Page 30 of Secrets and Ruin

“Call the Director. He’s the one who asked me to make this little team,” the lavender-eyed fae said quickly. “He didn’t want this pack in the hospital. We might need to make this a longer stay if Alpha Everson wants us to monitor his werewolves. And we should. It’s for the good of the werewolves.”

“Please,” Heath croaked, knowing he couldn’t reject the offer. “Your safety will be my top priority.” He couldn’t have it on his soul to be the Alpha that let Teagan, Jenny, and Carlos waste away and die when he had the people who could stop it.

Jacky stepped away from the group, pulling out her phone. She started texting quickly, but Heath didn’t ask what was going on. He just needed to know if he would have these healers’ help with his pack right now.

The witch stepped outside while on the phone, leaving none of them able to hear it. Only a few minutes later, he was back inside.

“Director says if we want to stay, we can, and he’ll arrange us transport home once the curse is finished. We can have a week’s worth of supplies dropped off for the patients.” The witch turned to him. “However, you are responsible for housing us, keeping us safe, and if we wish to leave, we can at any time. We’re not here because you want us to be here. We’re here for the patients and will continue to give you the best advice about their care as we can, but if something goes wrong, we’re not culpable for it.”

“Done,” Heath said without needing to consider it. “Jacky, can they stay here?”

“Absolutely,” she said, looking up from her phone for only a second to nod, then went back to it. “Set them up on cots or… I knew we should have built the guest house, damn it. You can do whatever you need.”

“We’ll get it built,” he promised, moving to kiss her cheek and start settling the healers in. He was worried about Fenris and Dirk, but he had three critical wolves in his care right now. Both of them were capable. He just had to trust them.

And trust that Fenris wasn’t the one who did this.

“How did the magic hide from us?” Landon asked, stopping everyone in their tracks. “I can only smell it now.”

“You could probably smell magic because I was playing with it, which was me using magic. Why you couldn’t smell it earlier.” The fae shrugged. “Not my place to say. The spell doesn’t have anything in it that would cause it to be concealed like that.”

“We couldn’t smell a witch or fae that cast it, either,” Landon said, a low growl beginning.

“The spell is fae. Witches do deep sleep spells like this with other means, often requiring a physical component like food or a potion,” the lavender-eyed one said. “Is there any evidence of that?”

“None,” the teal-eyed one said, shaking his head. “This was certainly cast right on them.”

“A spell sold in an object. We’ve run into that before. It had to be triggered with blood from the person, and he was immune to its effects,” Heath said, nodding. He liked knowing that, at least. It was something. The food could be thrown out, whatever positive that was. “Could it be cast then discarded?”

“Absolutely,” both fae answered at the same time.

“What sort of objects?”

“That’s somethingyoucan look into. Our job is taking care of the patients,” the witch said, putting his phone away, staring down Heath once they made eye contact. “We’re not supposed to solve this mystery for you or even aid you in it. We’re here to keep them alive until the curse is over. Truthfully, these two have said more than they should.” The witch glared at them. “We all know why the Director has hard rules.”

“Sorry we can’t be of more help,” the lavender-eyed fae said.

“Those rules suck,” Landon growled.

“Those rules keep us from getting in the way ofyourenemies,” the witch snapped back. “We treat the wounded, regardless of who they are. We take care of the patients in front of us. That’s our oath, one that transcends all the bullshit the rest of you get into. Sorry. I want to help more people in a week. Another family who wants their little boy or girl to survive a curse, too. There could be someone injured from a devastating car accident or someone clinging to life after a vicious vampire attack. It could be a member of the Tribunal or one of their family.”

Knowledge was behind those words, a reminder to everyone that Jacky’s own family had been at Mygi once, trying to save the lives of a few of their own, and they probably weren’t the only powerful people who needed the protection of Mygi Hospital from time to time.

“You aren’t the most important people in the world. These patients are, then the next. That’s what I care about.”

“Understood,” Heath said quickly. He pinned Landon with a stare, a silent warning that if he opened his mouth to argue, Heath would be the one shutting him up. They needed these healers. He couldn’t have them decide to walk out because Landon was giving them a hard time.

Landon stormed out of the house.

13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Istepped out after Landon but didn’t chase him as he stormed off down a trail into the forest around my home. I wasn’t his father or his sister. I was Jacky, he was Landon, and we had boundaries I would always respect. I didn’t get nosy. The only reason I followed him was I needed my own air. I understood Mygi Hospital and the hard lines they kept about interfering. I didn’t always agree with them, but I knew they could be useful.

But that wasn’t what I was thinking about as I left the house.

I was trying to convince myself not to do something, to throw guilt at the feet of Fenris because he happened not to be here. I knew I couldn’t fight it forever. Time was of the essence. I had to act, even as I desperately wished it wasn’t him.

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