“The blood remembers, Michael. Even when the conscious mind forgets. Your great-great-grandmother was a documented hedge witch in Vermont. She could read weather patterns, encourage crops to grow, sense when land had been poisoned.” Gideon's finger traced a line through the family tree. “Magic doesn't disappear from bloodlines. It waits. Sometimes for the right trigger. Sometimes for the right place.”
“And Hollow Pines was the right place,” I said, understanding clicking into place.
“The Evernight Forest has been calling to power for centuries. When the Harringtons moved here, when Nate almost died and the forest had a choice about whether to take him or transform him...” Gideon met Michael's eyes. “The blood woke up. In Nate first. And now in you.”
Michael's face had gone pale. “The forest has been waiting for my family?”
“Long enough that when Anna brought you here, when you put down roots and started building a life, the forest saw itsopportunity.” Gideon's voice gentled. “I didn't tell you before because I wasn't certain. But after what you described in that clearing, after the ward burst powerful enough to light up the eastern boundary... there's no doubt left. You carry the Harroway gift, Michael. And so does your son.”
I watched Michael process this. Watched him go through the stages. Denial. Anger. Reluctant acceptance. Watched him realize that everything he thought he knew about his family, about his place in Hollow Pines, about why the supernatural world kept pulling at him, had been wrong.
Michael's hands clenched around the water bottle hard enough to make the plastic creak. “So what, I'm some kind of warlock now? I'm supposed to know how to use magic I didn't know existed?”
“You're supposed to survive,” Gideon said bluntly. “The awakening happened. You can't put that back in the box. Now you learn to control it before it kills you.”
“How?”
“I'll teach you. And the forest will teach you. And Daniel—” Gideon looked at me, worry carved into every line of his face. “You need to understand what this means. Michael's magic is tied to the same power source the corruption is attacking. The Evernight Forest. If whoever's behind this realizes Michael's awakened, that he's got access to ward magic without formal training...”
“They'll target him,” I finished. “Try to corrupt him the way they're corrupting the wolves.”
“Or kill him to eliminate a threat. Or try to turn him. There are a lot of bad options here, Daniel. And all of them end with Michael in danger.”
I looked at Michael, at the stubborn set of his jaw despite the exhaustion, and felt something in my chest crack.
“Then we keep him safe,” I said quietly. “Whatever it takes.”
“I don't need keeping safe,” Michael protested. “I need to learn how to fight. How to use this magic so I'm not a liability.”
“You're not a liability.”
“Daniel, I can't keep being the human who needs protecting while everyone else fights. Not anymore. Not when I've got magic that could actually help.”
He was right. I hated that he was right, but he was.
“Alright,” I said. “Gideon teaches you. But not alone. Not without backup.”
Gideon cleared his throat. Pushed himself up from his chair with the weariness of a man who'd spent too much magic and needed rest more than he'd ever admit.
“I should check on Alaric's wounds,” he said. “Make sure the corruption didn't get into his blood too.” He gathered his journal, his notes, moved toward the door with deliberate slowness. “You two need to talk. I'll be in the front office if you need me.”
The door clicked shut behind him.
Silence settled over the garage. Just the hum of machinery and the distant drip of water somewhere in the pipes and Michael's breathing, still a little ragged, still a little wrong.
“Daniel,” he started.
“You scared the hell out of me. Gideon called and said you were dying, that the corruption was spreading, that he didn't know if he could stop it. And all I could think was that I was going to lose you before I ever got the chance to?—”
I stopped. Swallowed hard.
“The chance to what?” Michael asked quietly.
“To tell you that I love you.” The words fell between us like stones into still water. “To tell you that you're the first person since Claire who's made me feel like I could want something for myself. That every time you walk into a room, my wolf goes quiet in a way it hasn't been quiet in fifteen years.”
Michael's eyes were wet. “Daniel?—”
“And Michael—” I cupped his face, made him look at me. “You pull something like going into the forest without backup again, and I will lock you in the pack house until this is over. Understood?”
