The line went dead.
Chloe stood in the dim hallway, her heart pounding. Wendy had never sounded like that before. Scared. Helpless. Her sister,who always had cryptic answers for everything, who spoke in riddles and metaphors, had been genuinely afraid.
The front door of the café banged open.
She hurried back to the main room and stopped dead.
Corin stood in the entrance, his chest heaving like he'd been running. There was a dark bruise forming on his cheekbone, dirt and frost clinging to his clothes, and his hazelnut eyes swept the room with wild intensity until they landed on her.
Relief. That was what flooded his face. Not anger. Not accusation. Just overwhelming, desperate relief.
"You're here." He crossed the room in long strides and pulled her against his chest, his arms wrapping around her so tight she could barely breathe. "Thank god you're here."
"Corin, what happened? You're hurt."
"Later." He pulled back, his hands on her shoulders, his eyes searching her face. "I know who's been doing this. It's Jasper. Jasper Mince."
"Jasper?" Twyla's voice was sharp with disbelief. "The delivery man?"
"He's not what he seems. He's a dark druid. A siphon. He's been draining power from the land, from the well, and he's been using Chloe as a conduit." Corin's grip tightened. "Your collapse wasn't the contamination hurting you. It was him. Testing how much he could take."
The words slotted into place with Wendy's warning, and Chloe's blood ran cold. "He's been reaching for me through the soil."
"Every time you touched it, you were feeding him. Opening a channel." Corin's jaw clenched. "I confronted him at the well this morning. He admitted everything, then disappeared. Teleported. I don't know where he went, but I think he's going to try something bigger."
"We need to go to the Council," Freya said, already grabbing her coat.
"Elias is handling that. But the well..." Corin looked toward the window, toward the direction of his orchard. "Something felt wrong when I left. The energy was building. If Jasper's planning to finish what he started?—"
"Then Chloe's the target." Freya's green eyes were fierce. "I'm coming with you."
"We don't know what we're walking into."
"Exactly why you need backup." Freya moved to stand beside Chloe, her small frame radiating determination. "I'm not letting her face this alone."
Twyla was already at the phone. "I'll call the Council, get people mobilized. Go. Now."
The drive to Corin's property took forever and no time at all. Chloe sat in the passenger seat, her hands clenched in her lap, while Corin drove too fast over icy roads and Freya leaned forward from the back seat.
"Tell me everything," Chloe said. "What exactly did he say?"
Corin relayed the confrontation in clipped sentences. The dark druid confession. The siphoning. The old power bound in the well that Jasper had been stealing. The way he'd used the contamination to mask his real goal, used the town's fear to keep suspicion pointed elsewhere.
"He said your blood is rare," Corin finished. "Valuable. That you've been walking around with a fortune in your veins."
"And he wants to take it."
"I won't let him."
The truck skidded to a stop by the orchard. Through the bare trees, Chloe could see the clearing where the well stood.
It was glowing.
Dark energy pulsed from the ruined stones, tendrils of shadow reaching up toward the gray sky like grasping fingers.The air felt wrong, heavy and thick, pressing against her skin with malevolent intent.
"Stay behind me," Corin said, already moving.
Chloe followed, Freya at her side. Every step closer made the pressure worse. Her head throbbed. Her vision swam. The druid blood that had always been a quiet hum beneath her skin was screaming now, recoiling from the corruption ahead.
