Page 32 of Whisker me Away
"The pattern is clear," he said without preamble. "The corruption is specifically targeting Miss Bloom's magical signature, not just earth based magic. But what concerns me more is the intelligence behind the attacks."
"Intelligence?" Freya settled onto one of the stone benches, hyperaware of Kieran's presence beside her.
"The timing, the precision, the escalation." Elder Varric gestured to the scattered papers before him. "This isn't random magical interference. Something is learning your patterns, studying your habits, planning its strikes for maximum impact."
"The Thornweaver," Kieran said. "It's been probing for weaknesses."
"Indeed. Which brings us to the question of solutions." Elder Varric's gaze shifted between them with knowing intensity. "Miss Bloom, your research into your family's binding practices has been illuminating. But I believe there are details you haven't yet uncovered."
"What kind of details?"
Instead of answering directly, Elder Varric moved to a locked chest behind the standing stones. He withdrew a leather-bound tome that radiated power, its pages practically humming with residual magic.
"The true record of Celeste Bloom's binding ritual," he said, settling the book before them with careful reverence. "Kept separate from family histories for reasons that will become clear."
Freya leaned forward eagerly, her fingers tracing the ancient text as she began translating the archaic Gaelic. The first few passages matched what she'd found in her grandmother's journal, but then the narrative diverged into territory that made her magic recoil with recognition.
"She wasn't alone," Freya breathed. "Celeste didn't perform the binding by herself."
"Continue reading," Elder Varric encouraged.
The text painted a picture that shattered everything Freya thought she knew about her family's sacrifice. Celeste hadn't died alone in a heroic gesture of selfless magic. She'd beenpart of a mated pair, working in harmony with her tiger shifter partner to create something more powerful than either could manage solo.
"Joined life force," she read aloud, her voice growing stronger as understanding dawned. "Two hearts beating as one, two souls sharing the burden of binding an ancient evil. The power flowed between them like a river, each strengthening the other until their combined magic became unbreakable."
"A mated pair's bond," Kieran said quietly. "Just like we suspected."
Freya looked up from the text to find his eyes fixed on her. The implications were staggering, terrifying, and impossible to ignore. The binding spell didn't require death. It required partnership. The kind of deep magical connection that could only exist between true mates.
"But if that's true," she said slowly, "then why did my grandmother tell me Celeste died alone? Why hide the existence of her mate?"
"Because the truth was too dangerous," Elder Varric said gently. "The knowledge that binding spells could be powered by mated pairs instead of blood sacrifice would have attracted the wrong kind of attention. Better to let people believe in heroic death than reveal the true source of such power."
"So the renewal ritual..." Freya's voice trailed off as the full scope of what this meant settled over her.
"Requires two participants," Elder Varric confirmed. "A blood descendant of the original binder and their fated mate, working in perfect harmony to renew constraints that have weakened over time."
Freya's gaze moved to Kieran, seeing her own understanding reflected in his expression. The bond between them wasn't just an inconvenient attraction or supernatural coincidence. It wasthe key to saving her bloodline, her community, everything she loved.
But accepting it would mean acknowledging that fate had made the choice for her. That her heart's confusion and Rowan's gentle courtship and all her careful planning meant nothing compared to the ancient magic that recognized Kieran as her other half.
"This was only kept from you in order for you to find the full extent of research, purpose and journals. I was hoping the Thornweaver wasn’t the cause but since it is, now the real question is," Elder Varric said into the charged silence, "whether you're both prepared to accept what that means."
Freya stared at the ancient text, at the words that described a love powerful enough to bind evil itself, and felt her world tilt on its axis. Everything she thought she knew about choice and independence and controlling her own destiny crumbled in the face of supernatural necessity.
She was going to need a mate's power to save Hollow Oak. And sitting beside her, radiating warmth and protective intensity, was the man fate had chosen for that role.
But was she brave enough to stop fighting what her heart already knew was true.
18
KIERAN
Kieran walked through Hollow Oak's quiet streets as afternoon shadows lengthened, his mind reeling from the council meeting's revelations. A mated pair. The binding spell required a mated pair, which meant Freya didn't have to die to save their community. But it also meant she'd need to accept the bond between them, to trust him with her life and magic in ways that went beyond anything either of them had imagined.
Hope and terror warred in his chest with equal intensity. Hope that fate had provided a solution that would keep his mate alive. Terror that she might only accept him out of necessity, not love.
Freya had made excuses about needing to secure her shop, but Kieran could read the overwhelm in her green-gold eyes. She needed time to process what they'd learned, to figure out how she felt about destiny making such a monumental choice for her. He understood the impulse, even as his tiger prowled restlessly at being separated from her when danger lurked.
