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When the small house came into view, I looked over at my sister, Celia. Her expression did not change as we approached the storybook house, with its charming porch and shutters and slightly overgrown yard.
“Are you sure we should be here? Maybe we should take them home,” I said and shifted Lou in my arms. His dark hair brushed my arm and he muttered something but did not wake. Celia couldn’t do much in the way of actual magic, but as an alpha, putting someone under like she had done for Lou was a birthright. He wouldn’t wake until she let him or a powerful witch helped him.
“It would be a bad idea if we didn’t bring them here right away,” Artemio said. He appeared at the front gate like we had called him. He probably felt whatever magic shifted earlier like we had and came to investigate. He was sixteen and still in high school and was rumored to grow up to be a powerful warlock one day. It was his destiny, we were told. And already, at his age, he paid a hefty price for that magic he carried with him.
Right now though, he was a scrawny sixteen year old with glasses that had neon green frames, an eager smile, a big brain, and a backpack that had to weigh as much as he did slung over one thin shoulder.
Celia stared at Artemio and he shifted uncomfortably.
"I told you to stay at home," she said softly. The reprimand was clear in her voice and even I looked away. She didn't scold us often, but when she did, it felt worse than getting screamed at by an actual adult, not a twenty-six-year-old librarian who looked like she belonged on the catwalks of Paris.
“I couldn’t stop it. I promise, Cee. Whatever happened tonight, it woke up a powerful Dormant. They pulled me here,” he pleaded.
A door opened and the three of us turned to it. A woman was silhouetted there.
“More powerful than you, Artemio Ortega?” She asked. Her voice was warm and welcoming so I figured that whatever we got ourselves into wasn’t that bad.
“Maybe one day, yeah,” Artemio shrugged.
“Bring them in,” she said and stepped away.
I went first, the second in command looking to clear the way. Artemio followed me in, careful to wipe his feet and trace the doorway with his thumb, looking for runes that could harm us. Celia followed last, still looking proud and fierce despite Dante being slung over her shoulder.
The woman who spoke was Lou's mother. I knew her from certain circles, sometimes around town, but there were other ways to know a powerful person's name. Her dark hair was woven through with silver strands and her face was lined, though she looked as friendly as I remembered. She wore a long skirt and a simple blouse, a braided silver necklace around her neck.
“Miss Maricel,” I said politely and bowed my head. She put a thumb to my forehead and there was the sting of her magic meeting the magic of my wolf and then she was stepping away to do the same for my sister.
"Take Luz to the couch, Eli," she murmured. I was confused for a second when she called him by that name until I remembered that Lou was his nickname.
I left Lou on a couch in the living room and turned back to Maricel stroking Artemio’s cheek and smiling fondly at him. “You are stronger than ever, Artie,” she murmured.
“I still have much to learn,” Artemio said.
Maricel didn't seem too concerned with her son and stepson passed out or the way the room pulsed with magic. Instead, she gestured for Celia to follow her into the kitchen. It was not a large house and I felt like with the three of us there, we were taking up a lot of space. I very much felt like a bull in a china shop.
There was a large, old table in the center of the kitchen that was cleared of everything. Miss Maricel gestured to it and Celia gently laid Dante down on its scarred surface. With a jolt, I remembered that very table in my father's shop. He made it while I sat by and watched, ready to retrieve whatever tool he might need. I cleared my throat and turned to look at Lou once again like he needed my supervision while he was in a light coma.
Miss Maricel pointed out a desk in the corner of the kitchen and said, “You can set up there, Artie.”
Artemio unloaded an old mortar from his bag and then book after book onto the desk. There were woven, colored bags next and finally Artemio pulled out a battered notebook and a pencil before he sat down. He turned to Maricel, poised to take notes. I leaned against the wide door frame, putting myself between the exit and my family.
“He is such a good boy,” Maricel said to Celia.
“Thank you,” Celia said. She paused, as though she were delicately searching for the words. “You do not seem surprised?”
“I saw it,” Maricel said and nodded. She pressed a hand to Dante’s forehead and he shifted, probably stung too. “Only moments before, possibly while it happened. Not enough time to change anything.”
“Not that you would,” Celia murmured.
They stared at each other over Dante’s still body, one powerful witch regarding an equally powerful alpha. I looked over at Artemio and he raised his eyebrows when he looked over at me.
“Of course not. Not unless I wanted to create a catastrophe big enough to wipe us all out.”
We all shuddered. Receiving visions was more of a curse than a gift and no one wanted it. The temptation to change events was too much and trying to change anything only caused worse things to happen.
“Can you tell me what happened?” Miss Maricel asked.
“We caught the scent of a loner wandering through the Lock and went to go investigate,” Celia started.
“Shifted?” Maricel asked and took Dante’s hand in hers. She gestured for Artemio to come closer. He brought his notebook and stood next to her. “Your mortar,” she whispered.
“Shifted, yes,” Celia said.
Artemio brought the mortar over and Maricel turned Dante’s palm so that it was face up and gestured for Artemio to look closer. We all leaned in to see what she was pointing at.
Artemio gasped.
“Is that a tooth?” I asked.
“It is,” Maricel said and plucked it from the wound that was closing already. She dropped it in Artemio’s mortar and glanced up at Celia to encourage her to continue on with her story.
“We lost it in the northeast corner of the wood and then we heard something from the corner of the woods. We found it standing over the boys there. I challenged it and it ran," Celia finished.
"It had already bit Dante," I added.
"It dropped him and when it did, we felt..." Celia trailed off and looked up at Miss Maricel helplessly.
"Yes," she nodded.
"Did you know?" Celia asked.
"That Lou was a Dormant? Of course. From the moment he was born. If he had been a girl, he would have taken my place years ago. As it was, feeling the magic inside of him, waiting, was breathtaking," Maricel said.
"What happened?" I asked. It didn't need to be asked. I was only asking what everyone else was thinking:
What caused the magic here to shift like that?
The magic fed us like a loop here in Glenwood Lock. The magic that was in the land found a home in bodies like ours; wolves, the occasional vampire, the covens of witches, and whatever else lived in the woods. And in turn, the more magic we were fed, the more magic that was generated in the land.
The wolves and their sentinels guarded the inner workings of the forest, though we were never actual privy to what went on in the deepest parts of the forest. We were security for the bank that kept our magic safe.
"What do you know about souls, Eli?" Maricel asked instead. I hated talking to witches; they were all like this. Instead of answering a question, they chose the most roundabout way to answer.
"Uh-" I looked to Celia and Artemio, in hopes that they would take this question. They were +more used to being the center of attention than I was. "We all have one?"
Maricel smiled and it felt like I had gotten the question right on the first try. "Yes. And souls are like... Thread. Alphas can see them, sometimes. Witches and warlocks can see them too, eventually, when they gain the experience."
Artemio scribbled something down.
"Some people are born braided into each other. The three of you create the perfect plait, the most beautiful one I have ever seen in all my life," Maricel said and went to the sink. She wet a washcloth and brought it back to the table and began to patiently clean Dante and then unbuttoned his shirt to get to the blood underneath there too.
We all winced. The bite went deep and I was glad that we hadn't taken his shirt off sooner. No doubt that the wolf sank his teeth deep into the meat of Dante's torso. He had broken bones, torn muscle. It would have been horrific to see out in the woods before the healing started.
"Lou and Dante have been tangled all their life. I don't know how to explain it. They have always been one for the other and as they spent more and more time together, the more tangled their threads became. Sometimes, souls that are tangled in such a way, they can become violent, toxic. They can kill each other," Maricel said.
"Lou and Dante are going to kill each other?" Artemio whispered. He looked aghast.
"No. Their thread is tangled in such a way that what happens to one, impacts the other. I doubt they could live without each other. Lou was the only one to bring Dante back from the edge after his father was killed. Dante is the only one that can reach Lou sometimes when he is too far inside his own mind," Maricel said.
"So they're... soulmates?" I asked. I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. I had tried to ignore Lou since the first day he stepped on campus, but it seemed like we kept running into each other more and more. I found myself growing curious about the kid, helpless against my own wandering mind.
Maricel looked up at me and smiled. "Not in the way you think. Their souls are tangled. But they love each other in a way that only brothers could love each other. Twins, possibly."
"So when Dante was bitten, it woke up the magic in Lou?" Artemio asked. He pushed his glasses up on his nose and stared up at Maricel with the utmost devotion in his eyes. The kid didn't know how to do things by halves.
"Yes. And I imagine it was painful, it probably still is," Maricel said.
"But they don't know about this? Any of this?" Celia asked and gestured to the house around us. There was so much magic in here, I felt like I might drown in it.
Miss Maricel shook her head.
"How?" I asked.
"Humans see what their minds accept. It's no different for the boys, even if they did grow up in it. Maybe because they grew up in it," Maricel said.
"Will he turn?" Celia asked. She looked down at Dante.
"Yes," Maricel said.
"When is his birthday?" Artemio asked and turned back to his books. It would take a moment for him to calculate what we were looking at, but he would be able to say what kind of animal Dante would probably shift into. Just because he was bitten by a wolf didn’t mean that would be the path he took. Sometimes it was genetics, sometimes it was the magic that fed the souls here, that determined what he might be.
"November 1st, 1997. After sunrise," Maricel said.
Artemio whistled but kept his eyes on his books.
"What?" Celia asked.
"November is the death month," Artemio said casually and flipped open one book and then another. "And then on Dia de Los Muertos? That's big."
Celia and I exchanged an alarmed look.
"Not like that. Death is the moment of transformation. Transformation means power. A power that could act as a conduit," Artemio said, without ever looking up. With one hand he turned a page and with the other, he traced numbers that we could not see in the air and muttered under his breath.
"A conduit to what?" Celia asked.
"To an alpha, to an entire pack. Most likely to Lou," Maricel said.
I looked down at my shoes and crossed my arms over my chest. I didn't want to look at anyone in the room because it would be easy enough for them to read what was on my mind.
"Eli is right," Celia said after a moment of silence.
"I didn't say anything," I muttered and did not look up.
"You didn't have to. We are all thinking the same thing. Taking Dante means taking Lou. That means two new members to a pack of three already. You push the boundaries," Maricel said.
"Not on purpose. I didn't bite him and I sure as hell didn't wake up the magic in the other one," Celia said.
"No. The rogue did. But these two live and work and learn on your land, Celia Ortega. Will you let two orphans wander around on your land, so close to the Gate?" Maricel asked.
From anyone else, Celia would have snapped, but Maricel was nothing but kind.
"I can’t. You know what kind of risk that is," Celia said. She ground her teeth together and glared out the window above the kitchen sink.
"They will join you or leave. And I can tell you right now, Dante will never leave his parents gravesites and Lou will never leave Dante's side," Maricel murmured.
"I guess that settles that," I said and threw my hands up in the air. I walked away but only went as far as the living room before turning back.
"Sure. Until the Ascendancy shows up," Artemio remarked with a strained casualness that none of us believed.
Celia and I exchanged a glance. We tried to avoid the Ascendancy as much as possible, but sometimes they were inescapable.
Like when they came knocking at your door.
They were the ones to track and keep the population of supernatural creatures at an acceptable rate. If the population exploded, there was a potential to kill off all the humans, which could be a food source for many creatures. When that happened, an Ascendancy unit was often sent in to contain the problem.
I tried not to think of all those that we lost to those population cullings.
"We'll deal with them if we have to," Celia said.
I turned to her, ready to protest, but Artie interrupted me.
"I got it! Wolf. But-" Artemio paused and looked up at Lou. "What did you say?"
The three of us turned to Lou, where he lay unconscious still. He hadn't even moved from where I had laid him out on the couch.
It wasn't the first time Artie heard something where the rest of us did not.
"What-" Artie stared at Lou's still form and his face drained of all color. I had to push back the urge to jump on Lou, to make him stop scaring Artie like that.
"When was Lou born?" Artie whispered and I felt a growl rattle my chest when I saw his hands shake and his eyes were bright with unshed tears.
"November 1st, 1997. Before sunrise," Maricel said calmly. She was the only who seemed to be able to withstand the tension in the room. I couldn’t even put my finger on why it was so tense, not until I realized that it was rolling off of Artie like waves from an ocean.
"Oh," Artie said and his voice cracked. "Yeah. Well-"
He closed his eyes and those tears tracked down his cheeks. He whispered under his breath and the wind outside shook the tree branches and in the distance, perhaps in the woods, I heard something like rocks grinding against each other.
I reached out for Celia and grasped her upper arm. She put her hand over mine and her warmth settled me for a moment.
Miss Maricel poured herself a glass of water and took a seat by Dante.
"What?" I finally demanded, the silence stretching on for so long, I thought that he would never answer.
"If you take these two, Cee, you are going to be the most powerful alpha on the west coast. Maybe the western hemisphere. Not sure. I would need a calculator for that math but-" Artie nodded and opened his eyes. I couldn’t help but think that he was seeing something that the rest of us couldn’t. "These two give you Power and Virtue."
The words dropped like a stone in the room. Maricel even looked surprised and Celia took several steps back until her back hit the counter behind her.
I looked around the room. Whatever Artie was going on about didn’t explain anything to me. “What are you talking about?”
"Powers and virtues were sought after pack members from the old days. They only went with alphas that were held in high regard. Like, really high regard. Like-" Artie waved his hand around and swallowed. "Like royalty. Like members of the oldest families that could call up the wolves without trying. To have a Power or Virtue in your pack meant that you were near unstoppable."
"The Power represented the sheer, physical strength of the pack. He or she was a fierce fighter and loyal to the death. There was no way to come between a Power and his pack. If it was possible, if the Power was taken, he would sooner die than commit to another pack," Maricel said. She put a hand to Dante's forehead and smiled.
"The Virtue represented the collective knowledge of the pack. He or she was often imbued with magic so strong, they could control the four elements by themselves with little effort. Once a Virtue committed to their pack, it was a death wish to take them. And not by the pack's hands, but by the Virtue themselves," Maricel went on, looking fondly over at Lou.
Oh.
I nodded. "So they paint an even bigger target on our back. Great."
"Maybe," Maricel said.
"Or maybe they give us enough strength to fight back. I've read about them. I thought all the lines of those had been killed off centuries ago. I thought all the powers and virtues were gone," Celia said.
"All the magic in our line should have been gone too," I said and sighed. I glanced over at our baby brother.
Celia didn't reply.
Artemio looked a little proud.
"It makes sense now why they are two sides of the same coin," Celia said.
"We already have a sentinel, though," I said and looked over to Artie.
"A Sentinel and a Virtue are different," Maricel said.
"But you said that the Virtue can call up all the elements-" I started.
"And a sentinel commands one, two at most," Artie replied.
"Wait, but we can't exile Artie because someone bigger has come along-" I said and turned to Celia.
"And we wouldn't," Celia said.
"Why do you think packs like this were killed off? To have a Sentinel and a Virtue working side by side? That is-" Maricel shook her head.
"What I want to know is why they come in pairs," Celia said and glanced from Dante to Lou.
"Two sides, one coin. Twins. It is the way nature is, my love," Maricel said. "One does not appear without their other half."
Celia sighed.
"Can we keep them?" Artemio asked.
"Oh my god," I muttered and turned away once again.