Aviva
To say I’m relieved to be home is an understatement. Our group is greeted with enthusiasm, especially after it’s revealed that we snagged enough deer and elk to see us through nearly the entire winter, and a huge banquet is held in celebration.
Notably absent from the dinner is Misty.
Lexa sleeps peacefully in my lap while my gaze drifts across the pack house.
I sweep past Ryan to a new face in the crowd. Well, not entirely new, but new to the dinner held here every night.
Kyra, wearing a dark green cloak, stands close enough to Cole that I feel a sudden jolt of unease as she reaches into her cloak and pulls out a vial, pressing it into his hands. Cole nods in thanks, but the line between his brows is evident. He looks like he’s in pain as he turns away from her, his skin slightly pale and eyes watering enough that I feel myself rising from the bench in an effort to walk over and ask what’s wrong, but then he turns back to the conversation he was having with a group of men and their mates seated at another table, and my opportunity is lost.
Instead, I look back at Kyra, who glances around the room before pulling her hood over her head and slipping through the door without anyone–except for me–noticing she left.
Logan wiggles on the bench beside me, picking at his food. I look down at him, watching the way he’s looking at a group of boys his age chatting near where their families are seated.
I give him a little nudge, hating the way he flinches. “You could go introduce yourself, you know.”
He vehemently shakes his head and looks back down at his plate. I sigh, sliding my gaze to Freya, who was apparently watching the entire exchange between bites of venison, fresh roasted vegetables, and steaming hot bread.
“No Misty tonight?” she asks, adjusting Sam’s weight against her shoulder.
I shake my head, drumming my fingers on the table. “Nope. I should go check on her and Addy, I think.”
“I’m done, I can do it. I’ll fix her a plate–”
“No, I need to talk to her about something, anyway. Thanks, though.” I rise, tilting my head in a silent plea to keep an eye on Logan in my absence, and Freya rolls her eyes, throwing me a secret sly smile in return.
I’m still not sure why the Teshkans were so afraid of Logan. He seems like a normal kid, at least to me. He’s shy and quiet, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from someone who is obviously traumatized and in a new world, far away from everything he knew and loved.
I feel Ryan’s gaze on the back of my head as I balance Lexa in my arms and fix a quick plate for Misty then leave, thankful it’s not raining, and the moon is big and bright, lighting my way across the village. I weave between the larger buildings, skirting into the woods where the new cabins rest, and hurry up the steps leading into Cole and Misty’s cabin at the very second she turns off the interior lights.
I rap on the door, once, then twice, then three–
“What are you doing here?” Misty asks, opening the door a crack, then wider when she notices it’s me standing on her porch and not a rogue, or something equally nefarious, that might have followed us home from the clearing.
“You didn’t show up for dinner.” I hold out the plate, and she accepts it, but she frowns, motioning for me to come in.
“I just put Addy down for bed,” she whispers.
“I wanted to make sure everything was okay.”
She sighs, setting the plate down on the counter in the tiny kitchen but doesn’t turn to face me as she says, “I’m fine, just… I got into a little fight with Cole.”
“Oh.” I pat Lexa’s back, watching Misty roll her shoulders. “What about?”
“Honestly, I’m not even sure. He’s worried about me, started blaming himself for how I’m feeling now and I just… I shut him down when he tried to help me. I don’t need help. I just need to get a fucking grip…”
“This is going to pass, you know. The feeling like you won’t ever get back to feeling normal again.”
“I feel like a totally different person than I was a year ago… than I was six months ago. It’s gotten worse, Aviva. My powers keep–keep interrupting me. Like, I have a few really good days and feel like I’m finally making progress, and then something feels off, and I have visions, or my powers start nagging at me like they’re trying to tell me somethings wrong, and I ignore them constantly, and I’ve been pretending I’m happy and okay, but he notices.” She’s rambling, running her hands through her hair over and over again. “Now, this… Kyra thing is starting to get to me. I shouldn’t be feeling the way I do. She’s not a threat. Cole would never–never do that to me–”
“But you feel in your bones that there's something going on?”
“There’s something off about her,” Misty says with conviction, finally meeting my eyes.
“There’s something off in general,” I murmur, resigned. “What can I do?”
“Nothing,” she huffs, swallowing hard. “I just need to get over it.”
I notice the books stacked near the couch and the notebook splayed out on one of the cushions. “You’ve been writing again?”
“Trying,” she says, wringing her hands. “I figured Cole would be out late tonight with the dinner and needing to catch up with some things at–at the healers cottage–”
As if on cue, Cole opens the door, surprised to see me standing in his cabin with his mate.
He glances between us, slowly opening the door behind him. “Is Addy asleep?”
Misty nods, but her expression shifts like she’s trying to hide the pain behind her eyes. I wonder why Misty’s having such a hard time talking to him about what she's going through. It’s a pretty easy explanation, honestly. Hell, they were at war together. They went through all of that together.
If Misty’s issues stem from her overactive powers, that’s an easy fix. She just needs training so her powers igniting doesn’t pull her pack into her memories of the war.
“I brought you some dinner,” Cole says to Misty, who has already turned around, her back to us.
“Is your head feeling better?” she asks.
He nods, and I slowly start backing toward the door, but then he says, “The healer gave me a tonic. It helped.”
So, that’s what I saw Kyra hand to him at the pack house.
“Goodnight. Uh, Misty, I’ll see you in the morning.”
Misty turns toward me, furrowing her brow. “For what?”
“Training. Remember?”
“What–”
“We should plan on returning to the clearing in a few days to find the entrance to the temple, so you’ll need to be at your full potential, right? Kenna should be here by then to help us.”
Cole and Misty stare at me blankly as I wave and dip out before either of them can argue, then I wipe my fake smile from my face and grumble back through the trees.
What I really need is Maddy. She could easily talk some sense into her daughter and son-in-law. Ella, too, might be able to help. Ryatt? Probably, at least when it comes to Cole. The war was bad, yeah. Really, really bad, but their generation went through… two or three wars and all kinds of other things that would leave the average person in pieces.
But my interest was piqued by Cole’s mention of a healing tonic for a headache, and my feet carry me to the healer’s cottage without my brain's permission.
I knock on the door, juggling Lexa in my arms as she starts to wake up, confused as to why we’re not tucked inside our house.
Kyra opens the door with a confused frown. “Luna? Can I help you?”
“Yes.” I edge into the cottage. She reluctantly holds the door open for me, eyeing me curiously as I scan the room. It’s empty and smells sharply of herbs. “I heard you have a tonic for headaches.”
Her mouth twists into a half smile. “Do you have a headache, Luna?”
“I suffer from them occasionally,” I reply, which is a bold-faced lie. I’ve never had a headache in my life.
I notice a pot sitting on her work table, the liquid inside a murky green. Three vials are tipped upside down on a towel drying out beside it.
“Is that the tonic you made for Cole? I’ll just take some–”
“Oh, no,” she says quickly, shaking her head. “That’s just–just a mineral complex I’m making for some–some of the pregnant women.”
I notice the way she stumbles over her words and steps closer to the table, shielding the pot and vials from my view with her body.
“But I can make you something and deliver it tomorrow, if that’s all right.”
“You don’t keep those tonics on hand? Aren’t headaches common?”
She searches my eyes, her expression twisting back to something overly friendly and docile.
My senses are suddenly on high alert as she replies, “Normally, yes. But Cole required something special.”
“Like what?”
She clicks her tongue, silent for a moment, before smiling and saying, “Oh, you know. Something to perk him up. It must be hard being… bound to parenthood and…”
“And his mate?” I ask.
Her eyes darken. “Sure. He doesn’t sleep much. That's plain to see. His tonics have… a bit of sleeping draft added to help with that. He wants to be sharp to continue his work and study here.”
“Does he know they’re a sleeping draft?”
“Of course. Do you think I’d drug someone on purpose?”
“What’s in it?”
“Oh, Luna, I won’t bore you with the details. Apothecary medicine is very complicated.” It’s an obvious dig. She smiles around her words. “I wouldn’t expect someone like you to understand the complexity–”
“Because I’m from Endova?” My words hang in the air.
She grinds her teeth. “You’re not a witch, is all.”
I smile at her, bouncing Lexa in my arms. “Well, what’s in it?”
She stares at me before glancing at Lexa, her eyes remaining dark and her upper lip slightly curled in what I can only describe as disgust. I hope I’m wrong, but my senses are telling that Misty’s assumptions about Kyra are true. She doesn’t like people from the tribal packs, that’s clear.
And Lexa is one of us, isn’t she? Endovian blood runs in her veins as it does mine.
When it becomes clear she’s not going to tell me, I shrug, backing toward the door. “Well, no big deal. Princess Kenna will be here in a few days, anyway. She can help–”
“Why is the princess coming here?” There’s a shred of hesitation in her voice that doesn’t go unnoticed.
“She’s family. She’ll be staying for a while. I assume you’re close in age to her, aren't you? You must have gone to school together. It could be nice for you to have another witch around.”
She slowly turns to the work table, going slightly pale.
Yes… something’s up with this witch.
Misty isn’t wrong about that. She isn’t losing her mind, that’s for sure.
“Goodnight,” I say sweetly, giving her a beaming smile that turns to a tight line of grim determination when I leave the cottage and stalk toward home, preparing to tell Ryan he has something he desperately needs to deal with as Alpha of our pack.
But then I hear a voice–a soft, melodic whisper that rushes on the cool breeze coming off the mountains. At least, I think it’s a voice. It’s calling my name… I’m sure of it.
I whirl toward the sound as it rides on the back of a gust of wind that sends my hair flying off my shoulders in a frenzy before settling again.
“What was that?”
I turn to find Logan standing nearby, looking in the same direction. “You heard that?”
He looks at me, slightly fearful. “Did you see them, too?”
“See who?”
A chill snakes up and down my spine, turning my insides ice cold.
“The two wolves.”
My blood runs cold.
“What color were they?”
“White.”