Page 92 of Season of the Wolf

I peered up, sympathizing with him more in this moment than he’d ever know. My hand slipped down his arm until our fingers were laced.

“Then come with me,” I suggested. “I need to know.” My gaze stayed locked with his when I added more. “Webothdo.”

While I knew this ran much deeper for him than needing closure,answers,I couldn’t imagine that wouldn’t help, wouldn’t give him peace of mind.

A reluctant look landed on me first, but then, he finally gave in.

I emerged from the house slowly, mostly hidden behind him, of course. It didn’t surprise me when my brothers’ footsteps followed. My intent was never to go all the way to the gate; I just wanted to be close enough to finally know. For so many reasons I wanted … no,needed …to understand.

Liam and I stood there, side-by-side, listening as the mostly one-sided conversation continued.

“I need you to tell me exactly what you hear,” Hilda pressed once more. It felt like she had an angle, inside information that just needed confirmation, but that was only a guess.

“It’s … her heartbeat, but … different,” Nick struggled to answer.

“Different how?” Hilda shouted above the wind I was now certain she caused. Although, I was also certain the trick would only work for so long.

“Focus, Nicholas! Different how?” she asked again.

This time, drawing out an answer I don’t think any of us expected.

“There are two,” he forced out. “Two heartbeats.”

Hilda fell silent, keeping her back to Liam and I as she processed the last of Nick’s explanation.

“Take him away from here,” she ordered, speaking directly to his brothers. “Get him to the Elder’s chamber and demand that they lock him in a cell, keep him under watch with as many witches as they can spare. I’ll be there as quickly as I can to explain whatever they need to know.”

Richie nodded, showing no signs of protest. He and the others hauled Nick toward the truck while he was still a bit dazed by the spell.

“He was coming to warn you,” Chris called out, prompting Hilda to halt and give her full attention.

“Warn us?”

Chris nodded, still seemingly in shock by the strange turn of events.

“This morning, outside his grandfather’s estate, someone arranged at least a hundred dead bodies across the yard. He seemed to think it was some kind of message,” he concluded.

Hilda stared a moment, and then gave a quick nod. “Thank you. We’ll be on watch.”

With that, Chris and Lucas climbed into a jeep, following the convoy that pulled away from our property.

Hilda approached Liam and I, and there was no missing the grave look on her face. Maybe it was the answer she pulled from Nick, or the information from Chris. Or maybe it was everything, the doom and gloom that seemed to follow us wherever we went.

“This all coincides with what the oracles shared with me yesterday when we convened, the reason I needed to speak with you,” she added, addressing Liam directly. “I didn’t fully understand the breadth of the situation at the time, because I was missing pieces, but … now it’s so clear.”

I felt Liam’s body tense beside mine.

“What’sclear?” he grumbled, his gaze hard and unwavering when it settled on Hilda.

She wrung her hands and I’d never seen her nervous before, but guessed this was what such a thing might look like on her.

“I came up with a theory years ago, one I never shared with anyone. I found myself wondering why the Liberator didn’t simply come for you when you were young, a child like he would have also been at the time. You would have been an easier mark.Certainlyeasier to kill,” she explained. “So, I found myself asking a strange question:What if it was never about you?”

I frowned, when she finished speaking, unsure if I had a hard time following because my mind was still reeling from basically staring death in the eyes, or if I was just missing something.

“But that doesn’t … make sense,” I stuttered, trying to mask the frustration.

“It does with what Nicholas just shared.” Her response only made memoreconfused, even when she explained further. “The buzzing … it was energy, new life just beginning. And now, weeks later … he hears two heartbeats. Yours and another.”

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