‘Well, you all look like shit. Anyone care to tell me what the hell is going on?’
I didn’t. Instead, I collapsed onto the sofa while Wyn stood guard behind me and Jackson laid Lydia down on the chaise longue before allowing himself to crumple onto the floor. Just being under the roof of Bell House felt like slipping into a warm bath. I arched my back as the gashes left by the wolf began to knit themselves back together, my home healing me as only it knew how.
‘Never was one for the silent treatment,’ Ashley said. ‘Please tell me y’all got drunk and burned down the Stovells’ house?’
‘Lydia is a witch,’ said Jackson.
‘There was another Were,’ said Wyn.
‘Someone chopped down a bunch of live oaks from the square to spell me,’ I finished up, gesturing towards the window.
‘But no one burned down the house?’
We all shook our heads, no.
‘OK, that’s something, I guess.’
Ashley was at the window in five long steps, opening the shutters to peer out into Lafayette Square. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open. I didn’t need to see the stumps to know five trees were missing from the north-west corner of the square.
‘I didn’t hear a damn thing,’ she said softly. ‘How did they take out whole trees without anyone noticing a thing?’
‘Because they’re using magic.’
I covered my face with my hands, trying to pull out the facts, something solid I could cling to, but no matter how many times I turned it over in my mind, I still felt adrift.
‘A Were without a full moon, magic without a witch and the blessing manifests in Lydia. None of it makes sense.’
‘Remind me never to go on vacation with any of you,’ Ashley replied. ‘What a day to be out of whiskey.’
‘It can’t have been a Were,’ Wyn muttered, more to himself than anyone. ‘It isn’t possible.’
‘Didn’t you see it?’ I leaned back my head to look at him as he peeled off his plaid shirt and placed it around my shoulders. ‘You must’ve seen it if you followed me out the gate.’
‘All I saw was the smoke. I couldn’t even see you.’
‘What about the gashes in her back?’ Jackson’s words were barbed and baited. ‘Did you see those? Did you hear her screaming? Because I did.’
Wyn lifted his chin to meet the challenge in Jackson’s voice. ‘I heard it. That’s why I ran out to help her while you were still in the yard.’
‘Boys,’ Ashley chided, a one-word warning. ‘We don’t stand for dick-swinging contests in this house, if you don’t mind.’
Jackson pushed up to his knees and then his feet, one arm on the back of our sofa for support. ‘Seems to me you should’ve been able to tell if there was another wolf out there. Can’t y’all sniff out your own?’
‘Whoever it was, they aren’t one of my own,’ Wyn replied, ignoring the edge in his voice this time and turning to me. ‘Em, this changes things. I need to—’
‘Talk to your pack,’ I nodded, completing his sentence for him. ‘I figured. Go call them.’
He shook his head at himself.
‘They’re already suspicious. If I call to say there’s a Were running around the low country who can change outside of the full moon, the entire pack is going to be here by sunrise, and they’re going to want to talk to all of you.’
‘You’re going back to Asheville?’
The soft blue tones of the parlour walls turned grey.
‘I’m going back to Hilton Head,’ he replied. ‘Alone.’
Jackson snorted.
