I gave her a double-take. “You think an inanimate object is acting on its own?”
“You have any better ideas?”
“I don’t know what to think. Do you think it has anything to do with Fen being taken down?”
She shrugged. “Anything’s possible. He was living in it for all those centuries. Maybe the curse that held him in was set to transfer to the next available werewolf.”
Fear tore through me. “You don’t think it’ll suck her inside of it, do you?”
Her eyes widened. “I have no idea.”
My pulse pounded out of control. Victoria had felt a strong pull toward it, even managing to find it when many shifters—including a dedicated secret society—had failed. “What does it want with her? Why her?”
Soleil shook her head. “We’d better call Gessilyn. This might have to be a joint effort between them and me.”
I hated to call and bother the witches again, but what other choice did we have? “They’ve got to be sick of us calling.”
“That gives me an idea!”
“What?”
“Have Victoria with you when you call—make it video call. They’ll be thrilled to help. In fact, they’ll be begging to do something.”
“You have a point.” I jumped up. “Let’s find Victoria and then call Gessilyn.”
Chapter 5
Victoria
I leaned against a tree and stared at the Faeble. If I went inside, nobody would leave me alone. Not that the stone had given me the worst curse in the world, but it was still a curse. I didn’t want everyone treating me like royalty—I just wanted everyone in my pack to be able to shift at will like all the other shifters.
Red and blue lit underneath my scarf. “Victoria.”
Not again.
“Victoria.”
“Why me?”
“Victoria.”
I threw my head back. “What?”
“Follow me.”
I froze in place, shocked to hear it say anything other than my name.
“Follow me.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
The stone swayed underneath my scarf. I pulled off the accessory, wrapped it around my hair, and watched the glowing necklace move back and forth over my shirt, picking up momentum with each movement.
My breath caught. I wanted to yank it off and throw it as far into the woods as I could, but at the same time, I was also curious what it would do—as long as it didn’t end up hurting me.
Without warning, it shot out away from me, the chain digging into the skin in the back of my neck. I gasped and stepped forward before it could slice through my flesh.
It pulled to the left, taking me deeper into the woods. The trees and bushes grew thicker, and I had to maneuver myself so I didn’t run into anything or get scratched. Though I was familiar with the woods, this path was new.
I had no idea where the stone was taking me.
My mouth dried, and all my senses went on high alert. Nothing felt out of place, but then again, I was being led by a magical stone that had housed a monster for centuries. Everything rushed past me in a blur as I had to race to keep up with the necklace. A large tree seemed to come right at me. I ducked out of the way just before crashing into it.
The necklace pulled harder, digging into my flesh. I tried to loosen it, but it didn’t help. The stone was stretched out in front of me to the full extent of the chain, hauling me along at top speed while it dug deeper into the skin of my neck.
My inner wolf clawed to get out because of my heightened emotions, but since I wore the wolf essence stone, I controlled whether or not I would shift. I told her to back down, but to stay ready. Who knew what the stone was leading me to? I might need to shift into wolf form at a moment’s notice.
The forest thinned, leading to an opening—but it wasn’t any ordinary clearing.
I skidded to a stop at the edge of an old cemetery. Moss grew on the tall, varied shapes of the tombstones. High grass grew around some of them. A wild rosebush had overtaken a mausoleum on the far edge.
The stone stopped its forward pull, landing with a soft thump as it once again rested against my chest. The glow faded to a barely-noticeable light.
I cleared my throat. “Is this where you want me?”
It lit up and then faded again.
What was I supposed to do? Chills ran down my spine, and I shivered. It was as though I’d entered a time warp. The cemetery was an even older style than what I’d grown up seeing centuries before.
Who was buried there? How long had they all been forgotten? I crept to the nearest gravestone. It stood nearly as tall as me, the top shaped like a cross. Dirt and moss covered the inscription.
I hated to disturb anything, but the stone had brought me
here. Clearly, I needed to find something. I reached out and brushed my palm across the headstone, wiping away years of dirt and growth. Flecks of dirt fell to the ground. The moss came loose. Before long, the etchings showed, but they were too covered by grime to be readable. I could only do so much with my hands.
Looking around, I saw nothing that would help. Except my shirt. I pulled the hem and wiped it across the lettering, smearing dirt into the fabric. I scrubbed, tearing my shirt. Dust flew into my eyes, and beads of sweat broke out around my hairline and across my back.
Finally, I could read the fancy script.
Tobias Foley
Loving husband, father, grandfather, friend, and teacher.
My mouth dropped open. It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t. I scrubbed the length of the entire headstone. No one had bothered to include dates. It had to be a coincidence. There was no other explanation—Toby wasn’t dead, and he certainly wasn’t a father or grandfather. Although, he was a husband, friend, and teacher.
I grasped the wolf essence stone. “Is this a joke?”
Nothing.
My entire body shook as I stared at the grave. It just wasn’t possible.
Desperate, I threw myself at the nearest stone and pulled off moss and rubbed away the dirt and grime. By the time I saw matching fancy script, the entire lower half of my shirt was shredded and caked with dirt.
The etching read exactly what I feared.
Victoria Foley
Loving wife, mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, and friend.
No dates. No indication of what killed either person underneath the gravestones.
I fell to my knees, dizziness sweeping over me as I stared at the two tombstones. How was this possible? What were the chances that it was a coincidence? It was equally unlikely that I sat at the foot of my own and Toby’s graves. There was no way our bodies rested underneath the soil—Toby and I couldn’t be in two places at once.
My mind spun, trying to make sense of the cemetery. Had I mistakenly thought these headstones were too old to have been made when I had been alive the first time? What if our friends or family had erected these?
It couldn’t be. That made no sense. Toby had never been dead, and even if he had, we had never married or had children, much less grandchildren. He hadn’t become a teacher until recently.
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