Page 83 of Triumph of the Wolf
“Uhm, my parents’ neighbors’ daughter and new husband did it in Italy. The whole extended family went for two weeks.”
Jasmine pursed her lips.
“My parents weren’t rich when they got married,” Bolin said. “I think they were wed at a local park. There might even have been a gazebo.”
“Hah, they’re romantic,” Jasmine said.
“Some kind of covered pavilion or something anyway,” Bolin said. “There’s a picture of Mom sitting in Dad’s lap on a swing.”
I blinked at the notion of the always-stern Kashvi Sylvan being moved to swing on Rory’s lap.
“Are you going to tell her the news?” Bolin asked.
“Oh, yes.” Jasmine spun back toward me. “My mom told me something this morning, and I talked to Rosaria, and she confirmed it.”
Bolin lifted a finger.
Jasmine waved him down. “Let me tell her this first.She’llthink it’s more important. Trust me.”
Bolin lowered his arm.
I sensed Duncan and Lykos approaching from the direction of the woods. They’d gone off to magnet-fish that morning, andI imagined them returning with a cluster of rusty twentieth-century tins hooked and hanging on lines like a bouquet of trout.
At some point during the day, Lykos had gotten a haircut and new shoes and clothes. I trusted Duncan hadn’t fished them out of a pond.
“The road going out to your mom’s property—allthe werewolf properties back there—has disappeared.” Jasmine gestured expansively. “I mean, we can still see it and drive up there, but we’ve learned that the road seems to be altogether gone to the outside world. To people whoaren’twerewolves. It’s still on existing maps, but the latest satellite imagery doesn’t show it. Look.” Jasmine showed me a map app on her phone, including an earlier attempt to program in the address for my mother’s cabin. All that came up was the road itself, outlined as a mere stub rather than the miles-long gravel and eventually dirt route that had led back to the properties.
“That’s… odd,” I said.
“It’smagic. That’s what Rosaria said.”
I thought of the mushroom artifact on the cliff.
“Why would it have hidden the werewolves?” I mused, waving to Duncan when he came into view, ambling out of the woods.
Lykos saw our group and must have decided there were too many strange people, because he slunk back into the trees. It might take Duncan a while to fully tame the kid—and indoctrinate him into society.
“The artifact’s whole reason for being created,” I continued, “at least as far as we could figure was to protect peoplefromwerewolves. From being bitten by them, specifically.”
“Yeah, I know, but if people can’t find the werewolves, then they won’t likely be bitten by them, right?” Jasmine shrugged. “It’s not like any of our pack can turn others into werewolvesanyway, but we all mostly want to be left alone. We don’t want to wantonly go out and make more werewolves.”
Duncan, who’d gotten close enough to hear the conversation, lifted his eyebrows.
“If people can’t find the pack properties,” Jasmine said, “they’re not going to be bothered by werewolves at all.”
“That’s true, though not how I would have expected that problem to be solved. Maybe the medallions had something to do with it. They could have communicated with the artifact, I suppose, and come to an agreement.”
“That sounds kind of weird,” Jasmine said.
“Weirder than roads disappearing?”
“I guess not.” She wrinkled her nose in Bolin’s direction.
He merely spread his arms.
“Anyway, our people can still find the way back there,” Jasmine said, “and the whole area seems really serene now. It’s hard to describe. You’ll have to go up there when, you… oh.” Her shoulders slumped, as if she’d remembered something unpleasant. “Lorenzo came back this morning and let people know… maybe he already reached out to you? But if not, your mom passed. Sorry, Luna.”
“Oh.” Now, it was my shoulders that slumped. Even though I’d expected to hear that news any day, it weighed me down.
