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He met her gaze. “It could be dangerous. The deaths didn’t start until you interfered with the board.”
“Then I have to fix it,” she said. “Ryan, I need you.”
He blew out a shaky breath. “Once more,” he said. “And then I’m done. I don’t like it when you deal with death, Amelia. It never brings good news.”
“I think I know better than anyone what it brings,” she said sharply. “Meet me at Nathan’s as soon as you can. Keep this a secret in case…”
“In case what?” he asked.
“In case I find out who the killer is,” she said under her breath.
He nodded grimly. “I’ll be there later.” He left us alone.
“You, too,” she said to me. “You must be there with us, Dorian. You’re like Ryan, calm enough to be useful. But you have to be wary when it comes to Margo. If she’s involved…”
“I cared about Mara,” I said past a lump in my throat. “I was closer to her than anyone else in this pack, bar Alex. If anyone thinks I don’t want to know what happened to her—”
“I know,” she said gently, pressing her palm against my forearm. I immediately felt calmer, thanks to her being the omega. But even an omega hadn’t been enough to save the pack if we were turning on each other. “And by helping me tonight, we might get a step further. One way or another, you’ll hear the truth about your friend.”
“What if she has something to do with the killings?” I asked.
Her face creased with pity. “Then she’ll pay the price.”
* * *
My face grewhot as we held hands around the circle. There were five of us in total: Amelia, Ryan, Nathan, Perdita, and me. Nathan and Perdita hadn’t been angry with me for going to Margo, but they were so busy with their grief that the reality of what I’d done likely hadn’t set in yet. The whole family had taken the news about Alex hard because she had reminded them of another female wolf they couldn’t save—losing Mara just made the situation seem impossible. They should have been worrying about how weak the unexpected deaths made Byron appear.
“I hope you’re right about this,” Nathan said warningly to his sister.
“I don’t have a choice,” Amelia said. “The last circle was broken, and the deaths came afterward. I have a bad feeling that we screwed up that night, that we made things worse than they should be. I just don’t know how.”
“So how will we fix this?” Perdita asked.
Amelia looked tired. “I’m not sure yet. It depends on what I hear. You know what it’s like, Perdita. They’ll tell us what we need to know when they’re good and ready. And if we don’t understand, then so be it.”
The candles were already burning, but I felt sure they flared a little brighter when Amelia closed her eyes and started talking. She closed the circle, and I experienced a sense of peace that hadn’t been there before. A kind of warm protection settled around us; it hadn’t been there the last time she tried to reach the spirits.
Amelia sat in the centre of the circle, guarded by the rest of us. Hopefully, anyway. Last time hadn’t worked out so well. As long as Margo didn’t suddenly turn up again—that could get dangerous for her.
Amelia called out to the spirit world and asked for help from her ancestors, two of whom were buried in the back yard—or at least, their ashes had been spread there. I shivered as I remembered how Margo had stared at the patch of violets that marked the site. Death had linked itself to Margo somehow. That was the only thing that made sense to me.
The spirit world soon answered Amelia—a little too eagerly, I thought—and we all watched as the board spelled out answers to her questions.
Amelia let out a shaky breath. “Was a spirit released into our world on Halloween night?”
Yes.
“What did it want?”
Peace.
That didn’t sound right to me.
“Did we contain it?”
No.
“Where is it now?”
