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“I’ve been waiting for you to enlighten me.”
“She wants to merge her blood and mine.” He turned away from me, and had he been a smoking man, he would have taken one out for the needed break. Instead, he stared over the expanse, linking his fingers behind his neck. “She wants to breed my line and hers. Wolves and witches.”
I choked. Of all the things I expected her to do with his donation, I never expected that. “She can’t—” But what did I know about her magic or what was possible? And I didn’t want to imagine merging the power of the magic running in her veins with the power werewolves held. “And if she means it, then she has to be on your side...” Once again, I drifted into thoughts, sure I shouldn’t be saying any of this out loud, where even the plants listened.
“Yes. Or it’s the logical conclusion she wants us to come to. Who knows where the chips will land or if it will even take.”
“And we are to believe it’s a coincidence, the timing of your coming here and when the deaths started.”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore,” he admitted, turning around to bring us face to face.
“It seems to me like you do.”
He gave a single nod.
“It makes more sense than the alternative, but it could be a ruse to throw us off the scent. Is there any way to be certain?”
“Yes,” the priestess said from behind us. “There is.”
“Gods almighty, you need a bell, woman.”
She snarled, but there wasn’t mirth in her tone. “Expect nothing on my lands. I live with the earth, and it with me.”
“We know,” Dominic cut in. “What proof is there?”
“Come see my daughter.” She gestured for us to follow her into the greenhouse she’d ducked into before.
They were expansive. Much larger inside than they appeared from out and I could have eaten off the tables. The light deceived as well. From the outside, they looked whitewashed and dark, with overgrown vines twisting through the broken panes, but inside, sunlight streamed through clear glass, and while vines did creep up the sides, there were no broken panes or anything overgrown.
The spaces between the tables were clear and unobstructed, if not a little like an indoor maze.
We came to the far end and into view of a girl—no—a woman. A young woman. Maybe twenty at most. She lifted her eyes from the mortar and pestle she clutched in her hands, stilling her grinding.
“Hello,” she said in a meek voice, quite the opposite of the power the priestess commanded in hers.
“Hello there,” Dominic said, reaching out a hand for hers. “I’m Dominic.”
I glanced at the priestess for answers, but I didn’t need them.
“I know who you are, Dominic.” The young woman stood, exposing her swollen stomach from where it had been hidden behind the high table. She took Dominic’s hand, smiling bright like the sun.
The priestess smiled.
“I didn’t know how much you were told,” Dominic said softly.
“Everyone goes into my magic with full consent. We don’t play any of those games here. Magic brings grave consequences unless done with good intent and consent,” the priestess said.
Dominic nodded, but I wasn’t sure either of us really took in her words, too transfixed by what stood before us and the implications of a child. One he’d been trying to avoid for years now, breathed in to life with the very actions he’d taken to avoid one.
“The universe finds a way,” I muttered.
Dominic exhaled sharply. “What does this mean?”
“We won’t know if it will work yet. It’s failed before—granted, much earlier, but we won’t count on our alliance before it’s born.”
Dominic’s head whipped around to meet the eyes of the priestess. “Alliance.”
“Do you have another heir, Dominic? I thought I did a pretty good job of preventing that at your request.”
