Page 83 of The Girl in the Forest

“No trace. But Adriel saw them fighting. The father threw her to the ground. Kicked her. Three vampires arrived, exchanged money for the girl, and took her away. Maybe four months ago, time was a little vague. But Jodan said that explained the raids afterward. Lec Rus sent patrols. Scorched earth. Looking for either the girl or her father. A month after, Jodan talked to some smugglers. The Alpen found a man, dragged him away, but no one in the Mule would admit anything.”

“What happened to Sutter?” My hand curled despite Grayson’s comforting hold; his fingers tightened in tandem with mine.

“A passage opened.” Mace’s expression was stone-hard. “Tusked creatures poured through. The men rallied. I’m sorry, Noa. I know Sutter was important to you.”

My heart was pounding. “Survivors?”

“I’ve settled them with Owen Griffith for now. Adriel is there. Her father. Most of the women and children. A few injured men. Burn.”

The dog… Jodan’s burden. Somehow, he’d survived both the attack and the trek to safety. But something hard twisted in my throat. “Any others?”

Jodan? Old Mae?

The women who’d looked at me shyly but determined, or the children who’d brought buckets of warm water for my bath? I didn’t know their names. Wouldn’t know if they survived even if Mace told me.

Mace stared into the cooling coffee. I didn’t need his confirmation because Grayson was radiating the truth while his thumb stroked my hand, soothing me. Cooling the heated rage as fast as it formed.

Fallon cleared her throat and rose to refresh my coffee. When she set a fresh cup in front of me, she closed her fingers around my shoulder in comfort.

“Why would creatures attack Sutter?” she asked Mace as she resettled. Clearly, this information was new to her, too. Which meant Mace hadn’t communicated with her through the pack bond. Had he told Grayson? Was that where Grayson had gone at night, when he shifted into his wolf, then came back with his skin so cold?

We weren’t that far from the unused smuggler’s cave. Had he gone to help Mace? To fight? Then… close up that access?

I glanced at Grayson and silently asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“There was nothing you could do.”

“How much do they know?”

“That’s up to you, Bedisa.”

Whatever secrets I wanted to share with Mace and Fallon. The two people he trusted with his life. His family. Who he protected by keeping secrets of his own.

If I revealed my secrets, these two wolves might see me as the threat I could become.

But information was just as dangerous when it was withheld as when it was used, and as ice settled near my heart, I said, “The creatures attacked Sutter because it was close to the witch cave. The Gemini Witches were dead when I found them. But someone else was there, spinning an illusion like a spider spins a web. A woman.”

I looked up and held Grayson’s gaze because even he didn’t know what I was about to say.

“That woman is the enemy. Not Alpen. And I’ve heard her for months.”

“The way I hear you,” I added silently.

An hour passed while I opened the leather journal and revealed the details to Mace and Fallon. The eerie way the Gemini Witches appeared as mirrored images. How their heads turned in unison, mouths moved, the smiles like the twitching of the newly dead. Of course, they were dead and had been for months. Because of what they’d been ranting on about, how in a time of peril, there would be two.

“I’ve heard a woman’s voice in my head,” I said. “She screamed when Grayson inked his rune on my skin. I thought she was saying ‘no.’ Then I heard her when I found the book behind the waterfall. The air ballooned with pressure, and I thought she was rushing toward me but couldn’t get through a barrier. And when I destroyed her illusions in the witch cave—she screamed again.”

“Was she there physically?” Mace asked.

“More of a presence, a shadow, and I thought I was dealing with one witch instead of two, maybe the real Gemini Witch. The conversation bounced back and forth so quickly I couldn’t tell who was speaking. They responded accurately to everything I said, so it wasn’t like a pre-planned loop. We were interacting.”

“It takes power to do that,” Fallon said. “Create a living illusion.”

I nodded. “The detail was realistic. We talked, there were fires burning, the fumes scenting the air. I touched the sand, dipped my fingers into frigid water when I filled the cup. I only saw the truth because it was a reflection she couldn’t control. But when the vampires came, I was physically aware of them. Each voice was different, the words they said. The same with the wolves. The scent, the heat, and when I shot them, when they turned into Mace and Levi, my hands were sticky and wet with blood. I could feel the slather that splashed on my skin.”

I glanced at Mace; sympathy narrowed his eyes. “At the end, when I destroyed the illusion, everything changed. Someone had tied the Gemini Witches to their thrones and turned them into dried husks. Wouldn’t seers know if they were threatened, and defend against it?”

“Not if she attacked from a distance,” Mace said.

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