Jase’s eyes focus on me in a way that makes me feel strange. Almost like he’s communicating and I should know what he’s thinking.
“Shift?” I inquire by mouthing it.
He gives a sharpnoshake of his head in answer and jiggles his feet to draw my attention there. The vines wrapped around his ankles – are they stopping him from shifting?
I don’t know a whole lot about the inner workings of witchcraft or what these can do to a wolf shifter, but I do know nightshade plants that look like this trumpet flower can be very toxic to all beings; definitely us. I know there are angel’s trumpets and devil trumpets and I can’t remember right now which is which, but I do know I’ve never seen one this shade of green before.
The wand… the cauldron…
The danger Vivica and Erica spoke of.
My mouth is a desert while my heartrate gallops even harder.
I hope Danica, wherever she had to run off to, is okay.
I hope this, whatever this is that’s stopping Jase from being able to simply shift to break free, that it’s not going to do more than keep him attached to that pole. Will it harm him?
Jase has a high level of brute strength. While Linc might be the buffest of the council (maybe not so much now that Tyson is home as Ty’s muscles are pretty massive, too) Jase is undoubtedly 100% super alpha. He’s six foot four, muscled, and I’ve seen him show his strength many times including when he wrestles or competes in pack games. I’ve had so many fantasies about losing a wrestling match to Jase…
When Linc and Jase wrestle, Jase can certainly hold his own. He loves to roughhouse in both his wolf and human states nearly as much as Linc. I’ve seen Jase throw a giant tree trunk farther than everyone in the annual pack games year after year. I’ve seen him heave big, heavy things like they weigh nothing. Breaking out of these binds would be a piece of cake for someone as athletic and competitive as he is, except for the fact that he’s obviously been disabled.
My heartrate kicks up even higher as the footsteps get closer.
“You’re awake. Good. I want answers.”
I look sideways to take in the person behind the voice. An angry-looking woman with a mass of chin-length curly black hair descends the stairs, eyes bouncing between Jase and me. She wears heavy, dark makeup and I’m not usually one to be critical of something as superficial as looks but given she’s behind our abduction I don’t feel bad for thinking it looks like the years haven’t been kind to her. She’s wearing a loose, patchworkmulticolored, but predominantly eggplant-colored harem-pant style jumpsuit and combat boots. She has full sleeves of colorful tattoos on both arms.
She might be forty, no… maybe older, but it’s hard to say. A witch with a scent reminiscent enough of Aphra that I’m sure she’s a Starling coven witch. But of course… who else would she be?
The Starling coven wants their ancestor’s stuff. They’re also probably holding a grudge because of the recent death of one of their elder witches, Aviva Starling, who worked with the SCC. Aviva died during a conflict with us when she fell off a cliff and washed-up dead.
But according to those who were there, the river punished her, we didn’t. And it happened after she tried to drain Erica of her power, which is why the SCC wants the wand and cauldron sent to protected archives – so nobody else can dabble with the dark magic associated with those tools. I heard they belonged to a dark magic practitioner in the Starling coven that went crazy.
After all that happened with Aviva, I did a little digging to learn about the Starling coven and it’s heaps bigger than the Young coven, which has dwindled to just one branch: the five Young sisters, their great aunt, and now the addition of my brother. I read an old SCC report from over twenty years ago by SCC witch Lucinda Walsh that prophesied that the coven would grow again, that the Young sisters and their offspring would be prolific in baby-making.
As for the Starling coven, beyond having a covenstead a several hour drive from Arcana Falls, they’ve also got hundreds of members living in several states in the U.S. and Mexico as well as two provinces in Canada with a sprinkling of branches in Eastern Europe. They have annual retreats and weekly videocalls and based on some conversations in my group chat with gal pals from summer camp as well as some other pack librarians I started a book club with. This coven is known for having people in both high and low places.
I’m shuddering with the knowledge that our presence here means that a Starling witch now holds that wand. So, if she has it, what’ll she do with it? And with us?
My pulse races as I think about the things I brought for Jase. Where are they?
Is this the danger Vivica and Erica were talking about? If so, why in the world would they send us on a mission with those implements when neither Jase nor I have the ability to fight off Starling coven magic? What in the world?
My racing thoughts are interrupted by the witch who demands, “Where is it?”
She’s glaring at Jase.
He glares right back with rage bubbling in his eyes, but he doesn’t answer.
“Where’s what?” I ask.
Her gaze swings my way and Jase immediately growls.
She ignores this and asks, “Who are you? Why are you accompanying him instead of that Young bitch?” She walks toward me.
Jase’s voice is lethal when he demands, “Step. The fuck. Off.”
The woman turns just her head toward him.