(MIRA)
Forrest took one look at us and growled disapprovingly, but he didn’t say anything before we climbed into his truck.
There was no ti for a shower, obviously, and also no ti for arguing. I wanted to go alone, but Shiloh wouldn’t let .
Irene wasn’t surprised when the guard let us in. "Your second can wait outside," she said stiffly, avoiding Forrest’s gaze.
Wasn’t that interesting?
The cottage that looked so cute in the afternoon sun was just a little bit creepier at night.
All the lights were turned off, and there were candles lit on every surface and in every corner. I wanted to point out that it was a fire hazard, but then I noticed that the flas were dancing. Not even a little bit.
"Is that your magic doing that? Has it returned?"
"No," she said mournfully. "It has not, but this isn’t my magic. It’s the natural elents respecting my wishes. Magic is all around us. It affects us even if we can’t wield it. Well, it affects most of us."
Misstep, I froze. "Shit. Is that going to stop because I’m here?"
"No. Even a null can’t cancel natural magic. You really must learn more about your abilities," she scolded. "Although I can see you’ve been working on so unfinished business. Good. That will help protect you."
Good god, she wasn’t even a shifter and she knew we’d just had sex. My cheeks burned as I glanced at Shiloh.
His face was unreadable.
"You wanted to talk to ." I cleaned my throat. "In private?"
"No. The alpha is involved as well. Since I’ve been trying to heal myself with natural magic, it’s converged on my cottage. I thought I might use it to try and scry, although I’m not sure if what I’m seeing is in the past, the future, or the present. Using natural magic doesn’t give the sa kind of control, but it involves you, Mira."
"You could have called." Shiloh was obviously still a little cranky that we were interrupted.
"That’s the thing about natural magic. It sotis can cancel out modern anities, like phones. My guard has been cranky all day that he hasn’t been able to text."
At that, Shiloh stiffened. "He should be able to get in touch with if there’s a problem."
"He can use the pack bonds if need be. It’s faster than a phone, anyway. I asked him to notify you when my guard changed. I should have known he’d go to Forrest instead," she sighed. "In any case, I’m hoping if I can access the vision again, I can get Mira to see it as well and let know if it’s from her past."
Didn’t that sound just peachy?
"What does that entail?" Shiloh asked before I could.
"I’m going to be a conduit. All I need Mira to do is touch . I have no intention of hurting her, Shiloh. Don’t worry. Now co. The more ti we waste, the less chance I have of accessing the sa vision."
We followed her into the living room. All the furniture had been pushed against the wall, and there was a circle of lit candles that surrounded a small black bowl of water. "Is that a dog bowl?"
"Magical objects can be expensive," Irene said dryly. "Often tis, substitutions work even better. And at the ti, I thought I might get a dog. Sit on that side and hold my hand."
Feeling a little awkward, and still a little tingly which made feel even more awkward, I sat crossed between the ring of candles and the water bowl.
Irene sat on the other side, and she took my hands. "Do not be afraid. The vision shouldn’t hurt. Being a null shouldn’t block the magic since it’s natural magic, but at the sa ti, you should try to relax as much as possible.
Let down your ntal shielding."
"And how do I do that?"
"Try to access a happy mory. One in which you felt safe and secure. Relaxed. Absorb as much of those feelings as possible. Put yourself in that mont."
I just stared at her. "Irene, this is not going to work. I don’t have any mories like that."
"Just try."
Fine. Closing my eyes, I searched my mories for anything that might co to mind.
Tis when my father was gone and left alone. After his death. It didn’t matter. I was always on edge. Always wound up tight.
Except.
"Can I use a dream? Sotis I have these dreams that feel so real."
Irene squeezed my hand. "Whatever you need to do."
Nodding, I kept my eyes closed and brought the dream to the forefront of my mind.
Shiloh was there, in the dark, and there was nothing else. No pack to judge us. No rising darkness to threaten us. Just him and his touch. His growls and moans as he explored .
Learned what I liked.
Behind , Shiloh grunted. My eyes flew open, and I whipped my head around. "What?
What is it?"
"Nothing. I’m fine. Just got a strange feeling. Continue."
With a shrug, I turned back around, closed my eyes, and conjured the dream again.
"I have you," Shiloh whispered. "I will protect you and cherish you. Side-by- side, Mira.
Together."
It was a shitty dream. One that was never going to happen, and usually, I tried to ignore it, but this ti, I imrsed myself in it completely.
And then I began to fall.
"Join us. Join us, witch, or everything you love will burn."
"No," Irene said sharply and broke contact. I jumped and opened my eyes. She was pale and trembling. "My apologies. That was a vision from my past, and it has nothing to do with you. Please, try again. For ."
She took my hands, and I blew out my breath and closed my eyes. It took a little bit longer to relax, but when it did, I surfaced sowhere else.
"You have to be quiet," I whispered. "I know you’re in pain, but you have to be quiet, because if you don’t, he’ll hear you. If he hears you, he’ll rember you. Please."
A small dark room. There was a rough rug beneath my bare feet. It was made of rope, wound around and around again to protect my skin from the splinters of the wood, but sotis, I thought the rough fiber of the rope was even worse.
It didn’t matter. The rug was necessary. Camouflaged tool so I could one day make my mistake.
The whimper sounded again, and I crawled away from it to the small window. I was being punished. I’d spilled hot coffee on his guest. A mistake. Scared little hands that trembled too much, but it didn’t matter. I was back in the room.
I knew what happened here.
Outside, I saw two figures. My father and his guest. A terrifying man. "He’s in place," the man said stiffly, "but the others are suspicious."
"I don’t give a flying fuck," Atlas snapped. I couldn’t see his face, but I recognized his voice. "It doesn’t change the plan."
"It does. This plan is contingent on everything going exactly right. We wait."
Atlas growled. "How long? A month? Two?"
"Three or four. Years," the man said. "You need to be careful. Your little hobbies need to stop."
"What hobbies?"
"I know what you are doing, Atlas. I can sll the blood from here. We have found the void. There’s no need to keep searching. Keep your head down and wait."
"Fine," Atlas said sullenly.
"Your patience will be rewarded. I promise." The man walked away, and Atlas turned to the small window. "How is she doing, Mira? Does she want to play so more?"
I turned to the poor woman, barely clinging to life. Of course she didn’t want to play.
They never did.
"Kill ," the woman whispered. "Please. I can’t take any more."
"I want to play, Mira. He thinks I’m going to stop just because he said to? I obey no one; I am the one obeyed," my father growled.
The fury in his voice made shudder, and I crawled back to the woman and placed a hand over her nose and mouth.
Tears poured down my cheeks as I stole what little life she had left. He would be angry when he found out. He would be so angry.
"What the fuck," Shiloh roared. He pulled from the mory, and I tried to scramble free, but Irene grabbed my hands and squeezed. "What the hell was that?"
"A vision," Irene murmured. "And not the one I saw. A mory, am I right? But one I suspect we were ant to see. Mira, are you all right?"
"I’m fine." Forcing a smile, I slowly pulled my hands back. "I’m fine. I rembered so of that already, The woman, but not the conversation."
"It wasn’t important to you at the ti, but I suspect it’s very important now. Your father was kidnapping won and children, yes?"
Numbly, I nodded. "He wanted his own pack. He wanted to breed the won, but apparently, I was the last child he could have. When that didn’t work, he decided to take children."
"No." Irene shook her head. "According to that vision, I think your father was looking for sothing in those won. They found what they were looking for, and he was ordered to stop.
Think back about the victims he took. Did anything strange happen to them? Did he want to keep any of them alive?"
I shook my head. "No. None that I can think of, and he didn’t have a particular type that he liked."
"So why was he ordered to stop?" Irene got up and paced. "Maybe it’s tied in together. In the vision that I had, I was in the woods, but I was you. I was running, and soone was chasing , and then I passed through this brilliant light show of purples and golds."
"Well that’s a mory. It’s one of the spell traps in Ashenveil."
"No, it wasn’t a trap."
"But it is." When Irene looked at blankly, I tried to explain further. "That’s how I see them. Bright and beautiful colors. When I touch them, they sort of fill . Like..." my voice trailed off.
"Like you’re a void," Shiloh said flatly. "That’s why your father was taking won. He was looking for a fucking null, and he had one right under his nose the whole ti."
My skin chilled. "That conversation that we just saw happening? That was between my father and the red wolf. It was right after I ran to the Darkwyn coven. No more than a few weeks."
"Can you give an exact date?" Shiloh asked.
I shook my head. "No. I didn’t have a phone or anything, so it was hard to track dates. It was the first woman he’d taken after I returned. It was cold, so winter. We had another winter, and then he took Cora the next fall. So almost two years before you ca. That’s five years ago. Does that help?"
Shiloh’s face hardened. "Five years ago, Irving beca an alpha."
"In place," I echoed.
"The alphas aren’t eting by chance," Irene said in a low voice. "He needed a way to get to you, and now he’s about to waltz right onto your property."
"He’ll never touch her," Shiloh growled.
Irene got a strange look in her eyes and glanced down at the water. "I was channeling the water and I was connected to her. So tell , alpha, how is it that you saw the vision?"
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