Diana stood too, her amber eyes warm with approval. "What do you need?"
"Tonight? Sleep. A clear head." Chloe glanced toward the window, toward the darkness outside. "Tomorrow, I'm going to talk to Corin. And then we're going to figure out who's been doing this and make them regret it."
Freya rose and pulled her into another hug. "That's the Chloe I know."
"The one who runs?"
"The one who fights when it matters." Freya pulled back, her hands on Chloe's shoulders. "Get some rest. Tomorrow's going to be a long day."
Chloe climbed the stairs to her borrowed room, her mind clearer than it had been in hours. She wasn't going to run. Wasn't going to let fear make her decisions for her.
Someone had tried to drive her out of Hollow Oak. They were about to learn that was a mistake.
29
CORIN
The morning air was sharp enough to cut as Corin stepped onto his porch just after dawn, keys in hand, his mind already at the inn. He'd barely slept, spent most of the night staring at his ceiling and rehearsing what he'd say to Chloe. How he'd convince her to stay. How he'd make her understand that leaving would solve nothing.
He was halfway to his truck when the scent hit him.
Faint. Fleeting. Gone almost before he registered it. But his bear lunged forward, hackles raised, every instinct screaming to follow.
He froze, nostrils flaring. The wind shifted, carrying the scent away, but he'd caught enough. Something wrong. Something familiar in a way he couldn't place. Like rot masked by something sweeter, something deliberately concealing.
The same scent that had vanished at Chloe's cottage. The same one that disappeared near the well.
He set the keys on the porch railing and moved toward the orchard, silent as the predator he was. The frost crunched faintly beneath his boots no matter how carefully he stepped, but the wind covered most of it, blowing toward him, carrying thatwrongness closer. stronger. Coming from the direction of the well.
He kept to the tree line, using the bare trunks for cover, his bear's senses sharpening with every step. The clearing came into view through the branches, and he stopped dead.
Jasper Mince stood bythe ruined well, his hands pressed flat against the crumbling stones.
For a moment, Corin didn't understand what he was seeing. Jasper, the quiet deliveryman. Jasper, who'd brought his tools and offered sympathy. Jasper, who'd sat in the Council meeting and promised to keep his eyes open for a town he had been a part of for fifteen years.
Yet, here he was, lips moving in a low chant, dark energy pulsing from his palms into the corrupted earth.
The rot smell intensified, thick and cloying, and Corin's bear roared in recognition. This was the source. This was the man who'd been poisoning his land, hurting his mate, tearing his community apart piece by careful piece.
He stepped out of the trees.
"Jasper."
The older man's head snapped up, his hands jerking away from the stones. For a fraction of a second, surprise crossed his face. Then the mask slid into place, that same helpful, concerned expression Corin had seen a dozen times before.
"Corin. Didn't expect to see you out here so early."
"I bet you didn't." Corin moved closer, keeping his body loose, ready to shift at a moment's notice. "What are you doing?"
"Just checking on the well. After everything that's happened, I wanted to see if there was anything that might help the Council figure out who's responsible." Jasper spread his hands, the picture of innocence. "Terrible thing, what's been done here."
"Yeah. Terrible." Corin stopped ten feet away, close enough to see the faint sheen of sweat on Jasper's forehead despite thecold. "Funny thing, though. I've been smelling something at this well for weeks. A scent that kept disappearing before I could track it. And I just smelled it again. Coming from you."
The mask slipped, just for an instant before he smoothed it away.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I think you do." Corin's voice dropped, a growl threading through the words. "I think you've been coming here for months. Breaking the seal, feeding the contamination, spreading poison through the land. And then showing up with your helpful smile and your reasonable concerns, making sure everyone blamed Chloe instead of looking at you."
