Page 44 of Wolfsbane

“So we’re just going to let him stay?” Cash snapped, not looking at me or Aleks, but at Katya.

She started to nod, but it was Viktor who broke in.

“We are bound together by magic. Where he goes, I go.”

Cash’s nose flared when he sucked in a breath. His jaw flexed, and he returned his glare to the wall.

At the very least, he wouldn’t tell Viktor to leave, as intolerable as he found me.

“I’m sorry,” I croaked.

Viktor’s hand squeezed my leg harder.

Katya shook her head. “You should eat more.” She stood up to ladle another helping into my bowl.

I wasn’t hungry anymore—actually, I was kinda nauseous—but I dug in right away. Anything these people would give me? I meant to be grateful for every bit of it, because I didn’t deserve a mouthful.

CHAPTER 23

Viktor

It was cheating, pointing out that Daire couldn’t leave without me.

I knew damn well that no matter how hard Cash was holding onto his grudge, no one would let me leave again, not even him. They’d been worried, which . . . well, the whole point of me going on my own was to try to not get them hurt. My wolf was my responsibility, not theirs, and the last thing we needed was for members of the pack to die over me and my wolf.

My family had suffered enough on my account.

And while Daire hadn’t suffered because of me, frankly, he’d suffered enough.

Sure, he hadn’t released Altair years earlier. But why would he have? He’d been raised to think of Altair as a dangerous monster who needed to be imprisoned, I was sure. Why would he have simply changed his mind?

My wolf.

So of course, he thought he’d done wrong because he hadn’t come up with it all on his own. But that wasn’t how people worked. They needed a catalyst to change, and my wolf had simply been his.

Cash ate angrily, glaring at his bowl like it had done him wrong, and every scrape of his spoon seemed to drive Daire’s head down farther and farther. I was concerned that any moment, he was going to just put his head down on the table and cry again.

“So,” Leo said when the table had gone quiet again, “how do we stop this spell, and get the wolf and magic back where they belong?”

Daire’s shoulders dropped even more, so much he looked like he was melting.

Tristan was the one who spoke up, though. “Hard to say. Trying to break a spell in process is dangerous. It could be simple and just dissipate and leave everything sunshine and rainbows, or it could backlash and hurt everyone involved. Kill them, even. There’s no way to know without doing it.”

“There’s no way to just anti-magic it? Negate everything?” Aleks was frowning at Tristan like he’d have preferred he either keep his mouth shut or lie, rather than give us such an ugly truth.

And I assumed it was all true, from the way Daire’s breathing had gone shallow and panicky.

Tristan shook his head. “Not that I know of. I mean, I was still an apprentice, so I won’t claim to know everything about magic, but in my understanding, leaving magic half-finished like this is incredibly dangerous for all parties involved.”

It was times like this I realized something was truly broken in me, because my first thought was that it was good. Even if it ended up killing Daire and me, it would probably take Ermengarde too, since she was an involved party. Still, I didn’t want Daire hurt, and I didn’t particularly want to die, so it would be better to find an actual solution.

“We can call Prudence,” Evie suggested. “She was a badass, so if anyone knows how to break spells, it’d be her, right? Or I guess maybe that guy, what’s his name.”

“Dakota,” Mama offered, and rolled her eyes when Aleks scowled.

It was almost funny, how much my brother did not want to accept help from the Crescent alpha or his mate.

“In the meantime,” Altair interrupted smoothly, ignoring all the tension at the table, “we need to try to keep the witches out of our territory. They will definitely try to sneak in and take at least Daire back. In fact, since he’s related to Ermengarde, they might try something diplomatic rather than force, since it’s been proven that Wildwood wolves are more than willing to bite when threatened. They might go to another local pack and demand parley.”