Page 96 of Found in Obscurity

Kit laid a hand on Lorin’s wrist. “Read.”

Lorin gave him a worried look, then set his jaw and took a deep breath. “The entries start with the idea. It goes back centuries, when a witch realized that a shifter-familiar bond was more powerful than a regular familiar one.”

“Power?”

It was laughable and oh so expected. Of course it was power. When wasn’t it when it came to victimizing others?

Lorin nodded and he forced the next words out. “The idea was formed to trap shifters in their animal shapes, so they’d be easier to contain and control while they forced the familiar bond on them. They state that the bond was easier to force when they were animals too. That they had less resistance of mind.”

Kit felt sick to his stomach, pushing back from the table to get up and pace.

“Kit…” Lorin abandoned the book and followed him. He grasped his hand to stop him, linking their fingers.

“Unfair,” Kit said, his voice coming out warbly with emotion. His eyes were wet, but he didn’t let the tears fall.

How many had they done this to? Taken mates and family from? Forced to live shifted for the rest of their lives while they drained them of their power?

Unfair was the simplest word to describe it.

Lorin swallowed, his own eyes looking a little shiny. “I know it is. I’m sorry this happened to you. To everyone they took.”

“Don’t know…” Kit said sadly, his hands shaking. He didn’t know how many. Even if they tried to help, he had no idea how many had lived this nightmare.

What if someone got left behind? What if someone had slipped through the cracks and spent their entire lives trapped like that?

“We’ll find out,” Lorin told him. “Together.”

“And you’ll have support from the elders.” Lorin’s grandma walked in, her staff clicking on the wooden floor as sheapproached. Glenn was close on her heels, dragging two more chairs after him.

“Grandma…” Lorin started as she settled into a chair between Lorin and Kit, leaning as close as she could, her eyebrows pinched and her expression somber.

“Fill me in?”

Kit listened as Lorin did as he was asked, wishing they could see what Lorin was seeing, because he knew firsthand what those words looked like in real life. He knew what they’d see if they could. The pain on the shifters’ faces as the ritual took their very essence away from them. He wished she could see the evil on the coven’s face as they subjected someone to a lifetime of enslavement.

Lorin shared as much detail as he could, reading the entirety of what the book said about that specific ritual, listing the ingredients and incantations, all the way down to describing the illustration with as much precision as he could muster.

With each word he said, Kit saw Lorin’s grandma’s face pinch tighter, her fingers curling around her staff until her knuckles were white. Her lips flattened into a thin line of disapproval and Kit knew her just well enough to recognize that she was seething. She was enraged.

“Barbaric,” she hissed through her teeth. “This isn’t what magic is for. This isn’t how it’s used. It’s a perversion of it to the highest degree.”

“I’ve never heard of anything like this,” Glenn said, holding a hand over his mouth as if he’d be sick. Kit felt very similar. His stomach was turning and his entire body was covered in a thin layer of sweat.

It was like being there all over again. Separated from his skulk. Alone and captive with no way to escape.

“And it’s best that nobody ever does,” Lorin’s grandma said. “This is one of the most vile things I have ever encountered. Themere idea of it should be left to fade into obscurity. There will be no more of this if I and the other elders have anything to say about it.”

“And you do?” Kit asked.

“Oh, sweet child,” she said. “Of course we do. This room is filled with the proof of that. Pathfinders are the key and the lock to things that should never see the light of day again. And for those who cross the line, the punishment is Binding.”

Glenn gasped, and Kit and Lorin snapped their heads around to look at him. He looked as green as his sweater, his pupils blown out wide.

“Binding?” Lorin asked. It was clear he hadn’t heard of it before.

“Their magic is locked away,” Glenn explained, taking a deep breath. “It’s torture. Like what they did to Kit, but more severe. Painful. It can drive you out of your mind, have you crawling in your skin. What they’re doing to the shifters would be a blessing in comparison. It’s only used in the most extreme circumstances. For the highest violations.”

Kit inhaled sharply and looked at Grandma’s stony gaze. She didn’t look self-righteous or vengeful. In fact, she looked like she would rather do anything else, but was resolved. “It’s what must be done.”