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The front curtains were drawn closed and the only light that we had was from the fireplace in the corner of the room. As the Ortegas came in through the back door, I could feel Dante relax beside me. I looked over at him and wondered why he would not want to join them if he felt more at ease with them close by. My mom sat in a comfortable chair closer to the fireplace and Dante and I took up one couch. There was a coffee table that had bottles of cold water and some other snacks on it in front of us and on the other side of that was a longer couch. Celia sat down in the middle and her brothers took up a spot on either side.
I hadn't realized it before, but the distinctions between our two, small groups were now apparent. Dante and I had grown up together as brothers, but we weren't actually related by blood. Now that I studied Artie with his two older siblings, I realized that both Eli and Celia had taken up a parental role in his life. My chest ached to realize that they had such a huge responsibility placed on their shoulders when they were still so young. I had to shake the thought off and start our conversation otherwise we would probably just sit there, staring at each other all night.
"We don't think that the Ascendancy knows that we are with you guys," I said.
Celia looked like she was torn from the movie screen. Her dark hair fell in one long sheet down her back and although she didn't wear any makeup and she would have never been considered plain by anyone.
She raised one eyebrow at me and smirked. "Are you with us?"
I furrowed my brow and looked over to Dante. I thought that saving Eli would have been enough of a statement on my own behalf. Dante didn't seem to have much of an explanation either. "What do you mean?” I asked.
"When someone says they are with us, to a pack, that means they are members of the pack. It's a process, different for both of you, considering what kind of powers you both have. So, are you with us?" Eli asked. He looked like the brooding bad boy that I knew he wasn't. He even had a dark canvas jacket over his broad shoulders that completed the look. His dark eyes watched both Dante and me very closely. I felt like something had shifted in our relationship and I didn't know how to articulate it.
"Well, Artie is supposed to be my teacher, right? And if it weren't for you guys, Dante would have probably already taken out a bunch of innocent people and a couple of buildings while he was at it," I replied.
Beside me, Dante nodded.
"So even if we aren't with you, we are indebted to you."
"You saved Eli from certain death. I think you are overestimating your debt," Celia said.
"See that's what I was thinking," I said and leaned forward on my forearms. "But if it hadn't been for Artie and his ideas of using a tattoo, then would we have even survived beyond that first day? I doubt it. So it just becomes one big circle. The chicken and the egg, and all that."
Celia looked thoughtful but she didn't reply.
"Let's put pack allegiances and members aside for now. We should focus on the biggest threat right now and when that is contained, at least as much as it can be, then we can come back to this topic. I would really like to see my graduation day," Artie said and looked between Celia and me.
"Fair enough," I agreed.
Celia seemed to agree as well.
"So Savannah and her goons don't know that we on your we are on your side. I think it would be to our advantage, and also yours, for them to not know," I said.
"What does Dante think?" Eli asked.
"We've been over this and over this all day. He's speaking for both of us," Dante said.
Eli nodded and sat back.
"If the Ascendancy doesn't know that we are with you, or on your side however you want to put it, then we can be your surprise weapon. And I think the element of surprise combined with both of us would put us over the top," I said.
Artie looked up at me. "To use magic as a weapon is pushing a dangerous boundary. It’s a delicate process and one that can be easily misused."
"I'm not going to become your next enemy. But I wouldn't mind learning how to drop a tank on one of their cars," I remarked.
"So, what are you saying?" Eli asked.
I looked over at Dante. This was his part.
He sat up. "I think we should take the fight to them."
Celia stiffened at his words.
"It has its advantages. If we catch them off guard, with both Dante and me having your backs, then maybe we could push them out. I think that it would be a smart move," I said quietly.
Celia looked over at my mom and my mom looked back but remained silent.
"I know what it looks like to you. It looks like we are unwilling to fight back against the people that are trying to take over our town. It looks like we are just going to let Savannah run over us. But there are other rules that you haven’t learned yet, through no fault of your own. Rules that are quite literally ingrained in our bones," Celia said.
I had to suppress a shudder. That sounded awful.
"What rules?” Dante asked.
Celia looked over to Eli once more and he sighed and sat up.
"You guys know that our line reaches back thousands of years. That the Ortega family under our name or a different one has always protected Glenwood Lock. But did you know why?" Eli asked.
I looked over to Dante and Dante shook his head.
"The forest that feeds our magic and keeps us who we are, has a spring. From that spring, our magic originated. It's hidden in the forest and there are only three people that can get to it. They are known as the Guardians of the Lock. There is one High Priestess, one Sentinel, and one Alpha. There are springs like this all over the country, all over the world. And the same three guard the spring. Those three are a sacred triad. It is frowned upon werewolves and shifters of any kind, to take a human life. But for one of those three to take an innocent life would be...” Eli shook his head. “I don’t know. Obscene.”
“Respecting life in all its forms is paramount to who we are. Otherwise, the monster that lives inside all of us takes over," Celia said.
Artie sighed. "And it's not just our rules that are in play too. The Ascendancy has ways of making a town like ours bow down to them."
"What kind of ways?" Dante asked.
"They will decimate our town," Artie said.
I shifted uncomfortably on the couch. "We kind of figured that."
"Not in the way that you were thinking. The Ascendancy goes by the literal meaning of decimate. Do you know what that means?" Eli asked.
My mouth went dry and I wanted to tell him yes, I did, but Dante shook his head.
“They line up every single nonhuman in town, in random order. Then, they go down the line counting to ten. Every time they hit ten, they kill that tenth person. It doesn't matter to them if they are man, woman, or child. The only thing that matters is that their decimation is complete."
I couldn't suppress my shudder of repulsion this time. I looked away from Celia and Eli and Artie and looked down at my hands.
"And, if we don't bow down to their line, then there are ways of trapping us and keeping us in this town, all of the nonhumans, and killing us all in one night. It has happened more than once," Artie said.
"Our own rules also keep us at bay," Celia said.
I didn't want to hear anymore and realize how genuinely screwed over we were in this situation.
"There are certain rules that people like you and I have to obey. The first is that we aren't supposed to take a life, otherwise it comes at a great cost. And sometimes that cost, depending on how high the body count is, can be too much to bear," Artie said.
I wanted to ask him what kind of price he paid for killing the people that came for him was but he shook his head.
"That was self-defense. I was genuinely worried that they were going to take me and kill me, in the worst possible way. There were repercussions," Artie looked over to my mother and it was just one more mystery to add to the pile.
"But those repercussions were not as severe as it would have been, had he gone to seek those people out and murder them in their beds," my mother finished for him.
"And as long as the Ascendancy does not spill innocent blood, then we cannot do anything against them," Celia said.
"The Ortega line has a few very strict rules. One, we do not kill innocent people. The Ascendancy is full of a bunch of assholes, but so far they haven't killed anyone," Eli said. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked somewhere over my shoulder.
“And number two, we have to protect Glenwood Lock, no matter what the cost to ourselves," Celia said.
"Why, why is Glenwood Lock so important?" I asked.
"Although there are springs like ours throughout the world, they are slowly drying up and going away. There is talk that the magic is leaving our world, and the prophecy we spoke of is supposed to revive that magic. Nothing is for sure though. Among the springs throughout the world, Glenwood Lock is one of the biggest and strongest," Eli said.
"And Celia, my mom, and whoever the Sentinel is, they are the only ones that can protect it? That doesn't seem like a very secure system," I said.
"I'm the Sentinel," Artie said. He reached for a bottle of water and a cookie.
"And I wouldn't underestimate any of us. I can speak for Artie or Miss Maricel, but, in the past few days I can feel that I am getting stronger," Celia said.
"Me too," Artie said.
"I am as well," my mom said from the corner.
“What are you protecting it from?” I asked.
“The Ascendancy. They have been known to destroy the source of our power,” Celia said.
“Of course,” I muttered.
My head was spinning with information. We would have to wait until the Ascendancy made their move to hit back. That put us at a standstill. And for whatever reason, the Ascendancy did not seem like they were too eager to take out any human that was hanging around.
I scrubbed down my face. "So where does that leave us?"
"I think you're you are at least on the right track. I think we should keep you and Dante a secret from as many people as possible. And I think that we should not be seen together in public," Celia said.
"But other than that, we don't have any other ideas and we don't have that much time," Eli said.
"Time? Are we under a time constraint as well?" Dante asked. He looked as stressed out as I felt.
Celia nodded. "Savannah said we had five days to figure out where the magic came from and where it went to. Five days to hand you two over."
"That sucks," Dante said.
I agreed.
"What happens in five days?" I asked.
"In five days, well four now, they will start their own investigation."
"And that means?"
"The Salem Witch Trials were their most famous investigation," Artie said quietly.
"This is starting to get worse and worse," Dante said.
A thought struck me. If they already decided to keep us hidden for the next four days, where did that put them? They wouldn’t give us up, I could see that already.
It all fell together in my mind and I was so aghast that all I could do was stare at the table in front of us.
I looked up to Celia and Eli. "You were going to keep us hidden. And when the five days were up, you were going to wait until they hurt someone and then you were going to go for them."
Celia gave me a small smile. "Your father would be proud."
"But we can't just let them hurt an innocent person," I protested.
"No, we weren’t going to let that happen. We were going to push one of them over the edge. Then we were going to come with everything we had," Eli said quietly.
I looked around the room. I couldn't be the only one that seemed absolutely horrified by this plan. But, other than Dante, everyone else seemed to be on board.
Then I realized that Eli would be the one on the chopping block. Artie wouldn't be the one because they would try to kill him outright, the first chance they got, and he was too important to potentially lose, as my teacher. Celia was too important, as the alpha. They couldn't sacrifice my mom either, because she was the High Priestess.
That left Eli.
Celia watched as I pieced the plan together mentally. "Believe me, I don't like it any more than you do."
I was about to say something, but I felt something strange like I had in the forest. It felt like there was a whisper of something in my ear, or a very soft hand on my shoulder, but whatever it was made me turned and looked at the door.
A second later Celia stood up along the Dante and Eli.
"Oh no," Artie said.
"They're here," Eli said.