Page 68 of Cursed Wolfsbane

“You fucking traitor!” Saint screams while staring at the man not in tactical clothing.

The other man standing next to the Knight is wearing an expensive-looking, perfectly tailored black suit, crisp white shirt, and bloodred tie. His shiny black oxfords don’t have a speck of dust on them, and his gray hair is slicked back without a strand out of place. His hawkish blue eyes narrow on Saint. “McAlister. A shame to see you mixed up in this unpleasantness. Now you see why we don’t support interspecies relationships. It only leads to trouble.”

“My relationship with Briar isn’t the problem!” Saint yells, his face twisted in disgust. I’ve never seen Saint absolutely lose it like this, and I wish I could comfort him. “You betraying the entire mage species is! Does the rest of the council know that you’re a dirty fucking sellout?”

Oh, fuck.

That guy’s a mage councilman? Well, this just went from bad to fucking apocalyptic. We’re in even deeper shit than I thought.

Fantastic.

The mage council is the governing body for mages. Instead of an alpha, betas, and pack structure that shifters have, the mage council has hereditary representatives who make up the government council. They’re responsible for making laws, law enforcement, trials, sentencing, and execution.

Hawthorne Grove is home to North America’s mage council, so I interacted with lots of councilmembers’ children and grandchildren. They all sucked for the most part. The Gallaghers and the St. Jameses were the only decent ones. Since I was so young when we left, I don’t know any of the current councilmen, but I guess Saint does.

I can’t exactly say I’m surprised mages are selling out the rest of us to increase their own power. They’ve always had a superiority complex.

The councilmen’s face turns thunderous at Saint’s outburst. He mutters something before an arc of sickly brown magic shoots toward Saint. When it connects with him, the magic whips Saint’s head to the side. Blood sprays out of his mouth and a red mark blooms on his cheek.

“Saint!” I shout as I lunge for him.

I pull up short when the Knight next to the councilman blandly comments, “I wouldn’t if I were you. It would be a shame if I had to have one of your mates killed. We hate to use the barbaric violence of you shifters, but we will if we have to.”

If he hadn’t just threatened to kill my mates, I’d laugh at his blatantly false statement. The Knights of Aeneas have perpetuated senseless violence in their quest for power for thousands of years. Shifters aren’t the barbarians; the Knights are.

Closing my eyes briefly, I try to get myself together. Being emotional will at best make our situation worse and at worst getmy mates killed. I need to have a level head if I’m going to think of a way out of this.

Shoving all my emotions into a box in my mind, I let the fear and panic and rage and hopelessness drain out of me. All that remains is a hyperfocus on getting everyone I care about out of this in one piece.

With a blank face, I turn away from my bleeding mate and stare at the Knight. “What do you want?” My voice comes out cold and devoid of emotion, but my emotions are simmering just under the surface.

The Knight raises his eyebrows and looks at the mage. “Patrick sure did a number on her, didn’t he?” Both the Knight and the mage laugh at that, but it’s not nearly enough to break through my cold determination. The Knight’s eyes narrow when I don’t have any reaction to his taunting. “We want you, of course.”

“Why?” I tilt my head robotically as I regard them.

“We can’t have you undoing all our hard work. You shifters really do need to get better at keeping secrets. We know about the prophecy. A child of earth/Through the strength of thorns/And compassion worn/Like a necklace of gold/Will she break the mold/To free those/Who have in suffering froze/Dying without ever a roar,” he recites. When he sees the confused look on my face, he grins smugly. “Surprised to hear that we know the whole thing? That’s what you curs don’t understand. We willalwaysbe smarter than you.”

That’s… not how the prophecy goes. Whatever version they think they know is only a piece of it, and they have the first line wrong.

Hope, cautious and easily extinguished, lights like a small candle flame in my chest. If they don’t know the whole prophecy, then they don’t know I’m a mage-wolf hybrid. I don’t really knowhow that will get us out of this situation, but it’s more than I had a minute ago, so that’s something.

“Close the portal, McAlister. Your show of strength won’t intimidate us,” the councilman barks, irritation coloring his words.

I had forgotten about the open portal in all the confusion and chaos. Since portals are extremely draining, most mages can only keep them open for a minute, max. Only the strongest of mages can sustain portals for as long as I have, which would be cool to find out in any other situation.

Saint’s forehead wrinkles in confusion as he glances behind him at my portal. If the one mage here other than Saint doesn’t know I have magic, it’s a safe bet none of the Knights do either. It is definitely best if they don’t figure it out.

Before Saint can say anything, I chime in, “He’ll close it when I’m done negotiating.”

The Knight scoffs. “This isn’t a negotiation.”

It’s my turn to regard him like he’s an idiot—which he is, by the way. “Do you want me alive?”

“Yes. We need to study you to figure out how to strengthen our ritual that keeps female wolves from shifting and how to extend it to all shifters, regardless of species or gender.” His eyes light with a feverish glow as he talks about his plans.

You’d think he would at least try to pretty it up a little, instead of leading with the whole “we want to kill all of your people” thing. No one ever said the Knights were the sharpest crayons in the box.

“I can’t save my mates, but I can guarantee I can kill myself before you can stop me.” Panicked shouts sound from the Wyldharts and Saint, but I ignore them to focus on the main Knight. “So, if you really want to study me, you will negotiate with me. Otherwise, you’ll need to find another firstborn of Dido’s line to experiment on.”

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