Page 94 of A Wolf in the Garden

“Did he know I was fae, all that time?”

Her expression is one of dismay. “You know, he never told me, until that evening ten years ago, butyes. He said he could tell from the first day he met you, and I don’t know how he could, or why he never said anything to me, but he’s ridiculously stubborn, that man, so…” she shrugs, huffing as if she can’t believe what she’s about to say. “He drives me mad, half the time. And I know West comes across as this very aggressive, very hyper-masculine male — and maybe he is —” she concedes, “but he’s… he’s…” she trails off, holding her hands over her heart, watching the big black wolf that stares straight back at her.

“He’s yours,” I finish for her, understanding entirely.

The wolf throws his head back and howls, just as she nods. “He’s mine,” she agrees, her fingers playing at the skin of her shoulder, where I cansee the edge of a silver scar hiding under her shirt.

* * *

Bronte and I spend the morning sitting cross-legged on the lawn, practising magic until I’m able to shift between my usual form and one with antlers in the blink of an eye, and with Van by my side, she’s able to witness firsthand how I seem to draw on Van’s magic in order to fuel my own powers. Under her guidance, I have an epiphany, laughing when it hits me.

“What is it?” She’s excited; I can tell by the way her face lights up.

“Bloody hell, it’s so obvious,” I say, holding my temples. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of it before.”

“What?” Van is more impatient, more nervous about this, and has been ever since I regained that memory.

“The mushrooms have been freaking me out, because I thought… I thought I was creatinglifefrom scratch, which is really fucking weird. And maybe these fae can do that, and grow whatever plants, I don’t know, but the mushrooms that I’m growing, they’re alreadythere, in the ground. I’m activating the dormant spores. I can feel them in there, in the soil; I can feel the spores, and the mycelia — the root structure of fungi — and my magic helps them grow. What my magic does istransformthem, and that’s why I’m getting the crazy colours and the glowy green thing going on.” I sigh, looking between Van and Bronte. “You guys probably don’t give a shit, but for a plant nerd like me this is very exciting.”

Bronte’s grin is wide and sharp, and I feel my cheeks grow red.

“You already knew this, didn’t you?”

“No,” she replies. “I didn’t know the mechanics of it, but I knew it had to be something like that, because you’re right, we can’t create life fromnothing. You can transform things. You can revive some things,small things, like a wilted flower. There are a lot of rules around this topic.”

“Is there anything I need to know immediately?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t think so. I am curious about the mushrooms — have you heard of the term‘fairy circle’before?” I nod, and she continues. “The fae keep to themselves, but even humans have stories about fairy circles being doors to another world.”

That kills my excitement. “Like opening a portal to the First Realm.”

“Yes —don’t panic, Ellie! Your heart just skipped a beat! Sweetheart, it’s fine. Portal magic is normal anduseful, it’s the only way to get through to the other realm, after all.”

“But what if I accidentally open up a hole and fall through!”

“Youwon’t. It takes years to master. If it was easy to make portals, everyone would have been coming through, and you can guarantee humans would have known about us all much, much earlier in history.”

I look at Van, and he gives my knee a reassuring squeeze. “I don’t want to learn that,” I tell Bronte. “I’m all good, just beingme, as I am right now. I don’t need to be a witch. I don’t need to be some sort of magical fairy. I’m really happy just the way I am, me and my gardening — that’s the skillset I want to hold on to.”

“Mmm, sure.” She’s not convinced. She leans forward, deliberately tucking my hair behind my ears. “You have fae blood, darling. You don’t have to practise magic as a job, you don’t have to join a coven, you don’t have to call yourself a witch, but you should learn to wield magic safely.”

I know I look unimpressed. It’s alotto take in — quite alot, to have my identity change so significantly, especially when I sometimes already feel fragmented. The journey of reconnecting with the parts of Maori culture that colonisation tore from my family over generations is an ongoing one, forever two steps forward and one step back, and there will always be a huge question mark in the space where my father should be — other than his initials, all I know is that he is, or was, part-fae and“looked Pakeha,”according to Mum. And it’s not just that, it’s the idea of having to put so much effort intoanotherthing, having to add something else to my already full plate. I’ve already been leaning on Cam for favours too often in the past month — the amount of times I’ve had to ask him if he wouldn’t mind going around to my place to take care of the chickens is embarrassing.

“Anyway,” Bronte announces, rising to her feet, “that’s enough for today. We all need to take it easy, since we’re all going to be up all night.” She gives Van and I both a look that makes me die a little inside, because yes, my mother-in-law just insinuated that she knowsexactlywhat I’ll be doing to her sonin his werewolf formcome nightfall.

Beside me, Van laughs silently, his shoulders shaking until I push him over and kiss him to shut him up.

* * *

The morning bleeds into a lazy mid-afternoon, and Nerilina comes by, taking a walk around the perimeter of the vineyard with Bronte, both witches talking and testing magic.

As the hours drag on, all the wolves — now back in their non-shifted states — grow more and more snappish with each other, until even Bronte becomes short-tempered. It’s a breath of fresh air when Cam visits, simply because he gets on with everyone, even Weston. It doesn’t seem to matter to anyone that he sided with Van after the pack split, and despite the fact that he only met Lacey and Seth briefly when they were children, Cam has everyone laughing with his good-natured stories.

Van surprises us all with the news that he paid the restaurant chef and a handful of staff to come in for the evening — with the promise to the humans that they would be leaving at least an hour before moonrise — and we all sit down to a huge four-course meal on the vineyard deck, Nerilina and Cam joining us.

“So, Evander and Ellie are taking the beach tonight, is that right?” Seth asks, and the look he shoots me tells meexactlywhat he thinks about that. “So they can have theirprivacy.”

Beside me, Van growls.

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