“Of course not,” I agreed as patiently as I could. I had waited twenty-six years for answers, another hour or two wouldn’t kill me. “Let me show you to your room,” I offered.
I went back to my own room to shower the faint stench of death off me, but I was still brimming with unanswered questions. It seemed like the more I found out about my mother, the more confusing things became. Would I ever know the truth?
Chapter 14
Anna
After dinner with the rest of the guys, Ingrid asked for privacy and sat down at the table across from me. “Let’s discuss why I’m here.”
I respected that she wanted to get down to business, but I was hurt that she was making it clear she wasn’t here for any other reason.
I pushed the old journal towards her. “I read the story of how the dark fae were imprisoned on our world and how the white wolves were tasked to protect their prison as well as the gateway back to the fae worlds.”
Ingrid nodded. “That was the intent. But over time, history faded into stories told over campfires and then to myths that children whispered about in the dark. My predecessor thought that was for the best, as it ensured that no one would come searching for the prison, but no one had been prepared for the day the seal that kept the prison gate closed would start to fail. We had no idea the old stories were even true until some of my pack mates started to hear the whispers.”
“That’s how they escaped? The gate failed?” I asked worriedly.
Ingrid shook her head. “Oh no, child. They’re still trapped and can barely touch this world. If they had broken free things would be much worse. Right now, they can only reach out and touch those that are vulnerable to them.”
I took a deep breath. “Is it possible for them to possess someone? I think one of the pack masters near us is under their influence.”
“They can reach inside your mind and whisper dark thoughts to manipulate you, but they can’t actually possess your body. They can’t give someone the capacity to do evil, they can only goad the person to take action.” Ingrid paused. “But if they do get their grip deeply enough into a person, I think they can manifest in that victim to a greater extent.”
“When I touched Justin, I was overwhelmed by the darkness,” I confessed to her. “It was a physical attack.”
Ingrid frowned. “Justin is a very dangerous man if he was able to give them enough power and presence to touch this world.”
I swallowed nervously. “How do we break their hold on someone?”
“I don’t think it can be done unless that person is willing,” Ingrid told me reluctantly. “The dark can make very seductive promises.”
“I’ve done it before, so I know it can be done,” I assured her. “They got inside of James, but I was able to pull him back from that madness.”
“Then he must love you more than anything else in this world,” she said softly. “If you broke their hold on him, then that proves that you matter more to him than anything they could offer.”
“And I love him just as much in return,” I said softly.
“Back to business,” Ingrid said sharply. “What do you know so far?”
I explained the information that I had found but told her that I had more questions than answers. “Do you know what these fae really are? What you described to me doesn’t sound like the fae I’ve met.”
“Most of the fae that you’ve met are just descendants of what we’re dealing with. You’ve noticed that each one of the fae have magical affinities to natural phenomena?”
I nodded.
“Well, the dark fae imprisoned are so much more than that. They consider themselves to be gods because they are the natural phenomena.”
“How is that possible?” I scoffed.
Ingrid shrugged. “I don’t know what they really are. But I do know that they only sometimes take a human or fae form to amuse themselves, that’s not their true form. They can’t be killed by guns or swords because their bodies are just temporary forms – that’s why they were trapped instead.”
“That’s not good,” I murmured. I still didn’t understand what these dark fae were, exactly. But I got the part where she said they couldn’t be killed.
“Okay,” I said as I let out a breath. “So, our best option would be to try and fix this prison so they can’t get out?”
Ingrid shook her head. “That’s what I was thinking at first, but the prison was created by over a dozen of the most powerful fae alive at that time, there’s no way you and I could duplicate it.”
“And we certainly won’t be getting any volunteers from the fae world to help us,” I said darkly.
“No,” Ingrid agreed.
I sighed but refused to give up. “I’m guessing they’re currently using their influence to get someone to set them free?”
“Yes,” Ingrid said darkly “I had thought that their reach couldn’t extend beyond our territory, but it appears I was wrong. Their influence is what caused a civil war within my pack. We have it under control now, but we lost a lot of good wolves. We’ve gathered everyone else together so that they can be protected.”
“We know that Justin is under their control,” I said thoughtfully. “How can we use that to help us?”
“It’s probably safe to assume that they want to use Justin to open the prison doors,” Ingrid told me. “But there’s nothing to stop them from simply choosing someone else if we were to take him out of the equation.
“We need to be one step ahead of Justin,” I said firmly. “If I were a possessed pack master who wanted to free a group of powerfully evil fae, how would I do it?”
The corner of Ingrid’s mouth turned up in the beginning of a smile. “He’d have to be powerful enough to break through the rest of the seal.”
My head snapped up. “Justin is powerful enough to be a pack master, but he’s not as strong as Austin. But what if he could suck the power from other wolves to increase his own?” I felt sick to my stomach. The fae wouldn’t think twice about draining the magic from someone who was weaker than themselves, but that’s not something that wolves did. “Can a wolf even do that?” I asked dubiously. I thought back to when I was looking for Emily. I hadn’t been successful at seeing any visions until I’d searched for her using what I remembered of the feel of her magic. And the only vision I had gotten was of Justin. Was that because Justin had absorbed Emily’s magic into himself?
Ingrid shook her head. “I doubt it. Only the white wolves have the ability to perform magic, but we can’t do anything like that.” I blinked at her assumption but didn’t correct her. That was the way I had killed the King of Winter, but then again, I wasn’t just a wolf.
“He probably has help,” I murmured. “There was a witch that Austin hired to do a spell for us,” I explained to Ingrid. “But she used my magic to fuel the spell. Could she have simply taken my magic for herself instead?”
“It’s possible,” Ingrid said doubtfully. “But the witches would never help to release the fae. If Justin has their help, then they’re unaware of what his endgame is.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked curiously. “The witches and lamia seem pretty antagonistic towards one another. Maybe it’s a situation of the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
Ingrid laughed. “Do you not know what the witches are?”
I blushed. “Um, maybe not?”
“You know about the war between the fae and the lamia? How their women and children were slaughtered?”
I nodded. Arminius had told Austin and me the story before giving me my mother’s journals.
“The lamia have been trying to breed more of their kind,” Ingrid explained. “Witches are the product of the lamia mating with humans.”
“Huh,” I said as I sat back in the chair. “But I thought that the lamia couldn’t do magic? Why would witches be able to?”
Ingrid shook her head. “Lamia can, just not the males. True magical ability among them is rare, but the females can do minor magic if they
work in groups and perform spells. The males are more likely to survive the change into a full lamia, but it comes at a price of not having any magical ability.”
“That’s convoluted and confusing,” I admitted. “But, in science terms, the ability to do magic must be recessive and on the X chromosome? But how does that relate to their ability to transform into a full lamia? And by full lamia, I’m assuming you mean acquiring vampire-like attributes?”
Ingrid smiled. “The lamia are quite secretive about all of that. Even if they knew those answers, they wouldn’t share them with us.”
“So, they’re trying to breed the human blood back out of their race?” I said slowly, giving up on trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for what she was telling me. If Talen were here right now, he would be scolding me for trying to look for science that could explain magic.
Ingrid sighed. “All of that is a complicated political mess that I don’t care to be involved in. The bottom line is that the witches and lamia need each other, but they are always fighting each other in petty power struggles.”
I sighed. “So, basically, there might be a witch that’s helping Justin who might not know the real repercussions of what she’s doing. If we can get to the witch and stop her-”
“Then we have a chance to deal with Justin before he gets too powerful,” Ingrid finished.
“But we’re in agreement that it’s too soon to act directly against him?” I asked to confirm my own thoughts.
Ingrid nodded. “The dark fae will just target someone else, and we’ll waste time trying to figure out who. It’s better that we know who our enemy is so that we can develop a strategy against him.”
I took a deep breath. “Well, it’s a good thing that this pack has an insanely talented hacker in addition to some pretty bad ass operatives.”
Ingrid chuckled. “Yes, that is advantageous.”
I started to stand, but Ingrid stopped me and reached for my hand. “Anna,” she said hesitantly. “That isn’t the only reason I agreed to come here.”
I settled back in my chair and searched her eyes. “Why else?” I whispered.
I’m not sure what I was expecting. Maybe I was hoping that she’d tell me that she wanted to meet her sister’s daughter or admit that she wanted to put our family back together. But what she said shocked me.
“I think Astrid is still alive.”
I froze. “What makes you say that?”
She looked down at the table. “I’ve had these dreams about her,” she said quietly. “I used to forget them completely the second I woke up, but lately I’ve been remembering more. I think she’s been trying to contact me through my dreams.”
“Is that even possible?” I asked with a frown.
Astrid shrugged. “Her and I always had an unusually strong connection. I’ve never admitted this to anyone else, but I would have known the moment she died, and I have a feeling that she’s out there.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “If she’s not dead, then where is she?”
“She has to be trapped somewhere,” Ingrid told me. “She never would have abandoned her child otherwise. She loved you more than life itself and I know she would have done anything to protect you.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Do you think Froston had something to do with it?” I’d been to Froston’s castle in the Winter Realm, but it didn’t trust him. I wouldn’t have been surprised to find out that he had my mother locked up in that castle somewhere. I would be beyond angry, but I almost expected betrayal from him. Froston did exactly what he wanted and only acted in ways that benefited himself.
Ingrid hesitated. “I can’t be sure, but I have a feeling that he didn’t. He appeared to be too frustrated at the lack of answers as to her disappearance.”
“How do we find her?” I asked resolutely. If my mother was trapped somewhere, I was going to save her.
Ingrid entangled her fingers with mine. “As her daughter, you have a special connection with her, and I’m tied to her as her twin. Together, we may be able to reach out to her.”
I wrinkled my nose. “In dreams or in real life?”
Ingrid gave an amused chuckle. “I was thinking more of combining our power and then trying to reach her with the bonds we have with her.”
“When do we do it?” I asked.
Ingrid sighed. “I don’t suppose your mother’s journal tells us how to do something like that?”
“No,” I said in disappointment. “If it had, I would have already tried it.”
“I suspected as much,” Ingrid admitted. “But your friend Sam might have some insights. Isn’t she related to the shamans in Colombia?”
“The panthers?” I asked in surprise. “Sam has been estranged from them for years, and she was raised outside of the community.”
“We can still try,” Ingrid assured me. “You have strong magic and we both have a deep desire to see her, so let’s hope that’s enough.”
“Tomorrow night?” I asked hopefully. “After we return from the council meeting?”
“Agreed.” Ingrid confirmed with a smile.
Chapter 15
Cody
Today was the reckoning we had been waiting for. Justin had been called to the council for questioning in relation to Emily’s disappearance and our suspicions of the role he may have played in Blendel’s and Derek’s deaths. The rest of the council members weren’t as concerned with the deaths of our two guys, they saw them as previous lone wolves whose checkered pasts may have caught up to them. Austin tried to press upon them the significance of how they had died, but the best he could do was get the rest of the council to at least allow him to ask the questions. It was frustrating, but at least they were taking Emily’s disappearance seriously.
Many of the older wolves didn’t like the idea of using the council as a mediator to solve disagreements between packs, and they would have preferred to solve things the bloody way. But Austin was trying to lead the way to a better community by example. If it came down to a battle, there was no question that Seaside would win. We had wolves with combat experience and the weapons to back them up. That was probably why Justin had agreed to come here at all, he knew this would be his only chance to win.
“Justin, thank you for coming,” Mr. Morgan said politely.
Justin nodded, but with a sneer to indicate that he had no respect for the council.
Mr. Morgan’s face tightened. “We have some concern about recent events involving one of your pack members.”
“And who would that be?”
“Emily,” Austin said quietly. “You drove off with her, and yet, you returned to your pack alone.”
Justin shrugged. “That’s ridiculous. I dropped her off at the house where the young unmated females live.”
“That’s not what they said,” Mr. Morgan said quietly. “Your own pack members have provided us with statements. You told your pack that Austin refused to turn Emily over to you, but Austin has video footage of you leaving his home with the girl.”
Justin’s face turned red and I could see the rage bubbling underneath the surface.
“Reagan-" Austin started.
“My mother?” Justin asked in disbelief. “You turned my own mother against me?”
“Justin, this isn’t about anyone being against you, this is about us checking on the welfare of a young female wolf who was reported missing,” Mr. Reed said sharply.
“A young female wolf in my pack,” Justin snarled. “The council has no business interfering in the way I manage my pack.”
“That’s true under usual circumstances,” Mr. Morgan said firmly. “But when we have wolves from multiple packs coming to us with concerns, we have to initiate an inquiry. You know how valuable females in their breeding years are.”
“Just produce the girl and let’s get this over with,” Mr. Richardson demanded.
Justin stood up and shoved his chair angrily. “No, I’m tired of dealing with a bunch of old men who think they know what’s
best. I’m sick of watching you morons destroy our race.”
“I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration,” Mr. Reed said sarcastically as he waved for enforcers to surround Justin.
“Many of our packs are struggling right now, they’re barely surviving on the brink of poverty and living in fear of the humans discovering us,” Justin ranted. "That’s not how we should be living. Humans are sheep and we’re the apex predators. They should be the ones scrounging in the dirt while we feast like kings.”
“Justin- “
“It’s my turn to speak!” he shouted. “Then you make a deal with the fucking lamia? We’re expected to be lapdogs to them so they can throw us scraps when they feel like it?”
“They have the technology necessary to keep us hidden from the humans,” Mr. Morgan reminded him coldly. “This world is more complicated than it used to be, we can’t just live on the fringes and expect the humans to ignore us. There are cameras everywhere, drones in the sky, and corporations tracking our every move with electronic devices. We don’t have the resources we would need to keep our way of life. You know this.”
“So why hide?” Justin threw his arms wide open. “Let the humans know what’s out there, let them hide under their beds in fear.”
Mr. Phillips chuckled. “Did you miss the part where we’re outnumbered ten thousand to one? The humans could systematically annihilate our race.”
“Just wait and see,” Justin seethed. “Our time is coming.” He turned to face Austin. “You accuse me of murdering a female, but what about your own crimes? Are you going to tell them what you’ve been hiding?” Austin gritted his teeth, but before he could answer, Justin continued. “He’s been harboring a member of the fae within his own pack! He’s let her prey on the very men that he’s sworn to protect.”
Austin stood to confront Justin. “You’re the one who has betrayed his own kind and has been preying on my pack. I may not have the evidence to bring against you, but I will.”
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