Page 28

Cersey chuckled. “I would notdreamof harming a beloved friend. But, have it your way.”

She looked over my shoulder. “Diana, my dear, you know where to find me if… well, you know.”

I struggled to make sense of the witch’s words as she disappeared into the night with ringing notes of her malicious laugh.

DIANA

Everything was wrong. We were hurtling toward some precipice, and I had no way of stopping us from tipping over the edge.

In the wake of Cersey’s words, Jesse turned his anger on me, demanding to know what the witch meant. I was paralyzed. I opened my mouth, but no words came. Orion looked at me with wide, vacant eyes, still gripping the stained flannel.

If… if Alpha Nathaniel was truly taken, or worse… I did not want to imagine the pain Orion must be feeling. The sharp reminder of my own father’s death made every anguish, every uncertainty, that much more acute.

I turned away from Jesse’s yelling and stepped closer to Orion, covering his hands with mine. “We should ask Mom to do the tracking spell again, with his shirt this time.”

Orion said nothing, but his hands fell away from mine.

Jesse huffed, hurrying off to gather the others and call off the search. Orion numbly turned around on the spot. He headed towards the forest without slowing, and once he had the cover of trees, he shifted to wolf-form within seconds and bolted for the compound.

I didn’t want him to be alone. Dread knotted my stomach. I shifted and bounded after him.

We sprinted through the trees, but I kept some distance between us. Orion ran ahead and I couldn’t tell if he even knew I was behind him.Orion. I reached out to him with my mind. No response. But I could sense the festering maw of his grief. I tried again, searching, listening. Foreign yet familiar perceptions bloomed inside me, and I could almost see the trees that Orion was seeing, feel the forest floor beneath his paws, hear the crack of brush and leaves through his ears. Was this our bond, connecting us, or my imagination? Whatever it was, I could feel how Orion’s awareness was submerged beneath a dull haze of torment. It threatened to choke him, to swallow him whole.

I knew this pain too well. I would have done anything to protect him from it. My throat whined against the urge to howl, to let loose a peal of agony.Orion, I hummed to him through our bond.

I felt him recoil from me, disconnect with a jerk, and then I was alone with myself in my own head.

Weird.

But that meant he had heard me, didn’t it? At least some of my thoughts must have reached him through that haze.

Our path stopped at my house. Orion waited awkwardly at the porch as he shifted back into human form, the tattered flannel secured in his hands. I went inside to wake Mom. Her scrying materials were still there, splayed out on the table.

When I returned downstairs with her, Orion had let himself in. He was smoothing down the map and leaning over the San Francisco Peninsula, looking at the faded circle. Mom was already lighting candles. Not a word was spoken.

I stood there, with nothing to contribute.

I was useless. Worse than useless. I was tangled up with Cersey because of my disloyalty, my weakness. And now Orion was close to the truth of it. I said nothing and slipped out of the house to sit on the porch steps, burying my face in my hands.

But I still didn’t know what the hell was going on. Cersey was definitely complicit in Nathaniel’s disappearance. But what did I have to do with it? Why had she called meher beloved friend? Shewasa crazy old hag. In what universe was I her friend? We had an arrangement, that’s all. And I’d decided even before the Blue Flower Moon that I wasn’t going to go behind Orion’s back to take the amulet from his father. Hadn’t I?

And anyway, I wouldn’t get that damned amulet for her under any circumstances now that I knew it would only make her more dangerous.

Remorse flooded my entire body. It didn’t matter. I’d disobeyed my mother, disrespected our pack, and succumbed to my own petty heartache when I sought out Cersey’s cottage that night. I invited her evil, drank her vile bitters, agreed to herpayment. And now Selena was gone. And Orion… And Nathaniel. I was going to be sick.

I lifted my face for a moment, staring at the sickle moon. The Goddess was entering her monthly slumber, meaning she was less likely to hear prayers. I recited a protection mantra eighteen times, hoping she would hear me anyway.

Goddess, help me.

The front door creaked open, and I stood quickly as Orion shuffled outside.

“What happened? What did you see?”

The flannel was no longer in his hands. His eyes were hollow. “The mirror was black, and the map remained untouched.”

My hand flew to my mouth, and I gasped. “Does that mean–”

“The alpha is gone.”