She pulls away. “Don’t, Nathan. I won’t sit through a trial so she can lie and claim innocence. I want her dead!” she snaps. “Look at this! Did you read this? What more proof do you need?” she questions the Leads, waving a file in the air. “I always wondered how Jessica managed to escape the clinic, spend an entire day without medical care, only to wake up back in the clinic in worse condition than she was in the day before. All of those failed surgeries. Nothing ever made sense, until now.”
We learn that the nurse gave her wolfsbane through her IV. Wolfsbane, when given to a shifter, slows down our metabolism and inhibits our ability to shift and heal. When given to a shifter who hasn’t transitioned yet, it makes them almost completely human. That’s how it started. No one knew that Sodie was slowly healing her, when he could. It’s why she had some good days and some bad ones. When the nurse discovered Jessica wasn’t going to die from the wolfsbane alone, she added ground-up glass to her shakes. Jessica drank three to almost six of those a day. Now we understand why she got so sick that day she threw up blood.The ground-up glass ate away and nearly ruptured the lining of her stomach.
“How? How can a woman with her own children be so cruel?! I want her dead!” Angry tears streak down the Luna Queen’s face.
“I understand, Shakti, but we can’t just kill her. We need more information. Maybe she can help us identify their leader so we can finish this never-ending war,” the King says softly, rubbing her shoulder.
She shakes her head vehemently.
Chris speculates, “There has to be more to all of this. Why would she leave her notes behind for us to find so easily? We need to figure this out before we cast judgement.” He pauses. “I know it’s hard. I want her to pay just as much as you do, but we need to think rationally about this.”
“Rationally?! She tortured her right in front of our eyes! You have children, Chris. Do you have any idea what it was like? Sitting at her bedside, night after night, watching her suffer? Watching her endure everything and not being able to do a damn thing about it? I have never in all my life felt so weak and helpless. I felt so angry because I couldn’t fix it,” she laments.
“We all were there, Shakti, right there with you. Anders suffered greatly, even though he’s trying not to show it,” Chris adds.
Anders is questioning Dr. York. After his outburst with Jessica, he remained unusually quiet, giving both Elias and Chris full rein on this case.
“Then, why?” she cries.
“Shakti, I promise you, after we sort all of this out, we will execute her and everyone else involved. I’ll help you personally rip their throats out. Let us do our job and let’s focus on getting Shadow back,” Elias promises.
The Queen’s eyes glow red, under a pool of unshed tears. She gives him a reluctant nod. The King squeezes her hand in reassurance.
Luke asks, “How would they even known she had magic in the first place? She was barely alive when she arrived at the clinic. I mean, it was clear they thought she didn’t have magic.”
“My mother,” Marty says, throwing the papers on the table. “She might have sensed something while caring for Jessica.”
“I think I found something,” Darwin interrupts. “I just finished decrypting the rest of the file. A drug serum was in the works for some time that inhibits the use of magic. They didn’t have a test subject to trial it on, though. When Jessica didn’t die the first time or, well, second time, they decided to use her as the test subject. According to some of the communication I uncovered, the drug doesn’t last very long. Whoever they give it to will need continuous injections to inhibit their use of magic. Jessica could still use her magic, despite the daily injections, so frequent adjustments had to be made.”
“Daily injections…” Emily chimes in. “There’s a note here from Mimi that when the subject refused the injections regularly, the use of magic slowly returned. When was the last time Jessica received hormone injections?” Emily asks Shakti.
“A few months ago, maybe longer. She decided she didn’t want them anymore, even if it meant she couldn’t transition.” Shakti slams a file on the table and starts to cry. “Those weren’t hormone injections…”
Nathan draws her into his embrace. “It’s not your fault, Shakti.”
“I made her take them when she didn’t want to! I asked her to give it a chance, to see if it would make a difference, especially when Mimi convinced me that the endocrinologist thought the new prescription would help. I was part of all of this. I did this toher. She trusted me, and I’m the one…” Her body shakes as she sobs into her hands.
Nathan picks her up and takes her outside.
“What else did you find out, Darwin?” Luke says softly.
“They—the Resistance—collectively decided to test the drug on a different subject. According to the chatter, someone within the Larson firm knew the perfect subject to test the vaccine on.”
“So we assume it’s Shadow?” Charlie inquires.
Darwin nods. “I’m going to assume they somehow dosed Shadow with the drug, which is how they’re keeping him captive. I’ve seen him in action. No way they caught him without it.”
Emily nods and clicks on the keyboard.
“Okay. So they created this drug, tested it on Jessica, and now have Shadow. But what’s the bigger picture here?” I ask
Darwin sighs. “From what I’m reading, the Resistance no longer wants to kill magic wielders. They want to collect them. They plan to use some of the victims to perfect their drug and use some of them to… well, make babies.”
“They want to make more magic wielders, when they practically eradicated all living ones already? That doesn’t make sense,” Luke scoffs
“It makes perfect sense, actually, because now they want to create a future Resistance army of magic wielders,” Emily explains. “They plan to sell the strongest magic wielders to the highest bidders within the Resistance.”
“Does that mean they plan to use Shadow as… a stud? What about Jessica?” I ask, blurting out the question as it formulates in my mind.
