‘Were by birth, witch by choice.’ She almost sang her answer, a disturbingly happy smile on her face. ‘Like all of my kind, I was raised to hate witches, but how could I not be curious? So I learned in my own way, practised in my own way. Not born to it in the way you were, no, but if you truly dedicate yourself to any craft until you are cast out by your family and your pack, exiled from your homeland, and you come to hate packs so much it consumes you, then there are a few tricks you can learn.’
She daubed the green paste onto my forehead and I screamed, the whole city shaking with my pain. It was worse than a burn, more like being branded. The triangular mark she made seared itself into my skin until my eyes watered and I retched onto the grass.
‘See?’ Astrid clapped her hands together in delight then pressed them into her injured left side. ‘Unless you are prepared to give everything, you deserve nothing – and I have giveneverythingover and over and over. Now it is my turn to get whatIdeserve.’
‘Mom?’
Somewhere outside my own agony, I heard Lydia’s voice, so tiny and afraid as she shuffled towards her mother. Alex tried to answer but all that came out were more choked sobs.
‘Get away from there!’ Cole grabbed Lydia by the throat, tossing her away like she weighed nothing, far stronger than a regular Were.
His resemblance to Wyn was so pronounced, each time he looked my way, my heart lurched. Older, but not by much, his hair was longer and darker, and his piercing eyes gleamed gold instead of mossy grey-green, but his face had the same sculptural quality, painstakingly crafted to perfection, full lips, high cheekbones. They even shared the same easy gait. As Cole strolled back to me after inflicting more casual violence on my best friend, my blood churned.
‘There’s wolf’s bane woven into their clothes,’ he told Astrid with a laugh. ‘Cute.’
‘It doesn’t hurt?’ I asked, my breath still coming in gasps.
He turned his hands palms out to show me the red welts.
‘It hurts,’ he replied, gold eyes sparkling. ‘I just don’t care.’
‘Amazing what does and doesn’t concern you after you’ve died,’ Astrid said in an offhand manner. ‘He was dead when I pulled him out the water, but not entirely gone. A spark remained and a spark is enough to burn the world to the ground if you know how to nurture the first flame. The hardest part was staying with him and not ripping your throat out there and then.’
I swiped at the foul tar-like substance on my forehead, the pain never once lessening into something I could live with. Instead of wiping it away, it spread, covering my hands, my forearms. Face down, I tried to whisper to the live oaks that lined the park, to the Spanish moss that swayed in their branches, but received no response.
‘You’re wasting your energy,’ Astrid said when she saw what I was doing. ‘They won’t help you tonight. Not when you’re marked. Ash of a live oak, crushed up selenite, hematite, poppy seed for disorientation, the blood of someone who loves you and the blood of someone who would see you dead. So curious to find both in the same family. I think that’s what makes it burn so very badly.’
‘If you don’t let me help him, your brother is going to die,’ I said, turning to Cole. There was no point trying to talk to Astrid, Wyn was right, she was out of her mind. ‘Do what you want with me but are you really going to let her kill your brother?’
‘A brother who betrayed his pack for the witch who killed me? A brother who kills me again and again, every time he chooses you. As far as I’m concerned, he’s already dead.’ Cole’s foot hovered over my fingers, threatening to crush them if only Astrid would loosen his leash and allow it.
‘As far as I’m concerned, they’re all dead in the ground. My mother, my family, the whole pack.’ His words were flat and dull. ‘It’s fucked up, all their fake rules, their self-imposed laws. Wolves should be free to do as they wish. We’re stronger than ordinary humans, stronger than witches, but we’re punished for exercising our natural advantage. I never fit in with them, never felt this supposed kinship they all talked about. Astrid’s pack exiled her for asking questions, for being curious about magic. She wanted to make them stronger and they cast her out. What kind of family is that? She helped me see it’s all a lie. Weres are nature itself, no one can control us. No egos, no leaders, and the sooner we end the packs, the better.’
‘They’re worse than witches,’ Astrid muttered to herself. ‘Always breeding like roaches. You have to cut off the head then make sure you clean up every last one or there will always be another hiding in the shadows, ready to start again.’
‘How’d you two crazy kids meet anyhow?’
Cole’s head whipped around to see Lydia pushing herself into an upright position, swiping at her bloody mouth with the back of her hand and smearing it all over her face. She looked terrifying.
‘Had to be the apps,’ she guessed. ‘Tinder? Hinge? Psychopaths R Us?’
‘That one is weak, ignore her,’ Astrid commanded without looking up when Cole sent a menacing howl in her direction. ‘Stick to the plan.’
Lydia caught my eye and I nodded as she rolled her mother’s ring between her fingers. They couldn’t sense the full strength of her magic.
‘Astrid found me the first night I arrived in Savannah,’ Cole said, gazing at his love with devotion. ‘She saw me for who I really was and she didn’t turn away. I’d always been unhappy. Difficult, they called me in school, disruptive. Truth is, I was meant for bigger things, we both were. We were meant to be.’
His story was a dark distortion of mine and Wyn’s. How could the same universe that brought the two of us together put these monsters in the same place, at the same time?
Astrid approached me, a disappointed look on her face and a glass vial in her hand.
‘It would have been nice to have more time with you,’ she said, crouching down and brushing her long dark hair behind her ears. ‘Natural-born witches are fascinating. I wish I could learn more about your connection to, what do you call it, the blessing? So pretty. Itisa blessing, to be one with magic the way you are. One you do not deserve. Your magic is too much for you, I think. My way is better.’
‘And what exactly is your way?’ I jerked away when she raised a hand to my face, touched a finger to my bloody lipthen put it in her mouth. Her eyes closed and she sighed with bliss.
‘It’s a shame, it really is,’ she whispered, eyes still closed. ‘When you first arrived and I saw you step out of that car, all sweaty and sad, all your belongings in one tiny suitcase, I thought we were the same. Lost. Lonely. I thought maybe we could be friends. So I sent Cole to kill your grandmother and bring you to me, but instead, you killed him. How could I love you after that?’
‘Wha – what are you talking about?’ I stammered. ‘What do you mean?’
