Page 98 of Found in Obscurity

Kit widened his eyes and nodded, feeling like any other response would be seen as the wrong one. But her conviction did help, threatening as it was. The woman was scary.

She let go of him. “Our first order of business is figuring out how to find this wretched coven. I hope they’re the only ones dabbling in the grotesque. Any ideas?”

“We can reach out to other pathfinders,” Glenn suggested. “Maybe they’ll have different resources?”

“I’m assigning that to you,” Lorin’s grandmother said with a nod. “Find as many as you can. Try to be discreet about it. We don’t want to tip them off.”

“Got it.” Glenn gave her a tiny salute.

“I’ll be contacting the other community elders,” she said. “We have to work together to stop this.”

While she was talking, Lorin was flipping through the book, and Kit felt the moment he found something because he froze, his hand shaking on the page.

“There’s a tracing spell,” he whispered, and his grandma fell silent.

“What does the spell look like?” Glenn asked cautiously. “I’m assuming anything out of that book isn’t your standard spell.”

Lorin looked up at them all, horror written on his face. “It turns the user into a bloodhound. It doesn’t let up until the object or person is found. If they’re not found in time, they can go mad.”

“I’m familiar with this spell. This book is not the first to write it down. It’s the same premise as the Seeking. Sending your essence outside of yourself is a dangerous practice,” Lorin’s grandma said, voice contemplative.

“Do you think you can use it?” Lorin asked.

“There’s a variation that came to light. One that the person who wrote this obviously hadn’t come across at the time of writing. If a coven casts it on a subject who knows the object that is being sought, the effects are alleviated to a degree. Manageable.”

“Wait…”

The words sank in at the same time in Kit’s mind.

On a subject who knows the object.

There was only one person in the room who had met the coven they were seeking.

“No,” Lorin said. “Absolutely not. It’s too dangerous.”

“We can attempt other avenues,” she agreed.

“How long?” Kit asked quietly, and the room fell silent. Grandma didn’t respond, so Kit repeated, “How long?”

She met his gaze. “There’s no way of knowing. It could be days. It could be months.”

And other shifters would suffer in the meantime, while Kit cowered away in a cabin in the woods, safe and happy. He closed his eyes. He was terrified. He didn’t want to go anywhere near that coven, but he felt a sense of duty and responsibility on his shoulders.

“Kit, you do not have to do this,” Lorin said, like he was reading his mind. “Please. This spell—”

“I would never allow Kit to go through anything I thought was truly too dangerous for him, Lorin,” his grandma said. “If he’s willing to go through with it, I’ll gather the elders.”

Kit took a deep breath and let it out, swallowing all his fears. There was no other choice. “Yes.”

“Then wait for my call in the coming days.”

Chapter nineteen

Lorin

Kit was solid againsthis chest. Still human, but silent, anxiety rolling off him and mixing with the stench of fear Lorin was no doubt filling the air with.

After their library meeting, Glenn had driven them both home in silence. Lorin was still reeling, but he was fighting with himself to respect Kit’s decision and support him. To trust his grandma’s words that she wouldn’t let this go ahead if she thought it would hurt Kit.