로그인Sinthy blinked and shook her head. "Sorry about that. I was being overly dramatic. It's a reliquary embrocation. Created and strengthened over hundreds of centuries. She held the jar up close to my face, "is essentially the concentrated essence of dozens of legendary magical figures throughout history. The blood of Odin, a strand of hair from Samson, a fragment of the mummified remains of the sun god Ra , ""Hold on," I interrupted. "Odin? Ra? Those… were they actually real?"She arched an eyebrow. "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."The implications were staggering and left me feeling lightheaded. I stared down at the strange yellowish substance. "What about… you know?""Oh, Mr. Christmas himself? There's a fragment of the cross that bore him in here as well. As I said, it's extraordinarily powerful.""Holy shit," I breathed in wonder."Literally," Sinthy said with a grin. "Shall we begin?"I spent the next two hours walking t
"Oh, this?" She held up the glass jar. "You've got some wonderful fungi growing on a few of these pine trees. Its scientific name is Croartia Quercuum. Most people call it Fusiform Rust. In Wiccan circles, it goes by Heart Skin. Deadly to the trees but incredibly useful for attack potions. Poison, essentially. If you administer it to someone and perform the right spells over the mixture, their hearts will literally burst right inside their chests. Like pop, you know?"She puffed out her cheeks and made an explosive bursting sound like a balloon meeting a sharp pin. Lyanna and I stared at her in stunned horror.Sinthy rolled her eyes at us. "Ugh, no imagination whatsoever. It can also be combined with other ingredients to treat things like heartburn, arrhythmia, and heart attacks , anything related to the heart, really , but honestly, the bursting chest thing? That's where the real thrill is."I waved my hands to stop her. "Okay, great, understood. Evil tree fungus. Got it. Can we ta
Later that afternoon, when the adrenaline had fully worn off, I was sitting in my office when Donatello called."I assume you've seen the news," he said before I could even get a word out."First thing I saw this morning. I can't believe they went after the police. It's absolute madness.""Zealots tend to be easily corrupted. They have no sense of boundaries, no grasp of consequences. There's a reason it was so easy for the Nazis to convince ordinary people to do terrible things. Once one powerful person gives voice to their darkest beliefs, others take that as permission to bring about the outcome they've always wanted. It doesn't surprise me in the least. And the worst part is that rather than releasing the tension, this will only push things further."I sighed and pressed my fingers to the bridge of my nose, trying to hold back the massive headache building behind my eyes."That's essentially what I told my people. Others are going to be emboldened by what happened in Virginia. It
He pointed at the screen. "Others will see this and decide to take matters into their own hands. Yes, a number of those anti-shifters died, but more people will view this as a rallying cry. Rather than being afraid to act, they'll see those dead humans as an act of war committed by shifters.""That's bullshit," Rowan snapped. "Those bastards attacked them."Leo nodded. "I know that, but that won't be how they frame it. All those people will see is dead humans, and they'll rage and gnash their teeth about how decent humans are dead because evil shifters killed them. To hell with the truth."It was infuriating, but he was right. Once people chose a side, they were typically blind to everything else. You saw only what you wanted to see, and nothing could shift that perspective without something enormous and impossible to dispute.Leo slapped a hand against the wall in frustration. "You know what the worst part is? We can't protect everyone. We have it better than almost any other pack. B
When my eyes opened the next morning, I could sense that something was wrong. A dark, heavy feeling settled over my mind the moment I was fully awake. I sat up, quickly scanning the room. Part of me feared there was an intruder, but I was alone. The other side of the bed was empty. Leo was nowhere to be found.I grabbed my phone, and my eyes went wide when I saw that it was almost nine in the morning. That was later than I had been sleeping lately. Ever since closing down the bar, I no longer slept until noon. Leo must have let me rest. I certainly needed it after three straight days of nothing but sex. Still, I wondered where he had gone. Part of my sense of dread came from being able to feel Leo's anxiety. I could tell he was troubled and frightened. I needed to find him.Jumping out of bed, I threw on my clothes and hurried out of the room. At the top of the landing, I caught the faint sound of the TV. The volume was up but the words were still unclear. As I came down the stairs, I
"You can't," he murmured. He no longer sounded angry, only deeply sad.Nodding, I said, "She isn't the same girl you raised. Not physically, anyway. She's still your child. A child you raised, and you shaped her into a truly remarkable person. I can never thank you enough for that. But as much as you love her and want to shield her, you have to understand that she isn't fragile. She may very well be the strongest among all of us. Her life has changed. She's a wolf. A descendant of the most powerful shifter to ever walk this earth." I shook my head, uncertain whether any of it was getting through. He just kept his gaze fixed on the ground."She's a wolf , a wolf with a target on her back. Everything you see on the news, all the crimes and deaths and terrible things the royals have carried out over the past year, have all been aimed at getting to her. The very last thing she needs is her parents judging her over something that is both beyond her control and entirely natural for our kin
They didn’t have any comeback for that, so we just sat there waiting while my dad made his way over. His place was only three houses down the street—a blessing most of the time, a curse sometimes. Right now, it feels like a straight-up blessing.The knock came less than five minutes after I hung up
“Shit,” I yelped, lunging forward to grab her just before her injured head could crack against the tile floor. I caught her mid-fall, then scooped her up and carried her upstairs to her room. I eased the covers back without waking her and laid her down gently. I hoped she’d stay out cold until mor
“Thanks for coming over so late, guys. Head on home and get some rest,” I said, feeling my own tiredness creeping in deep.The guys filtered out one by one until it was just me and Dad left standing in the foyer. He pulled me into a tight hug, thumped me hard on the back a couple times, then steppe
Rowan must have caught on. He walked over and tipped his head toward the door. “Waiting for somebody?”“What?” I asked, straightening up from the table I’d been wiping down.“You’ve been glancing at the front door like every thirty seconds since we locked up. Again—expecting someone?”I hadn’t even







