by C. Larsen
The voice of the gods.
"The Great War has been renewed,
Resurrected from ancient blood feud.
Darkness unfurls on Raven's wings,
Death and destruction with it brings.
Only the Changeling guards against doom,
All-Father's seed in Dark Mother's womb.
To bring an end to the feud requires a price,
Blood to be paid in sacrifice.
Call the Dark Mother,
And Spawn take cover.
To eliminate the taint,
Death or bondage awaits.
But the Hunter's Moon wanes,
Releasing Úlfhednar from chains.
If Hildolfr succeed,
Then all progeny be freed."
"Is that the prophecy you heard before?" she asks in her normal voice.
"Um, partly,” I answer, a little stunned. “I've never heard the second half before."
"Mmm, yes. Caroline has. No doubt about that." She looks at me expectantly.
"I still don't get it, though. Do you mean I have the ability to both free and enslave the werewolves?"
"Is that what I said? Hmmm."
"So that thing that happened with the rogue," I say to myself. "That wasn't just a fluke? I'm really able to control the wolves..."
"Quite a responsibility that's been placed on your shoulders."
We walk in silence for a few minutes. A tiny cottage comes into view, the area around the house completely covered with plants and flowers, brown with the winter. Margie leads us up the front path and into a cozy living room, a fire already ablaze, giving the house a warm, homey feeling.
She busies herself in the kitchen, filling the kettle and bustling around gathering herbs and cups. Now that I have a chance to study her more closely, I realize why she seems so odd. I watch her eyes glaze over, as if she’s far away, then she blinks and she's back.
It's similar to what happened to Lydia that day she received a prophecy, but it happens to Margie every couple of minutes. She can't possibly be seeing the future that often, can she?
"And you said Caroline knows this? She knows the full prophecy?" I ask as she begins grinding up herbs in a small bowl.
Margie gives me a sympathetic look, and I suddenly feel dumb for not realizing it before. "That's why Caroline tried to force me into a blood bond. That's how she expected to eliminate the werewolves. By taking my power and enslaving them."
Margie gives me a small, sad nod, motioning for me to sit.
"If this is true, why would Silver Ridge take me in? If I have the power to enslave them, why wouldn't they kill me?"
"Because they don't know," she says simply. "I never told them the full prophecy. Not even Madelyn."
My mouth opens in shock. "No one else knows?"
"Not from me. And you should think very hard before telling anyone yourself. Once others know what you're truly capable of, you'll be a target for them all." Then in another one of her rapid shifts, she says, "Shouldn't you be back at Haven Hollow? Your friends need you. There's trouble brewing. You have to go back."
"How? Nikolay has me under house arrest. He has the whole town under lock down."
"So?" She shrugs her shoulder and tastes the brew she's cooking. "Just tell them you're leaving. You're the Chain Breaker. They need you. Without your co-operation the prophecy will never come to fruition. You hold all the cards." She takes out two bowls and fills them with soup from the pot.
"But, I can't leave yet. I still need more training. I need to learn to use my abilities."
"Yes, of course you do. Won't do anyone any good if you aren't trained. Here, eat. You're too skinny," she says, pushing one of the bowls in front of me. "Gray will be here soon," she adds, almost as an afterthought.
I shake my head, trying to focus despite her random jumps in conversation. "Wait, but you just told me I have to leave. Why? Are my friends in trouble in Haven Hollow?"
"Someone's in trouble?" she asks, eyes wide. "Who? Everyone here is safe."
"What? No, you just told me my friends need me."
"Who? Gray? Yes, Gray needs you," she says, patting my shoulder in a grandmotherly fashion. "Poor boy, ever since his mother died..."
This conversation is making my head spin. I leap up at the sound of thudding feet outside. Are we under attack again?
I whirl to face the door, flinching as it flies backward, bouncing off the wall with a thud.
Chapter 29
"What the hell are you doing here?" Gray looms in the doorway, scowling at me.
"Ah! Boy, come in and eat. Your mother isn't home yet. She asked me to feed you. Come. Come sit." Margie ushers Gray over to the table where the untouched soup bowls are.
Despite his anger, he speaks gently to Margie. "I'm afraid we can't stay. Emerson and I have to get back to the house."
Margie sighs in disappointment. "Yes, yes, you had better get her back. Vasily is not going to be happy. Go on, then."
I shake my head, puzzling over her rapid-fire comments. It's as if Margie can't tell the difference between the present and the past.
Gray glowers at me. I've never seen this expression on his face, at least not directed at me. He must be really pissed. I don’t see why, though. I only snuck out talk to Margie. What’s the big deal?
I stand up, thanking Margie for the delicious soup, even though I haven't gotten around to tasting any of it.
He pierces me with angry, silver eyes as he begins marching me through the woods back to the manner,
"How did you find me?"
"How do you think?" he says, voice clipped.
"Right..." He must have followed my scent. Of course.
Walking back to the manor in silence, I ponder Margie's words. She said my friends back home were in trouble, that I needed to be there. Was that just crazy talk, or did she actually see something in the future?
I guess it doesn't really matter; I was planning on going back as soon as I complete enough of my training anyway. And I guess, with this war looming, we're all going to be in danger at some point.
When we get within view of the manor, Gray still maintaining a stony silence, I see Vasily standing on the porch to the house, scowling.
Uh oh.
Margie said Vasily wasn’t going to be happy. She must have seen this. And if she was right about this, she could be right about the other things...
"You found her then?" Vasily says, stomping up to us.
"She just went to visit Margie," Gray says, voice carefully controlled.
Vasily pins me with a hard stare. "You disobeyed your Alpha. He said to stay in the house."
My hackles rise at his tone. "I just went to visit Margie. I didn’t realize I was a prisoner here," I shoot back.
Vasily grounds his teeth together and glares at Gray. "Just get her back to her room before Nikolay finds out." Then he storms away.
Great. Training with him tomorrow is going to be a blast...
Gray slashes me a glare and marches behind me into the house. Once back in my room, Gray closes the door and gives me a look.
"What?"
"You heard Nikolay earlier," he says, folding his arms in front of his chest. "The entire town is in lock down. You can't just go wandering off on your own."
"I just went down the road; it's not that big a deal."
He pinches the bridge of his nose between his eyes. "You disobeyed a direct order."
"Aren't you the one who only a month ago mocked Caiden for keeping me under lock and key?"
"This is different," he growls, eyes flashing.
"Yeah, this is much worse. At least I was never physically confined to my house before!"
"I'm not making these rules, Emerson! Nikolay ordered you to stay here, for your protection. There's nothing I can do. I don't want to keep you locked up here, but Nikolay is not someone you should cross." Something flashes in his expression, some remembered pain, and my mind goes to the scar tissue I so recently healed.
&
nbsp; "Is that how your back was hurt? Did Nikolay do that?"
Gray’s eyes stay on mine, unflinching. "No. That was Ivan. Nikolay watched."
I suck in a breath, remembering the jagged lines crisscrossing his back, imagining claws raking across it, tearing flesh, severing muscles. I may not know much about werewolves, but I've never seen one scar before. They heal so quickly, I didn't think they could scar. Whatever caused the damage to Gray's back, it had to have been horrific to leave those scars.
"Why?" How could his own Grandfather do that to him? How could his father condone it? How could he stand there and watch his son be brutalized?
"They thought I had something to do with Derek's disappearance."
Derek, his friend who ran away with a human. His friend, who he will be forced to execute if they ever catch him.
"Did you?"
He doesn't answer, and my heart lifts, knowing he had a hand in helping Derek be with the one he loves. But fear quickly slices through me. If they ever find out what he did...
"They punished me," Gray continues. "Even though it was just a suspicion. Even though they couldn't find any proof."
"Are you saying they'll punish me like that for leaving the house?"
All the anger seems to leave him in a gust. "I don't know. You may be new but you’re a part of the pack. You’re expected to obey Nikolay the same as anyone else. If he finds out about this..."
He runs a hand through his short hair, and I pick up a scent in his emotions I didn't notice earlier in the face of all his anger: fear. He's afraid for me. Of what Nikolay will do to me for disobeying. How many friends and pack mates has he seen punished for breaking the rules? How many friends has he been forced to punish himself?
If Nikolay finds out, would he make Gray punish me?
The thought makes my blood run cold. Would he do it? Would he hurt me the way he hurt Mikhail? The way he hurt Derek? I know he wouldn't want to, but if Nikolay demanded, would he? Could he?
I'm almost afraid to ask the question, but if I'm going to be with him in any sort of relationship, I need to know the answer.
"If Nikolay ordered you to punish me for this, would you?"
The pain in his eyes when he looks at me would be heartbreaking if it weren't so terrifying. I take a quick step back, needing to put more distance between us. I can smell the fear oozing from my pores and know the exact moment Gray senses it. His eyes widen, full of shock, then flashing with pain.
"Em—"
"No. You should leave. I—I need to sleep."
He moves closer, arms coming up as if to hold me, but I flinch away. I can practically feel Leanne's fists on my flesh as my mind flashes back to that moment. The pain. The fear. The helplessness. That's exactly what Gray did to Derek, his best friend. That's what he would do to me if ordered by his Alpha.
Betrayal cuts deep into my flesh. Why did I ever think I could trust him? Tears prick behind my eyes. I glare at him, fighting them back.
"Get out. I want you to leave. Now!"
Gray looks like he wants to say something, but thinks better of it. He gives me one last tortured look before leaving.
When the door closes behind him, a sob escapes. I collapse onto the bed as the tears begin to fall.
Chapter 30
Sometime around two a.m. I finally cry myself out and fall asleep, but it's not a peaceful rest by any means. I'm plagued by memories of Leanne and the beating. At some point, Leanne's face becomes Gray's. Her fists morph into claws that rake down my back, over and over again.
I jolt out of bed in a cold sweat. According to the clock on my cell, I've only been asleep three hours. Unable to get back to sleep, I carry my phone to the window and stare into the cloudless night, remembering everything Margie revealed last night.
If she’s right, then I am both the Chain Breaker and the Changeling. I have the ability to either enslave the werewolves, or to free their race forever.
That's a lot to process on only three hours sleep. Not to mention her cryptic allusions to trouble in Haven Hollow.
I really need to talk to someone about all this, and unfortunately Gray is no longer an option. Fiddling with my phone, I take a deep breath and dial Arianna’s number.
"Em?" her groggy voice sounds through the receiver. "What's wrong? Is everything okay?"
"Um, yeah, everything's fine," I lie. "Why wouldn't it be?"
"Because you're calling at five in the morning for starters..."
"Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up. I have training soon and I wanted to see how everything was going. I haven't talked to you in weeks."
Arianna doesn't even know yet that I'm a werewolf, I think in a sudden panic. We certainly have a lot to catch up on…
"Training this early? Jeez, Madelyn sure is working you hard." She yawns loudly. "I'm afraid things here aren't going all that well. The coven is still divided. Mirowski and Richard are both trying to take the coven in different directions. Richard still demands that Lydia's killer be handed over, and I'm afraid the coven may stage an attack on the Haven Pack if James keeps refusing.
“Mirowski, for his part, has tried setting up a sit-down with James to talk about a truce, but James refuses. He doesn't trust the coven not to ambush him during the meet. How can we stop a war from breaking out if they won't even sit down to talk?" she asks, exasperated. "The next time you talk to Olivia, will you ask her to talk to James about this? She won't talk to me in class anymore. Let her know that Mirowski really does want to stop hostilities before anyone else gets hurt."
"Yeah, I'll talk to her. I can't believe how out of control this is getting."
"Tell me about it. So, how are things going over there? Are you learning a lot from Madelyn?" When I don't answer right away, worry creeps into her voice. "Em? Is everything okay?"
"I don't know..." I hesitate, struggling once again with my decision. I've been avoiding her phone calls for weeks, afraid to tell her about my were' blood. Can I trust her not to say anything? I know she's not as prejudiced against werewolves as the rest of the coven, but will she see me differently if she knows?
I bite my lip. I have to trust someone, and she's never betrayed me before.
"Em, you're scaring me now. Tell me everything's alright or I'm coming out to Ashwood to get you myself!"
"Calm down, Ari. Everything's fine. But what I'm about to tell you, you can't tell anyone. Not Ethan. Not Caiden. Not Mirowski. No one.”
"You're not exactly reassuring me here, Em."
"Do you promise? No one in the coven can find out."
"I promise, I promise. No one else will know, I swear. Now tell me. What's going on?
"Ari, I didn't come to Ashwood to train with Madelyn's coven... In fact, I've barely seen Madelyn since I got here. I actually came to train with the pack."
Shocked silence greets me from the other end of the line. In a rush, it all comes spilling out of me—my first, unexpected shift, my apparent mixed bloodlines, Madelyn's concerns about me being feral, all of it pouring out, like poison being lanced from a wound. I didn't realize until this moment how much I missed my friends, my home. Even though I have Gray to talk to, it's not the same. I miss my home.
Arianna sits through it all, interrupting here and there with exclamations and gasps. Finally, I get to the part about the rogue attack and what Margie said last night.
"When Caiden first told me about werewolves he said that any witch from the War Gods class who could shape-shift was able to control the wolves. Well, we all know where my witch bloodlines come from, and since I'm a half-breed, technically I can shape-shift too, sooo..."
"Wow, Em, this... this is crazy. I've never heard of anyone being both a witch and a werewolf. You were seriously able to stop the werewolf in his tracks like that? Amazing!"
"It was only for a second or two, and I'm not even sure how I did it." I sigh. "Sorry for laying all this on you so early in the morning. I just really needed to talk to someone about all this..."
"Please,
this is soooo much better than sleep! You’re a Soul Binder.,” she says in awe. “That’s incredible.”
“A what?”
“A Soul Binder. It’s what they call witches with your ability. I haven’t heard of one being born since the Great War ended…What does Gray say about all of this?"
"I haven't told him yet." Silence comes from the other end of the line. "What am I supposed to say?” I ask in frustration. “'Oh, hey, by the way, I'm a descendant of the witch who originally cursed you and I can enslave you and your entire species.' Yeah, I can see that going over reeeaaal well..."
"Hmmm, I see your point. But, you never know, he might surprise you."
"Not to mention," I continue, the hideous feeling in my stomach expanding, "even if he isn't completely horrified, he's loyal to his Alpha. He'd be obligated to tell Nikolay, whether he wants to or not."
"Do you really think Gray would be horrified?" she asks, completely ignoring my comment about Nikolay.
"Of course he would! He'd be just as horrified to learn about my ability to control his pack as Caiden would be to find out I'm secretly half-were."
Ari sighs. I can practically feel her rolling her eyes. "You don't give anyone enough credit, you know that? Did it ever cross your mind that either of them might just accept you, regardless of your bloodlines or abilities?"
A humorless laugh escapes. "Caiden made his feelings about me perfectly clear when he told me to leave. And Gray practically told me last night that if it came to me or Nikolay, he'd choose Nikolay."
"Well, I don't know about Gray, but I know Caiden just wanted you to be safe. Things are still really precarious here between the pack and coven."
"Wanted me safe? Are you kidding? Caiden told me it's my fault Lydia died. He told me to leave town before I get any more of his friends killed. Yeah, he's real concerned for my safety.”
"He said that?" Arianna sounds shocked. I guess he hasn't said much to her about our last conversation. She lets out a low whistle. "No wonder he's been in such a pissy mood since you left. You know he probably didn't mean any of that, right? You should call him. I'm sure he feels awful."