Out in a private alcove deep in the estate’s gardens, Kajus shifted back into human form, after spending a moment listening carefully and scenting the air to ensure he and Linnea were alone. Linnea followed suit, and then he resumed their conversation right where they’d left off.
“The demonstration itself was nothing impressive,” he said dismissively, but then went on. “Genna is young. Both as a wolf and as a human. She’s been a particle mage for less than six months, so there’s absolutely no point in trying to judge her skills yet. It’ll take years for her to master the magic. But the fact that she exists at all is… significant.”
“I agree,” Linnea said. “She’s extremely valuable to the Watch, especially now we have a far greater understanding of science than ever before. This is a unique opportunity to understand our magic better.”
“I’ll say it again; we still have little to no information on exactly what happened for the Treaty to be broken,” Kajus repeated, knowing he was about to push his luck in a big way. If Linnea wasn’t the ally he thought her to be… “But even now, I would say that keeping Genna alive has to be a major aim of these talks. I’d be willing to offer Il Trosa significant compensation for her.”
“As would I,” Linnea said grimly. “But the Council just recently bought this estate. It’s got to be worth a few million pounds, at the very least. So the whole of the Grey Watch put together wouldn’t have enough money to make it worth their while to overlook the potential loss of one of their Dens for the sake of one girl.”
Kajus sighed as he chewed over that one. Linnea was right. “But if Genna wasn’t responsible for the breach,” he said slowly. “If it turns out that Sempre was actually the one who planned it…”
“You’d be willing to convict an innocent woman for the sake of keeping Genna alive?”
“Don’t put words in my mouth,” Kajus snapped. “I’ve said time and again that the talks haven’t even started yet. We have no idea who’s innocent or guilty.”
“I’m not putting words in your mouth. Just trying to understand your perspective.”
“And what would your perspective be?” He’d said too much already, and he wasn’t saying anything more until Linnea gave some indication of her own position on the matter.
A weighty pause followed. “I agree: Genna is valuable,” Linnea said, her tone low and cautious. “And I think it would be worth looking at possibilities to keep her alive. But you realise that you and I will not be the only ones having private talks in the hedgerows. There may be others working together to achieve completely different aims. Some may even wish to disrupt talks altogether, in the belief that war between Il Trosa and the Watch may benefit one side or the other.” Kajus nodded. It had been obvious as soon as they’d all arrived that alliances would form, deals be made. “So we would have to consider that you and I voting against Sempre wouldn’t be enough. It would take a joint and consistent effort – and no small measure of subtlety – to convince a majority of the others to do the same.”
“We can’t do much more until we hear the details of the breach,” Kajus said pragmatically. “There are too many unknowns to form any real strategy yet. But we’ll talk again tomorrow. It looks like you and I are going to have our work cut out for us.”
Tank smiled and nodded as he passed one of the Panel members – if he’d cared enough, he might have been able to remember her name – and headed over to the drinks table to grab another beer, dumping his empty bottle in a bin to be recycled later. Though the shifters knew how to throw a party, they were also very environmentally conscious, and everything that could be either reused, or recycled, was.
He twisted the top off the next bottle, his fourth for the evening, but the alcohol wasn’t even touching the sides. He was a big man, and getting drunk was something that was only really possible with high doses of straight whiskey. Whatever was in the beer was just getting burned off as quickly as he could drink it.
Heading off to the edge of the clearing, he sighed and leaned against a tree. The evening had been a moderate success, everyone a little tense and awkward, but if they were ever going to break down the social barriers between them all, they had to start somewhere. Alistair, he saw, was working the crowd with a smooth charisma that made him both very likable and very good at his job as a freelance journalist. Kwan was making more than a token effort, with Aaron as his ever-present shadow, and a handful more had started out in a nervous huddle, but were now mingling with the Panel members.
Sempre’s pack, on the other hand, seemed to be keeping mostly to themselves, and as the evening wore on, Tank noticed that half of them had already disappeared back to their own camp.
But there was one person he had been keeping an eye on all evening, and he frowned now, noticing that she was looking rather worn out. Genna appeared out of the manor’s front door, and Tank assumed she’d been helping George clean up in the kitchen. She seemed to have taken a liking to the older man, and he supposed that friends were hard enough to come by that she’d take whatever company she could get, since aside from the desire to be helpful, the two of them seemed to have little in common.
He watched as she wandered over to the dessert table and eyed the few pieces of pecan slice that were still left. She’d been eating like a horse since joining the Den, and he was glad to see she’d filled out her thin frame a little. But she was still too light for his liking.
As he watched, she glanced around, as if worried she was about to be caught doing something bad, and then gingerly took a slice, nibbling the edge, her eyes half closed in pleasure-
“What do you think you’re doing?” a voice said, and Tank was startled to find Miller standing right beside him. Bloody hell, he should have heard the man approaching. Where was his usual focus today?
“Doing about what?” he asked, trying to hide his unease at being surprised like that.
“Genna is accused of breaking the Treaty,” Miller said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “So what are you doing going around making moon eyes at her?”
Denying the fact was Tank’s automatic reaction, but he stopped before he actually said the words. Somehow, saying ‘I’m not’ just seemed to lend credence to Miller’s accusation. “I’m just worried about her,” he said instead, not a lie, but a convenient adaptation of the truth. “You’ve heard enough stories about what Sempre’s pack has been up to. She needs our help and our protection.”
“I’ve heard the stories,” Miller confirmed. “But so far, that’s all they’ve been: stories. Your pack has a rather strong dislike of theirs, so I’ve been taking the accusations against them with a grain of salt.”
Tank turned to glare at him. “Genna was raped during her conversion. At Sempre’s prompting, by a member of her own pack. That’s not a fucking story,” he snarled, disgusted by Miller’s calm acceptance of Sempre’s crimes.
But Miller suddenly paled, and he made a choking sound. “Jesus Christ, are you serious?”
“As a grave.”
Miller seemed at a loss for words. “I’m sorry. I hadn’t heard that bit. I just… Sorry. People have been fairly quick to judge me, based on where I come from. I just thought maybe I should be giving them the benefit of the doubt.”
Tank sighed, telling himself to calm down. “It’s a noble sentiment,” he admitted. “I’ve been guilty enough at times of trying to see the best in people, while ignoring the reality in front of me.”
“People like Genna?” Miller asked, causing Tank’s scowl to return. “She’s already admitted to meeting with me, and the Panel hasn’t even begun unpacking whether or not Sempre was involved. So aren’t you being a little quick to paint her as the victim?”
Okay, patience be damned. This was pissing Tank off. “What’s it to you?” he asked softly, the threat in his voice all the more potent for the lack of volume.
“She’s been watching you all evening. I don’t think it’s fair to her for you to be giving her the wrong impression. Even if Sempre is found to be responsible, you know as well as I do that this pack would never accept her as one of its own. So don’t go getting her hopes up by whispering sweet nothings in her ear.”
Once again, Tank opened his mouth to deny it, and once again, he stopped himself. Was that what he’d been doing? Giving her promises, however inadvertently, that he wasn’t prepared to follow through on?
“She’s young and impressionable,” Miller went on, not realising that Tank’s mind was wandering, “and she’s looking for a rock to cling onto in the middle of a storm. You’re 2IC to Baron, you’ve managed to rescue her twice already, and you have a strong personality. It would be very, very easy for her to develop some inappropriate feelings there.”
All at once, Tank felt like an awkward teenager. At the age of thirty-four, he’d rather forgotten what it was like to be young and shy and to develop a rip-roaring crush on someone. He’d taken Genna’s occasional stand-offish-ness to mean that she wasn’t interested in him. But maybe she was just young. For all that her eyes told stories of suffering and she carried an air of determination like a shield, she was still only, what, twenty-two? Twenty-three?
“I see your point,” Tank said, glancing back at Genna. She had finished her snack and was now standing with her arms folded, glaring at the ground and kicking the gravel on the driveway in a way that said clear as day that she wished she was anywhere but here. “And you’re right. I may have misled her about my intentions.”
Miller gave him a sympathetic smile. “I don’t mean to give you a hard time. I just think we have enough drama going on around here already without anyone inadvertently getting their heart broken.”
That was something that Tank genuinely liked about Miller. He still had a low rank, and a lot of people hadn’t really learned to trust him yet, but he never let that stand in the way of him saying what he believed was right, or standing up for someone who couldn’t stand up for themselves. One day, once he worked past the antagonism surrounding where he’d come from, Tank had little doubt that he’d end up as a high ranking wolf. “Leave it with me,” he said, slapping Miller on the shoulder, then frowning as Genna disappeared around the back of the manor. Where was she going now? “I’ll have a word to her and straighten things out.”
After her conversation with Luna had ended so abruptly, Genna tried to act natural back outside with everyone else, but she’d ended up spending the whole time feeling horribly self-conscious. She was rather regretting what she’d said to Luna, taking the immediate defensive, rather than just sticking to her story and agreeing that yes, Sempre really had sent her to meet the Noturatii. She’d spent the last fifteen minutes twisting herself in knots, replaying the conversation over and over again, thinking up clever things she should have said instead, and in the end, she’d slipped away around the back of the manor, desperate for a little time to herself.
It was getting late, and she was starting to feel tired, but she was still too restless to go inside to her bedroom. She missed sleeping outdoors. It was nice to be able to get out of the rain when she wanted to, but her bedroom was silent and still, a stark contrast to the far more comforting creaks and rustles of the forest at night. There were frogs she could hear through the window – which she habitually left open now, despite the rapidly dropping temperatures – and the occasional call of an owl or some other night bird, but it wasn’t enough to compensate for being truly immersed in nature twenty-four hours a day.
The soft pad of wolf paws caught her attention, and she turned to see a grey wolf approaching her in the darkness. She couldn’t quite identify who it was in the dark, so she shifted, turning to meet the newcomer defensively. She wasn’t particularly popular around here, after all. But the moment she was in wolf form, the scent of the newcomer provided ample introduction. It was Dee.
Dee sat down and cocked her head to the side in typical canine fashion, then she shifted, a brief spark of blue electricity announcing the fact before her body changed.
“I’m sorry if I’m disturbing you,” she said softly, not waiting for Genna to shift back herself. “I know you’re probably tired after today, and maybe you just want some time alone, but if I may, I wanted to talk to you about something.” She paused, staring off into the distance for a moment, before she continued. “Actually, it would be more accurate to say that Faeydir wants to talk to you. Or, she wants me to talk to you, since she can’t do it herself,” she explained awkwardly. “Is that okay? I know you’re not really comfortable around her.”
Genna considered saying no. She wasn’t in the mood for company, and the idea that Dee’s wolf could kill her with a mere thought was still terrifying. But at the same time, the idea of a wild and ancient wolf wanting to talk to her was intriguing. After a moment’s thought, she shifted back. “It’s okay,” she said, trying to sound like she meant it. “What does she want?”
“She wants to talk to you about your abilities. It looked like you were having a hard time this afternoon, with the Grey Watch making you jump through hoops.”
That was a surprise. The audience for the discussions in the courtyard had been strictly limited, and Genna didn’t think anyone present would have been idly gossiping about what was said. “How do you know what happened this afternoon?”
“We were watching from the window,” Dee told her unapologetically. “We couldn’t hear what was being said, but seeing it was enough. Whatever happens is going to affect all our lives – some people think we’ll have to leave our estate – and on an official basis, no one banned us from watching. Just from attending.”
It sounded like something Genna herself would have done. She’d eavesdropped on enough ‘private’ conversations around camp that she could understand the need to seek out further information when one was being excluded, so she didn’t begrudge Dee and the other wolves the attempt to learn more about their fate.
“It was not fun,” Genna admitted, pacing away from her, then back again. Though the demonstration had started with her being eager to show off what she could do, it had quickly progressed beyond that. “Everyone keeps pushing me to do more, to practise more, to get stronger, without ever asking me what I think of it. I feel like I’m just a tool for other people to use, rather than a real person.”
“I get that,” Dee said, which made Genna look at her suspiciously. “After we discovered who Faeydir really was, a lot of people were judging me on what I could do, rather than who I am.”
“Really?”
Dee nodded. “At first, I was terrified,” she confided softly. “Being a wolf was still so new, and I didn’t understand what Faeydir wanted most of the time. Everyone was so suspicious of me. The prophecy said that I was supposed to destroy our species, and I thought at first that the best way to avoid that would be to never use the abilities I’d been given. But as time went on, I got to know Faeydir better and gradually came around to her idea that our abilities are actually a precious gift.”
Genna must have looked disturbed by that, because Dee apologised softly, then took a seat on a low stone wall, patting the space beside her for Genna to join her. She did, though she wasn’t really sure where this conversation was going. They both stared off into the darkness for a moment, before Dee continued.
“Separating a wolf from a human is a serious responsibility. But there are those among our people who don’t manage to merge with their wolf side. I’ve used my gift a couple of times since I first met you, and each time it was to remove either the human or the wolf side from a shifter who was at risk of going rogue. The death of one side of the shifter is always sad, but it means that the other half is set free, able to live a full and happy life. It’s not something I enjoy doing, but even I can see that, in certain circumstances, it has its benefits.”
Genna turned that idea over in her mind. In truth, she hadn’t expected anything like the compassionate explanation Dee had just given her. She’d never seen a wolf go rogue, but she’d heard enough stories that it seemed like a horrific thing to go through.
“So we wanted to talk to you about your gifts. And we’re not just here to offer philosophical advice,” she explained cautiously. “Faeydir has asked me to explain to you more about how the magic works and give you some avenues to explore to develop your abilities more fully. It’s not an attempt to force you to perform tricks for anyone,” she added hastily, no doubt picking up on Genna’s reluctance to be pushed any further. “You can choose to develop your skills, or not, as you see fit. We’re just trying to let you see the available options.”
It wasn’t a bad offer. She should at least hear what Dee had to say, shouldn’t she? But… “How do you… I mean, how does Faeydir know anything about my gift?” she asked cautiously. “You’re of a different bloodline. The Grey Watch and Il Trosa have lived apart for hundreds of years.”
“That’s true. But a little while ago, I took a trip to Italy, and the Council helped me explore Faeydir’s past more,” Dee told her. “It turns out that Faeydir – or Fenrae, as she’s rightly called – lived in the same era as Faeydir-Ul, the mother of our species. She was there at the birth of the shifters, and she’s seen some truly remarkable feats of magic. That was before the Four Mothers gave us the bloodlines, so the split that happened six hundred years ago is a minor hiccup, in terms of the total length of time the shifters have existed. Based on Faeydir’s descriptions, some of our scholars believe we could have been around for as long as thirty thousand years.”
Genna’s eyes opened wide at that. “Wow,” she breathed. “That’s a long time.”
Dee nodded. “Fenrae witnessed a lot of different manifestations of the magic. Humans had a much more intricate spiritual life back then, a much easier time believing in magic as their minds weren’t biased by science and reason and all the scepticism that comes with modern day religions. I’m not saying science is a bad thing, by the way. But sometimes we try to see everything in scientific terms and reject anything we can’t readily explain. I think we need to leave room for a bit of mysticism.”
Genna nodded. “I agree. So what does she know about my gift in particular?”
“It’s kind of hard to explain. The modern human mind is largely limited by our own sense of logic. We want to see a cause and effect relationship in everything we do. It’s a common problem for newly converted wolves – they can’t quite believe it’s possible for them to become a wolf, which is why their first shift can be so difficult. When we shift, our human side vanishes, taking our clothes and weapons with it, but we’re inadvertently taught to believe that the two are linked – if our body stays, the clothes must stay as well. Faeydir says that’s not necessarily true. Your gift is a perfect example. We can manipulate the physical world in far more ways than we know, but we’re limited by our beliefs about what is possible, or impossible.”
Genna was listening intently, trying to make sense of what Dee was saying. “You’re saying that any shifter, no matter their bloodline or inherited gifts, could make objects disappear without actually shifting?”
Dee fell silent, her head tilted, and she seemed to be listening to something that Genna couldn’t hear. “Faeydir says yes,” she said finally. “I don’t pretend to understand it myself. In this case, I’m really just the messenger.” She shrugged apologetically. “I don’t have any personal experience with this stuff, and I, myself, haven’t mastered any of what Faeydir says is possible.”
“So what does she expect me to do?”
Dee’s attention turned inwards again, and Genna wondered what sort of odd conversation she was having with her wolf. She’d heard the stories that Dee’s wolf was a separate personality from her human side, but she couldn’t quite imagine what it must be like to have another creature in your head telling you what to do. “She wants me to tell you that your gift is far more powerful than you imagine. From what I saw this afternoon, it looks like you’re currently limited on the size of objects you can make disappear, or how far away they are. Would that be true?”
Genna nodded.
“Faeydir says those limitations are only in your mind. If you wanted to manipulate an object on the other side of the room, there’s no reason why you couldn’t do it. If you wanted to make a whole car disappear, it’s theoretically possible.”
Genna snorted. “That completely defies the basis of the shifter magic,” she objected, not meaning to be rude, but what Dee was telling her contradicted everything she’d been taught. “Even our bodies are limited by the magic. A wolf and a human are roughly the same size. Sempre says we can theoretically turn into an animal anywhere from half the size of a human, to double the size, but the magic won’t stretch any further. That’s why there are wolf shifters, or cat shifters, but no horse shifters. The average horse weighs up to ten times as much as the average human.”
“What about the shifters in North America?” Dee asked.
“They don’t exist,” Genna said stubbornly. “Sempre and Lita always said they were only a myth.”
Dee cocked her head to the side. “Faeydir says they do exist. Or they did, at least. We really don’t know if they’re still around. But the fact that they did exist once says that the magic has to have some kind of loophole to accommodate them.”
Genna turned that over in her mind, and then another idea occurred to her. “Your magic is attuned to separating the two halves of a shifter,” she said cautiously. “How far away can that shifter be for the magic to work?”
“So far, I’ve only done it while I’m within a few metres of the person,” Dee replied.
“But theoretically, according to Faeydir, how far away could you be? Could you target a person sitting upstairs in their bedroom?” she asked, pointing up to the manor behind her.
Dee paused, having a silent conversation with her wolf. Then she said, “I could,” in a quiet, reverent tone, as if the news was something of a revelation even to her.
“What’s the maximum distance your magic could work over?”
Dee frowned. “I don’t know. I think it would be a trial and error thing. Maybe a couple of hundred metres, at least.”
“And could you target more than one person at the same time?”
Dee nodded. “Faeydir’s never done it, but she says it would be possible.”
The answers sounded promising. Though Genna had so far struggled to make her magic work to the extent she would have liked, it was exciting to hear that the limits could be extended much further, if only she could figure out the necessary methods to make it happen.
“The point I’m trying to make here,” Dee said, bringing them back to the original topic, “is that you’re far more powerful than you’re giving yourself credit for. Faeydir thinks it’s important that you realise the potential of your abilities. They could be of enormous benefit to the entire shifter nation.”
“How long did it take for people to stop seeing you as Fenrae-Ul and start seeing you as a person?” Genna asked, aware of the irony in her question. She, herself, was still struggling with the idea that Dee was a warm, compassionate person and not just the embodiment of a nightmare come to life.
“For some people, it’s still a battle. Particularly if they don’t know me. But Baron and Caroline have been very supportive, and they go out of their way to stand up for me when anyone’s giving me a hard time. But even for some members of my own Den, it took a while. They needed to get to know me, to see what my intentions really were, before they were able to move past their own fears.”
“Makes a hell of a difference when your alphas are willing to stand by you,” Genna said morosely.
“True enough,” Dee said. “I’ve been very lucky. But don’t give up. For every person who wants to take advantage of you, there’s someone else willing to stand up for you.”
Genna managed to smile, expecting it to be a long, hard road ahead of her before she got to anywhere like the level of comfort with her abilities that Dee had. “Thanks for the pep talk,” she said, genuinely grateful for the effort Dee had made to talk to her. “It’s nice to know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Dee smiled, then stood up. “I’ll leave you in peace. You’ve had a long day. But remember, you’re not alone. If you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”
After leaving Genna by the back lawn, Dee headed off into the formal gardens instead of going back to the gathering at the front of the manor. Faeydir was waiting quietly in the back of her mind, anticipating more questions to come, but for the moment, Dee’s mind was busy trying to wrap itself around the revelations that Faeydir had already given her. The wolf’s answers to many of Genna’s questions had been unexpected, and the more Genna had asked, the more disturbed Dee had become. Though she’d fumbled her answers, not wanting to give away too much information, Faeydir’s answers had been perfectly clear. According to the wolf, she would be able to target and separate a shifter anywhere on the planet. And the more troubling issue of how many shifters she could target at once had been far more disturbing. Ten? she’d asked Faeydir. Twenty? A hundred?
All of them, the wolf had told her firmly. Dee dreaded to think what that could mean for the future of their species.