67. Jax

67

Jax

The son will kill the mother.

We locked Finn in one of the cages below that we reserved for wolves who'd broken pack law. In most cases, they were dead before we ever got to this point, but I had no plans to kill Finn. We didn't know if Maeve could also control Finn's wolf, so this would hold him.

Amelia stayed with him as a guard but also to talk him through his pain. We couldn't give him another bond until he was coherent enough to take it.

The son will kill the mother.

We lost fourteen wolves, and two dozen more were in the infirmary. Three rogues were locked away, in the same area as Finn, but they were like zombies. It was like they were waiting for instructions. It would take time before Saul got to them. Our own wounded came first.

The son will kill the mother.

The spell that had taken us back had drained Lunessa. Evalina had revived her, but she was still in a deep sleep. The bag of items were by the bed. I hadn't even had a chance to look at them.

"Was there a Fae there?" Anna asked me as I carefully opened the bag. Evalina watched with a frown from Lunessa's bed. She'd sent Janelle and Ava to join in the fight rather than leave her Maiden vulnerable.

"Impossible," Evalina snorted. "They do not exist."

"She smelled human. I couldn't detect a whiff of magic on her, but she absorbed a spell meant for Lunessa. Absorbed like how Anna absorbed magic. She said the purest null magic acted differently," I said quietly.

"Did she say she was Fae?"

I shook my head. "No, but I watched her burn Lunessa's blood right as the bomb exploded. She's got magic. A different kind of magic. She may be not full-blooded Fae, but she's enough of a Fae to make me wonder what other kind of secrets the world is hiding."

The son will kill the mother.

"Evalina, Anna is pregnant."

"I know that," the old witch grumbled. "I knew it before she did."

I carefully avoided Anna's gaze. "Can you tell if she's carrying a boy or a girl?"

"I can, when it decides what it wants to be," she said coolly. "Does it matter?"

I didn't answer. Instead, I pulled out two books. Before I could place them on the desk, Evalina snatched one of them up. Flipping open, she tumbled through it and growled. "This is in the language of the Fae."

"So is this one." My heart sank. Had all of this been for nothing?

"This isn't." Anna bent down and picked up a piece of paper that had fluttered to the ground. I hadn't even noticed. "The wild of the magic is beautiful to behold, but nothing is more deadly than magic unchecked. If the magic should go untamed, the land must be purged. It will take a single life of all three creatures born of magic to reclaim it."

She looked up, eyes wide. "It's not meant to be a weapon at all. It's meant to be a fail safe."

"Written during a time when magic and its creatures co-existed peacefully. When one couldn't fathom the idea of claiming the other," Evalina said scornfully. "Time has hardened us, and this is where we are."

Anna's eyes fell back to the page. "A piece of three, and a sacrifice," she read. "A ternary, carrying the magical elements of all three creatures. The blood of their witch kin, wolf kin, and Fae kin poured over the heart of the caster's daughter on a second dark moon of the month."

"What about the ternary?" What about you? I took the paper from her hands. There was an incantation followed by the rest of the instructions. "The heart must be held by the child of three, and the magic will be purged from the land and funneled through the ternary to be dispersed among the natural elements elsewhere. The ternary shall be heralded for their sacrifice."

"I guess I won't survive with all the magic of the mountain pumping through me," Anna said dryly. "But this says the magic goes back to natural elements. It won't be given to the caster. What does she expect to do with it?"

"Manipulate it," I said darkly. "She has been gaining magic for this. As dark as it is, it seems a relatively easy spell, but she's draining witches for their magic."

"You are correct, pup." Evalina's hands shook as she took the piece of paper from me. "Maeve doesn't even need magic to cast this spell. It's meant for anyone willing to sacrifice, but if she can claim the land, she'll claim the magic once it returns."

"Like what Janelle did?"

"Janelle can manipulate pack bonds. Irene, to some degree, can spell the earth. If you purge magic from the land and then claim it as you fuse magic back into it, any bond that stood there previously will be gone. Your territory is no longer yours. London's is no longer his. As the magic cascades down the mountain, she'll claim it and every wolf who stands on the dirt. Every witch. Every human."

Anna shook her head. "All right. It's possible that Maeve has blood from Dirk, but blood from my mother? Doubtful. And blood from a Fae? Do you really think that woman from the cult was Fae?"

"I do, but I don't think she would have willingly given blood. Of course, it doesn't say that anything has to be taken willingly. We need to see if she's still alive, and we need to know if you have kin."

"She does," Evalina said quietly before looking up. "I always knew that you would kill me, pup."