Iris lifts an unimpressed brow. “I thought you asked for the highlights reel?”
Touché.
I bite the inside of my cheek and wave for her to continue.
“After your mother found out she was pregnant, she knew there’d be consequences. And she refused to let you be one of them. So, she ran, leaving me behind, along with her duty to NightShade and your father. All of it for you. It took me over a decade to find her again. I tried to convince her to come home, especially after I had a witchshield your bloodline to hide what you were. But Jocelyn wouldn’t budge. That’s when I sent Archibald. He was supposed to guide you toward the truth slowly and carefully, but,” she narrows her eyes, “clearly he failed spectacularly. Traitorous little vermin.”
Archie doesn’t even flinch. “I did exactly what you asked. I kept her safe. Untilyoumeddled and dragged her into this circus.”
One point to the talking ferret. Zero for Psycho Granny.
“As I was saying,” Iris continues without missing a beat. “When your mother left, that meant, if I retired, NightShade would then be passed to a new lineage of Hollowborn. But our family, the Prescotts, has run this manor for nearly three hundred years, and I couldn’t let it go to another. After your mother died, I saw an opportunity to keep this place in the family. Call it selfish all you want. I call it heritage. And I’ll be damned if I hand this place over to a bunch of fern-sniffing flower covens who wouldn’t know a Hollowborn if she smacked them upside the head with a curse.”
There’s so much to unpack there, but I don’t ask her to clarify. Mostly because I can’t feel my body anymore. Instead, I turn to the one thing Ithinkmight still make sense in this world: my talking, possibly immortal, and definitely not normal ferret.
“What does any of that mean?”
Archie steps forward and places a tiny paw beneath my chin, like he’s delivering bad news at a funeral. “It means the moment you delivered that whiskey upstairs, your life changed forever. There was a bomb—magicallyrigged and set to go off when Iris entered. But instead, you did. You took the full impact, and it killed you.”
My stomach flips.
“But because of who your parents are—your bloodline—it also triggered your wolf gene, which activated a prophecy called the Ashmark. One that makes you a weapon they could possibly wield or that will destroy our world as we know it. And the other supernaturals? They’ll kill without question to make sure it’s not the former. At least that’s what she should have said instead of talking about this damn place.”
I stare at him, completely blank, my brain buffering like a spinning wheel of death.
I wasmurdered,and I’m part of some prophecy that will likely kill me for real this time.
Yep. That’s a thing we’re just tossing into the conversation now. Cool.
Before I can think of anything somewhat reasonable to ask, there’s another roar that echoes from upstairs so loudly that it feels like the person is standing right next to me.
“Oh, and the man who broke in through the window?” Iris announces so casually, I’m actually tempted to punch her in the face once I hear her next words. “He’s also a wolf shifter and says you’re his mate and he’s hellbent on keeping you safe from the curse you’re supposedly meant to become to his kind.”
“Who’s ready for ice cream?” Liz says as she bursts into the room with a cart covered in bowls and toppings. Yet, nobody smiles.
Especially not me.
Chapter 5
ROWAN
Ihave no idea what I’m supposed to do with all of this information. Scream? Cry? Run for the mountains and hope the bears are more emotionally available than these people? All of the above feels like a solid option.
Worse still, they’re all staring at me like I’m supposed to say something profound. Like I’ve got the wisdom of a hundred past lives just waiting to roll off my tongue. But every time I open my mouth, all that comes out is silence and a dry heave of disbelief.
Archie presses against my cheek, his fur warm and soothing. “It’s going to be okay, Rowan. I know it’s a lot to process, but you’re not alone in this. I’ll protect you.”
Sweet. Addbodyguard ferretto the ever-growing list of things I didn’t think I needed to know.
Just as I start to inhale through my nose in some pathetic attempt to calm down, the conference room doors slam open again. This time hard enough to rattlethe chandelier so thoroughly that I briefly wonder if it’s going to come crashing down.
And this time, there’s no smiling Liz with an ice cream cart on the other side.
There’s a hulking beast of a man filling the doorway, shoulders tense, chest heaving, and eyes glowing like someone pissed in his cereal. And his gaze? Fixed directly on my grandmother, like she personally lit his house on fire and danced in the ashes.
“You,” Cade growls, stalking forward with three terrifying strides. I brace myself for some well-deserved yelling, maybe even a table flip, but that’s not what happens.
Instead of screaming, the psycho grabs Iris by the throat and lifts her clean off the ground like he’s some villain in a supernatural wrestling match. Without saying another word, he gives his wrist a quick flick, and Iris goes limp in his hand.
