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“My mother never used her seal for anything,” I whispered. She’dhidthese documents, buried themdeep,gone to extraordinary lengths to do it, and she’d used her Moon’s Gift to know the timing.
Tell no one.
My fingers quivered on the edge of the box and emotions boiled up into my throat, making my jaw quiver and my eyes sting.
“What do you think it is?” he asked.
“I have no idea, but I guess she’s going to spill some tea from beyond the grave.” I strained my throat and managed to swallow, then breathe in. This was the sort of thing to keep safe and sacred, but there wasn’t anywhere to run.
Searle moved and placed his hands on either side of the box.
I clenched down and snarled.
“I’m just going to put it aside.” His voice slipped through the dark.
I forced my hands to release the box into his grip, ready to lunge after him if he randomly tried to set it on fire. He moved up to my nightstand and carefully slid the box into the open spot under the single drawer.
“It better be there when we come back from breakfast.” I was so tired I had ceased to be sleepy, and I hated taking naps, so breakfast and hitting the gym it was.
“If I was going to doublecross you, I’d do a better job than that.”
That might have been the nicest thing he’d ever said to me…
Let It Be Known
Marcella tucked her phone into her jeans pocket and sat down opposite me. MaryAnne had a notepad on her knee, pen at the ready.
Me? I sat with a shoebox on my knees.
Demetrius leaned on Marcella’s chair back, while Searle and Henri loomed nearby.
I was not used to this much of an audience toanything, and when I did have this many members of a pack clustered around me, it had never been good news. My mother’s secrets were about to get revealed toeveryone, and she’d told metell no one.
Marcella gestured with one hand. “Let me see. Is this everything that was in the box?”
“Yes.” I couldn’t make my arms move my hands to hand over the box. I couldn’t break the seals without witnesses (well, Ishouldn’t), but this many witnesses would just try to cover it up.
“Summer. Box, please.” Marcella said.
I swallowed the knot, and the MoonDark held my skin quivering and trembling as I tried to dissolve into a barking shift.
“Summer,” Marcella said with more bite in her tone.
“That is the expression of a she-wolf who doesn’t trust you.” Demetrius peered down at Marcella. “She’s afraid you’re going to take her kill.”
“She isn’t wrong to be afraid of that. But it’d be easier if she handed this over instead of making me hold her down.” Marcella said this pleasantly, while she stared right at me.
Maybe I should have made her take it from me, just so I’d know I’d fought to protect it. “She told me to tell no one.”
Marcella’s hand remained outstretched. “I know, I read the note. But she had to know you would have toldsomeoneeventually. What areyougoing to do with whatever she left you, little wolf? Nothing. The question you should be asking yourself is what canIdo with what she left?”
Fuck, I hated being boxed in up against a wall like this. I couldn’t do a goddamn thing with the contents of the box except walk around with it like the corpse of an unfortunate hamster.
I handed her the box.
Marcella set it on her thighs, set the top aside, and picked up all the scrolls in one hand. She counted through them. “MaryAnne, make a note that there are three scrolls. Each is sealed with Elder Luna Autumn’s seal, bound with ribbons, and the seal is intact. The scrolls were stored in a safe deposit box in Alaska without access or interference since the Luna’s death.”
Marcella examined the scrolls for anything else, then passed them to Demetrius, before he passed them back to Marcella.
