“I’m alright. Perhaps we should talk about this later?” She looks at Skye, who is offering a piece of his cookie, minus the chocolate chips, to Tsuki.
Leo isn’t having any of that. “I don’t mean to sound rude, but if it concerns him, then he gets to hear it.”
Jay agrees. “He deserves to know when things involve him.”
It makes Leo proud to hear his Alpha so quick to back him up, when just a week ago it had taken a lot of convincing to get him to come around—that the boy deserved to be part of his future, especially after so much had been out of his control.
Eventually, Jay had let himself be convinced. Not because he’d stopped wanting to protect Skye from the world, but because he’d realized that sheltering him from the truth was its own kind of harm. He’d apologized, admitting that his own upbringing had made him want to shield the boy from life’s harder truths. He understood now that sometimes, ignorance wasn’t always bliss.
It had ultimately made a big difference in the boy’s trust.
“Alright. Skye, you are very strong. While we both have a Biometric Affinity in common, it’s quite different. I must say that the process is quite distracting for the person experiencing it. Even then, I could tell you are using several strands at once—Biometric soul magic like mine, as well as something else entirely. I could also feel you using my magic to power your own.”
Skye points at Grayson and the sleeping Rosie.
“He’s using other people’s magic?” Luca asks. “Like…when we were in Florida?” He whispers the last part, worry coloring his tone.
Skye frowns. He didn’t need to know who Withers was or what he’d done to see that Luca is horrified. He whines, jumping down from Jay’s lap and into Luca’s, hands on Luca’s cheeks. “Woo is sad?”
The scent of rancid neroli becomes stronger with his distress.
Luca sniffs, pressing his forehead to Skye’s. “No, baby. I’m worried.”
“I’m bad.”
There’s a quiet commotion of growls and murmuredno’s. But Skye only has eyes for Luca.
“No!” Luca shakes his head, giving the boy a gentle squeeze. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you think I thought you were bad.”
“Not bad at all.” Elysia finishes her cookie and takes a sip of water, placing her glass back on the side table. “I can confirm without a doubt that you are not stealing power. You’re…harnessing it. You don’t have your own power right now, so you borrow ours.”
She hesitates, and without a doubt, Leo knows he’s not going to like what comes next.
“There’s something else…I think he has a—”
“Stop!” Nix says abruptly, on his feet.
Rosie startles in his arms and begins to cry.
It’s a more subdued version of this afternoon, settling the whole pack into high alert. Low growls mix with voices asking questions and soothing the crying baby.
“Quiet!” Jay barks.
“That feeling is back, and it’s making me crazy. Can you feel it, Gray?” Nix asks with a shudder.
Grayson closes his eyes, a frown on his face. “Yeah, I mean, I keep The Plain on low these days, but when I let it out, I can feel it now that you said something…like a sliver under my skin.”
“Yes! What is that? It got a lot worse when Elysia was talking, and then it felt like if I didn’t stop her, it was going to get a whole lot worse. The two feelings aren’t the same. Like one has really bad intentions, and the other doesn’t.”
Nimue frowns and speaks for the first time. “You said this isn’t the first time you felt this way, Nix?”
“No. When Grayson called you, earlier today when Gray was at The Guild, and then just now were the worst; but if I’m honest, I’ve felt…antsy for a while.”
“What’s changed?” Nimue asks. “Aside from your growing family.”
“You’ve been feeling off this whole time and not said anything?” Finn accuses.
“Well, I just thought it was that Gray has been spending more and more time at the Guild with The Plain dialed down. And his Time studies make him so tired.”
