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“Shit. Is it bothering you? Do you feel out of control?”
I shook my head. “So far, it’s okay. Just … there’s more of it than before. I … with this mess, I forgot to tell you. Lavinia made me a suppression potion, to help control the darkfire until I have more time to learn to control it.” Or I could keep drinking it forever … “I started this morning.”
“And you still felt the darkfire grow stronger?”
I nodded. “I can ask Lavinia if it’s okay to drink a bigger dose of the potion for now.”
“It’s one damn problem on top of the other. And you know what bothers me the most? The fact that someone is playing with us as if we were pieces on a chess board. Whoever let us have the crystals back knew something like this would happen. Maybe not with Evelyn and channeling the dragon’s magic, but if we had called Thea and the Silverblood coven to help. Maybe that much magic would have melted the crystals and the poison would have spread sooner. This was all premeditated.”
My brow furrowed. “Who would do that, and why?”
“Hell if I know.”
“This is cruel.”
“Agreed.”
I embraced him. I felt the tension flee his body as he embraced me back. I lay my cheek on his chest. His heartbeat thudding against my ear.
“What do we do now?” I knew the answer. He knew the answer. But I wanted to hear him say it.
He pulled back and stared at me, a sadness shining in his eyes. “Now, we leave.”
* * *
The sun was halfwaydown the horizon and soon it would disappear behind the trees, though we still had about two hours until complete darkness. We gathered in the square.
Everyone was here—the wolves, the kids, the vampires, the witches. The only ones missing were those affected by the poison—they stayed in the infirmary with Jay. He was curious about what this was all about, but I gave him a hint. “Start packing.”
It had been a couple of hours since the crystals melted, but two more wolves had fallen sick. If we didn’t do this soon, all of us would fall ill.
Shane climbed over one of the remaining benches in the square, with Dom and Vallin on the ground beside him.
Killian, Lavinia, Evelyn, and Ash were nearby in case something happened. Like the dragon bursting from the ground.
I wanted to be there with them, but I stayed back with Tyren, Rue, and Roman.
“Sorry to call you at this time of the evening,” Shane started. “But I have urgent news that can’t wait.”
A murmur spread through the crowd. There weren’t many of us left, but right now it sounded like a full stadium.
“Quiet!” Vallin snapped.
Silence fell over the square.
“Unfortunately, the crystals that once powered the barrier and supported the magic around our lands are gone,” Shane said. “Two of them turned harmful. The sick people? That’s because of the crystals.” Murmurs began anew, but Shane didn’t stop. “The crystals are also poisoning the land. As we speak, the poison is spreading through the forest around us and killing everything it touches. And … it’s heading this way.”
“What are we going to do?” someone asked.
“Can we get new crystals?” someone else asked.
“There are witches here,” someone said. “How about a spell?”
Rue leaned closer to me. Her eyes held a gleam of fear. “Did you know about this?”
Feeling awful for having hidden this from her, I nodded.
“We’ve tried all we could,” Shane continued. “But I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do for the land now. Because of that, I’m ordering everyone to return to their houses and pack the essentials, because tonight we’re leaving town.”
