Misty
Cole moves through our little kitchen in a hurry. He practically jumped out of bed this morning, grunting and bumping into the dresser and the doorframe in his haste to get dressed.
It’s not even light yet, and the usual dense morning fog that swirls through the village hasn’t yet lifted, but Cole is making so much noise that Addy wakes up in a fuss, his little face twisted as he begins to wail in my arms.
I’ve been up with him for an hour now, at least. Cole, who’s been amazing with divvying up the nighttime wakings so we each get a few hours of sleep, didn’t even stir. In fact, when I rose from bed to take Addy out of his crib, Cole rolled over and covered his head with his pillow.
I shouldn’t be angry, but I am. He acted strange all night–distant, and quiet. More quiet than usual, I should say. It was like he was in a trance, and after an hour of trying to talk to him when he returned from dinner at the pack house, he’d simply laid down in bed and passed out cold.
I hate to admit that this reminds me of being in the fortress with him all over again–but worse.
I step out of the bedroom with Addy squirming in my arms. “Are you okay?”
Cole opens and closes several cabinets before bracing his hands on the counter, hanging his head. “Please don’t yell–”
“I’m not yelling, Cole, I’m whispering–”
He holds a hand out to silence me.
I grit my teeth as unease snakes through me. “What’s the matter?”
“I just have a headache.”
“A headache?” I swallow, edging toward him. “I can fix that.” I reach for him, my powers prickling to life but the second my hand touches his upper arm, he yanks away, raising his hand at me again.
“Don’t–”
“Cole?”
“Don’t touch me,” he growls, turning to look at me over his shoulder. He swipes something off the counter, knocking an empty vial on the floor that shatters at his feet.
My heart’s in my throat as he pulls on a jacket. “Are you mad at me?”
“No,” he says under his breath but keeps his eyes on the floorboard. He squeezes his eyes shut for a moment, grimacing. “I’m not–mad at you, Misty, I’m hurting.”
“Then go lie back down–”
“I can’t. I need to work today. I have–I have training to accomplish before we go back to Shadowcrest.”
“Fuck your training. What happened last night?”
He looks at me, shaking his head. “What happened in the clearing, Misty? I need to know everything.”
“Aviva and I already told you and Ryan everything–”
“What are your powers picking up on? What’s in that building underground? What exactly can the forge do?”
“It doesn’t matter. We don’t know, and… I’m sure Aviva is going to ask for my help uncovering it but–”
“Where is the book?”
“What book?”
“Where’s The Book of Whispers? I need it.”
“Why?”
I’ve never seen this look on his face before. He’s furious… with me. His eyes are nearly black, his pupils so huge and round I can’t see the flakes of silver lining his pale gray irises anymore.
“Are you about to shift?” I ask, tightening my grip on Addy.
“Where is the book, Misty?”
“Our bedroom–”
He storms past me. I have all but a second to jump out of his way, the jerking movement causing Addy to cry out.
Cole ignores us both as he retreats from the bedroom, tucking the book under his arm, and leaves the cabin in a hurry.
I look down at the vial, at the drops of amber liquid soaking into the rustic floorboards, and debate chasing him down and asking him what the fuck his problem is, but Addy begins to wail in earnest.
I settle on the couch and nurse him as my mind reels. It’s my fault, probably, for being so cold to him on the way back to Silverhide yesterday, but he has to know what it’s like facing another issue threatening our safety, our family. He has to know. He told me… he told me he understands. Now he’s going to try to fix this himself, isn’t he? Because I’ve given up on myself and my powers….
I turn toward gruff, male voices somewhere outside the cabin, sitting up a little straighter to try to look out the window.
Ryan’s voice is clear but strained as he says, “Dude, what the fuck is going on with you?”
“Nothing,” Cole replies darkly. “I didn’t sleep well.”
“You look like fucking shit–”
“Thank you,” Cole growls, but his voice is just… he sounds like he’s talking to Richard, not my brother. “Get the fuck out of my way. I have things to do–”
I feel the tension from inside the cabin. It bleeds from under the door as it carries their voices toward me. I rise, clutching Addy to my chest as I move toward the entrance just as Ryan says, “Go back to your mate and wait for me there. We need to talk. All three of us.”
“I have work to do,” Cole grinds out, and I feel this weight in my chest–a little yank–that makes it hard to breathe for the space of several heartbeats, but suddenly their voices go silent.
I wait by the door, my heart pounding against my ribs, and then footsteps thunder up the steps and the door opens.
Ryan darkens the doorway looking like he’s just been slapped, metaphorically, at least. He raises his eyebrows at me. “What the actual fuck is going in here?”
I gape like a fish, trying to form the words–any words. “I don’t know, Ryan. He started acting weird last night. He says he has a headache.”
Ryan notices Addy losing his absolute mind and takes him from my arms, patting his back with expert skill as he scans the room. “Aviva said you and Cole have been fighting.”
“It’s not a fight,” I reply, shaking my head. “We’re just not–we’re both–it’s me. Something is wrong with me.”
“I don’t think so. I think something is wrong, in general, and your powers are trying to take hold, and you’re not letting them. You and I are more alike than either of us realize.”
“Then what the fuck is going on? It can’t be the forge doing this, can it?”
Ryan doesn’t answer. His gaze sweeps through the cabin until he notices the broken vial on the ground. He wrinkles his nose. “What is that? It smells… strange.”
“I don’t know. Cole brought it home last night and said it’s vitamins or something.”
“Vitamins?” Ryan narrows his eyes at me. “What kind of vitamins? We’re wolves, Misty, if you’ve forgotten.”
“How am I supposed to know?!” Frustrated, I throw my hands in the air. Ryan takes a deep breath, his eyes remaining narrowed as he steps forward, easing a now settled Adrian into my arms.
“Go to the pack house for breakfast. Aviva’s there with Lexa, and Logan. Kenna, Evander, and the kids just arrived.”
Relief washes through me but ebbs away as quickly as it came. “Will you talk to him? To Cole? And find out what's wrong? I think he needs to shift, or something. He’s stressed, and I–I think I’m making it worse.”
“Do you feel anything amiss in your bond with him?”
“No,” I say, and it’s the truth. But my brain is in shambles, and I feel like I’m being pulled in a hundred different directions. “No, not at all.”
“And he says he has a headache? That’s it?”
“He wanted The Book of Whispers–the copy I have. I don’t know why.”
“Fuck me. Okay, just go get breakfast. Chill out for a while. Aviva wants to go back to the forge soon, and you’re going with her. I don’t have time to be away from Silverhide so close to the end of the harvest, so this adventure is up to you guys. I’ll deal with your mate, though.”
My throat feels raw as he opens the door, ushering me outside. I’m dressed in simple, cotton pajamas and a bathrobe, which isn’t ideal, but Ryan isn’t giving me much of a chance to change into something proper. I step into a pair of slippers and trudge behind him into the village where we part ways, with him stalking toward the healer’s cottage and me walking with my head down in the direction of the pack house.
Compared to the nightly supper service, breakfast is a quiet affair. Only a few groups seem to stop for plates of eggs and an assortment of breakfast meats–bacon, sausage, and thick slices of honey glazed ham. The smell of birch syrup and pancakes hits me like a freight train as the sweet aroma mingles with the heavy, bitter bite of coffee, and my stomach growls.
I’ve barely eaten in days, I think. I can’t remember the last time I had a real meal.
A squeal of excitement rips through the air as two small figures dart to my stomach, winding around my legs.
Brie and Aris beam at me, jumping up and down with their faces smudged with syrup.
Kenna waves me over to the table where she’s sitting with Aviva and Evander, but Evander rises, his face–while characteristically hard, and blank–twists when he sees me… looks right through me, I surmise, and sees the hurt clogging my senses.
I walk toward the group while Evander leans down to whisper something to Kenna. She extends her arms, motioning for me to hand Addy to her, but Evander gently grabs my upper arm and leans in to ask, “Where’re Ryan and Cole?”
“The healers cottage across the village.”
He lets go and walks out of the pack house.
I sink onto the bench beside Kenna while Aviva’s eyes graze my profile. Internally, I feel her knocking on the mind-link, asking if I’m okay.
I nod, unsure what I can do at this point.
Freya passes by our table with Maeve in her arms, bouncing her gently, and Maeve is beaming with her new baby teeth on display. Apparently everyone loves coming to Silverhide, our family drama queen in particular.
“Cole’s at the healers cottage, then? I need to speak to him. I was hoping he’d come to breakfast with you.” Kenna leans back to check on Brie and Aris, who are making themselves at home with the other kids running amuck through the pack house. “About the results of the tests he gathered here when everyone was sick.”
“Oh, you know what that was?” Aviva asks, setting down her fork.
Kenna grinds her teeth. “It’s rather concerning, actually. Poison, not a sickness. Likely a contamination event. Do you trade berries with other packs, by chance?”
“Not this time of year,” Aviva says, but her voice takes on an edge. “What are you getting on about, Kenna?”
“There were traces of yew berry in all of the samples sent in–extremely high doses.”
Aviva rises, shaking her head. “Yew berry? That’s–they’re trees up in the mountains but very far away, and we’re taught, at least in the tribes, to avoid them–”
“Because they’re very poisonous to shifters, especially,” Kenna concludes. “Just one could bring down a grown male shifter within a few hours. It wouldn’t kill him, but at the dose I saw–”
“You’re saying our pack was poisoned?”
“Yes, you were.”
“How could that have happened without any of us knowing?”
I feel a twisting sensation in my gut. “Kyra,” I whisper, turning my attention to Aviva. “You know her feelings about the people from the tribes. It was the Endovian and Navvan settlers who got sick, not any of us.”
“Who’s Kyra?” Kenna asks, genuinely confused.
We turn to her, both wearing equal expressions of shock. “The healer you sent from Moonrise, the witch,” Aviva says, and not kindly.
“I don’t know anyone named Kyra, and the healer I sent is named Martha Rose. She’s one of my friends from school.”
I hold Aviva’s gaze. She shakes her head, answering the silent question burning behind my eyes. No one named Martha Rose has set foot in Silverhide.
“What’s going on?” Kenna asks, her silver eyes going wide. “Misty? Aviva?”
“Who the fuck is in the healers cottage, then?” I ask, my voice breaking.