Page 41 of Whisper Woods

“Deadly. Out, now, or you're banned for good. I don’t have it in me for your shit today.” For one tense second it seems as if the being is going to give into his wolf and take the fighting option, but he sees sense.

“Fine, fuck this place anyway.” He leaves with a maximum amount of fuss, dragging his friends with him. Our trio waits in silence, watching him go.

Finn lets out an audible breath when he’s finally out of sight out the door. “Man, the Everfyr pack are such dicks.”

The name sounds familiar.

“That’s Seff’s pack, isn’t it?” I ask the question casually, taking a large bite of my sandwich, forcing my raging emotions into a tight cage.Later. Later we can be angry. Now we have work to do.

It’s Roan that answers. “Yeah, they’ve gotten a lot better since Seff’s dad took over the pack a few years ago. But more than a few bad apples still spoil the bunch. They have a chip on their shoulder, considering they are the only predator shifter pack that belongs to the Woods.”

I take another bite to suppress my snort. I guess they’ll be in for a rude awakening when they meet the wolf shifters of Tathys, theotherwolves of the Woods. Finn only hums in indifference, obviously not agreeing with Roan’s grace towards the pack.

“Have you, uh, known Seff long?” Finn asks, obviously trying to get back on to a safer topic.

“Actually, yes.”

Roan makes a small sound of surprise, moving up the bar to serve, while still being a part of the conversation. “Like I said, I’ve passed through the area before. We’ve run into each other over the course of the years.”

Finn smiles a genuine smile, toying with a coaster. “That sounds cool.”

Nodding, I finish off the last bites of my sandwich. “Yes, it’s always a happy coincidence when we run into each other.”

“So you’re just passing through then?” There is something in Roan’s tone that makes me think he’s rather disappointed about that.

“I’m not sure how long I’ll be here, to be honest.”

Roan grunts in place of an answer. “Right. I better go check on Theo.”

“Oh! Yes! Theo! How is he today?” Finn interrupts, just as Roan nods towards a vaguely irritated Woodsy that he was leaving again. Finn manages to yell loud enough to catch the interest of the beings around us and more than a few join the request for an update, the metaphorical seal now broken.

Roan wipes his hands on the dish towel over his shoulder and then raps aquick beat on the wood of the bar.

“He’s okay.” He smiles, a grim line that doesn’t meet his dark eyes, but makes his beard twitch. “He’s insisting on working in the gardens today.” There is a murmur of laughter, and a few 'That sounds like Theo's before Roan ducks through the door. When he isn’t hustled back through by the fiery faun, I assume he has made it out to his love.

“Absolutely wild what happened isn’t it?” A crowd has formed around Finn and I, beings all too willing to engage in some gossip. I turn around further on my stool to face the newcomers. The woman who spoke shakes her head, her short brown curls bobbing around her face. “I can’t believe that wasourTheo up there. And that guy? He got what was coming to him, I’ll tell you that much.”

“Pfft, kidnapping our Theo like that after all he’s been through?” Another being interrupts, an older man with a bushy moustache that wiggles like a caterpillar when he talks. “What he got was too good for him, I reckon. Wish we coulda had a go at him ourselves.” There is a grim murmur of agreement as the beings around me all envisage what revenge could have been enacted.

“Were you there when he was found?” I ask the group at large. All but the original woman shake their heads.

“I was. It was…” She stares off into the distance for a moment. “Horrible. The screams…” She shudders and then blinks rapidly a few times. “Who knew our Theo was able to pull something like that off?” She tries for flippant but misses the mark, her throat hoarse with emotion.

“What do you mean? You mentioned something too about what Theo’s been through?” I tip my head in the direction of Moustache. There is a rush to reply, everyone speaking at once, but it’s Finn who, quite unexpectedly, manages to cut through.

“Theo lost his gifts. It was a few months back now. His brother came through with his mate, Caelan, searching for Theo. He’d gone missing in the Woods in the winter—”

“They come from the city. Theo worked at the university there, but I heard their family is loaded—” Another being interjects, edging their way intothe circle. Finn veritably hisses in their direction at the interruption, and then turns back, pushing his hair back from his face.

“Anyway,they went into the Woods. Roan, Seff, and Edith ended up joining them. No one knows for sure what happened, but they came back with Theo, without his gifts, and he’s been here since.”

“Became one of ours he did.” Moustache adds on, nodding his head, arms crossed over his barrel chest.

“Yeah, but, apparently, his magic’s not one-hundred percent gone. Not from what I saw yesterday. And he’s been glowing for weeks now. I don’t know what his gifts were before—” the woman frowns when she’s interrupted, narrowing her eyes at the being who’d jumped into the conversation.

“Knowledge. Not like theusualfae knowing. He was a genius. My cousin took some of his classes at LU. Said the guy was weird and a bit of a dork, but smart. Like, ‘answers to the universe’, smart. Never mentioned him glowing, though.”

I listen carefully as the group descends into a heated debate about what they believe happened to Theo, and Seff, in the Whisper Woods. There are stories of ghost giants and poltergeists run amok. Some are convinced that it was a vampire somehow stealing the magic to regain those they lost when they turned. Others are adamant it’s dragons or the black scaled beast seen lurking in the Woods on rare occasions.

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