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It was said for the benefit of those listening, and the glimmer in his eyes suggested he was well aware of that fact. “And not just healing, but the ability tophysicallyhold your own against a werewolf, as Mother can attest.”
Another soft murmur ran around the room at that. Karleen neither elaborated nor denied the statement, but her gaze burned holes in my spine.
A wolf sitting in the section opposite us rose. “It’s been implied by Monty and now yourself that the destruction happening within this compound is due to our wellspring—a wellspring that has never, in all the time it has been a part of this reservation, proven dangerous in any way. What has changed?”
“Two things,” I said calmly. “The first is, as Aiden said, your council’s refusal to call in a replacement for Gabe after he disappeared. The second is my arrival.”
“How is your arrival connected?” another voice asked.
Sparks began to dance around my fingertips, though the ones around my right hand had a reddish glow thanks to the wound—which, thankfully, was already beginning to heal. “To explain that, I have to give you a little bit of history about witches, werewolves, and wellsprings.”
I did a quick rundown of everything we’d discovered about the Fenna and their connection to wellsprings, and then added, “My mother—who is, for those who don’t know, Eleanor Marlowe, one of the most powerful witches in Canberra and a leading member of the High Witch Council—”
Another murmur rose. Obviously, Karleen hadn’t bothered mentioning that tidbit, either.
I waited for it to die down, then continued. “Mom was unknowingly a few weeks pregnant with me when she was sent to protect a newly emerged wellspring. It resulted in both her and me being fully exposed to the unbridled power of the spring. It should have killed us. It didn’t, and we now believe it’s because there’s Fenna in our bloodline.”
“Which would explain,” Ciara said, “why you’ve got werewolf-like healing and fast reactions. Thereisactually werewolf blood in your veins.”
It was a leap of logic I wasn’t about to gainsay—not if it made it easier for the pack to accept me. “We can’t confirm any of this, of course, not only because no records remain from that period of time, but also because if the High Council ever got wind of the fact it was possible to connect a witch to the wild magic, half of Canberra would descend on this reservation.”
“Which is why both Ashworth and Monty have been falsifying their reports to Canberra since their arrival,” Aiden said.
A sliver of surprise came from the group behind us. Though it was hard to tell who it had originated from without looking, I suspected it was Karleen, given Ciara was already well aware of this fact. Maybe Karleen was finally understanding not only how badly she’d misread the whole wellspring situation, but also the precarious position her interference had placed the reservation in.
“Why have we not been told any of this?” The woman who asked had a face full of freckles and appeared only a few years older than me, though given how well werewolves aged, she could have been in her forties. “Why have we been left in the dark in regard to all the murders and their connection to the wellspring?”
“The council placed an embargo on the news because they did not want to cause reservation-wide panic,” Karleen said evenly. “None of us were sure how long the problem would last.”
It was tempting to say that was a lie, that we witches had known it would be years, not months, before the siren call of an unprotected wellspring stopped echoing across the shores of darkness.
But if I wanted any chance of living within the compound then I couldn’t keep adding fuel to her fires… although me being alive and present seemed to be all the fuel she needed.
“If you’re now connected to our wellspring,” the man seated beside the freckled woman said, “then its continued attacks on us very much suggest it is—even if on some weirdly subconscious level—acting out your anger against Karleen and her objections to your relationship with Aiden.”
“If that were true, then these events would have started months ago, when she began her campaign to split us,” I said. “But in fact, the first rumblings only started after I left to testify at my father’s trial.”
Another murmur ringed the room. These people obviously didn’t watch the news, because despite the embargo the High Council had placed on the trial, there’d still been mention of it online and in the various gossip mags.
“Then what is the cause and how do we stop it?” Ciara asked.
I drew in a deeper breath and released it slowly. This really wasn’t where I’d wanted us to be when I informed Aiden of his impending fatherhood, but I guessed, in some respects, it was also absolutely perfect. His reaction, for good or for bad, would be there for everyone to see. Unfaked, unforced.
“As I mentioned earlier, Eli uncovered some new information that mentioned the need for the offspring of any Fenna to be bathed in the wellspring’s power.” The man beside me stiffened at that, but I ploughed on. “And it gave the name of a small village in Gloucestershire as an example of what would happen if they weren’t. That town was basically erased. The earth rose up and consumed it, just as the earth here tried to consume this hall and everyone within it.”
“Does that mean…?” Aiden asked softly.
I glanced at him. His eyes shone, and his expression held an endearing mix of hope, excitement, and disbelief. “I’m afraid it does.”
He let out a whoop that damn near deafened me, then pulled me into his arms and kissed me very,verythoroughly, utterly uncaring about the fact we had an audience.
But then, he was a werewolf, and they did all run naked through the forest—and do a whole lot more, if the whispers were to be believed—in full view of everyone every full moon. A kiss, however intense, wasn’t ever likely to faze the pack.
“When?” he asked eventually. His eyes shone with happiness, and his grip on my fingers was fierce. Like he didn’t want to let me go just in case it somehow all went away. “And how? Weren’t you protected the entire time?”
“Yes, but it appears that the changes the wild magic was making to my DNA blunted the effectiveness of the contraception I was on. As for when—I’ve yet to go to a doctor, but she’s likely to appear in eight or so months.”
“Why haven’t you said anything?” He paused, understanding dawning. “You didn’t because of everything Mom has said about crossbreeds.”
