“Who?”
“The council. It’s a long story.”
“Try me,” Wren hissed.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I did.”
Wren’s nostrils flared. “Two minutes left. Tell me, or I pull the fucking trigger.”
Anxiety flared through her, her pulse hammering in her ears as she tried to get the words out to explain.
“Okay!Okay.” Avery took a shaking breath. But she still couldn’t stop what came out. “Mom is bonded to a shifter.Youare bonded to a shifter, like I am.”
“That’s…that’s not possible,” Wren said. “This isn’t the time to joke,” she said, white-knuckling the rifle.
Anger swirled through Avery, her whole body tensing. She could even feel her shadows demanding to come out. All they needed was a bit of blood. “For once in your life, can you trust me?”
“Do you know how insane you sound?” Her voice wavered.
“Yep. Quite aware.”
“Then you can understand why I’m a touch bit skeptical that you’re telling me the dragon I’ve had for years is ashifter.”
“Tell me one thing then.” Avery swallowed past the tightness in her throat. “How did you do your ritual?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“You used blood?”
“I said it doesn’t matter,” Wren hissed.
“You’re smarter than this. There’s a reason only certain families get elemental powers.”
Her lips parted, just for a second, but Avery saw it. Wren hadn’t known. She genuinely hadn’t put it together.
Just to drive the point home, Avery bit her tongue, the metallic taste of blood seeping into her mouth and coating her tongue. Shadows crawled along the ground and twisted up her legs. Wren took a step back, her eyes going wide and finger hovering over the trigger.
“I don’t have a familiar, Wren. How do you think I have these powers?”
Wren furrowed her brows, looking between her dragon and Avery. “Who told you this? The shifters?”
Avery scratched the back of her head. “The goddess,” she said, the sound going up at the end. Yep, she truly sounded insane.
Wren scoffed, disbelief rolling off her face. “Are you fucking serious, Avery? The goddess? She’s a figurehead, adeity.She means nothing in the real world.”
“I wouldn’t piss her off?—”
As if on cue, the wolf’s milk flowers started to breathe, closing in and out just like they had in the maze. Avery recognized it almost immediately. Her stomach dropped. The goddess. She was doing this. Wren stared at the meadow, color draining from her face as she watched the flowers pulse in unison. Even the dragon took a step back. Ley lines lit up along the meadow, beating like they had their own heart. Perhaps it was the goddesses. The earth her body, the ley lines her veins.
“Enough.” She looked down the scope of the rifle. Avery stepped directly into the rifle’s line of fire, blocking Felix.
“Move,” Wren commanded.
“Not until you let us go.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because you know something’s not right. “
