“A lust for power. To take revenge on us. To summon the Dark Wolf God. But that’s in the past.”
Alastair began fishing again, but instead of deftly teasing the top of the water with his fly, he lashed out as if whipping a man in a pillory.
“The loremaster mentioned the prophecy, but people only ever allude to it,” I said. “What is it, exactly?”
He gave me a suspicious look. “That a twin-soul would bring the Dark God back. That they would take the souls of our pack.”
My heartbeat accelerated. There would be no hiding it from my father. “I need to know the exact words.”
He studied my face a long time in silence. His scent had gone from mild irritation to a low, simmering dread tinged with echoes of old hatred.
He closed his eyes, and after a moment, he spoke. “I will tell you what the old moon-gazer told me: the rabbit is in the house of the wolf, and we have entered an age of darkness. A twin-soul will come to power. They will be the harbinger of destruction. In the night, when the moon has turned her back, they will make a sacrifice before the Dark God, and in seven days, he will walk the earth once more, spreading madness among the living. The twin-soul will steal the wolves from every werewolf who resists them and will leave your people weak before the Dark God.”
Darkness swelled in my chest. This was what was coming, what Dragan was trying to achieve. “That’s why you hunted him down? Because he was prophesied to do a ritual to bring back the Dark Wolf God?”
My father bared his fangs, though not at me. “Dragan murdered and stole and corrupted. If we hadn’t done something, he would have brought back the Dark God. He would have stolen our souls somehow. That’s why I even stooped to working with those filthy LaSalles.”
Fuck. Hadn’t Dragan wanted to take Savy’s wolf?
Suspicion filled my father’s eyes, which focused on me like lasers. “Why are you asking so many questions about a dead man?”
I didn’t flinch. “I believe he’s returned.”
“Impossible. I saw Laurel LaSalle disintegrate him with my own eyes. His body turned to dust.” My father’s words were confident and filled with anger, but his scent—although masterfully controlled—betrayed his shock.
I focused all my senses on reading him. My father knew something more. “Dragan’s soul survived. He was possessing a blood-sorcerer, Ulan Kahanov.”
My father’s rod dipped until it touched the surface of the slowly flowing water, creating a thin wake like a knife slicing into skin. “The sorcerer that Billy helped?”
I nodded.
His face contorted with rage, and his muscles tensed. Fur erupted along the backs of his hands, and his claws dug into the cork grip of the rod. When he spoke, his voice cut the air like a scream, but it was no louder than a whisper. “The fucking fool.”
My father and mother hadn’t taken Billy’s death well, and I knew they blamed me. He’d been their son-in-law and their last link to my sister, just as he had been to me.
I hadn’t told them everything he’d done. I owed them that. “I don’t think Billy knew who Kahanov truly was, only that he promised revenge on the LaSalles.”
My father’s fingers twitched, and pain and bitterness filled his words. “We all want that, but Billy was a fool just the same.”
“We hunted down the sorcerer and killed him. But we think Dragan is still out there, that he’s possessed another.”
My father locked me with an iron glare. “Then you and the pack must do anything you can to stop him. Make deals with warlocks or devils or vampires, but you must destroy him. If the Dark God returns, he’ll revert the earth to its natural state. Cities will crumble before him. Technology will fail, and humankind will be hunted until there’s nothing left but animals to walk among the ruins.”
His words stirred the memories of the loremaster’s story. I saw the darkness rising and the ruins of Magic Side hidden in the mist. There were no machines or noises or people—just overgrown stone and pavement, and birds flitting warily from tree to tree.
“Can you tell me anything more about how to defeat him?” I asked.
“If I knew that, I’d have done it myself.” He turned back to his fishing. I knew it was a dismissal, and I could tell his heart was no longer in it. “But Jaxson…”
“Yes?”
“Don’t stop until you’ve destroyed Dragan’s soul.”
I nodded, though he couldn’t see it. I turned to go but paused and warily placed my hand on the trunk of a pine. I kept my voice even, using every ounce of power and control I possessed. “And if I ever discover another twin-soul, what should I do?”
“Kill them. No matter who it is, no matter the cost, do it without hesitation. It’s what I would do. It’s what your sister would have done. If the Dark God returns, we’re all as good as dead.”
I left before he could smell the dread rising in my chest.
Was this what Laurel feared? Why she’d bound Savannah’s wolf?
My guts knotted as I climbed the hill. I had no idea whether Savannah was a twin-soul, but that didn’t matter. If anyone even suspected…
I had to protect her.
That meant no one could ever know the truth. Not Sam, not Regina…
Not even Savy herself.