Burton growled lightly. “Good wolf.”
“Now, after all that, you’d think we’d all get a break but no, BOOM, Track and Treena were born conjoined and surgically separated. Treena shifted right away, but Track didn’t. We thought he couldn’t, but he could speakruhisuper young—you know that.”
Burton smiled like a doting grandfather. “He only says the one word though—rowr.”
Timber whipped three pinecones into the hole in rapid succession, saying, “We’ve heard they have powers now, but theyhave to be touching to do it. Cool shit like moving stuff with their minds, heavy stuff, too.”
“You don’t have to tell me—they turned me upside down a week ago,” Burton said, making Canyon and Timber laugh.
“So later on, Bruin tried to take Willow to his house, but Leilani traveled through time and stopped them right before they walked inside and the place blew up. Turns out his dad rigged the house to blow, trying to kill him. Bruin went to confront his dad and found him calling on Khain to bring back thebearen renqua.”
Burton shook his head. “Stupid-ass bear.Renquacome from Rhen, not Khain.”
Canyon laughed.Super dumb.
“Abigail White was there, she was the one who summoned Khain,” Timber said.
“She is working with him! She could even be Boe’s sister.” Burton raised his cupped hands, palms out.
Timber scooped up a handful of pinecones and gave them to Burton, then said, “She’s not Boe’s sister, we know that for sure because she’s not marked. After she was bitten by the fox, the paramedics cut through her shirt and there’s no mark on her chest.”
“She hid it,” Burton said, with no conviction in his voice.
Timber shrugged. “Could be, if that’s possible.”
“She’s working with Khain though, how else did she call him?”
“We don’t know—but maybe it’s just a power she has and Khain doesn’t know it was her.”
Burton whipped the entire handful of pinecones at the hole in frustration, then faced Timber, arms crossed, face irritated. “That’s stupid! Why don’t we know this shit?”
Timber held up his hands. “Look, Chief, Canyon shook a Magic 8 Ball all day and nothing popped up, but we’re working on it. Remember thefoxentether we told you about? Where certainfoxenhave to live in Serenity, close to Khain?”
“Uh huh.”
“Our informant in Chicago says the purpose of the tether is so Khain can findfoxenin the Ula, but most of thefoxendon’t want to be found—don’t want to be his servants, and Abigail White definitely doesn’t want to be found. Just like she’s hiding from us, she uses magic to hide from Khain. It just makes sense that she could call him somehow, but still hide from him once he got here.”
Burton calmed. “Yeah,” he said. “Okay. I can see that.”
“So that’s what we think happened. She called Khain to the Ula, then she disappeared—not literally, just once Khain showed up, the bears lost track of her. Khain marked B3, then the bears fought Khain off and he retreated to the Pravus. We held B3 in the cellblock for a few weeks, then took him out to Cook Correctional Center where he’s been ever since. He hasn’t shifted and says he won’t, not for the rest of his life—he’s scared if he shifts Khain will be able to control him.”
“Smartest thing he’s ever done.”
“Bruin and Willow left to returnbearen renquasall over the world—they’ve been gone for almost three months now. Last we heard they were in Japan.”
7-Harlan and Eventine♦♦
Timber sat down, straddling a log to face Burton.
“Just after the bears chased off Khain, the littledragenbaby, Kendra, was born, and what a shitshow that was for two reasons.” Timber ticked the points off on his fingers. “First—Leilani traveled through time to get a peek at Jaggar and when he saw her, his beast got excited, but the rest of us got nervous, since none of us had ever seen the beast, and the Citlali were scared of it.”
Burton nodded along, his expression contemplative.
“Second—Conri was helping Remington with Heather’s labor and he stuck her with a needle. Kendra—keep in mind that she was literally still cooking in her mama’s belly—well, she decided he hurt her mom, and he was gonna get it as soon as she came out. Just fry his ass like a chicken nugget.”
Burton chuckled. “She’s a firecracker.”
“She’s a lit match in a bomb factory, but everything worked out. Graeme took her to a fire world to be born while Conri ran for his life. Shortly after, our team found Leilani at the Roosevelt Asylum hopped up on sedatives and antipsychotic drugs. She’d been there since she was a child and every time she used her power, they assumed she was having a psychotic episode or something, and they’d pump her with enough drugs to knock out an elephant. The strange thing was, we’d had officers out there before, looking for her, but she had no records and the staff didn’t recognize her description. We’ve got an ongoing investigation into the situation but it keeps leading nowhere. Graeme says it’s likely there was repeated time travel involved. We can send you the reports.”
