Instead, she climbs into the back seat of Savi’s SUV like a normal person back in perfectly normal times, and we drive down into Ashland, past the snowy fields, the whitecapped mountains leading the way. Once we get to Ashland, we drive through Lithia Park—which is always green these days, thanks to magic best left to its own devices—and then out into the mountains until we’re bumping along unmarked roads again.
We wind around and around, catching stunning glimpses of Mount Shasta in the distance, all the way up to Savi’s estate.
I don’t think Winter has been here either, but she does a great job of not looking particularly overawed as we pull up to the sprawling house. It looks even more like a temple an old god might fancy to me now. Maybe the sort of temple sorcerers enjoyed during their divine eras, but something keeps me from asking.
Savi flows her way out of the car once she parks it near one of the doors, beckons us to follow her, and sweeps into the house.
Once again, I keep my eyes on her and try not to look at the things happening in my peripheral vision. When Winter starts to drag, herattention clearly getting caught and wrecked, I loop my arm through hers and drag her with me.
“Never look directly at anything in a sorcerer’s house,” I tell her in a low voice.
She blinks, her eyes wide. It takes her a moment to focus on me. “Is that a thing you tell little wolflings?”
“It’s common sense. Do you know magic? If not, don’t mess with it. Even if it’s trying to mess with you. Especially then.”
“Wise words indeed,” Savi says, suddenly beside us. Instead of leading us to one of her courtyards, she turns into a room that smells so deeply of magic that I feel my hackles rise before I even enter.
Winter stops on the threshold too, her head jerking back. “What is this place?”
“My dungeon,” Savi says, then laughs when we both stare at her. “I’m kidding. It’s a place where I cast a spell or two as needed. I thought it was high time that I warded the three of us. Instead of places I think we might go.”
“That seems smart enough,” Winter says, carefully, her pulse rocketing in her throat as she looks around the room. I can hear it.
I look too, my attention going immediately to the windows that look out at different views. The night sky. A wild, cold ocean. The Milky Way. The valley. A desert made of shifting sands and a sun so bright it hurts. It’s dizzying.
I clear my throat. “I wasn’t aware that you could actually ward people.”
“Nothing can or can’t be done,” Savi says, though it sounds to me like she’s talking to herself. “It’s really more a question of ... what can the magic do? What can you make it do?” She shoots a look in our direction. “Most of the time it’s about harnessing creativity, that’s all.”
She beckons us in. Winter and I look at each other, but we go. Savi seats us around what looks like an ornate basin, though I know, somehow, that it isn’t plain water in the round bowl in the center. She shows us how to sit with our knees touching and tellsus to lift our hands and hold them over the bowl, the same way she does with hers.
“This is a very intense spell,” she says. “It’s also very effective. It can take a moment or two to settle into the bones.”
“Like arthritis,” I say.
Savi sends me a dark look and frowns until I get my hands in the right position.
Then she begins to chant.
I’ve heard her chant too many times to count. That low muttering that Winter talks about, that spell work she weaves into everything. It’s like a song. It’s like a dance of sound and shape, and I’ve heard it over and over again.
I’ve never been a part of it before.
I can feel the magic wind its way around and then sink into me, and it occurs to me that I shouldn’t be so comfortable with this. That I shouldn’t throw myself into magic when I know better than tolookat it.
Yet nothing about this feels like a threat. Nothing about Savi ever has to me, not since I met her at Winter’s door and actually talked to her myself. I might be wrong about her too, the same way I was wrong about Connor. I know that’s a possibility.
Still, my body isn’t reacting the way it usually does to threats. My wolf side is happy and at ease.
You either listen to your intuition or you don’t,I tell myself.
I decide to listen. I let go.
Savi is speaking in a language I don’t understand. Her mouth moves around words I can hardly fathom, in a cadence that’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. As she speaks, it’s almost as if I can feel each word attach itself to my skin.
Then they sink in deep. They winnow their way down to the bone, where they glow.
This goes on and on, and soon enough, it’s as if we’re somewhere else.
