all your crew care about is their precious Thunderbird!” She clutched the case to her chest, hugging it. “You all think Uncegila is the monster, but she’s only trying to protect her children. The horned serpents have a right to exist too, as much as anything else. And the Thunderbird is a murderer! If you knew what it had done to me—to us—”
*Do know,* he said gently. *Snakemother is in me too. Have felt her thoughts. Her memories. Have seen them all burning, as the lightning fell—our dam, our uncles and aunts and cousins. Know why you hate Stormheart so much. But this will not bring our family back.*
“No,” she said, voice shaking. “But at least I’ll have revenge.”
*Will be all you have. Revenge, and Snakemother. Neither will comfort you, in the long, empty nights.*
“I know.” Her head bowed. The serpent mark stood out on her forehead, livid as a wound. “But I don’t have a choice.”
*You have me. I’m your brother. I will protect you from anything. Even her.*
“You can’t!” She bared her teeth in anger, tears streaking her face. “I’m the one who tried to protect you! I gave you the serum, I gave you a future! All you had to do was forget the past. Why didn’t you listen? Why did you have to remember, why did you have to come after me?”
That made him pause, fur twitching with unease. *You are my sister. I will always come for you.*
“I made a deal with Uncegila, you idiot! She promised that if I stopped resisting her, if I obeyed her willingly, she’d leave you alone. But only as long as you weren’t a threat to her plans. If you ever remembered, if you ever were able to tell your friends how to find me, the deal was off. All you had to do was not remember! I did everything she wanted, so that she’d leave you alone!”
*Oh,* he whispered. *Oh, Lucy.*
He went to her, cautiously, keeping one eye on the looming wendigo. The creature clattered its jaws, fangs scraping together in warning, but let him approach.
His sister stiffened, eying him as though expecting some sort of trick. Very slowly, he ducked his head, resting his muzzle lightly on her narrow shoulder.
After a moment, her arms came up. She hugged him with silent desperation, like a child. Like a little girl, alone in the dark, clinging to a stuffed wolf.
He thought of The Bitch. She’d held him too, but not quite like this. Her arms had encircled him as though trying to protect him against the world. Trying to make just one small space where they could be together.
But they couldn’t.
And so, this was the only thing he could do.
My mate, he thought, as his sister’s tears dripped into his fur. Forgive me.
“You’re my brother,” his sister said into his neck. “I thought, I thought at least I could do one good thing with my life. I thought at least one of us could be free.”
*Yes,* he murmured softly in her mind. *One of us can.*
Chapter 42
Rory half-flew, half-tumbled back into the entrance hall. The griffin’s feathers were askew, some of them snapped in half by the ferocious winds. When he shifted back to human form, his eyes were as wild as his storm-tossed hair.
“It’s no good,” he said, shaking snow off his jacket. “I can’t get aloft to look for him. And he’s either blocking my telepathy, or too far away already. Callum, Seren, can either of you do anything to find him?”
Callum spread his hands, helplessly. Seren shook her head, her braided hair swinging.
“Not in this,” the shark shifter said. “The winds have scourged away any scent I might have followed.”
“Darcy?” Edith looked at her, expression torn between panic and hope. “What about you?”
“Me?” Darcy discovered that all the shifters were looking at her like she was a lottery ticket one unscratched number away from the jackpot. “What do you expect me to do, hack into the local satellites? I’m a private investigator, not James Bond.”
“No, but you are Fenrir’s mate,” Wystan said. “That often gives a kind of connection, even if the bond is not yet fully consummated. Please. At least try to reach him.”
Feeling rather stupid, Darcy closed her eyes. She did her best to visualize stretching out, searching for Fenrir’s…soul? Energy? She had no idea what she was meant to be looking for.
And yet, and yet…
There was something. Just a whisper. It was like another heart beat beneath her own; just the faintest echo,