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“If you sense something,” I told Lorenzo, “Mom won’t be in trouble. We need to summon the magic of the artifact.”

I looked at Duncan, hoping that was the truth, that Mom wouldn’t be in any danger. I didn’tthinkso. When Duncan had turned in my presence, without the control device nearby, he had defended me.

“They can’t make me attack anyone from this far away,” he said quietly, as if reading my mind.

“What do you mean bysense something?” Lorenzo asked.

I held up the case. “It only responded before—opened to let the artifact inside come out—when a werewolf was present. A real bipedfuris.” I extended a hand toward Duncan, certain Lorenzo knew by now that he could change into that form.

The flat, cool look that Lorenzo adopted implied he knew… and wasn’t thrilled about it. Maybe Mom hadn’t told him that she wanted Duncan to be my mate and produce powerful offspring.

“Perhaps we should have stopped at that pet store for a rattlesnake,” Duncan murmured to me when Lorenzo’s cool look continued.

“I was being sarcastic about that. You can’t buy rattlesnakes at pet stores.”

“Something else venomous then?”

“I don’t think so. They don’t want parents to sue them when scorpions sting their little kids.”

Lorenzo looked back and forth between us. What he took from our banter, I didn’t know, but he gestured toward Mom’s bedroom door. “Do what you must. I trust Umbra will let you know if she objects.”

“Oh, I’m positive.”

I walked to her bedroom, knocking lightly on the open door. “Mom? Are you awake?”

“Awake enough to sense your artifact and your old-world werewolf.” She rested in bed, propped against pillows, a book closed beside her.

Her left hand was still bandaged. That was odd. Werewolves usually healed quickly—our kind were known for that. Even if age and illness had diminished her power, I wouldn’t have expected a wound she received several days ago to still need bandaging.

More, there were not one but two chains around her neck. The witch talisman and… was she wearing the female version of the family medallion under her shirt? Because she felt the need for more protection? Or hoped their power would help her feel better?

“That’s pretty awake,” was all I said, forcing a smile though worry knotted my stomach.

“I sensed him before you turned up the driveway. He’s like the sun.”

“Radiant, warm, and delightful?” Duncan stepped into the doorway and bowed to Mom, though he didn’t call hermy lady. That probably would have elicited the snark Lorenzo had missed.

“Blinding,” Mom said. “But since you’re using your power to help my daughter, I won’t object to it. Or to you.” She gazed between us.

Willing her not to bring up fertility, I raised the wolf case. “We want to try something.”

Iwanted to try something, I amended silently. Duncan kindly did not object to my phrasing, though he did look pensively out the window. His scar wasn’t glowing at the moment. I was glad. That might have worried Mom, and I would have had to explain it.

Her gaze lingered on his forehead when she looked him over. Maybe she sensed something magical—somethingbinding—in the scar even without the glow.

“That is the artifact you’ve spoken of?” was all she asked.

“Yes. When it opened at a timely moment, it healed a poisonedwound.” I hesitated to describe in detail the night I’d battled and killed my own cousin—even if Augustus had been a douche, he’d been family. But I wanted her to know why I’d brought the case, so I explained those final moments, the way the mushroom-shaped artifact inside had saved Duncan’s life. “There’s nothing in the translation on the case that suggests it would cure a terminal illness, but… why not try?”

I forced a smile, though tears threatened, brought up by thinking of Mom’s end, of what would happen if the artifact couldn’t do anything. Not for the first time, I regretted all the years I’d stayed away. Maybe she wouldn’t have accepted me as I’d been, but I’d missed knowing her as an adult.

“I admit when you walked in holding an artifact, I hoped it was the lost family medallion, the male version of mine.” Mom’s hand strayed to the chains around her neck. “Did Lorenzo tell you all about what Aunt Concetta said?”

“He did, and we are indeed on a quest to find the medallion. Duncan already battled a robot dog and bats with glowing bellies in an attempt to locate it.”

“The bats didn’t bother me,” he said.

“They dive-bombed me,” I told him. “And did I tell you how some of Radomir’s thugs stayed behind in that tank-SUV to try to run Jasmine and me off the road?”