Page 40

P recious.

I roused from sleep, blinking to clear my eyes. Yeah?

We’ve finally heard back from Anya. We have her waiting on a video call in the library.

I sat up sharply, scaring the hell out of Velda and Kendrick, twin bolts of panic lancing down the bond before they realized there was no danger.

“What’s happening?” Velda asked.

“I have a meeting.”

I scrambled up, searching for some semblance of clothing I could put on. I probably looked like a hot mess, but that couldn’t be helped right now.

I’ll meet you at the elevator, Yelena said. I’ll bring you something to wear.

At least that solved one problem. I dashed toward it, waiting impatiently for it to arrive at the basement level. Kendrick and Velda both joined me, and when the doors opened, Yelena was there with Caden. He looked sheepish, his cheeks pink.

I rose up on my toes to kiss him, Yelena’s cinnamon sweetness on his lips. My purr kicked on immediately. I knew they had been together; Yelena had let me know her intentions, and her smug satisfaction in the bond had more than alerted me to her success.

“I’m really happy for you guys,” I promised him when I pulled away.

It did nothing to diminish his blush, but some of the tension did relax out of his shoulders. I kissed Yelena next, earning myself her purr.

Kendrick was a little perturbed in the bond over Yelena and Caden, but it didn’t quite make it all the way to jealousy, so I let it slide. Everyone had to reconcile the pack dynamics in their own minds.

“Here you go,” Yelena said as she offered a small pile of garments. “I grabbed what I could on the way. You won’t be fashionable, but you will be covered.”

I laughed at the combination of a chef’s jacket and two aprons. Velda buttoned up the jacket for me, tying folded-over aprons in front and back so I wouldn’t put my bare ass all over the library chairs.

“Caden will stay with you,” said Yelena. “The rest of us will check in with Shakti and Calliope, see to some of our duties. We can reconvene after.”

My instincts didn’t love the idea of my brand-new bondmates not being right next to me, but I could stuff down the discomfort temporarily for the sake of duty.

Caden and I got off at the floor of the library, him slipping into his smallest form and trotting along next to me while the others went to their suites to dress for the day.

Margaret met me at the doors, her expression amused over my choice of outfit. “Thank you for coming quickly. I’ve already cleared the space. She’s on my computer behind the desk, and I’ll be out here if you need me.”

“Thank you, Margaret.”

Caden and I hustled over to the desk, swinging around to see a beautiful woman who looked straight out of an ’80s ad with big crimped hair, a neon scrunchie, bright eyeshadow, and raspberry lips against warm brown skin. She had heterochromia, one eye dark brown, the other blue.

“You must be Logan. I’m sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner, I sometimes forget my email exists. Your message said so much and so little at the same time.”

I hadn’t prepared what to tell her. How much was she supposed to know to be able to help?

Everything . The word whispered through my head, the faint touch of Hecate’s aura a quiet assurance.

“I have about a million questions,” I said, “and I don’t know if you’re the right person to ask, but can I just say them anyway?”

“Of course. I’ll help with whatever I can. No charge. I understand there are lives at risk and I’m not interested in payment.”

“ Thank you. ”

“One thing at a time. I’ve already charmed my library for the call, so if the information is here, it’ll make itself known.

I have a question for you, though. The Murphys aren’t witches, at least not by any record we have.

Do we have to figure out what line you’re from and connect you to your family for training? ”

“I know what line I’m from.”

“Which?”

“O’Clery.”

Anya blinked at me for a moment before recovering herself. “Oh dear, well, I suppose there are worse lines to be from, but not many. The O’Clerys are primarily underground at this point, so you won’t likely find anyone to help you with your magic.”

“I’ve been learning as I go.”

“So, you said you only learned you’re a witch recently, which means you have to be from the bound line, rather than the unbound line that’s not supposed to exist.”

What does she mean? Caden asked.

I relayed his question.

“What most people don’t know, but I do because my power is specialized in archival history, is that the infamous Fiona O’Clery had a daughter before she was bound. She hid the girl away so the Witches’ Council never found her. I’ve worked with one of her descendants to stay hidden.”

“Are you allowed to do that?”

Anya shrugged. “I’ve never agreed with the binding of bloodlines.

Children shouldn’t suffer for the crimes of their parents or ancestors, and because the unbound O’Clery witches haven’t committed crimes we’re aware of, I don’t help the Council find them.

If one of them did an unforgivable act, I would cooperate with Council demands.

If you were a bound O’Clery witch, that means you’re a descendant from Fiona’s daughter she had after the Council bound her bloodline. ”

“Could you get me in contact with the one you’re helping? Do you think she would help train me as another O’Clery?”

“I suppose it’s possible. I can reach out to her, though we’re in the process of creating her a new identity. Something spooked her and she’s abandoning her old name.”

It felt rude to ask, but the desire to form the words suddenly became overwhelming. “What’s her old name?”

Anya narrowed her eyes but then jolted, heaving a dramatic sigh. “Ordinarily I wouldn’t entertain that question, but one of my patron deities is insistent. The name she’s leaving behind is Heather Chambers.”

Oh, fuck.

Ice poured down my spine and Caden stiffened next to me.

“Why do you look like I personally kicked your puppy into the sea?”

“We know her. She used to go by Rachel Callahan, right?”

Anya scanned the page in front of her. “Correct.”

Holy shit. I was related to Rachel? Distantly, but still. Were Seth and Caden drawn to the O’Clery line?

Anya hummed. “I wonder if she’s a piece of the puzzle I’m not seeing yet. Putting a pin in her for a moment, tell me the rest of your situation. Maybe something will occur to me.”

I took a deep breath and spilled everything out I could think of about the monster: how it seemed to seek me out, that it had released the first bindings on my magic, how it sat outside the warding like it was waiting. Anya sat in wide-eyed silence, frantically typing notes.

“Okay, okay, one moment.” A massive tome thumped down on her desk and she flipped through pages with a wave of her hand. “When did you say the monster first appeared?”

I gave her the date and she blew out a sharp breath. A book flew off the shelf and she caught it easily, spreading it open where the pages danced in a magical wind before coming to a stop, light glowing off them.

“That’s the four-hundredth anniversary of the binding of the monster Fiona O’Clery created. Holy fuck.”

“What?”

“Okay, okay.” She pressed her fingertips to her forehead, eyes scrunched shut. “Fuck.”

“ What ?”

“About sixty-odd years ago when Heather was Rachel, she came to me, trying to figure out a way to heal the damage Fiona had created. Gods, it’s been so long.

Give me a moment to remember the details.

” She huffed, tapping her fingers rapidly as if it would shake free her memories.

“The monster was made by ripping out the magical core of Fiona’s shifter lover.

She said she had found the creature’s descendants.

Just like Fiona had a hidden child, the shifter had a child before meeting her, and that line still exists, but I don’t keep track of shifter lineage. I know she told me the name.”

She ducked with a squawk as another book came flying. Anya snatched it off the floor and spread it open on top of the other book on her desk.

“Okay, okay. Ashford.”

A fresh round of ice formed in my veins. That was Seth and Caden’s family name.

Caden looked like he was about to start hyperventilating. I clutched him to my chest. “I know them too.”

Anya glanced to Caden in my arms. “Does that happen to be one of them?”

I nodded.

“Change form so I can hear you,” Anya ordered. “We have a fucking puzzle and you need to help.”

Caden hopped off my lap and slipped into his human form, every muscle tense, his jaw tight. He pulled up a seat next to me and sat down hard, letting me lace our fingers together. “You’re the one who helped her disappear? How did she hide the bond?”

“Oh, oh dear.” Anya tapped her fingers over the pages. “Give me your side of the situation and then I’ll tell you what she shared with me.”

Caden nearly choked on his words as he told Anya about meeting Rachel, believing her to be the love of his life. How he bonded her and how she’d run away with Seth.

Anya looked sicker by the moment. “She sought you out with a specific intention. She had it in her head that the rift between the bloodlines could be repaired if she earned the love of the shifter’s descendants.

I wasn’t as well-versed back then as I am now, but her theory had seemed plausible, like the creature would sense things had been healed and fade into the aether. ”

“Well, it didn’t,” I snapped, nauseated that Rachel had chosen Caden and Seth to be emotional collateral damage for her quest.

“I helped her hide,” Anya said, “but she never said anything about a bond or your brother. Hold on to your feelings for a moment. I need to think.”

She got up, pacing around her library, floating books trying to follow her until she sat back down after a few minutes, during which I stewed in my upset.

Anya flicked her finger and the books chasing her around fell open to whatever page they wanted to show her.

She skimmed them quickly, chewing her bottom lip.

“We have a couple of mysteries. I’ll look more into Maeve, but?—”

“Who’s Maeve? Rachel?”

“Yes, Maeve is her birth name. She uses it with me since she’s not trying to hide from me and we give her a new name every decade or so. Anyway, I think I sort of understand what might be happening with this creature.”

“We need to know how to kill it,” Caden grit out.

“I’m getting there,” Anya insisted. “The creature was bound in what is now New York State, hidden deep in the mountains. I’m going to assume the binding simply no longer had the strength to contain it, and when it escaped, it sensed its own bloodline in Seth.

It’s very likely it sensed you as well, Logan, since you would still have the same, how do I explain this…

flavor of magic Fiona did. If there was any bit of that lingering on Seth, I’m betting it wanted to find you for revenge, though it may not even be so complex as that. ”

“What do you mean?”

“This creature is not unique to history. They are essentially cursed to consume magic, but because they have no core to retain it, it can’t bring back what they lost.”

I listened carefully, trying to parse through everything she was saying. “So it needs a new core?”

“Yes, but it can’t take one. In order for the creature to be healed and fade from this world, it has to be freely given, and it has to be from the one who took it, or at least as close as can be achieved.

Maeve knew that, and I can only assume she was trying to find another way to fix things without giving up her magic.

” Anya sighed, skimming over more frantically flipping pages.

“The problem with a situation like this isn’t just that you would lose your magic.

It’s that the very nature of the creature means you would probably die before you could offer. ”

Caden’s hand tightened in mine. “That’s not an option.”

“If you had some sacrificial lambs?—”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Caden snapped.

“Logan needs a big enough store of magic she can access to get to the heart of the monster before it takes everything so she could give over the core of her magic to heal it. The only way she can do that is with other sources. She would never have enough on her own. You would need to connect to other magic users.”

Dread prickled over my skin. “Like a matebond?”

Anya grimaced. “That would be the most effective, yes.”

Caden and I sat in horrified silence. Was that why I had been led here? Was I truly supposed to find my mates only to risk their lives and steal their magic like my ancestor had done to her lover?

Tears slipped over my cheeks and I tugged down the collar of my chef’s jacket, revealing the fresh bites.

“How many?” Anya asked.

“Five.”

“I don’t want to say you have to, but that creature is not going down quietly.

Fiona’s coven lost twenty powerful and experienced witches during the first binding when they sealed it away.

If you fail to fix what Fiona created, the magical community could suffer grievous losses.

You and your mates are first on the menu, so you need to talk to them.

Better for everyone to lose their magic than their lives as well, right? ”

I wanted to scream.

How could I ask them to give up the essence of their beings, to lose their shifting forever? But as the monster shrieked, maybe somehow knowing we were discussing its demise, a more pertinent question forced its way to the forefront.

How could I afford to keep silent, knowing we were the only ones who could stop it?