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I stroke his cheek, turning his face toward me. “It’s not your fault.”
He looks up, gazing not at me but at Rook’s crow eyes. They seem to come to an understanding. Rook bows his head solemnly and hops from my shoulder to Drago’s.
I don’t quite know what to think about that.
My eyes bounce from one to the other before refocusing on Drago.
“Is that your bad news? The revenant is coming through more and more?”
Drago shakes his head and guides me to the main bedroom. When we’re seated at the foot of the bed, he fishes a folded piece of paper from the back pocket of his jeans. He hands it to me and I take it, stomach in knots over what could be written inside.
“I found it last time I was in the Kootenays. I didn’t tell you then because I needed to verify it myself.”
The paper crinkles as I unfold it. Scrawled in two neat columns in various handwritings are countless names.
I scan the list, trying to find a common element among them. I don’t recognize any of them personally, but most are native names. There’s even an Akokli on there. One of Jonah’s relatives.
Three quarters of the way down the page, the paper falls from my fingers fluttering to the ground just as my heart fills with ice and drops in my chest.
I meet Drago’s eyes, tears burning. “That’s…” The word comes out like sand through a sieve.
“I’m so sorry. Willa.”
He takes my hands in his but I yank out of his grasp. “What is this? Why is my father’s name on that piece of paper?” My breath is ragged, like my lungs can’t fill with air. Seeing my traitorous father’s name on that paper…
“Is this a list of all the pack members who’d abandoned their packs?” If it is, well, then I already knew that. A list of excommunicated members? I already knew that, too. Leaving your pack is the worst offense among our kind.
And my father had done it, leaving Mari and me and the pack alone.
“No, Willa.” Drago tries to take my hands again, but I dodge him, too angry to be soothed.
“What then?” I snap, causing Rook’s feathers to get poofy.
“It’s a list of all the alphas who gave their lives for their generation’s Champion.”
I suck in a breath, trying to assimilate his words. Their meaning.
The room spins as Drago’s news finally finds meaning in my head. I grip the bedsheets tight, but I can’t keep my last meal from roiling in my guts.
I run to the bathroom and hurl up everything I ate in the last twelve hours before plopping on the cold tile floor.
Drago doesn’t follow me in, thank the Great Wolf.
I don’t care if it’s nice to have someone hold your hair back; I don’t wantanyoneseeing me puke.
Ever.
Once my stomach settles, I wash my face and swish some mouthwash around, then meet Drago back in the bedroom.
“Are you OK?”
I nod, still feeling a little shaky but not in danger of puking any more. “I need to talk to Mari.”
She’s the only one who can possibly understand what’s going on in my head right now. The only one whose head will also be spinning out of control.
Drago nods, disturbing Rook enough that he lets out a small squawk. “Sorry,” he mumbles before taking one of my hands again. “I understand. Do whatever you need to, but I had hoped…” Drago lets his sentence trail off.
“You’d hoped what?”
