“We walked in expecting the normal monsters,” she said. “We found a foreman, four workers, and three teenagers on a school tour, all alive. Three of them were shifters. No odd scents. No wards reacting. Nothing.”
“So you left,” Alex said with bored contempt, “riveting tale.”
Kiara smiled, small and sharp. “We would have,” she said, “if not for one thing.” She lifted her hand, sparks of magic skittering over her fingers. “When I brushed my magic over the camp, it slid off three of the workers like oil off glass. No energy. No snag. Just…nothing.”
Dani’s neck prickled.
“Magic always catches on something,” Kiara said, “on living things. On dead things. Organic matter. Gaia sees all in her domain. But these people were blanks. They smelled human. Had heartbeats. But their souls were…wrong. Hollow.”
Dominic’s gaze sharpened. Layla’s hand dropped from his arm, resting on her own belly instead, protective.
“We pushed,” Kiara said, “they laughed. Called us superstitious. They were just ordinary people, a tiny settlement of shifters and humans. Not unlike a million others we’ve seen before.”
She looked at Arthur now. At Alex. At the witches.
“Ten minutes later, when we were almost off the site, one of my runes went off,” she said, “a small one. I’d left it on the logging road as a tripwire. It pinged footsteps. They were following us.”
Dani’s fingers dug into her own palms.
“We circled back,” Kiara said. “Made it look like we were lost. The three workers came to help. Up close, like before, one smelled human, and two smelled like shifters. My wolves couldn’t tell a single difference.” She tapped her temple. “But the wards did. They crawled. Like spiders on skin. As far as my magic was concerned, only my men and I stood on that road.”
Julian’s face had gone very still. Lavinia’s eyes were flint.
“We pushed again,” Kiara said, “they didn’t like that.”
She smiled without humor.
“Hybrids are learning,” she said, “sure, they have their weaknesses. Open flames, prolonged starvation, and a certain lack of subtlety; all things we know about. But now they’ve found ways to hide their scent. To sit under wards without tripping them. To pass as human. To pass as shifters. To live among us, undetected. After all, in a crowd, not even a witch could sense their absence of…soul.”
She let that sink in. Seconds ticked by, each one loud in Dani’s pulse.
“So no,” Kiara finished softly. “You can’t trust your nose. Or your stories. If you’re still looking for monsters with glowing eyes and claws and teeth, you’re already dead. The things hunting us now can look like the man who sells you coffee in the morning.”
The clearing seemed to tilt, just a fraction.
Dani’s mind flashed, unbidden, to the witches who’d left in the night with notes. To all the strangers in their midst. To Aurelia in the lodge, surrounded by children and minders and—
Her stomach lurched.
“Hybrids can appear human, can appearshifter,” she said aloud, before she could stop herself.
Kiara’s eyes cut to her. Their gazes locked.
“Yes, Luna,” Kiara said. “They can.”
Chapter 18 - Arthur
Arthur tried to listen.
He really did.
Kiara’s words still rang in the clearing,like the man who sells you petrol, and the air felt thinner for it. Wolves shifted, uneasy. Witches murmured, magic prickling.
Arthur’s gaze kept dragging sideways anyway.
To her.
Dani stood a little ahead of the Salem line, shoulders square, cloak pulled tight. The wind kept catching at her hair, dragging curls loose so the whole riot of red moved like flame. Her mouth was set, eyes narrowed, the green of them sharp as glass against the snow.
