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I could do this. I had to. Losing control here would cost too much. “So, you don’t have any leads, no covens will help us, and we can’t talk to Grams.”

Claudia tilted her head. “That’s not entirely accurate.”Advertisement

I set the sandwich down. “What part?”

She looked off to the side, slowly nodding as she thought about it. “We could talk to Grams.”

“What, like have a séance? Use a Ouija board? What are we talking about here? And isn’t that really scary? I mean, I don’t know about you, but the kinds of scary movies that give me nightmares start out with something like that. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life being chased by demons.”

She slashed her hand through the air. “It’s a little dangerous, but manageable. With the right spell.”

I couldn’t believe I was actually considering this. “Any chance we can do it during daylight hours?” I shuddered.

“No. We’ll get Raphael and a few of the others to help, too. If we can make sure to get just Grams, then we should be fine. And we’ll ward the house to keep out evil entities.”

Evil entities? “This sounds like a terrible idea.”

“What sounds like a terrible idea?” Raphael said as he came through the kitchen door.

“Your sister wants to have a séance to find out if Grams has any ideas on a replacement for me.”

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“No.” He didn’t even think about it. There was no hesitation in his voice whatsoever. “That’s way too dangerous.”

Claudia hunched her shoulders. “Even if—”

“No.”

The twins stared each other down for a minute before Claudia conceded. “Fine. But I still say it’s an option.”

I finished my sandwich and wiped off my fingers. “What do you think Luciana’s really up to? If she’s threatening war with the pack and gaining power in a bad way, then she has to have a plan.”

“We don’t know,” Raphael said. “There’s been some major discontent brewing in the coven for years, but now…it’s reached a fever pitch. It’s crazy. And it’s not just Luciana. It’s people I thought were normal, chill, before. Now, they’re all crazed.” He shook his head. “It’s not right. And it’s not right that we cornered you into this, but we need whatever help we can get.”

He was right. It was messed up, but we had to get past that. There had to be a solution, but I didn’t know enough to figure it out yet.

I got up and busied myself cleaning up my dishes. When I was done, I turned back to the twins who were quietly whispering about what to do or not do with me next.

Sometimes having Were hearing was a little awkward. Or completely awkward.

I cleared my throat. “I’m just going to go upstairs and get settled. We can figure out the next step once I get unpacked and my mom brings more food.”

“Okay,” they said in unison.

The good thing about packing light meant I could pack up quickly if I got the okay to leave early. The bad thing about packing light was that I was unpacked pretty quickly. I opened my laptop and tried to connect to the Wi-Fi in the house, but all I got was an endlessly spinning ‘looking for networks’ notification.

This was going to be a long three weeks. I already felt like I was crawling out of my skin. Being without my connection to Dastien was like missing a limb I hadn’t realized was attached before. The absent bond was a constant pull and distraction. A scab I couldn’t stop picking at.

It was gross and awful. But I had to get a grip.

I started doing some vinyasas—practicing the yoga that Meredith said would keep me centered, trying to gain the upper hand back from the wolf that wanted to break free. The floorboards creaked as I moved through my sun salutations. I focused on my breath moving evenly and the sound of the wood moaning as I flowed from position to position.

Midway through my fourth downward dog, I laughed. Weres were so weird. The past few months felt so surreal. I still couldn’t believe that I’d actually nearly killed Imogene. When the wolf was fully in control of my human body, I wasn’t myself, and that was dan-ger-ous. I was starting to get used to the occasional fight. The alphas were pretty good about keeping everyone under control, but the freshman—the newbies—had to be watched a lot.

For what felt like the millionth time that day, I wondered what I’d gotten myself into. I’d been drawn into this weird world that I was expected to know how to navigate, and I simply didn’t. I hadn’t the foggiest. pqdm.com