“What if we could warn them?” I said. “Your siblings.”
Brayden shook his head. “They’re powerless, slaves to the Fae Lords. Warning them does nothing while they are prisoners.”
“So we have to free them first.” Leah spoke so casually, as I first had when I didn’t know that Brayden had tried to free them before.
Brayden looked annoyed with her statement. “We can’t. I’ve tried.”
Maddy rubbed her chin in a dramatic way. “I have an idea.”
Brayden looked over at his sister and I turned to face her.
“After Brayden wins back the pack next month, we get Averly’s power fully uncapped by this Artemis fellow,” Maddy said. “Thenwe don’t have Leah take her next monthly potion, which will give ustwofull-blown powerful Greywolves.”
She looked at her brother encouragingly.
“TwountrainedGreywolves,” he deadpanned.
Leah crossed her arms, looking offended. “Hey, we’re slowly getting our memories back. Once that fully happens, we would have all of our memories that pertain to battle, which I’m assuming is a lot considering how old you are,” she told Brayden.
Maddy snickered, because Brayden was glowering at her. He clearly didn’t like being called old.
“Even with two trained Greywolves, it’s not enough,” Brayden told her. “Freeing my siblings will mean destroying their prison while holding off the Fae Lords’ wrath. You would need me as well, my entire pack.”
Maddy nodded as if to confirm her brother wasn’t crazy.
I chewed the inside of my lip, trying to figure out a workaround. I was fully invested in helping Brayden get his throne back from the asshat Fae Lords, especially if it meant freeing our helpless siblings in the process. I only had a few tiny memories of them but already I loved them and felt loyal to their care and wellbeing.
“If we can get our memories fully back, Wren will know how to restore Brayden’s power,” I said. “She clearly restored Lena’s before they both died from sharing the curse.”
I mean, that was the elephant in the room we hadn’t really talked about yet. Leah was just confirmed to have Greywolf power and I had Greywolf power. We both remembered being sisters. There was only one logical explanation. Wren had done something to Lena that night of her twentieth birthday. Like the Elder Fae had said, Wren was injured and a lot could have gone wrong. She’d restored Lena’s connection to her power somehow, and then they both died and didn’t reincarnate for forty years. Or they did but were unable to find Brayden in the last life, probably due to not remembering him. Either way, Wren’s memories held the key to this mystery of how to regain Brayden’s connection to his powers as well.
“Ifyou can get your memories back fully,” Maddy added. “Not to mention, one of you is Lena, which means you will drop dead on your twentieth birthday, which is when again…?”
Leah and I shared a look and a realization came over the both of us at the exact same moment.
The birthday twins.Leah and I shared the same birthday, which we found out in kindergarten when our moms brought cupcakes the same day. Wren and Lena died the same day and also reincarnated on the same day.
“January twenty-sixth,” we said at the same time, and Maddy looked back and forth between us both.
“Both of you?” she asked.
Brayden rubbed his hands through his hair. “Yes. If Wren restored Lena’s power and tried to take on her curse but something went wrong… then they both died on the same day and therefore came back on the same day.”
Okay, I didn’t really want to know how all that worked. Both our moms had sex with our dads the night we died? Gross. I shivered thinking about it.
“This is overwhelming.” Leah stood and started to pace. For the first time since all of this started, she was showing signs of stress.
I agreed, nodding my head.
“Okay, step one: get Leah’s potion, hide her Greywolf for thirty days,” Brayden said and Leah nodded, seeming calmed that there was a plan.
“Step two,” Brayden added. “In a few weeks, just before the fight, I’ll take Averly to the Briar Woods to find Artemis and see if he can release a tenth of her power so I can use it to fight Silas back for my pack.”
“A tenth? Is that enough to help you?” I asked.
He looked at me with a smirk. “Whether you are Wren or my Lena, you are a Greywolf, one of the most powerful magical creatures to ever live.”
Chills raced up my arms. I mean, I had frozen time for a split second when Brayden was attacked. Now I wondered what else I was capable of.
