Page 21 of Fated Exile

"As much as I like Roarke—suchgreeneyes, and a natural leader—he isn't currently the pack's strength. Not while it's in such disarray, with blood rot leeching into the soil, the mating threads broken, and a bloodthirsty witch on the run. Only a hybrid likeyoucan possibly bring the pack back from the brink, Delilah, which means that you alone are the central strength of the Glass Pack."

I blink at her in bewilderment. "But I was an exile up until just a few weeks ago."

"Which is why I've been so eager to stride out of that damnable statue and throw a few curses around." Vivia grins wryly, raising a silvered brow. "It isn't easy, you know, watching your descendants make the same stupid mistakes over and over again. That's why I'm thankful to all the gods above that things could finally turn around—if you actuallylistento me. Please tell me that you plan on listening."

I laugh a little. "That's what I'm here for."

"Good. Because you must listen very closely."

She ceases her pacing, twirling on limber feet to face off with me. Her expression suddenly grows fierce, and I feel the weight of her age, wisdom, and power all around me, breaking through the humor she wears like a cloak. I prepare myself for the instructions she's going to give me, wary what it is lifting the curse will require from me. Though I haven't read about anything that exactly described the kind of curse Delphine cast on the pack, the curse books Kieran got me from his aunt's collection described some truly haunting methods to cast dark magic.

"The curse Delphine cast was a very specific one." A frown turns down Vivia's mouth as she speaks. "She was out for revenge, and had been left with very little power, despite her near-immortality. So she found a way to gather the energy she needed by doing something truly awful: setting up a magical web that would give her sacrificial energy.

"You see, though killing her mates gave Delphine great power and longevity, she didn't becamecompletelyimmortal. Just most of the way there. Without intervention, or another source of mated power to drain, she would begin to age after several decades. So when she laid down the curse, she made herself the focus of the energy that would be released by the Glass Pack's dying females. That way the young, strong, mated energy of their connections would flow into her. Every dead female werewolf lengthened her lifespan."

A snarl leaves my lips. Inside me, my wolf paces and thrashes in anger. The urge to let her out and race across the earth to hunt down Delphine is strong. More than anything, I want to tear her throat out and watch her die.

"That's horrifying." I shake my head, unable to comprehend beingthattruly evil. "But I thought she was imprisoned by the coven. How could she even use the energy she was draining for centuries?"

"The witches were strong, but they were never able to contain her completely. She escaped more than once—one of those times was when she killed your birth mother." Vivia's eyes are soft and sorrowful on mine. "Though I can only watch over this world now that I'm dead, I've never felt so powerless as I did on that day. I wish I could have done something for you."

I feel the truth of her words as an ache in my chest and throat, a hollow space forming where the love of my birth mother should be. "I wish you could have too."

"Unfortunately, Delphine has only grown stronger over the decades, despite her imprisonment. All the attempts to take her life haven't helped her fractured mind—or made her the forgiving sort."

Vivia shakes her head, lacing her fingers together in front of her. "Because I helped set the magical ley lines of this territory, and built many of its protective borders, I've always had a close connection with it, even from the spiritual world. Some time ago, I began to sense a disturbance in the pack land. It was the beginning of the latest cycle of the curse, and power was draining from the pack, but there was more to it than that. An enemy was forming—our ancient vampiric enemy. But this time, they had help."

"Delphine."

"Yes." Turning away from me, she holds a hand up and sweeps it across the air. A shimmering wall of energy forms across from us, and in it, colors and shapes tell the story as she speaks aloud. "You see, Delphine had grown strong enough to leave her prison mentally. She was able to reach out and communicate to several vampire covens. In exchange for unlimited power and access to werewolves, she got them to work together for a singular goal: to free her.

"What she wanted to pull off would've been difficult when the witch coven was at its height of power, but the witches were considerably weakened. Your aunt Kerry was the only remaining true born weaver, and the other witches were all older and tired of their posts."

Vivia's wall of magic shows several white-haired witches, exhausted as they cast the same spells over and over again. My heart hurts to see Kerry standing at her post, fingers weaving magic together, desperately trying to strengthen an ancient spell to keep Delphine trapped inside the caves. There was no hope for any of them—not with such a small coven. But they never abandoned their posts, even though it cost them their lives in the end.

"So Delphine was able to use her magical abilities to veil the vampires and lead them into the caves, where they got close enough for her to cast her magic on them and give them aid. That's how so many of them were able to evade the territory's defenses and slip unseen into the land."

My fingers bite into my palms as I watch Vivia's magical wall show the battle scene from yesterday. I'll never forget how so many vampires appeared out of nowhere, so close to our Mating Circle so quickly, without a single warning. I knew they had to have had some tricks up their sleeves to pull that off. I would have never guessed that one of our own kind helped them.

"While the vampires were close, Delphine also inserted her mind control into their heads. She made them keep her name silent, upon threat of death, so that her escape plan would build without interference. And she used her influence to encourage them to work together in large numbers—something previously unheard of among vampires."

"I'd wondered why so many covens attacked us all at once," I muse aloud, anger biting its way into my voice. "It used to be that packs only had to contend with maybe a dozen vampires at most, and even that was rare. The bloodsuckers never had our numbers. That was why we didn't worry about them as much as many other threats."

"They never could get along for long enough to pose a serious threat," Vivia agrees, waving her hands in the air to change the scene on the wall to one of a group of vampires hissing and baring their fangs at each other. "But Delphine's mind control and subtle influence changed that. She brought warring covens together and gave them all a single goal: you."

"Me," I echo, the smell of the white powder filling my nose. Vivia's scene switches to the night I was captured by the vampires, then flows towards my heart-pounding battle in the arena. "All this time I thought the vampires captured me for their quorum. But you're saying that Delphine wanted me?"

"Yes. She planned on letting the vampires toy with you, and even promised to give them the Glass Pack territory, though I don't know if she meant that. She said that she could use her magic to change the werewolf land—make it into a home for vampires instead. But I suspect she only planned to let them have you for as much time as it took for her to escape her imprisonment. She would have slaughtered them just as she slaughtered anyone else who got in her way."

"Why did she want me? Or—whydoesshe want me, if she still does?"

"I don't know," Vivia answers honestly, a troubled expression drawing her silver brows together. "Though I can watch over these lands, and I see much of what happens in them and inside the mountains nearby, there's only so much I can discern. Delphine kept her reasons for wanting you secret. If I had to guess, she plans on stealing your powers through your death, just as she stole from her mates and all those girls the curse has killed over the decades."

A shudder goes through me, and I find myself looking around the dark night surrounding us. No one knows I came here to the Mating Circle—and I don't even have shoes on, much less my phone. For all I know, Delphine is waiting in the darkness beneath the trees, just like those vampires were.

Vivia seems to sense my nervousness, because she places her hand on my shoulder again and squeezes, the comfort of her surprising warmth sinking into me. "You don't have to worry about her tonight. I can protect you here, at least until the sun rises, and my energy fades."

"Thank you."

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