Page 8 of Season of the Wolf

Blinking away wetness from my eyes, I found myself wondering if there was truth to this theory of Hilda’s. With the depth of emotion I carried in my heart for Liam, with how drawn we were to one another … maybe ithadbeen that way since time first began.

Chapter Three

Nick

For the fifth time in three minutes, I attempted to correctly secure my tie. And for the fifth time … my fingers slipped awkwardly over the silky, striped pattern and I paused.

Staring at myself in the mirror, I felt stupid for going through these motions, making sure I looked presentable for a meeting I’d been called to with the Council. Silly because I wasn’t entirely sure they hadn’t thought better of setting me free, and had now decided to uphold their original sentencing.

Freedom hadn’t been as sweet as I imagined, but it sure beat the alternative. For starters, my family—or more specifically, mymother—had been under the Council’s watchful eye. It was clear they would have condemned her to a fate worse than mine had it not been for Evie intervening—a fact I would never forget or take lightly.

Whether my mother realized it or not, she owed Evie her life just as much as I did.

Mom’s actions didn’t go unpunished, though. Yes, she’d been granted permission to leave the Elders’ chambers, but she was far from free. Per the Council’s orders, she was forbidden to leave our home until further notice. To ensure that she abided by the rules, a small fleet of well-hidden guards were always on the premises.

So, to say we were not exactly highly favored around Seaton Falls at the moment, would have been a huge understatement. The respect and clout we once had because of my grandfather’s contribution to this town were almost nonexistent now.

Angry, frustrated, I snatched the tie from my neck and dropped it to the carpet.

“What are you doing, Nick?”I asked myself, bracing the edge of the dresser as I stared at my reflection. There was this acute sense of dressing up for my own funeral. There was no telling what would happen once I descended those stairs to the chamber.

Against my better judgement, I even reached out to Evie a few times. But, each time I did, the call went straight to voicemail like expected. She’d fallen off the grid. From what Beth reported back to the rest of us, it was with good reason. Liam wasn’t doing well, and on top of everything else Evie lost, she might lose him, too.

Knowing what a hard time she must be having, I should have left her alone about all this, but I thought I’d try. With her position, there was a chance she’d been let in on whatever this meeting was about, but I had a feeling she hadn’t spoken to anyone she didn’t have to.

The Council included.

The only thing that gave me comfort tonight was that, this time, I wouldn’t be going alone. All three of my brothers had also been called in, possibly as witnesses to my behavior as of late. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind the Elders’ witches could pry the truth out of them one way or another. In which case, they’d be able to attest to how different I was—estranged, quiet, cut off from the world around me. While, no, this evidence wasn’t damning, it would certainly alert the Council that I was changing.

I breathed deep, suddenly more confident in the decision I’d made to keep away. This, my grandfather’s estate, had been my refuge, my only means of keeping these secrets. The biggest of all being that the blackouts had started again. They weren’t as frequent, but for a time, they’d stopped altogether. There could have been any number of reasons for this—that I’d taken several lives on the journey I’d taken with Evie, that this evolution was just happening naturally.

But then there was another thought that kept coming up, a factor that had been eliminated.

Roz.

I hadn’t laid eyes on her since before heading north to Mount Arvon. Sure, we talked and texted, but words were no replacement for seeing her face-to-face.

It was more than I was willing to admit to her out loud, but … Imissedher.

Now, more and more, I was beginning to believe she was the key to staving off the darkness.

On cue, my phone rang and I picked up right away, seeing it was her.

“Hey.”

“How goes it?” she said with a laugh, annihilating my frustration almost immediately.

“It goes,” was all I could say without being negative.

“Well, aren’t you just a bucket of sunshine. All dressed and ready to go?”

Putting the call on speakerphone, I placed it on the dresser and decided to give the tie another go.

“Just about. Putting the final touches on this hunk of man-art I call a body.”

She laughed, loud and hearty, bringing one out of me as well.

“Wow … was itthatfunny?”

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