by D. Fischer
Cinder murmurs, “She was alone with you a lot. She could have. Easily.” I look at him gratefully.
Nobody else says anything. I slam my hand against the table. “She’s not the mole! She’s the victim here!”
Sara cautiously approaches my side. “Think about it, Jinx. She didn’t know the address but showed up on time anyway. Right after she came, the Bane Pack knew information – information they couldn’t possibly know without someone on the inside feeding it to them. Jacob didn’t find anyone worthy of suspecting.” She looks at Jacob to confirm this, and he nods. “She left right after you figured out how to utilize what you are. Ran. Without telling you.”
“This is crazy,” I whisper, shaking my head. “I don’t buy it. I don’t buy it at all.”
“She dragged out your training,” Sara continues, looking to the ceiling as she reflects on the past few days. “She’d been roaming the halls. She secluded herself. She –”
“Stop!” I swipe my hand through the air.
Sighing deeply, Jacob runs a hand over his head, massaging the scalp. “It all fits, Jinx. She was here to gain trust and gather intel. A spy. Not to help you.”
“But she did help me!” My words echo and bounce off the walls, and the shifters with sensitive hearing wince. My nostrils flare as I breathe heavily and whirl to face the door. In the background of my chaotic thoughts, the song Kaya and I had played together in the tower vibrates inside my skull, singing of sweet sorrows and terrible betrayals.
Remember what you are, she had said. Had she cared what I was? Truly cared? Or, when she saw me skinwalk, had it frightened her away? I grasp for explanations.
“She was here to spy,” Jacob says again, this time more quiet and reserved, desperate for it to sink into the place my thoughts are trying to bury me.
Sara places her hand on my shoulder. “Maybe she does care for you, Jinx, but her true duty had nothing to do with helping her niece. She took that book. She’s the only one who could have. Why else would she flee if not for all those reasons?”
“Why would she steal the book when she has no magic?” I ask quietly. Defeat settles in the pit of my gut. “Why wouldn’t she wait until she could get the pendant, too? She’s not a shaman. She can’t do any magic.” Even as I say it, I know it isn’t true. She could hear the voices as well as I could. Did she lie? Could she have lied? Was I too blind, happy to have a true family that I didn’t care even when the evidence was right in front of my face?
“Maybe the Bane found a way,” Jacob says, but I barely hear it. The story – the one she told me about a good wolf and a bad wolf – was she speaking for herself? Was she trying to tell me something?
“We don’t know,” Sara confesses. She squeezes my hand. “But Jacob could be right. If they can’t get you, they’ll try to find a way themselves. Kaya –”
I rip my hand from hers.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Jacob Trent
Muttering angrily, Jinx storms from the lab. She marches away in the direction of the cafeteria, and the lab doors swing back and forth until they finally settle at the closed position.
Anger ripples into my clenched fists. They used her. They pulled on her weakness to belong somewhere and to have someone, anyone, who was hers both by blood and heritage. Her aunt could have taught her more about where she came from. She could have shown her where her father grew up. Instead, she had deceived her. She had deceived me. My nostrils flare. I had trusted her. All it took was a dream catcher for my troubles, and I had trusted her.
I start to follow Jinx, but Sara holds up the hand that isn’t clutching her robe.
“Give her some time,” she whispers. “It’s a big betrayal. Family has always betrayed her. She’s used to it by now, but she’ll recover.”
Sighing, I rub the last of the sleep from my face and then cross my arms. At least she has Sara as a constant. Though Sara doesn’t fully understand Jinx’s capabilities, she’s always been a solid rock in Jinx’s life. I’m grateful to her and her ability to be reliable, and I give the best friend a nod of approval and thanks.
Rex opens the door to the lab, his head still angled toward the hall. “Is she okay?”
“She will be,” Sara says confidently. She straightens her back, seemingly oblivious to how much each and every unmated male in the room peers at her bare collarbones.
I avert my gaze and address Rex instead. “Where’s the rest of your group?”
Rex stretches his shoulders while I survey the dark circles squatting above his cheeks. He’s been working around the clock to make sure Jinx is safe. I’m sure it wounds his pride that Jinx’s biggest threat was the one who was growing closer to her every day. Closer to me, too. I’ll never forget her wise words next to the fireplace. Even now, knowing Kaya is behind this all, I’m still grateful for her advice. My wolf growls inside me, contradicting my thoughts as if to say I should have known better and should have seen this coming.
“I sent them to bed.” He looks around the room suspiciously. “Mind telling me what’s going on?”
“No one told you?”
He frowns. “Travis told me to come straight to you.”
I rotate my shoulders, and my joints pop while Cinder fills him in on the rat we’ve had sleeping in our compound. When Rex and I were on the phone, we were sure they were trying to find Kaya and possibly capture her in order to lure Jinx. Something of that measure probably would have worked, too. Jinx would have run at the chance to save her dead father’s only living sister.
The further and further Cinder dives into the tale, the wider Rex’s gape becomes. When he’s finished, Rex growls deeply. “We should have never let her come here. We should have never trusted an outsider while the pack was in danger – while Jinx was in danger.”
My heart warms at Rex’s easy acceptance of Jinx. He talks about her like she’s his alpha female, and I nod gratefully to him in the same fashion I did to the witch.
“What do we do?” Chip asks quietly. Bia gently places the necklace on the table. It spools in circles, the carved bone clunking to the table.
“That depends,” I murmur to the group, crossing my arms over my chest.
“On?” Cinder presses.
“On what happens next now that they have the book. The book is useless to them, so it makes me wonder why they’d want it in the first place.” For some odd reason, I don’t doubt the things Kaya Whitethorn had told us. Do I think she lied about a lot of things? No. I think she stuck to the truth as much as she could and danced around the questions that would make her lie.
“I think Kaya Whitethorn is hiding more than we realize,” Sara concedes, echoing my own thoughts.
“Meaning?” Cinder presses.
“I think Jinx suspects Kaya has magic of some kind. Hell, I’ve even suspected it. Probably somewhere between skinwalking and shaman. We’ve all seen Kaya respond to the spirits Jinx could hear.”
I purse my lips. “Perhaps.”
My phone chirps, and I fish it out of my pocket.
“Who the hell would be texting at this hour?” Sara grumps.
I swipe the screen and read the message. My breath hitches, and I grip my phone tightly. “Damien’s awake again. Reese wants him to try to shift back.”
Jinx Whitethorn
Soft pattering bare feet make me lift my head from resting against the windowpane. At first, I had been heading toward the kitchen but then thought better of it. There’s no way I’d be able to bear enduring Glenda’s sympathy. I wanted to escape and pretend I wasn’t surrounded by people who would look at me as if I should have known all along I brought a liar into this house.
The tower. The tower is where I found my small sliver of peace and quiet.
Snow has begun to fall across the brightening landscape. It melts as soon as it touches the ground. There’s no wind, so each flake falls in a dancing sort of way that calms the inner turmoil ripping apart my insides.
Quickly swiping away the tears with the heel
of my hand, I look up and watch as Sara steps from the old stairwell and shuffles her way to me. She carries a blanket in one arm while another is draped over her shoulders. At least two hours have passed since the lab’s revelations. I’m honestly grateful I was allowed to dwell in the quiet for so long.
She still wears the robe, but at least she added leggings and a bra.
“Talk to me, Jinx,” Sara pleads, reaching for my hand and folding it in hers.
“I – I,” I shudder deeply, the almost-hiccups threatening to seize my lungs. “I can’t believe she’d do this to me. I won’t believe it.”
She squeezes my hand. “I know it’s hard to accept, but right now, everything points to her.”
“She’s been helping me, Sara,” I whisper. “Helping me! Why would she help me only to betray me?”
Sara shakes her head. The draft coming from the window creeps across the bridge of my nose, quickly drying my tears in stains of salt.
“Remember how I said that I felt like she wasn’t doing you any good in the training?” I nod reluctantly. “I think she wasn’t. I think she was stalling until she had time to snatch what she came for. Only when I stepped in and helped did it become fruitful. And with Damien’s attack. . .” she trails off then leans against the brick. “She could have led someone onto the property. Being here for as long as she was, she could have done it easily. With everything that’s going on, it was the perfect time for her to slip away. You know me, Jinx. I wouldn’t not trust someone unless I felt a deep wrongness coming from them.”
I swallow thickly and close my eyes. “I just can’t –” I choke on the words then open my eyes with a new sense of determination. “I won’t believe it until it’s proven without a doubt. I have to believe there’s at least one person – one family member in this world who wouldn’t betray me. Someone who wouldn’t lie.”
She squeezes my hand again and gives me a sympathetic smile. “I consider you my sister, and I would never dream of it. This pack considers you family, too. You should have seen Rex’s face when he found out you were betrayed.”
I snap my head up. “Rex?”
She nods. “He was really angry.”
“Where’s he now?”
“They’re with Damien.”
Goosebumps crawl along my skin. “What’s wrong with Damien? Did something happen?”
She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “No, nothing like that. He’s awake again. They’re trying to get him to shift back. Rex is thinking the same thing I am – Kaya led someone on the territory, but Damien got in the way. We only need Damien to confirm it. I’s dotted, t’s crossed, and all that.”
I blink at her, and then in the next second, I’m tugging her down the tower’s stairs and through the warmer halls. If he’s awake, if he shifts back, he might be able to clear my aunt’s name. I shove my shoulder into the hospital door and skid to a halt at the sight of Damien’s eyes – human eyes – which slide to mine. He’s pale with purple circles resting above his cheeks. His lips are cracked, and his hair is in complete disarray, but he’s alive. Breathing. Human.
Jacob, Rex, Cinder, and Reese look up at me from their seats situated around the hospital bed as though they were all in a deep discussion before I had entered. My heart sings at the sight of my friend – bandages and all – and a watery smile spreads across my face.
Abandoning Sara at the door, I scoot between Jacob and Reese. My next breath comes out as a half-laugh, half-sob. “You’re awake.”
Damien returns the smile weakly, then grimaces in obvious pain. “You’re okay,” he says hoarsely. Reese reaches for the water and angles the straw into his mouth. He grunts when he lifts himself a bit higher then drinks daintily.
“Of course, I’m okay.” I gaze questioningly at Jacob. Reese sets the cup down and returns to her seat. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Damien rests his head back on the pillow and looks at Jacob. “She doesn’t know?”
“Oh, she does,” Cinder answers. “She just won’t reason.”
I sneer at the men. “Because it’s absurd,” I grind out.
Swiveling in his chair, Jacob slowly turns his head to look up at me properly. One dark eyebrow is raised, and I swear everyone holds their breath. “It’s no longer an accusation.”
I frown and cross my arms defensively. “What do you mean?”
“Do you want to tell her?” he asks Damien. “Or do you want me to?”
“Go ahead,” Damien urges. His voice is crackly, broken and hoarse. Then, he uneasily slides his eyes back to mine. He nestles his head deeper into the pillow, and we hold each other's gaze as Jacob settles back into the chair and braces his hands on his thighs. The goosebumps I felt earlier return with a renewed force, and the atmosphere sours considerably.
“Your aunt was the one who attacked Damien,” Jacob says.
I blink at Damien, silently asking him if this is true. His dry and cracked lips thin sympathetically, and he picks up where Jacob left off. “I found her in the woods on the phone. She was talking quietly to someone. Talked about leaving. I couldn’t hear her, but the way she was acting was secretive. Suspicious. And when I got closer, I stepped on a twig.”
He grabs a fist full of his blanket and flares his nostrils. “She noticed me. There was so much fear – in her expression I mean. I tried to snatch the phone from her, bat it out of her hands, but all my paw managed to do was barely claw her arm.”
“Rose Bushes,” I whisper. “She didn’t cut her arm on a thorn.”
Damien shakes his head and closes his eyes. “And then she changed.”
“Changed?” I ask, my voice hollow.
“She skinwalked,” Jacob whispers. “Into a mountain lion. The wound was from a graze of Damien’s claw. She’s like you, Jinx. Travis and Trevor pulled up the camera feeds. Right before she exited the forest, there was a flare of light from within, exactly like yours.”
Remember what you are.
“No.” No. No, my head chants. I shake my head and back away, denying even as the evidence slips into my head like self-assembling puzzle pieces. All the evidence I’ve gathered unwillingly and all the evidence I’ve ignored.
My back bumps into the wall, rattling a picture, and memory after memory crash into me. There were times when it felt like her advice was given from experience. Sometimes, when we talked about my father or shaman, she would speak in a jealous tone. The whispers – she had heard them, too. Had practically shrugged it off when I questioned her about it. Everything she said to me was a lie within a truth. Cleverly worded.
“She attacked you,” I whisper, hoping by saying it aloud, it’ll snap my breaking soul back into my body. “She tried to kill you.”
All the whispering voices who caressed my ears during our sessions . . . were they trying to warn me?
“She did,” Damien says, his voice firm.
“My aunt is the mole.”
“Yes.”
Wide-eyed, I look at Damien. “How is she a skinwalker?”
Jacob stands from his chair, approaches me, and places both hands on my shoulders. “Did your mother say anything about Kaya and Adriel having different mothers? Anything at all?”
I blink. Once. Twice. And on the third, I say, “No.” My voice hardens as my heart breaks and shatters in my chest. “But I have every intention of finding out.”
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ALSO BY D. FISCHER
| THE CLOVEN PACK SERIES |
| RISE OF THE REALMS SERIES |
| HOWL FOR THE DAMNED |
|HEAVY LIES THE CROWN – Arriving 2020|
| NIGHT OF TERRO
R SERIES |
| GRIM FAIRYTALES COLLECTION |
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bestselling and award-winning author D. Fischer is a mother of two very busy boys, a wife to a wonderful husband, an owner of two sock-loving german shorthairs, and slave to a rescued cat. Together, they live in Orange City, Iowa.
When D. Fischer isn’t chasing after her children, she spends her time typing like a madwoman while consuming vast amounts of caffeine. Known for the darker side of imagination, she enjoys freeing her creativity through worlds that don’t exist, no matter how much we wish they did.
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