Page 261 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘I know Troy Harker named you Riley, claimed you publicly as his son and raised you within the ley line construct my sister so cleverly secured to keep you hidden from Penhalyx. I know you are a Wildwane reared without the bonds of blood, and that you may be assured of Céliane’s devotion to you. But Julian has always been my priority and, I confess, you hold very little interest for me.’

It’s delivered in neutral tones, and yet Kade can’t help feeling angry on Riley’s behalf, such is the dismissive nature of Blaire’s declaration.

But Riley only seems relieved.

‘Good.’

Lachlan looks between the two. ‘What’s a Wildwane?’

‘One whose biology adapts by redistributing existing mass into whatever form might best serve them,’ she says. ‘Sometimes, these changes are unnoticeable. Other times, the transformation can be significant.’

‘So… shapeshifting.’

‘In simple terms, yes.’

‘Riley Harker is a fucking shapeshifter?’

Kade glares. ‘Don’t.’

Lachlan rolls his eyes. ‘Heard. Hang on, wait.’ He pulls something out of his back pocket. A small, thick notebook sealed inside a zip-lock bag. He opens the bag, pulls out the notebook and thumbs it open, revealing handwritten entries, some dated, some not, before flipping through to the back.

‘Did you write that?’ Kade asks.

He gets no answer as Lachlan’s finger tracks back and forth across the entries until it stops.

‘Horizontal vector transfer achieved through haematological and seminal bioexchange. Subtype compatibility confirmed,’ he reads out swiftly. ‘Cross-class uptake consistent. Integration stability maintained. Baseline human rejection immediate. This is what it meant. The files. The notes. Cross-class uptake.’

‘Yes.’

‘So, anthro…’

‘Anthrodivergents.’

‘Anthrodivergents can exchange abilities? Or share them?’

‘To a lesser extent, yes.’

‘Like a contagion,’ Riley points out quietly.

‘To call it a contagion only goes to show how well Troy Harker raised you in his image. The process is a mitochondrial handshake. Two living systems learning from one another, exchanging information to better adapt and survive. Human bodies reject the exchange almost immediately. At most, the attempt at repair triggers a temporary adrenal response. Vivid dreams,’ she clarifies when no one speaks. ‘Night sweats, paranoia.’

Lachlan goes back a page.

‘Plasma and ejaculate contain compounds structurally analogous to human adrenergic transmitters. A snake bite poisons you; it doesn’t make you into a snake. This is what Zaitsev meant.’

‘Exactly.’

‘So Jules was given her bone marrow and blood. Did that give him Brightling abilities?’

‘Mimi and Julian shared traits, yes, and she adored him beyond measure, but even as a toddler, she was powerful, unstable and too young to control what she could do. Serious accidents occurred, some of which Julian was able to cover up and others he could not. Jessamine posed a significant problem to our plan. How could we bring her along too when she was so wildly uncontrollable?’

‘I never saw her do anything like that,’ Lachlan says, frowning.

‘She calmed significantly when you arrived, the Belkin incident aside.’

‘What are you driving at?’

‘Brightlings, it has been suggested, can withstand isolation from blood kin without deterioration. Sways tolerate it better, and some even prefer it, but Wildwanes need family,’ Blaire explains. ‘Without blood relatives, their bodies lose the biological reference from which baseline stability is learned. Scent, proximity and shared rhythms are essential to their homeostatic regulation. The physiology of a young Wildwane is calibrated to a familial ecosystem.