Page 46 of House of Ydril

Nuala shrugs. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Why not the truth?”

She just looks at me for a second. Then, to my surprise, her breathing gets heavy and she slowly breaks into quiet sobbing. “That thing in the woods…”

“Tell me,” I urge her, my voice growing softer.

“I used to have seven brothers, not six, okay?” she snaps and quickly collects herself, although she doesn’t stop crying. “It’s just, one day when I was nine, just before my first shift was supposed to happen, our town got attacked by a rival pack.”

I grab her hand. “I’m so sorry, Nuala,” I mutter.

“It was a massacre,” she squeezes out. “And when they left, we found my brother hanging off a tree like that.”

“Holy fuck,” I blurt out.

“I know, but I don’t want to linger on it,” Nuala replies, sniffling as she wipes her tears. “I was okay for a long, long time, until today, I guess.” She lets her eyes land on mine, a sorry look in hers. “I’m so sorry, Quinn. I really wanted to help, but when I saw that thing today, I just froze and when that person attacked you, it got even worse. The only thing I could do was yell.”

I shake my head and wave my hand, trying to show how much I won’t be holding it against her. I try to pull her into a hug, but she resists.

“No, there’s more,” she says, her voice sounding a lot more sober. “Now that I’m just spilling everything, you may as well know the whole truth about me.”

I feel my eyebrows shoot up.

“That night,” she squeezes out, “when they killed my brother, I snapped and I felt the bond between myself and my animal sever.”

“What do you mean?”

She stays silent for a second. “I’m a shifter who can’t shift, Quinn.”

“So what?” I scoff. “We’ll fix you.”

She shakes her head vigorously. “No, I don’t want to have anything to do with it.”

“What, your choice is to… do nothing?”

“For crying out loud, Quinn,” she snaps at me. “Don’t you think I’ve tried everything?” she drawls angrily. “It’s just like that for some shifters and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Fine, I’ll drop it,” I say as I raise my hand in defense. For now, I think to myself. “But hey,” I add, smiling, “aren’t you glad you got all that out of your system. I can’t believe you’re only trusting me with itnow.”

She shakes her head, but she also gives me a weak smile. “That’s all very peachy, but the problem’s still there.”

“What problem?”

“Well, you know all that fun stuff happening,” she drawls teasingly, “the Blood Rituals, the bloodbaths and the like? That’s all stuff I’m unable to help with.”

I open my mouth to tell her she’s full of shit, but then it hits me. My friend knows nothing about the memory I just saw. I tell her and she listens with wide eyes and without once interrupting me. When I’m done, at first, she remains silent, thinking.

“I just don’t get it,” she finally says. She shakes her head and starts counting on her fingers. “There’s the Blood Rituals, there’s someone trying to steal Moswen, and then there’s that thing with your parents, Professor Mistila and the Trials…”

She looks up at me and shakes her head. “Quinn, is it all random? Or is there a connection we’re not seeing?”

“Look, that thing we just saw, and the one before it,” I say, letting out a sigh as I struggle to find the words, “they’re obviously identical to the incidents that happened when my parents taught here. And whoever’s responsible for them, well… It’d be in their interest for no one to find out, which is one possible reason for someone trying to steal Moswen.”

“So that means…” She breaks off, but she’s looking at me as if she wants me to be the one to say it.

“...That we really have some kind of bloodbath to prevent, yes.”

We both let the weight of the situation silence us for a second.

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