Oma’s vision means the end to all that. And it all revolves around a deaf pup. Is that why Oma wants to kill him, “the wolf with no ears”?
Pain stabs my head, a return of my headache from earlier. I hear whispers from beyond the veil. The Grandmothers speak to me, and they have much to say. Trouble is, they’re all clamoring at once–I can’t distinguish any message.
“Yes, the one we swapped for Aiden.”
Swapped for Aiden! Swapped. For. Aiden.
Oh, sweet moon goddess. This is a revelation. Aiden isn’t really Odin’s son? The pup he raised as his own? The pup meant to rule the pack?
Suddenly, Oma’s vision makes sense. She’s taught me how to interpret the visions and signs we receive. The symbols the Moon Goddess uses to make things clear.
The Moonborn leaders didn’t want to face Odin’s wrath if they presented him with a deaf infant after conducting the Blood Heir Alpha Rites. They must have told him Aiden was the first child born from the rite, swapping out the true firstborn, who was deaf. Now, with the vision of that child being the true heir to the pack, Oma must destroy the threat to Odin’s “son” Aiden before her lies are uncovered.
The whispers in my ears grow louder and more tangled.
“You told everyone the boy was dead,” the Warden grates.
“And you let his mother bargain for his life. Track him down and destroy the threat.”
My stomach clenches into a knot. I hate this part of being a seeress–choosing who lives and who dies. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it. I don’t know if I’ll be able to become as hard and brutal as Oma.
A horrible sound echoes through the room. It takes me a moment to realize it’s laughter. The Warden is laughing. “You fucked up,” he says to Oma. “You thought you’d cover it up, but it didn’t work, and now you want me to fix it, or you’ll suffer Odin’s wrath.”
“We both will,” Oma’s tone is cool. “Or don’t you remember the part you played?”
I strain my ears, wanting to know what the Warden did that makes him fall silent when Oma reminds him, but neither of them explains.
“Find the wolf with no ears and kill him,” Oma repeats.
“Again, I don’t take orders from you. But I’ll kill the pup.”
I hear the door open and close, but otherwise, the Warden moves silently.
Oma’s cup clinks in the saucer, and she sighs. “How much of that did you hear?”
Keeping secrets from Oma is a game I hope to win one day. Unfortunately, it seems the woman can fish anything out of my head. I sit up and rub my eyes against the candlelight. “All of it.”
“You think I’m being too harsh? Ordering the death of a pup?”
Yep, she plucked the thought right out of my head. “I know you see beyond the veil and judge accordingly.”
Oma hacks up a laugh. “An evasive answer if I ever heard one. Well done.”
She’s the one who taught me “seeress speak” or the art of saying nothing yet still sounding wise. I’m good enough to fool most wolves but not her and probably not the most alpha wolves like the Warden or Odin. It’s a skill I’ll need to master before I’m the seeress for real.
“Ask the spirits then and see for yourself.” Her black eyes bore into me. Ask, she orders silently, and I hear it like a booming voice in my head. A compulsion.
So I center myself and open up my senses to the beyond. This is what it means to be a veilwalker, though I’m apparently stronger than most. Lucky me.
Is the boy a threat? I ask in my head.
The answer is immediate. A flood of images that rush through my head too quickly for me to see while every muscle in my body tightens. My breath is stifled like I’m being choked.
He wields destruction. He will bring an end to the Moonborn.
An end to the Moonborn, the cult at the heart of our pack. I am Moonborn. All my life, I’ve been taught to uphold the sect’s traditions. My position as future Seeress, all my training revolves around the Moonborn’s service to the Adalwulf pack. Someday I will be bound to Aiden in a bonding ritual the way Oma is bound to Odin.
If the cult is gone, my entire world would be destroyed.
