I had to find a way around it. Asking Ryder to kill Alvin had been an act of desperation, one that I wasn’t proud of. If I’d given my request more thought, then maybe I could have undermined the prophecy. There was still time. Ryder hadn’t challenged Alvin yet. I could find the dragon shifter and tell him I’d changed my mind.
I could call this all off.
Ryder needed help, though. He wasn’t going to go anywhere until he got what he wanted. I couldn’t do that until I figured out what that was. That left us in a standstill. I’d hoped that this visit would give me a bit of clarity, but I wasn’t sure anymore.
I bit back my hesitation and opened the book. As if waiting for me, it fell open to the page of the prophecy. The handwriting didn’t match Catriona’s penmanship on the previous pages. The witch herself had written this so that there was no way someone would write it down wrong.
The Black Dog will bring with it an ill omen. Beware the strike of lightning because it will burn the cruel and unholy. The Alpha will be at the center of that strike should he let his shadow grow taller than himself.
I growled in frustration. This didn’t say anything about my hand in the Alpha’s demise. I wanted to throw the book across the room. No matter how I claimed that I wanted nothing to do with this, I couldn’t convince anyone to separate it from me. They couldn’t see past these words that an outsider had given them to see their suffering packmate.
Anoutsiderhad given this prophecy to the pack.
I ran my fingers down the page. Burn the cruel and unholy stuckwith me. Alvin had been a kind man before he’d found out that the prophecy had been about me. Or, at least, that’s what I’d always thought. It seemed as though this had revealed a side of Alvin that few got to see. He’d kept his true nature hidden.
That gave me an idea. The pack blamed Alvin’s behavior on me and the prophecy, but if I could expose the things he’d done before my first shift, then I might be able to convince the pack to turn against him. It was a shot in the dark because I didn’t even know where to begin.
I bit the tip of my thumb. If Alvin had always been cruel, then he hid it well. I didn’t know what kind of truths I could dredge up to show the pack. I would have to get close to Alvin and his family, which I didn’t want to do.
I wanted to escape this prophecy, though. I wanted to get out from under its umbrella so badly that I figured this might be worth the risk. All I had to do was find evidence.
For a moment, I allowed myself to yearn for a friend to talk me out of this plan. Cerri and Addie were at the café, and Vi was banned from Catriona’s house because of her tendency to set things on fire. I couldn’t invite Ryder here without putting Catriona in trouble, either. I gripped the edge of the table and tried to talk myself down.
Did I want to dive into the closet that Alvin kept his skeletons in? Hell no. Did I have any other choice? It didn’t feel like it.
I put the book with the prophecy record down and turned to the other book Catriona had pulled out for me. I ran my fingers down the aged spine. The handwriting inside belonged to someone who had been a part of the pack long before I’d entered this world. I wondered what this old book had to do with me.
Flipping through the first few pages didn’t tell me much of anything. As historian, Catriona had likely read a fair number of the old records. If she thought this one would tell me something, that meant she’d read it. I wished she’d stuck around to tell me which page held what I was looking for.
Nervous, I chewed on the tip of my thumb.
Then, as I quickly flipped through the pages, I noticed a lightning bolt. It appeared and disappeared in the blink of an eye when the pages settled. I quickly grabbed the edge of the pages and flipped through them again. This time, I stopped when a sketchy lightning bolt appeared again.
The record on the page spoke of a black dog that had invaded the local church during a sermon. Lightning struck the church and a few of the people inside. A witness reported seeing a dog before the lightning, and once the light faded, a woman where the dog had been.
I gasped. Finally, a scrap of information!
I flipped the page, eager to read the rest, only to find that someone had ripped it out. My stomach hit the floor. A torn edge ran along the inseam of the book. I brushed it with the pad of my thumb, as if my willpower alone could bring the page back into being.
Nothing happened. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but my disappointment was palpable. I let out a soft curse and wondered who this mystery Barghest could have been. If she made that kind of show in a church, she must have been filled with fury.
I turned the page back. The way the scene had been recorded made me wonder if I could control the storm. The viewer made it seem as though the woman had brought that lightning strike down. She’d done it while in her hound form.
My lips twisted to the side. I wasn’t sure if I could get away with practicing. Alvin would send a hunt out for me if he saw signs of a storm. Alvin wouldn’t want me to gain control of my arcana. My storms weren’t exactly easy to hide.
Why couldn’t I have had a cool arcana like Cerri? I wanted to brew potions in the privacy of my own room. Then I could have learned more about myself without the fear of someone breathing down my neck.
I turned my phone over and glanced at the time. I would have to meet with Alvin later. He’d made it very clear that if I was late with my check-ins, then I would be in even more trouble. Did I even care at this point?
The urge to run as far and fast as I could hit me and left me with a yearning for freedom that I’d never felt so strongly before. My whole chest ached when I thought about my feet hitting the ground for joy and not survival. There would come a day when I didn’t have to keep watch over my shoulder.
That day would be here, in Lakesedge, because I couldn’t abandon my home or my pack. I knew they were doing everything they could to help me. Okay, so that wasn’t much, but I understood how it felt when Alvin turned his anger toward me. I couldn’t blame them for shrinking away.
Maybe I was too forgiving, but I didn’t want anyone else to take my place. I wanted to get rid of Alvin’s ruthless control once and for all.
Where was Catriona? I needed to find her so she could tell me about the missing page. I crouched and returned the book to the shelf because she would know what I was talking about when I asked her. I scowled at the prophecy and gave it an angry shake as if I could chastise the witch who’d left it. The gesture was futile. I didn’t feel any better in the end, so I shoved the book back where it belonged and went downstairs.
I followed the smell of freshly brewed tea to the kitchen where I found Catriona pouring it from a clear glass teapot. She only had one cup set out, which meant that she didn’t want company. I licked my lips and hovered in the doorway.