“What do they have to do with the Frostclaws?”
“Why everything, dear Enforcer. Her ex isn't just any wolf, he’s the Alpha’s son.”
“Fucking hells.” Cordelia was matched with Keiran, the traitor’s son? I vaguely remember him, a blond-headed little shit that was always underfoot. Even if I didn’t, I’d know him from studying that pack backwards and forwards. Keiran was born in Red River with the rest of us. He's younger than me, Cordelia’s age, and had left the pack with his parents and the rest of the dissenters in the first wave when we thought it was going to be a peaceful split, before we realized what Ronan’s brother was truly after.
“As the Alpha’s son, an engagement to the Moonshadow heiress made good sense, because remember me saying he wasn’t smart? Well, neither is his father. When they made the alliance with the Moonshadow Pack no one knew they didn't have two cents to rub together. Still don’t and they never will with how they manage finances. Old Alpha Wayne is not getting the empire he thought he was but the fates haven’t revealed that yet. Soon, though.”
“What does this fucking have to do with Cordelia?”
“He won’t marry her without Cordelia which means….” her voice trails off and she lets me put the pieces together.
“The Moonshadow Pack wants her or they stay broke.”
Jazzy snaps her fingers. “As smart as you are handsome. How lovely the universe blessed Cordelia with a mate of quality,” she pauses before she adds, “she’s gone through a lot, you know.”
She’s gone through a lotis the understatement of the millenia. Cordelia grew up with our enemies, with her kidnappers. She’s gone through hell.
I sigh. “I’ve gathered.” I walk into the clearing and then hold out a hand to Jazzy. “I’ll take that smoke now.”
“That’s more like it, Enforcer.” Jazzy takes out a cigarette and when I put it to my lips, she snaps her fingers to light it. I’m not even phased by magically lit smoke.
I just nod my thanks. “Obliged.” I take a drag and stand in silence with the witch. Neither of says a thing, we just smoke our cigarettes in fucking peace.
Jazzy breaks the silence. “When a bond is forced, a soul is owned. An owned soul is a broken one, don’t you think?”
I frown. “What the hells does that mean?”
She flicks ash off her cigarette. “We both know who I’m talking about.”
“Cordelia.”
“The orphan come home.” Jazzy starts to hum, it’s a tuneless sound rises, falls, and ends abruptly when she starts speaking but there’s something wrong with her voice. It’s a lower pitch, like it’s coming from some place beyond her, beyond us.
“Frost fallen where fire once bloomed, her bond broken before it binds, born from a wound most sharp. When she marks her claim, her heart will shatter once, then twice, love and ruin.” Chills run up my spine. What the seven hells is happening right now?
I take a step towards the witch. “Jazzy-”
She points at me, the cherry butt of her cigarette glows in the evening light. “You will kneel and she will rise. Her inevitable end bought by two, not one heart.”
I fall back a step. You. She means me. The she can only be Cordelia. Her inevitable end? ‘
Jazzy blinks and then gives her head a shake. “Oh shit. I was in a trance, wasn’t I?”
“What the hell was that?”
“Did I start humming?”
I nod. Take a pull on my cigarette and run my hands through my hair. “Yeah, sounded like you weren’t you. Like you had a damn robot in your throat.”
“Yeah, that’s the Beyond.”
“The what?”
“The Beyond. The magic that makes us all tick,” she says, tossing her cigarette down on the ground and stomping on it. “Sometimes it has a message and sometimes I’m the one that delivers it. Kind of annoying because I know what it is sothere’s no real reason to possess me the way it does!” She shouts the last part out at the night sky. I don’t question it. Witches are curious creatures and this one just told me some bullshit.
“What did you mean I’ll kneel and she’ll rise? Her inevitable end?”
“That part is pretty interesting, huh?”
