Page 85 of The Girl in the Forest

“No,” I said with conviction. “She’s not a faille.”

Fallon was asking why, while the realization spun—why had I not seen it before?

My heart pounded. Grayson gripped my hand, and I didn’t need the savage mental leap he made to know he jumped to the same conclusion I did.

“Aine said a queen wrote the book.” I turned to face Mace and Fallon. “She knew it was protected by blood magic, but not that it was spelled against the kings. Against all their descendants. No one could know that unless…”

“The woman you saw was a queen,” Grayson finished for me. “The book we have is hers.”

“And she’s the one who spelled it against the kings.” I looked at Grayson. “Against you.”

CHAPTER 25

Noa

Fallon stood beside me in the kitchen. We stared through the window. Grayson and Mace were outside, talking to a group of men. Once again, I marveled at the massive power of the Alpha of Sentinel Falls. His strength and commitment. Valor. Sunlight caught in the black of his hair. He towered over the waiting men, although Mace was nearly as tall and muscular, impressive in his own dominance. I slid a glance toward Fallon, but her face was a smooth mask. Her hand was slowly rubbing my back, and I realized how tense I’d become.

“I can’t let him try to read the book,” I said. “The queen’s hatred was something I’ve never experienced. I don’t doubt she put some horrible curse on that book against any king.”

“Or dread lord,” Fallon agreed, then turned to look at me. “Mace and I have known for a long time, Noa. The Green Man visited each of us when Gray became the Alpha. He warned what would come and gave us choices. Of course we chose him. And we’re choosing you, too. You aren’t alone in this.”

I turned to watch the men outside. “Do the others know?”

“Not all of them. Whatever happens, happens. We’ll deal with it together.”

“The girl. We have to rescue her. I can’t bear the idea of her being held by vampires. And for what reason? There has to be a connection. During that illusion, when the vampires came. I thought the witches called them as punishment for the Gathering, but that wasn’t right. The witches were dead. The queen devised that illusion, and she had some other reason.”

“Do you still feel a connection to her?”

“I can’t rid myself of it.” I chewed on my lip. “But I’m missing something, and I can’t describe what it is that I feel.” I turned back to face Fallon. “I know she attacked Sutter because of me. All those innocent people, dead, when all they did was offer us shelter. She’ll kill Grayson if she can. I know she will. The only way to fight her and protect him is to find out what’s in her book. The girl, Brin. If she’s a faille, she can read it with me.”

“Or you could figure out how your mother did it,” Fallon suggested.

“She asked me to hold the book.” I shook my head. “We were two failles, even if I was a child. There’s no other way. We need Brin.”

Fallon’s expression turned thoughtful—she was an alpha, after all, as brilliant as Mace. “It won’t be easy. High Citadel is the vampire’s seat of power. Most of the sires will be there, which means it’s heavily fortified.”

“They won’t be expecting me.”

“Noa…” She waited until I looked at her. “I’m not doubting your abilities, but you have no wolf. You can’t communicate with anyone but Gray, and if he’s out of range, you’ll be on your own. None of us will let you go under those circumstances.”

“I can take wolves with me,” I argued, even as I realized secrecy would be the greater necessity. “They’ll communicate for me.”

“One or two, a small group,” Fallon agreed, jumping ahead of me with the strategy. “The High Citadel is in Carmag territory. But the vampires have secure locations everywhere. They’ll hide Brin where she won’t be a danger to the sires. If she’s faille, she’ll have abilities like yours, and no sire would take that risk.”

“So, we ask Julien, find out where that location is,” I said.

“A softer target,” Fallon mused. “They’ll order someone lower on the hierarchy to deal with the girl, but don’t think for a moment they won’t have a thousand ways to torture her until she has no strength to fight back. She’ll be weak. Vulnerable. Harder to rescue.”

Anger grew hot in my face. “They sat out the last pack war. Why the hell would they want some poor girl without a wolf?”

“Noa.” Fallon’s tone stiffened my spine. “After Mosbach threatened you with the vampires, Gray had a long talk with him.”

I shuddered beneath the dark satisfaction that uncurled inside of me, as if Mosbach was one more enemy I needed to destroy.

“He said vampires have been secretly hunting failles for months. Offering bounties. They started after an emissary disappeared in Cariboo territory. He had no explanation for why.”

“Do you believe him?”

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