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“There are traitors and spies among us,” I said, “and we must find them. To keep her safe.”

“Agreed,” he rumbled in a bearish growl. “Now what do you suggest?”

“A quiet investigation, kept between us.”

“All of the alphas who attended your meeting would be interested in locating the traitors,” he commented. “However, I understand your reticence.”

My phone beeped with a text notification.

Olivia: What are we supposed to find out here?

Me: Anything.

Olivia: Something more than residue in the air?

Me: What do you think?

Olivia:

Torbin nodded toward the cell in my head. “What is it?”

“She can’t find anything.”

“Unsurprising,” he murmured. “Acheron has managed to hide most of his intentions and camouflage the aftermath of his attacks, but I have news to share.”

I crossed my arms and stared at the man. “News?”

He tugged a piece of thin leather and two scraps offolded paper from a leather pocket, hanging from a cord around his waist. “We found these between our borders and the neutral lands.”

They stung my palm, crinkling and dancing as if moving on their own, but I didn’t hand them back. “What’s wrong with them?”

“That is why they were in a pouch at my waist, not touching my shifter skin. We think it is ward magic from Acheron.”

But I didn’t put them down or hand them back. These might be clues about how to keep Emma safe. Despite the growing pain, I unfolded the scraps. The wordCOMPLETEhad been scrawled on one of the pieces of paper, and the name and address of Emma’s veterinary practice had been detailed on the other. The scrap of leather had a constellation drawn on it with a PG. 13Z beneath it.

“Where did you get these?” I rasped as my throat tightened, and my hands closed around them.

Torbin didn’t answer. Instead, he reached for the trio of clues, and I yanked them out of his reach. “The foolishness of youth is still in you,” he growled at me. “The longer you touch them, the tighter your throat will become. Give them here.”

I brought my hand closer. “How do you know?”

When he reached this time, I let him take them from me and tuck them back into the thick pocket at his side, keeping the two layers of leather between him and them. “The warding spell murdered my niece the moment she withdrew them from the hollowed tree which hid them.”

“How did she find them?”

“Her talent lay in detecting magic, and she discovered the spell obscuring the hollow in the tree, twenty feet off the ground. Although she could see nothing, she risked life and limb to reach inside. The warding killed her instantly.”

He continued. “In secret, her mate carried these to me, carrying them so long the dark magic seeped through her skin and into her body, learning of the poisonous effect too late to change the result. As she placed them in my hand, she warned me of the spell and breathed her last. The dark magic murdered three—my niece, her mate, and their unborn offspring.” He sighed. “This is how I know.”

It was more words than I’d ever heard him speak in my lifetime, and each one had clearly cost him a great deal. If I harbored any doubt about his loyalty or his integrity, they were gone now.

“What do they mean?”

“The meaning of the address is clear. As for the others,” he murmured. “I cannot say. Though, the stars seem to mimic the stars around Algol, the demon star.”

“Why would they?”

“I cannot say.”