15
AFTER STRUGGLING AND STRUGGLING, I FOUND MYSELF alone, standing on a great barren field of snow.
The cold was so great that it froze my nose when I breathed in, but, although I was naked, I wasn't uncomfortable.
"Mercedes," Bran's voice was breathless.
"Here you are! Finally." I turned all around and couldn't see him.
"Mercedes," he told me, "I can talk to you because you are part of Adam's pack and his pack is mine, too.
But you need to listen because I can't hear you.
THE END
All I can do is show you what I think you need." "All right," I told him.
It felt lonely knowing he couldn't hear me.
Lonely because it wasn't Adam who'd found me there in the snow.
I shivered though I still wasn't feeling the cold.
"The biggest weapon in the arsenal of a fairy queen is enthrallment.
As a member of a pack, you should be all but immune to that.
But yours is a special case, and I am told that no one thought to teach you how the pack magic should work for you.
Apparently my son and Adam, who should know better, assumed that it would all be instinctive because that's how it works for a wolf.
When Adam found that it was not the case, he chose to wait so he could find out who had been messing with you--instead of making you safe." "There were complications," I told him sharply.
I didn't like to hear him being critical of Adam.
I'd known what he was doing and approved of the way his mind worked.
A pause followed, and I had the distinct impression of surprise.
"I'm sorry for offending you," he said slowly.
"That I know you are offended is .
.
.
interesting." I got the impression of a shrug, and he continued with his message.
"You should know that thrall magic is not so different from the pack bonds, Mercedes.
The pack bonds are not built to subdue individuality to the Alpha or enforce behavior of any kind.
A pack needs all its differences, and we find strength in that: a lot more strength than one stupid fairy queen who is stealing magic and using a witch.
You understand me? " His fury shook my whole being, he was so angry.
He wasn't angry with me, though, so it wasn't my concern.