“Forget about Novus for now. He’s in the Ether Realm anyway. We need to focus on hiding Leah’s Greywolf power, now more than ever.”
Right, because Novus could sense it and eat her intestines?
“Awesome,” Leah said dryly.
“How often does this Novus guy go on a hunt?” I knew he said to drop the subject but my mind was running wild. What about Brayden and Lena’s siblings in the Ether Realm? They’d be at risk if this guy got to them.
Brayden must have known what I was thinking. “The Fae Lords will protect our siblings because that’s where they get their power, but even they would only barely be able to hold him off.”
Maddy nodded. “His hunts are random. He did one a thousand years ago, killing off so many magical creatures and ingesting their power that it filled up history books. Then another five hundred years later and another fifty years after that. He hunts at random and then retreats to the Dead Woods to bide his time.”
I gulped, remembering the sticky sweet maple syrup that he’d dripped everywhere. “Maple syrup?”
Brayden shivered a little. “Rumor has it that he ingested a maple tree guardian and now oozes the stuff. It’s his calling card.”
Bile rose in my throat at the thought of this dude eating an entire tree warrior like the one we’d seen come attack us. It was at least a hundred feet tall.
“Focus. We have to worry now about Silas and the big fight. Capping Leah’s Greywolf power, if she has it, is our priority,” Brayden echoed and I nodded, trying to push what I’d seen out of my mind.
Would it have been bad timing to mention that without the Elder Fae I also wouldn’t be able to uncap any of my power to help him win his pack back?
Yes, bad timing. Maybe best to mention that later.
“And how do you expect us to do that? The Elder Fae was the only one I know of who can do such a thing,” Maddy asked her brother.
He nodded and pulled out a white sheet of paper. It was the same paper that he’d grabbed from the Elder Fae’s house.
I raised an eyebrow. “A plain piece of paper?”
He gave me a placating look and reached out, placing the page under my nose. “Smell it. It reeks of magic.”
I inhaled, and a smoky yet aromatic scent hit my nostrils. It was like a mixture of campfire and star anise.
Maddy looked intrigued by that. “You think the Elder Fae left a message?”
Brayden nodded.
“It’s blank.” Leah looked down at the paper and Brayden folded it into his pocket.
“Not to a witch it’s not.”
Leah bopped on her heels, clapping. “Please tell me we’re going to see a witch.”
Brayden looked at me with surprise as if asking “Can you believe this girl?” and it caused me to grin. “Leah loves all things supernatural and weird. You won’t catch her off guard with any of this stuff.”
Not like me. You tell me we are going to see witches and I get nauseous.
Leah nodded in confirmation to my statement. “Aliens could land right now and beam me up and I’d welcome it.”
Maddy snort-laughed as Brayden gave Leah a lopsided smirk.
Did he think her quirkiness was cute? Probably.
Bastard.
“Let’s get moving, then.” I broke up their little cutesy stare-fest. “To see a witch you said?”
Brayden nodded. “Not just any witch. If there is a hidden message in this, we’ll have to see the Witch Mother.”
