He let me go and grinned like an idiot at me. “We thought you guys would be gone for at least a day. Did everything go okay?”
I thought about small, frail Isme breathing her last breaths. We’d been successful in our mission, but I wouldn’t say it’d gone well. Losing a friend, even one you’d only known for a few hours, was always sad. I gave Dad a weak smile. “We did what we planned.”
Luis’ eyes narrowed. “The vial? Do we have it?”
Maddy nodded. “We do. I’ve got it. I’ll keep it safe until I decide what to do with it.”
The others all stared at her. I could almost hear their thoughts. The vial was basically the shifter version of a nuclear bomb, and now they’d heard they were standing in the same room with it. I was sure it made them both excited and nervous. I hoped it did anyway since that’s how it made me feel.
Sinthy went around the room, introducing herself to everyone. She did a good job of hiding her sadness. Her smile never wavered as she shook hands with each person.
“Sinthy will be staying with us long term,” I said. “She’s agreed to join the pack as our witch advisor.”
Dad’s face went slack, and his eyes darted back and forth between Sinthy and me. “A pack witch? Like the old stories?” He was breathless, like a child who’d witnessed something amazing.
“Yeah,” I said. “She’s part of the family now. I said we’d find her a place of her own soon.”
Dad grinned at me and slapped a hand on my shoulder. The look of pride on his face made my chest ache. Even after all these years, my father’s approval still turned me into a little boy.
Maddy put a hand on Sinthy’s back. “Do you want to get settled in your room? You must be tired.”
Sinthy smiled wearily. “That would be great. I’m exhausted, but first, I need to cast a protection spell on the vial. That’s the most important thing.”
Maddy nodded. “Okay, let’s go. I don’t want you to crash and burn. Come on.” Maddy led her up the stairs.
Once they were gone, Dad clapped me on the shoulder again. “A pack witch? This is amazing.”
“Right,” Felipe said. “A witchandthe vial? That’s some heavy-duty shit right there.”
Sebastian grinned like an idiot. “Does that mean we win? I mean, we have the vial, we have the true descendant of Edemas, and now we have our own witch? That has to make us the most powerful pack in a hundred years.”
“Since Edemas’s and Helena’s reign,” I said.
Dad frowned. “Helena?”
I realized they needed to hear the whole story. Most of what they all knew came from stories that had been twisted by royal propaganda. “I need to tell you guys everything,” I said. “Sit down.”
I gave an abbreviated version of the story Isme had told us, and once I was done, they all sat in stunned silence. Finding out the truth was actually a lie was a hell of a thing.
Dad slapped a hand on his thigh. “I always thought those stories sounded like they were full of shit. It always seemedoffto me. They really made a dozen generations of shifters believe that the strongest of us was some psychotic warmonger.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Sinthy’s mother told us the whole story. She’d actually been there. She took Sinthy in as a child after her parents were killed for not becoming the royals’ personal witch and warlock. She’s an orphan, and it means she has as much invested in this as we do.”
“What’s the next move?” Mateo asked. “I mean. Is Maddy going to drink that vial?” The fear and wonder in his voice were noticeable even though he was trying to hide them.
“Maddy gets to make that decision,” I said with a shrug. “Her birthright—her call. As for the next move? We’re gonna let Sinthy get some rest, and then I’m going to ask her to cast some protection spells around the pack lands. Every little bit helps.”
The government hadn’t made the final push to round us all up, but the state of emergency and martial law could be enacted at any moment. If the government and royals decided to come rushing in to grab us, we needed all the protection we could get.
“I like it,” Dad said. “I’m sure it will give everyone else a little peace of mind too.”
I glanced at Luis. “Any luck with tearing apart the royals’ access to their fortune?”
Luis gave a half-nod, half-shrug. “One of the pack leaders near Fort Lauderdale had a computer programmer that sent us all a new piece of software. It’s running upstairs right now on my laptop. It’s supposed to do the work of a dozen hackers all at once. I’ve aimed it at all their online holdings to see if it can break in and give me access. You want to check it out?”
“Sure, show me.”
In my office, Luis sat and started tapping on keys. He froze for a moment, then glanced at me. “Shit, I think it’s almost gotsomething. Hang on, let me check.” After a few more keystrokes, Luis fell back into his chair, looking shocked but happy. “We’re in. That dude who developed this is gonna be a millionaire someday.”
