80. Anna

80

Anna

Irene was spending the day with Amelia, so her cottage was empty when we returned. I offered my room to review everything, but Evalina liked Irene's little cottage. With all the magic surrounding it, it was no wonder. I'd once asked Irene what kind of spells covered her home, but she'd just replied that they were meant to make it feel warm. Whatever that meant. Evalina and Lunessa must have felt the same because that was where they preferred to work.

"You and Jax still aren't getting along," Lunessa said with sympathy as we walked in. Evalina paid us no mind as she went straight to the kitchen table and starting spreading out the papers.

"The longer we go, having this silent fight of ours, the more I think it's going to end today. He must be ready to open up and tell me what's wrong, right? And every day, I'm proven wrong. All I can think is that he's not going to say anything until Maeve is dead. I've never been so eager for the woman to get her hands on me and try to kill me. Maybe at least then I'll know what's going on in Jax's head."

Something strange flashed in her eyes, and she opened her mouth and then shook her head. "He'll come around. I'm sure of it."

"And what of you and London?" Evalina grunted.

Both Lunessa and I just stared at her. Evalina wanted to gossip? That was…strange. Then again, Evalina had been strange ever since she'd admitted her relationship to me.

"There is no me and London," Lunessa muttered.

"I may be old, but I know sexual tension when I see it," Evalina snapped. "Spill."

I wrinkled my nose. I so did not want to talk about sexual tension with the Crone, but I did want to know what was up with London and Lunessa. Every time they were together, I was worried they'd set the building on fire, and clearly, I missed quite the show while I was with Saul.

"Look, we need to focus, so I'm going to tell you what happened," the Maiden said finally. "And you'll know that it doesn't mean anything. About four years ago, I happened to be outside of the coven gathering some herbs. You were out searching for a witch, and the Mother was inside. There was a group of five juvenile wolves out, and when I say juvenile, I mean they ranged from nine to fourteen, and they were surrounded by rogue wolves. Rather than let the children be murdered, I rescued them and learned that they were London's wolves. Apparently, they'd dared each other to try to make it to our compound. They'd been gone for three days. No provisions. Could barely control their wolves. How they survived as long as they did was beyond me. I took them back to London. He took one look at me and decided I'd kidnapped them. I dressed him down for not taking care of them. We yelled at each other for about an hour before he thought to offer me any refreshments of give me a place to rest."

I waited for the rest of the story, but it didn't come. Evalina wasn't fooled. "And?" she prompted.

"And I spent the night. Alone."

Evalina frowned. "You could have popped back to the den at any point. Why did you spend the night?"

"There was…a pull between us. One that we noticed when we stopped yelling at each other. An attraction, but there was nothing to be done about it. We'd both said horrible things to each other. It wasn't anything big. I left the next morning without saying goodbye. I didn't see him again until we rescued Anna from Emerson."

"Also something I didn't give you permission to do," Evalina grunted. "So many of my own witches hiding things from me. What else did you sneak out and do while I was gone?"

"Drink myself silly and host orgies," Lunessa said dryly. "Disappointed in me?"

"Was it the mating bond?" I interrupted. "I can't quite smell one on London, but something is there. Did he mate with you?"

She waved her hands. "Don't be ridiculous. Wolves who are mated cannot stay away from each other, and I know it's the same with wolf and witches. Irene and Jenson are the perfect example. He can barely stay away from her. London obviously doesn't feel that way. It's just…lust. Nothing more."

Evalina looked down at the paper. "Maybe that's something you should explore when this is over," she said quietly.

Both of us snapped our heads up and stared at her. "Excuse me?" Lunessa asked. "Are you implying that I should pursue a relationship outside of the coven?"

"How many times do I have to tell you that I am not going to survive this. The Mother can take my place when I die, but I created Darkwyn Coven for one purpose. To hide and see. That era is over. Darkwyn need not exist anymore when I'm gone. You should pursue your happiness. As should she."

"No one is killing you," I sighed. "We're going to change the future, and you're going to live long enough to see my baby born so you can bounce them up and down on your knee, like most grandparents, or great-grandparents are supposed to do. Got it?"

She gave me a sad smile that made my stomach drop. If Lunessa felt an ounce of sadness, she didn't let on. "What happened to the woman who told me that my duty to my coven and magic were the only things that were important?" she fired off with anger in her eyes.

"She realized how many mistakes she's made," Evalina said regretfully. "And she's trying to right them before it's too late."

I cleared my throat. "Why don't we just focus on this new information so we can save both of us, shall we?"

Since I couldn't read any other language except English, I made tea while they silently reviewed the papers and scratched away in their notebooks. Occasionally, Lunessa would ask Evalina a question or Evalina would grunt. I really wasn't even sure why I was there. Me knowing Emerson wasn't going to help anyone.

My mind wandered. My morning with Saul was confusing. I hadn't spent a good deal of time with him lately, but his initial reaction to the baby was delight. This morning, he was anything but delighted. In fact, he seemed downright stressed as he performed the exam, which was strange since apparently everything seemed good. I was in excellent health. All my vital signs looked good, and everything was progressing as it should. Still, he ran every test. He drew fluids. Did the ultra-sound twice. Made me do a stress test and then ran the tests all over again in my wolf form.

When I pointed out that me being in great shape was a good thing, he just smiled tightly and said he was stressed but happy. Then, he sent me on my way. No delving into how I was mentally or how Jax was. None of his usual banter.

"This is the same spell that Amelia found," Lunessa said suddenly. "It removed a shifter's wolf, only this spell is in English, so why is Emerson's in Latin?"

Evalina frowned. "Oh, I should have noticed this right away. The handwriting is the same, and these aren't torn pages out of a book."

I glanced over Lunessa's shoulder. "That's Emerson's handwriting. I didn't even know he knew any other languages. Why would he transcribe them from English?"

"To hide from Maeve," Lunessa breathed and looked up at Evalina. "These are all spells to strip Anna of something Maeve needs. Her wolf. Her magic. Would that work? We know some incredibly strong banishing spells. If Anna performed them on herself…"

"She would still be a witch," Evalina interrupted. "Just a witch without magic. I doubt removing anything would hinder the spell. She'd be a shifter without a wolf, or Fae without any talents. It's not what she can do that the spell needs. It's simply who she is."

For a moment, I felt a brief surge of relief that I wouldn't lose my wolf, followed by the realization that we were putting a lot of hope in Emerson's papers. Jax was right. They weren't going to be helpful at all.

"This is in a language I can't even identify," Evalina muttered. "But this note here in the margin is in English."

My gaze flew to where her finger was on the page, and I immediately felt sick.

Breed her.

"Excuse me," I muttered. "I need to get some air."

I'd barely stumbled out of the clearing of Irene's cottage before I leaned over and vomited in the bushes. I knew Emerson wanted me, but just the thought of him breeding me revolted me. It left such a horrible feeling inside of me. All I wanted to do was shower.

And change my clothes since I'd gotten a little vomit on my pants.

I drove back to the house and tried not to vomit again. Before I stumbled up to the room, I heard Jax and Elonso talking in his office. I headed that way to give them an update on what we'd found.

"So you don't know for sure," Jax said, his voice laced with disappointment.

"They were together a lot behind closed door. I interrupted them once, but I can't guarantee that it was the only time. So yeah, I guess it's possible that the baby could be Emerson's."