“Why is it okay for us to return now?” Mischa asked, her voice husky. She had a few tears too.
Lienda walked forward and wiped a tear off her daughter’s cheek. “You turned twenty-two last month. The spell keeping your wolf contained is due to wear off soon.” She turned, and with the slightest hesitation gently wiped at my cheeks also. I closed my eyes at the feather-light touch. “You need the community to help you, you need a pack.” She glanced at Jonathon. “We figure most of the danger of detection has passed.”
Not to mention that anyone with eyes and a heart could see that she and Jonathan could not stay apart any longer.
Jonathon moved to her side. “Your wolf will break free, Mischa, but don’t worry about the spells muting your marks. They are much stronger, and should last your lifetime.”
I wondered then if the dragon mark had something to do with my demon. Could the mark be something I felt inside just waiting to explode? Was it only the spelling to hide and mute its energy keeping it contained?
There were still so many things I didn’t understand. “Why did you announce that we were sisters?” I knew why he hadn’t said twins, but it might have been better to pretend there were no familial ties.
He bestowed a gentle smile on me, a familiar twinkle in his blue eyes. “Because there was no hiding your similarities, we decided to stick as close to the truth as we could. But no one knows that you’re twins. Mischa is twenty according to her identification.” Jonathon moved even closer until the four of us were in a tight circle. “I told the council that I left Stratford once and found Lienda.”
“And that from our union came Mischa,” Lienda added. “They think Jonathon didn’t know of the second pregnancy, and that’s why he didn’t demand I return. I’m a pariah in the community but I don’t care. As long as you two are safe, it’s all worth it.”
“What are the dragon mark abilities?” I asked.
They both exchanged glances before shrugging. Jonathon tried to explain. “We don’t know. There have been none that we know of make it past the age of one. A few parents managed to hide their children until then, but they made the mistake of only spelling the mark, not the abilities also. There are trackers trained in the arts of detecting the dragon mark energy. They are strong and lethal and will stop at nothing.”
He paused and my heart froze in my chest. His eyes shimmered as he met my gaze and I knew bad news was coming my way. He crinkled his eyes and his lips thinned to a single line. “You can’t tell anyone about this, Jessa, not even the Compasses.”
I just stared at him. He knew I told those boys everything. I trusted them with my life a hundred times over. Finally I shook my head. “I can’t promise that. Why would you even ask me to? What do you know?”
“Remember how I said there had been one other set of quads born to the supernatural community?”
I nodded. Mischa also bobbed her head a few times.
“The Craiz men, which the supernatural world call the Four. They are the first quads, and are the most vicious dragon mark hunters in existence. Even though they’re very old and powerful, they still actively hunt.” His eyes bore into me and I felt he was trying to warn me.
“What are you saying?” My voice was barely above a whisper and my eyes widened at a sudden thought. “That based on one other instance in history, all quads become dragon mark hunters and the Compasses are going to hunt me one day? That they’ll want to kill me and Mischa?”
Nothing in this world would make me believe that.
Jonathon’s features tightened. “I don’t know. Part of the reason I’ve always encouraged your friendship is the hope that your love for each other would keep you safe. That if they did become dragon mark hunters – because that seems to be the calling of the quads – the boys would protect rather than hunt.”
My head was hurting, I reached up and rubbed my temples, hoping to relieve the tension. I was on information overload, and honestly wasn’t sure I could process one more thing. Quads became dragon mark hunters, twins were always marked. This was confusing and heartbreaking and…
“I need to go,” I mumbled, not even caring that Jonathon was there and he had forbidden running alone. Lucky for him, he didn’t say anything.
I had my shirt halfway over my head when I noticed Mischa’s wide eyes on me. I halted. “Do you want to see me shift?”
I felt a kindred spirit in Mischa now. The circumstances of our birth had shaped both of our lives. But somehow I thought she’d gotten the worst, never knowing who she really was and never having her animal to fall back on. It kind of made me sad to think about it.
She swallowed loudly. I could see her throat working as she attempted to speak. She looked at our mom. “I’m going to be forced to shift soon?” Her voice was low and breathless.
Lienda nodded.