“The new wolves have wounds on their shoulders where their pack tattoos used to be.”
“Fuck!”
“I’m guessing that’s undesirable?” Polina frowned.
Silas tore off a piece of paper from his yellow pad and placed it in front of her with a pencil from his drawer. “The alpha who told you this, did he have a pack tattoo?”
“Yes.”
“Can you draw it for me?”
She quickly sketched the harvest moon with the three claw marks ripping through it. She handed it to Silas. “He told me they call themselves the Bloodright pack.”
Silas bolted out of his chair, digging his fingers into his hair. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck no.”
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
Silas walked around Polina to stick his head into the hall, look both ways, and then close the door to his office. “The werewolf that was murdered and found in Logan’s dumpster wasn’t just a member of my pack. He held a position called Zafka. It’s a security position. He was a decoy for … the alpha of my pack.”
“What?” Polina’s fingers gripped her wand tighter.
“The alpha family of the Catskills carry the last name of Maldivess. I know them well. They are werewolf royalty. There are seven members of that family. Seven extremely strong wolves. None of them answered their private lines. None of them have checked in with the werewolf council before the full moon. I’ve sent a member of my pack to their homes to check on them. The pack tattoo you just drew for me isn’t a known pack. They have no representation on the council. ”
“He said his name was Alex.”
Silas snorted with anger. “Fucker is using his real name. Alex was cast out of the society three years ago after he killed his parents. He was imprisoned but last year he escaped. This whole time I’ve operated under the assumption that he was here, in the city.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t find him because he was hiding in your realm. I’m afraid for you, Polina. This guy could be the most dangerous werewolf that ever lived.”
“You’re telling me that a werewolf that other werewolves call the most dangerous of their kind is living in my realm?”
“I’m afraid so.” Silas crossed his arms over his chest. “Alex isn’t just a werewolf. You need to understand what you are up against.”
“I’m listening.”
“Five years ago, Alex was a member of the Lycanthropic Society—the high werewolf council. The Lycanthropic Society consists of representatives from the twelve alpha families.”
“Twelve? There must be more packs than twelve in the world.”
He nodded. “Of course there are, but all families are descended from the primary twelve. Unlike what you see in the movies, werewolves are born, not made. If I bit you in this form or my wolf form, there would be no consequence aside from the physical wounds of the bite itself. Werewolfism is a dominant gene. Over time, werewolves have mixed with other creatures and races, humans, other shifters, etcetera, but even a drop of werewolf blood in your heritage will make you a werewolf. It is said that all werewolves descended from twelve purebloods that originated at the beginning of time.”
“That far back?”
He shrugged. “Are we here to talk origination stories or about the danger you are in?”
“Sorry. Twelve purebloods equal twelve alpha families.”
“Exactly. Careful records have been kept to determine which families have the highest concentration of pure blood. My family is an alpha family. We are descendants of the Fireborn pack.” He tapped the skin beneath his tattoo. “Alex was the son of an alpha family just like me.”
“The Bloodright pack.”
He shook his head. “The Nightstar pack.”
Polina looked at him, confused.
Silas continued, “Alex was always a difficult child. Never knew where to draw the line, you know? Impulsive. Reckless.”
“A bad dude. I get it.”
“When he was of age, he met a dragon fae named Nickelova Rallinth, a princess of her people, while traveling in Siberia with his parents. She fell in love with him.”
“Dragon fae? I didn’t even know there were any left.” Dragon fae channeled the magic of dragons. Since dragons had been hunted practically to extinction, dragon fae were likewise rare.
“Few, but a powerful few. He led her on, used her. He convinced her that he would marry her if she provided him with a dowry, a token of her love. She made him an amulet from dragon’s scale, a powerful magical object no one had possessed before. Once he had it, he left her. He broke her heart.”
“I like this guy less and less each minute.”
“You’ve heard the expression: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned?”
“Of course.”
“Well, a dragon fae scorned will make you beg for the fury of a woman. She did not go gentle into that good night. Nickelova contacted Mondo Ravien, Alex’s father and alpha of Nightstar pack, and demanded the return of the amulet. Mondo apologized for his son and ordered Alex to return the magical item.”
“Let me guess. He didn’t.”
Silas shook his head. “It isn’t simply rebellious when the son of an alpha disobeys a direct order. It is impossible for a pack member to act against the alpha’s wishes. But Alex was one of the rare exceptions. Because his father had mated with his purebred mother, Alex’s blood was stronger than most, and being the oldest son of an alpha, he was next in line for the throne. He was able to resist the alpha bond and challenge his father for the role with the help of the amulet.
“He broke our oldest and most sacred law. No wolf of any pack can disobey a Lycanthropic Society alpha without punishment from the rest of the society. Alex did. He murdered his father, then used the power of the amulet to transport himself to a place or places unknown, and left the rest of his family to face the wrath of Nickelova.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“It wasn’t. With the amulet gone, Nickelova flew into a rage and accused the Nightstar pack of stealing it. She burned Alex’s mother alive, along with his younger brother. His older sister survived only because she was away at college at the time and had stayed behind in the States.”
“For the love of the goddess…”
With a deep sigh, Silas spread his hands on his desk and hunched his shoulders. “The sister mated a high-ranking male in Nightstar and saved the pack by providing an alpha family. She helped us find Alex. He was hiding near his family’s home in a suburb of Chicago. But he’d already hidden the amulet by that point. We never found it. Alex was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to life. He was sent to the supernatural wing of a maximum security prison in Illinois.”
“How did he escape?”
Silas shook his head. “We don’t know.”
Polina stiffened. “So he escaped without notice and is taking his revenge on society families?”
Silas scratched his cheek, his beard seeming to grow by the minute. “I think it’s more than that.” He reached for Polina’s drawing of Alex’s tattoo. Flipping through the tome in front of him, he found a page and turned the book to face her. “This is the symbol of the Nightstar pack.”
The image in the book was of a simple harvest moon. “No claw marks.”
“Alex is calling his pack Bloodright. He’s wearing a symbol of a divided moon. I think he’s trying to return to the society that rejected him. Only, the society as it stands would never allow him back. He’s trying to change it. A few strategic murders and enough wolves behind him, and he might be able to force his way back into leadership.”
“I’m guessing that would be bad.”
“Terrible. Alex never liked the rules. He thought of werewolves as the superior species. With him in charge, it would be chaos.”
“Then I’ll have to stop him. I’ll sentence him to the hellmouth immediately.”
“No. You can’t!” Silas held out his hands desperately. “If you leave the new pack without an alpha before the full moon, they’ll lose their minds.
I’m not speaking figuratively on this. Most, if not all, will go insane. You’ll have a bloodbath on your hands. They’ll tear apart anything they see.”
Polina shifted nervously in her chair. “But the full moon is tonight. Surely you aren’t asking me to babysit a killer and his pack. There are human families mere miles from their camp. I’m not sure any spell can hold back that many wolves. I’ve never done that type of magic before.”
“That’s exactly what I’m asking you. We need to know where he is so we can apprehend him. He’ll have a Zafka, a decoy. All alphas have them. It is imperative that my people are able to find and apprehend the true Alex Ravien and successfully transition his pack to a new alpha.”
“Oh hell,” Polina cursed, rubbing her head. She rose and tapped her wand on her palm. “I’ll do what you ask, but you better move on this, Silas Flynn. I can’t control these wolves forever. I’ll do my best, but if it’s not handled by the second night of the full moon, all bets are off. I’ll handle things my way, even if I have to send them all to the grave.”
“I understand. But Polina?”
“Yes.”
“There’s something else.”
“You’re kidding.”
“The amulet was never found. Alex picked your realm because no magical being can detect him there due to your enchantment. There’s too much magical interference. He feels safe there. His guard will be down. But it’s also likely that the thing that drew him to your realm in the first place was the amulet. He may be looking for it, and if he gets it, with the number of wolves you say he has in his pack, it would take a dragon to stop him.”
“That doesn’t make sense. If Alex hid it, wouldn’t he know exactly where to find it? Wouldn’t he have found it by now?”
“Not necessarily. The same enchantment keeping him safe could be interfering with him tracking the talisman. Even if he were working alone when he hid it—and we don’t know that for sure—magic can be very disorienting.”
Polina shook her head. “It’s impossible. I would know if a magical object crossed the border of my realm.”
Silas let out a deep breath. “He would have hidden it a little over two years ago.”
Polina froze. “But that’s when—”
“When you were buried under Tabetha’s persigranate trees, and she was controlling your realm.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The Misunderstanding
Polina left Silas’s office feeling overwhelmed. She needed to get back to her realm and fast. It would take a stronger spell than she’d ever performed to keep the Bloodright pack where she wanted them. She had serious doubts there was enough time to execute it successfully, if at all. With a pinch of gold dust between her fingers, she prepared to sweep home and reference her grimoire about the task. There was too much at stake. She could not fail.
In a fog of spinning thoughts, she almost rammed into Grateful, who had turned a blind corner from the foyer.
“Oh!” she said. “Polina, what are you doing here?”
“Meeting with Silas,” she said.
Grateful frowned. “Me too.”
“I’ll leave you to it.” Normally, Polina might chat about the problem with Grateful, but the time pressure she was under meant she’d have to leave the explaining to Silas. She raised the gold dust above her head.
“Wait.” Grateful caught her wrist. “I want to talk to you about Logan.”
“Logan? Is he all right?” Polina forgot her rush and searched Grateful’s face.
“Certainly not. He’s in love with you! I warned you, Polina. You touched his soul. He couldn’t help but be attracted to you. How dare you take advantage of him?”
Polina shook her head. “You think I used him? What, for sex?”
Grateful scoffed. “I don’t know what you used him for, but you knew the attraction wasn’t real and you acted on it. He’s only human. You’ll break his heart.”
“I didn’t.”
“Of course you did! I saw him at Valentine’s last night. Logan told me what happened between you.”
Polina shook her head. “No. I mean, it wasn’t what you think. I used the positivity potion and it led me right to his door.”
Grateful stiffened. “No…”
With a nod of her head, Polina explained in quick, breathy spurts. “I couldn’t stop thinking about him. I was obsessed. I used your spell, like you suggested. All I wanted was the endless yearning to cease. But when I drank the positivity potion, it led me straight back to him, Grateful. I love him. I never thought I could say that again, but goddess help me, I do. I’m so glad it was him.” She grabbed her chest. “I wasn’t using him. I just couldn’t deny my feelings for him a moment more.”
“Oh no.” Grateful pressed her fingers into her lips.
“What did you do?”
“I told him.”
“What?”
“I told him about the residual soul magic.”
“How could you?” Polina yelled. “He’ll never forgive me. He’ll think I used him like Tabetha!”
“I didn’t know! I thought you had.”
“Was he very angry?”
Grateful’s face screwed up. “I can fix this. I’ll explain everything. Logan will listen to me.”
Unbidden tears spilled over Polina’s lower lids. “You don’t understand. Logan will never love me if he thinks I used magic. Any magic. It’s over. He’ll never trust me again.”
“I’ll talk to him.”
Polina raised the gold dust over her head. “I have to go. People’s lives are at stake. But I’m not sure I can forgive you for this, Grateful.” She sobbed, then caught her breath. “Strike that. Maybe I should thank you. We all know how it would end eventually. Maybe you’ve just accelerated the inevitable.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Why not? It’s true. Humans die. Humans leave. Maybe it’s better it ends before it ever begins.” She released the dust, Grateful’s devastated expression dissolving as Polina blended into the pipes of the water fountain in the hall. It was more than her molecules that came apart. Her soul shattered with her body. Somehow, she had to find the strength and will to pull herself together. She didn’t have time to grieve the loss. There was work to be done.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Over
The weight in Logan’s heart seemed to grow heavier by the minute, as did the fire in his blood. Twenty times today he’d picked up the mirror Polina had given him, intending to break up with her. She’d violated his trust, manipulated him like some sort of toy. The only thing that stopped him was he wanted to do it in person. He wanted to see her face when he told her he’d figured her out. He knew what she’d done. Would she deny it? Regret it?
A flash of blue almost knocked him out of his chair. “What’s happening?” He positioned the silver squarely in front of him.
The mirror melted into a reflective pool of metal. Like a stone dropped in a puddle, concentric circles rippled from the center to the edges of his reflection. The movement blurred his image and then morphed into one with delicate features and full lips. When the reflection smoothed out again, he was looking at Polina.
“Logan, I just spoke to Grateful. I can explain—”
“You knew that the soul magic was the reason for our attraction, and you didn’t tell me,” Logan snapped. “You used me.”
“No. You don’t understa—”
“I understand that you took advantage of a side effect of magic to get what you wanted from me. I understand that you are just like every other witch. You take what you want, when you want it, and don’t worry about how you hurt anyone else in the process.”
“No, Logan, I love you. I wouldn’t hurt you.”
“Stop lying to me!” A hot swell of anger balled Logan’s hands into fists. He would not allow this to happen again. “My heart is not a toy for your entertainment. It’s over, Polina.”
“No! No, Logan. Listen to me!”
“I’m done. I warned yo
u not to use magic on me. You used me and you lied.”
“I didn’t mean to—”
Logan slammed his fist on the table, sending a ripple through her reflection. “It’s over!” He ground his teeth together. “You’re no better than Tabetha.”
Polina’s reflection morphed from desperation to outright horror. He was almost convinced he’d hurt her, but then he remembered that a mere human could never hurt a witch.
In anger, he picked up the mirror and hurled it at the floor. It shattered, the pieces melting and seeping through the floorboards.
“Fuck. Good.” He stood and paced his penthouse condo. “I am done with the lies. I am done with the supernatural mess. Fuck it all.” He grabbed his keys off the counter and headed for the elevator, desperate for a fresh start.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Shattered
Polina’s heart stopped as Logan’s face disappeared from the lucubratus. The way the reflection had frozen, then cracked, she was sure he’d shattered the mirror and with it, her heart. He’d ended it. The worst part was he hadn’t given her a chance to explain or apologize. He hadn’t believed her feelings were real.
She staggered backward. The crushing realization that once again she’d been left, abandoned by a human, plowed through her. Her mind raced. The room of reflections, the seat of her power, returned everything she was sending out. A million visions of Logan came back to her in the diamond-like facets of the room: the way he looked at her the first time they’d met, their first kiss, the night they spent together.
A large fragment of mirror directly in front of her replayed the night she’d come to him on his balcony. He’d wanted so badly to prove to her that he was not a fragile human. As her tears turned to silver, carving trails down her cheeks and staining her shirt, no part of her thought of him as fragile. If anything, he was dangerous. He’d ruined her. She collapsed to her knees.
“My lady?” Hildegard soared into the room and landed on the floor in front of her. “Is there anything I can do?”
“No,” Polina rasped. “Again. It happened again! They leave. They always leave.” She spread her hands. “Five hundred years, Hildie. Am I not worthy of love? Will I never know what it is to be truly loved?”
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