Elijah Stone snorted. “Any mixed group we send out will be a risk.”
“Then we keep the packs together.” Anson didn’t bother hiding his animosity. “Alphas can veto any volunteer. Wolves who don’t meet standards end up on the diversionary teams. An alliance means you keep it off the battlefield. The man at your side is your brother, no matter who he calls alpha. Are we clear?”
Lec Rus bristled. “This is bullshit.”
“Listening to you is bullshit,” Mace said distinctly. “All it takes is one alpha challenge, and the Alpen can find a new leader.”
Lec Rus, who had no second with him today, made a show of sizing Mace up—like he was almost considering it. Then he sneered, “Your boss can’t take it?”
Mace grinned. “With Sutter offering, we don’t need you.”
“My wards—”
“Meant crap to the hybrids and even less to me,” I said, while thunder reverberated in the far distance. My nerves were churning. Time was racing toward a finish line we were unprepared for, and all the Alpen did was create problems that revolved around himself. But Cavell was right. Coming from Sutter, he was part of the Alpen pack. Cavell knew how to manipulate the wards. He recognized the magic protecting their passages. Understood the terrain the way the Cariboo men understood their home territories. The lack of leadership from Rus would only cause more defections from his ranks. And if Amal’s creations somehow ended him without me having to do the work, I wouldn’t cry about it.
The afternoon crept endlessly as we agreed upon plans and issued the orders. Chairs scraped back when Anson finally adjourned the Gathering, without Lec Rus throwing another tantrum. And judging by how swiftly he disappeared, the odds were on Mace’s warning, getting beneath his skin.
“I’m sorry you won’t have more time,” Anson murmured as we walked along the hall toward the double exit doors. The Conference center was only a ten-minute walk to Noa’s apartment building, with the Alpha’s Woods a backdrop for both buildings.
While I didn’t like it, I’d agreed with the plan. I’d leave in the morning with Mace. I hated the necessity, but with the fresh attacks in the Alpen, we had one chance of finding a way into Amal’s backyard. One we might not have again.
I parted ways with Anson outside the glass doors of the sandstone building, nodded to the doorman as I walked inside. It was nearly dusk when I opened the door of the apartment. Followed the clattering sounds that led to the kitchen.
Fee stood at the stove. “Just in time for dinner,” he said cheerily.
“Dinner?”
He turned with two bowls of stew in his hands. Set them on the table. “Sit down and eat while it’s hot.”
“Where’s Noa?”
“Sit down, son.”
I couldn’t, not while anxiety hammered harder than my heart. Not while I slowly glanced around Noa’s apartment. The pristine living room, the dining area that held a chilling loneliness, as if she’d never lived here. Laughed here. Loved.
The only trace of her was a book on the coffee table: Use of Magical Objects and Tools in Seidr Traditions.
A folded paper separated two pages like a bookmark.
My voice thickened. “Where is she?”
“Doing what she’s meant to do.” Silverware clattered as Fee tried to make the table presentable. Plates on mats. White napkins folded. Water glasses above the spoon, the knife pointing the fuck up toward twelve, like the hand on a clock…
Fire burned at the base of my spine. A sense of dread far graver than the black hole she’d been in when she almost burned herself out. My voice was rough enough to splinter. “Where is she, Fee?”
“Aine recalled the location of the Bone Woman’s wrinkle. Noa went to find her, set the seidr magic right. Caerwen and Effa are with her. None of them have wolves, so there’s no danger to them in being… um… collected. It’s not too far from here, and—”
“You were here when she left?”
Fee’s eyes darkened with sympathy. “I know this is difficult—”
“You fucking don’t know the meaning of that word.”
“I’ve always told you. Been honest. You knew this was coming. It’s what she’s here to do, Grayson. She has the witch’s effigy with her.”
“A gods-damn toy?” I lunged away from him, knocked over the chair.
“That toy is protection. The strongest protection possible.”
