I swallow hard. “That explains a lot.”
Mary’s gaze is still fixed on me. “It means you’re a wild card. And if others find out you’ve got even a drop of witch in you, they’re going to see you as either a weapon or a threat. Possibly both.”
“I’m guessing neither of those is a good thing.”
She gives a humorless smile. “Not in this world.”
The door at the top of the stairs creaks open, and a moment later Darius is filling the frame, his eyes sweeping the room before landing on me. “What is this?”
Mary straightens but doesn’t flinch. “I was showing her the Seal.”
He looks at me, brow furrowing. “And?”
I take a breath, the words rising in me without hesitation now. “I saw something. The Pact. Together, whole. You are at the center of it.”
His jaw tightens, but there’s a flicker in his eyes, something like recognition or maybe dread. “That’s not going to happen.”
I step toward him, the certainty from the vision still burning in my chest. “It is. You’re meant to lead again.”
I don’t think I’ve ever been more certain of anything.
26
DARIUS
The moment we step back up from the chamber, the air in the house feels wrong. It’s the kind of wrong that sits under your skin, humming, like the static before a lightning strike, and it’s carrying scents I haven’t caught here in years.
They’re faint, distant enough that whoever left them is long gone, but the meaning is the same. Someone crossed onto our land. Multiple someones. Wolves, at least two. A lynx shifter. And something else I can’t quite place, sharp and resinous, like pine burned down to ash.
They came close enough to make sure we’d know they’d been here, then left before I could track them. A message without words.
Mary catches it too. She pauses halfway down the hall, inhaling sharply, eyes narrowing as she turns toward me. “They know.”
I don’t have to ask what she means. A bond between two shifters isn’t subtle, not when it’s sealed the way mine and Tessa’s is now. The scent of it radiates outward like heat from a fire, and once it’s in the air, every predator worth the name will follow the trail.
“They’ll come,” I say. “Some to test it. Some to break it.”
Mary glances past me, toward Tessa, who’s standing just outside the study door. She’s quiet, her eyes distant, but I can tell she’s not just listening. She’s feeling it, the same way I am.
“Tessa,” I say, and her gaze snaps to mine.
“It’s… louder,” she murmurs, her voice softer than usual but steady. “Since we bonded, I can feel them more. The ones who were here. I can almost… see them in my head, even though they’re gone.”
I step closer, lowering my voice so only she can hear. “That’s your witch blood.”
She doesn’t flinch at it now, not like she did when Mary first said the word. “It’s stronger since you marked me,” she says, like she’s been turning the thought over and is only now letting it out. “Like something woke up.”
Mary’s watching us, arms crossed, but she doesn’t interrupt.
I cup Tessa’s jaw lightly, letting my thumb rest just under her ear. “Then you’ll learn to use it. You’ll need it.”
Before she can answer, the front door rattles. Not with a knock, but with the slap of something hitting the wood. A weight, small but deliberate. I’m moving before the sound fully registers, pulling the door open to find a plain envelope lying on the porch boards. No scent of a messenger, no fresh trail. Whoever left it knew how to mask themselves.
I tear it open, my eyes scanning the single line written inside in a hand I know better than I’d like:
The war begins now. – R
Roman.
