Aurelia nodded. “You nearly set your hair on fire,” she muttered.
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Dani said weakly.
Layla watched them both, eyes thoughtful. “Your magic’s shifted,” she said. “More than I thought it might, actually.”
Dani let her head thunk back against the cushions. “Great. So mating an alpha comes with bonus explosives.”
Layla’s lips twitched. “When Dominic and I mated, my magic changed, too. Not like yours. I started getting these…visions. Predictions. I still don’t fully understand them. But I’ve learned to trust them.”
“So you’re saying, mating has caused my magic to…amplify?”
“Again, I’m not fully sure how it works,” Layla said, frustration lacing her voice, “and it’s not like I can openly research it. This place is…” she paused, before sighing, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Well, I hardly need to tell you. My working theory is that when a witch mates a shifter, and it’s a true mating, it’s not onlyhimthat gets powers. She does, too.”
“Is that why the witches are here?” Dani asked. “Because you asked for them? So you could get answers?”
Layla’s gaze went distant for a moment. The firelight caught the faint shadows under her eyes.
“Lately, my visions have been getting worse,” she admitted. “Witches standing alone in the snow. Wolves circling something they can’t see. Hybrids moving in patterns that feel…deliberate.” She shook her head once, as if clearing it. “I kept seeing Skymist. Over and over. So I pushed for this. I thought if we brought everyone here, packs, covens, even vampires, whoever would answer, we might stand a chance of understanding what we’re up against before it breaks over our heads.”
“And Dominic let you?”
“He trusts me,” said Layla. “It’s the shifters he doesn’t. We’ve already had some visiting nomadic witches leave.”
“So quickly?”
Layla shrugged, “In the dead of the night. I suppose they saw the way some of the wolves looked at them and decided it wasn’t worth the risk. I can’t blame them. You’re all vulnerable here, Dani. Far from your own land. Outnumbered. You came because you trusted Lavinia . And she trustedme. I take that seriously.”
Dani stared into the flames. “I don’t know if Arthur feels the same.”
Layla didn’t rush to contradict her. “He’s…trying,” she said finally. “In his own, incredibly frustrating way. He’s spent his whole life being told witches are a threat to his people. Now his god has tied him to one. He will catch up. He just hasn’t yet.”
“He claimed me in front of everyone, bit me at a mating ritual, and I haven’t seen him since,” Dani said flatly. “I woke up in a stranger’s bed in a building full of wolves who would happily tear me apart if he barked the word. Forgive me if I’m not overwhelmed by his progress.”
Aurelia’s grip on her book tightened.
Layla nodded slowly. “You’re allowed to be angry,” she said. “You’re allowed to not forgive him. What I’m saying is…it doesn’t begin and end with him. Dominic will not let anything happen to your coven. I won’t. Lavinia certainly won’t. You have more shields now than you did ten years ago, Dani.”
Dani let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “I’ve spent a decade making sure nobody had the power to hurt us like that again. Running, hiding, keeping my head down. Now I’m back where it all started, and somehow I’m meant to trust a pack, a coven, and a god who thinks this is all very entertaining.”
Layla’s expression softened. “I can’t make you trust any of that,” she said. “But I can promise you’re not alone in it. And I can keep dragging Arthur by the ear until he realizes he cannot just mark you and then sulk in a corner.”
“Please do,” Dani muttered.
Layla’s smile flashed, quick and sharp. “Oh, I intend to.”
She pushed herself up a little straighter, as if changing the air on purpose. “Enough heavy conversation for this early. Are you doing anything tonight?”
Dani blinked. “Not to my knowledge.”
“Good,” Layla said. “Come to the Anchor. Dom wants to welcome everyone who’s arrived so far. The Severney are in, so are some of the vampires, and the Juneau delegation arrived at dawn.”
Aurelia perked up. “Vampires?”
Dani groaned, “How many times have I told you, vampires in real life are nothing like the ones in the old witch folktales!”
With a disappointed sniff, Aurelia closed her book, clambering closer to Dani. “Will Edith be there?”
“The Salem Coven are, of course, invited,” said Layla with a smile. “It’s at The Anchor. Dominic’s got plenty of wolves on guard detail. It’ll be perfectly safe, I promise you.”
