I opened the cover. A name had been scrawled on the top left corner of the first page:Fenwyn MacTire.
“Why does that name sound familiar?” I whispered.
“Well, it should,” Rainier said. “He’s only the most famous shifter historian.”
Snapping my head around, I looked at him, my brows furrowed. “What?”
“Didn’t you learn about that guy as a kid?” Rainier looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
“Uh…no.”
He sighed and shrugged. “I guess that makes sense. He was only really starting to publish books and stuff around the time you would have been becoming an adult. Anyway, he’s known as the preeminent shifter historian of all time.” He ran a finger along the page. “If this is really his personal journal, then Stephen had a hell of an expensive item here. Dude probably could have gotten a few thousand dollars for this thing.”
I grunted and turned the page. When I saw what was on the next side, I froze, eyes going wide.
“No shit,” Rainier said.
On the other page was a handwritten table of contents. The first entry was for something calledMating Ceremonies of Shifters. The second was forStandard Folk Tales of Shifters. It was the third and final entry on the list that had caught both my and Rainier’s attention.The Reincarnation Phenomenon in the Shifter Species.
“Interesting,” I said as I flipped through the book.
Most of the later pages were blank, but the first few were filled with spiky, cursive script. The last chapter cut off mid-sentence. Whatever this Fenwyn person had been working on had been interrupted. Perhaps this was the last thing he’d been writing when he died?
As I scanned the words, I found information I’d heard since I was a child.
It is a well-known and well-discussed phenomenon among shifter circles that reincarnation does happen—quite often, in fact. However, the actual scientific or magical process by which this occurs is still unknown. It is theorized that it is magical in nature, as it happens with much more frequency than in humans, and even more frequently among the wolf breed of shifters.
I’ve found that this phenomenon is interpreted differently depending on where the shifter pack is located. A regional belief system often skews the reality of the phenomenon in some places. For instance, shifters in certain European and Caribbean locations believe that a reincarnated shifter is a shadow of the person who came before and adds to the current incarnation’s personality in subtle, almost imperceptible ways.
On the opposite end of this spectrum are the shifters of north central portions of North America and Canada, who believe the reincarnation to be a living entity that resides within the host that can influence and, in some instances, return to full sentience under the right circumstances.
Both of these, as well as other tales, have become little more than folk tales, but in more remote cultures they still hold sway. Most of these beliefs stem from the deep-seated cultural laws about something shifters called Fated Mates, a magical process by which two shifters are mated together forever. It is a bond much stronger than a typical romantic relationship and thought to extend all the way to the incarnate soul itself.
Many believe that when mates die, they can, and often do, reunite later on in new bodies. One thing that has become evident in my research is that, while true, there is a limit to this magical connection. After approximately four generations, or one hundred years, this bond is almost always broken, andthe soul is free to incarnate in a new body and find a different mate. None of my research shows that the two souls ever find each other again after this timeframe.
This is part of the reason there is such a heavy emphasis placed on the ceremonies shifters perform to discover what soul lies beneath a current incarnation. Whether any of this is true or not is an ongoing study being done by universities around the world. The facts do show that shifters reincarnate, and at times will reunite with their loved ones in later lives, and after a century they will typically not find them again. In the next chapter, I will begin discussing the effect Fated Mates have on the shifter communities as well as how they economically impact the?—
The writing cut off abruptly. I stared at the page for several long seconds before looking at Rainier. He had the same worried look on his face.
One hundred years. I hadn’t heard that sliver of information before. I thought back, recalling that fateful night when I’d found Naphele broken and bleeding in our house. It had been nearly exactly a hundred years ago. It had been warm outside, nearing spring. We were probably only a few weeks away. My heart thudded faster in my chest, and an uncomfortable heat flooded up my back. If this man was correct—and Rainier had said he wasthepreeminent scholar on all things shifter—then I was nearly out of time.
I wanted nothing more than to be with June. I’d come to love her as much as I’d ever loved Naphele, but if she’d chosen someone else, then what other choice did I have? Unless I was going to be alone forever, Ihadto find Naphele’s reincarnation. I needed to do it sooner rather than later, it seemed.
“You know what I think?” The words tumbled from my mouth before I even realized I was going to say them.
“What?” Rainier drew out the word, sounding wary and worried.
“We said we need allies to fight the Red Maw, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And this journal says if I don’t find Naphele’s reincarnation soon, I never will. I can’t keep stumbling around the forest, hoping to find her. I need to go somewhere with a lot more people and see if that makes it easier.”
“Hang on. No way. No,” he said, his eyes going wide with understanding. “Not a good idea. I don’t think that’s smart.”
“It’s fine, Rain. I know what I’m doing. I’ll steer clear of her.”
“You want to go to Idlewild?” He looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Maybe I had.
