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“Tell me about it,” I said. “Who knows about this and why would they come for her?”
“You really want to find who killed her, don’t you?” he asked.
“I have no choice,” I admitted. “They think I did.”
He narrowed his eyes at me and stared at me as if studying my face for a long minute. “You’d do this either way, wouldn’t you? Go after them even if it wasn’t your ass on the line.”
“Absolutely. She was my best friend and I want to make them hurt the way they hurt her.” I was surprised by the rage that boiled within me. I’d never been driven by vengeance before this. I’d managed to make peace with my kills because I was doing them on someone else’s authority. I was given a name and I tracked and caught or killed my target legally. It was never personal.
This time, I wanted whoever killed my friend gone. I was choosing their sentence. It was personal. Even if the killer’s name isn’t on a list, I was talking them down.
“So that explains the enforcer,” he said. “You’ve got guild time.”
“Yes,” I said. “So, as you can tell, I’m in a hurry. Any info you can give me will help my case.”
“First, we have to talk about that stone,” he said. “I can’t keep it with me. It’s too much of a risk to the pack.”
“Why not destroy it?” I asked. “Why all the secrecy and sending Lola away from her family?”
“It can’t be destroyed. Trust me, we’ve tried. Six generations of my family have protected it, passing it to the second born child when they came of age. For the good of the pack, they’d leave and live alone until it was time to pass it on to the next generation.” Xander shook his head. “If I could’ve taken her place, I would have but she was proud of her task. We were raised to take our places when the time came. Me as pack leader, her as the keeper.”
“Well, that sounds mighty noble and all that, but there has to be a way to end this cycle. From what I’ve heard, this thing is too dangerous to exist. Nothing can break it?” It didn’t seem likely. All magic had a source and a counter source. For all magic, there was something that could defeat it. It wasn’t always pleasant or easy, but it was possible.
“Unless you have a tool that breaks Demon magic, I’m afraid this is our only option,” he said.
The stone suddenly felt like it weighed a hundred pounds in my pocket. Demon magic was the exception to every rule, of course. But there hadn’t been any sighting of demons in our realm in a century. They stayed in their place, and we stayed in ours.
“Well, fuck,” I said.
He laughed. “Yeah, fuck.”
“Alright, so who’s next in line in your pack? Don’t you have an alternate? This can’t be the first time this has happened.” I hated minimizing Lola’s life this way. It felt disrespectful and dirty, but I knew it wasn’t safe in my pocket. Especially not while going after the very people who had tried to find it in the first place.
Add in where it came from, and I wanted it as far away from me as possible. I sure as hell didn’t want to carry demon magic around with me.
“Traditionally, it would be my second born who would take over,” he said. “But I don’t even have a mate, let alone a kid.”
“What’s the alternative?” I asked.
He stood and walked over to the desk, ducking behind it. I heard the telltale sound of a safe being opened.
“Please tell me you have a place to store this thing,” I said.
He rose, an envelope in hand. “Each keeper leaves a name of who they trust to take over their duty if the worst should happen. An intermediary who can act as keeper until the next heir is ready.”
Xander looked down at the envelope, staring at it as if it was something sacred. I supposed in a way it was, his last little bit of Lola. I knew that feeling well. I felt the same weight, the same reverence when I’d opened the box she kept her valuables in.
With a long exhale, he tore open the envelope. Then he looked up at me.
“It’s you,” he said. “Lola chose you.”
“Um, no. That’s impossible. I’m not even a shifter,” I said.
He turned the letter so it was facing me. In Lola’s clear, neat handwriting I saw my name on the paper. Only my name. No other information.
When had she put my name on there? We must have met a few years after she left the pack. Why would she think I was the best one to care for this?
“She must have trusted you.” He leaned against his desk as he looked at me. “Like it or not, the stone is your responsibility now.”
