Moon Child (The Year of the Wolf #2) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,44

cut Ethan a look and saw he was just as confused as me.

What the humans believed in, their God? He didn’t exist. He was a merging of so many fables of the Father of our culture. An aggressive God who smote and who sent plagues and who demanded subjugation.

Their New Testament God was technically our Mother.

A gentler being. One who believed in free will. Who gave with one hand and cast out more love with the other.

Kali Sara, therefore, didn’t exist because from what I knew, she was a saint who acted as the go-between with the humans’ God and the Roma. They dialed her up and hoped she’d pass on the word to God.

I reached up and scrubbed a hand over my face, almost wishing Austin hadn’t asked the fucking question in the first place. How did we have more information than before, but somehow, have less than ever?

“Do you know who she’s talking about?” Austin asked warily, and I knew his wariness was founded in my agitation.

He didn’t give a shit if he pissed me off. Didn’t give a damn if I chewed him out… He just didn’t want her to be frightened.

It was then I realized how little faith I had in Austin sometimes. As pack enforcer, I needed his brawn not his brains, almost as if he didn’t have them. Even if I’d always relied on Ethan’s smarts when they were both sharing the same role, I knew Austin was capable of more than just being a meat-head.

Hesitantly, Lara answered, “I believe Kali Sara was speaking of the spirit inside Seth.”

My mouth tightened at that.

“Where is the child?”

Ethan cleared his throat at her question. “Confined to his room until Sabina awakens.”

She sighed. “That’s probably for the best, even if I’d like to say it isn’t.”

I cut her a glare. “Not my finest moment, sticking a ten-year-old in solitary confinement, but I wasn’t about to have him wandering around when he was a danger to his mother.”

“Do you know what that was about?”

“I’m not a lie detector, Ethan. I’m not Sabina,” she replied gently. “I just know there’s a great source of energy in him, and it’s far larger than he is.”

“Meaning?” I rumbled.

“It’s ancient, and he definitely isn’t.”

My brow puckered. “So he’s possessed?”

“Yes.”

The simplicity of her answer had me surging to my feet in a smooth move before I stalked over to the bed and climbed onto the mattress. The need to be with her, to cosset Sabina, to hold her and be close, was one I could no longer fight.

We’d taken turns, off and on, for the time she’d been down to be with her, but now, I needed her in my arms, so I carefully wrapped myself around her, making sure she was tucked into the curve of my body.

As I did so, the way she flopped around like a rag doll was enough to make me feel physically sick. She was somewhere beyond sleeping.

Unease traveled through me as I thought back to those moments after our claiming—when a cougar had attacked her after she’d defended the beast from my challenge.

As her lifeblood lay gushing out onto the soil beneath her, she’d been as still as this. As silent.

And one thing I’d come to learn about Sabina? Silence wasn’t golden.

Silence was boring.

She brought with her the sounds of birdsong and the sensation of joy. She made me feel alive, even as she calmed and soothed me, giving me the strength to make the hard decisions when it came to pack life.

I rubbed my chin over her hair, uncaring that tiny wisps were snagged in my stubble, just needing her to be close, to give me something, anything, that told me she was close to the surface.

When the mattress jostled, I connected with Austin and Ethan and recognized that they were still in their corners of the room. It was Lara.

Lara, who I wasn’t sure if I could trust yet.

I shot her a glare, not appreciating her moving into my very personal space, but she didn’t flinch at that, just started stroking a hand over Sabina’s hair.

“She was the only person who ever tried to make me feel better, do you know that? Jana and Cyrilo never cared if our father hit me. But Sabina, she cared,” Lara told me softly. “And the first thing I do after years apart is knock her out.”

“Hardly your fault,” Austin rumbled, but I sensed his tension too—even if it wasn’t enough to make him move away from his