He let his hands fall to his sides, breathing deeply before roughwords spilled from him: “Everything I learned is from gossip, and a few of my own spells. It’s not fact, but I think I’ve pieced most of it together.” Since he was the only witch I’d found since the attack, his word would have to do.
“Jewels has been planning this for near two decades,” he continued. “She bided her time, worked with Fletcher to destabilize the shifter community, built up the allies she needed for her plan to work, while she waited for the harvest blood moon. It’s a powerful night for the Wiccans, and it’s the reason she hasn’t acted until now.”
Hence why my formerand now deadbest friend showed up two nights ago. To kickstart her plan.
“So, she was waiting for the moon, building bonds with shifters—including my fucking pack—while cementing herself as an ally. She had Fletcher doing her dirty work in the background so he’d be the clearbad guy, and all the while she was moving everyone around like her own personal chess board… But not Emme?”
Constantine nodded, expression souring. “Yes, from what I’ve deduced, Emme was Fletcher’s plan, not Jewels. She doesn’t care about your mate. She had much bigger shifters to fry.”
Apparently, an entire fucking world of them.
“Why did she target us, then? If it wasn’t about Emme or our quintet?”
He shot me a look like he couldn’t believe I’d asked such a stupid question, but I needed him to give me every damn detail so I’d never be taken by surprise like that again.
“As I already said, she needed a shifter connected to Fletcher’s bloodline to end him. That was the only way she could not only void the binding alliance her witch line had with him, but the energy of his death would be strong enough to power her curse. Along with the moon of course. She was leaving nothing to chance.”
“And this is such a strong, unbreakable curse, that the only way to stop it is to take Jewels out before it comes to pass. Since she’s harboring it in her body.”
He nodded, no hesitation.
“How does Emme unlocking her magic help us, then? From what I can tell, this really has very little to do with her. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time when she got Fletcher’s attention, who’s dead now.”
Constantine squeezed his eyes closed, and when he opened them,they were shiny. “Emme exists because I fucked up. I fell in love with a shifter—her mother. I didn’t expect we could have a child. I was supposed to be an anomaly, a quirk in nature and genetics, never to be repeated again. When she fell pregnant, I had no choice but to leave, weakening myself to keep them both safe.”
“Wouldn’t it have been safer for you to stay and protect them both?” I suggested with a bite in my tone. The very thought of Emme not existing almost destroyed me, and more than that, the way she grew up alone was squarely on this asshole’s shoulders.
His citrus scent turned bitter. “Emme and I were a beacon together, as our magic bounced off each other. Even though she wasn’t in touch with that side of herself, it was there in her essence. At that stage, I didn’t want to release her power, so I left. I broke Morgan’s heart, and the best parts of her, since we were a scent match. She at least heeded my warning to run for a few years, before it all wore her down. When Fletcher got hold of her, I just placed more protection on Emme to hide her magical side and left them be. I always watched from afar though.”
“Even when she went into the human world?” I said, my rage a burning hole in my chest. “Alone and without any packs around her…”
He shot me another incredulous stare. “That was where she was the safest. Shifters and witches would kill us if they knew what we were. We’re not supposed to exist. We’d be viewed as a danger to them all.” He eyed me closely. “Emme is an omega who could share her power without losing herself. From what I’ve seen, she doesn’t have the same weakness as other omegas.”
He confirmed what we long suspected: “All omegas can share power with alphas?”
“Yes,” he said, “with bonds or scent matches. But if they share too much, it will eventually steal their beasts and will to live. They’ll lose their essences and become human. Fletcher figured that out quite quickly in his experiments. He powered himself and his pack for years on stolen omega energy as they simulated scent matches. No real scent match would ever be able to drain their mate and live with themselves.”
I sure as hell wouldn’t want to take a sliver of my mate’s energy. Not even if I was actively dying. “And you believe Emme will be exempt from these same limitations?”
His shrug told me everything. He didn’t know for sure, and I wasn’t willing to risk her.
“We’ll beat Jewels without taking any of her power,” I decided. “Just the simple act of sealing the quintet completely will increase all of our powers and beasts.”
His expression remained unreadable as he met my stare, before flinching at the dominance of my beast. “Yes, let’s hope it’s enough. If she could share her essence with you all, then you’d also share her resistance to magic. For the dragons especially, that would make them near indestructible.”
They were already near indestructible, which would have to be enough.
“Okay, so we’re working on the assumption that the witch, her coven, and any shifter allies will go to ground for the next twenty-eight days, correct?”
Constantine nodded, rubbing his right hand up and down his arm, as if he were cold.Pathetic. “Yep, absolutely. She knows she only has to stay alive until that curse is complete, and everything she’s been fighting for will fall into place.”
“Can we use magic to track her?”
He paused before letting out another one of those exaggerated breaths.Was this fucker deep breathing or some shit?Probably another part of his connection to the Earth.
“That’s my hope,” he said when he was done being Zen. “But we need to find an anchor for the spell. Something connected to Jewels or another witch she could be hiding with.”
That wasn’t going to be an easy find. Jewels was too smart and devious to just leave a trail of crumbs. I’d never fully trusted her, but she’d managed to worm her way in closer than any other witch. Her patience and overall affability had gotten her exactly where she wanted.
