Lips pursed, I nodded slowly while I turned this all over in my mind. Logically, I knew this whole magic underworld wasn’t going to stay hidden forever, but was it too much to ask for someone else to be the ones to expose it?
“Is there anything else I don’t know?” I asked, keeping my tone even, despite the tremors in my hands.
“Uh yeah, actually, there is something I need to fill everyone in on,” Wesley spoke up from his seat on the couch behind me. I’d been sitting on the ground while he brushed out my hair for me during the guys’ recount of the evening and hadn’t bothered to move yet.
Shifting a little now, I craned my head so I could look at him with a frown. It had seemed like he’d told me everything in the tub. Perhaps not, though.
“Um, so these vision things I’ve been having, at first they seemed really random, like I was either inadvertently spying on Kit or I was witnessing conversations that made no sense. Anyway, I had another one earlier tonight that made a whole lot more sense.” He shifted uncomfortably and reached a hand up to run through his hair, then caught the gesture before it completed. “Kit, was the girl you healed in the training center sort of Asian looking? Long black hair, about five-six or so?”
“Yeah, that sounds right.” I frowned. “Why?”
“So, I’m pretty sure that’s the girl I saw in my vision-thing earlier and also a couple of other times, but it didn’t make sense until now.” Wesley sighed heavily. “What I saw was her shifting into wolf form under the supervision of some Omega medics...” He paused. “And Director Pierre.”
My stomach sank at hearing my fears confirmed, and my fingernails bit into my sides as I clenched my hands and tried not to throw up or something.
“So it was all a setup then? All the accidents... the car? The bomb in New York?” Bile was rising in my throat as I considered the possibility that Jonathan could be behind those attacks. They could have killed me. He would have no way of knowing I couldn’t die; hell, I hadn’t even known for all that long.
“I’m not sure.” Wesley shook his head. “I just know that the accidents with the recruits were not accidents.”
For a really long, tense moment, no one spoke. What the hell could you say to that, anyway? My adoptive dad might have been responsible for nearly killing three of my guardians and me. What the actual fuck did you say to that?
“I think I need a nap or something,” I finally muttered, standing up from my place on the carpet and making moves toward one of the bedrooms. It had already been decided we would all catch a bit of rest before heading back to Seattle, but now I wasn’t even sure I wanted to go back at all.
“Wait, Kitty Kat.” Caleb’s voice halted me, and I looked back at him with a groan.
“What now?” Yes, I did sound like a petulant child, but I’d had a lot of shocks in the past few hours, and my nerves were pretty frayed around the edges.
“Your ring,” he said, holding out his hand for the sapphire ring I’d slipped on after retrieving it out of Mr. Gray’s soupy remains. “Don’t you want to activate it?”
My brows shot up in surprise, and a small smile pulled at my mouth. “Activate it?” I repeated. “What is this, Captain Planet?”
“Really, Kitty? Now is not the time for jokes,” he teased back and gestured me over to him. “I’ve been doing some research with my, um, mentor. Anyway, I found out what you need to do with it.”
“You have my attention,” I replied, trying not to feel yet another pang of hurt that he was still keeping secrets from me. Crossing back to him where he sat on the floor, I folded my knees and moved to take the ring off.
“No, keep it on,” he said, just reaching for my hand instead. “It’s actually a really simple spell. I wrote it down for these dickheads who don’t speak Latin. We just place a drop of our blood on the stone and recite the words, then you recite yours and it’s done. Easy as that.”
“Um, okay.” I chewed at my lip, looking down at the stone on my left ring finger. When I’d put it on, it hadn’t been a conscious decision, so I really hoped it was a mere coincidence that it fit my wedding ring finger perfectly. “What will it do, do you know?”
Caleb shrugged, tugging a folded piece of paper from his pocket and placing it on the coffee table. “I only know what Vic told Vali, that it would allow you to access the individual powers of your dianoch. Beyond that...” He raised an eyebrow and stroked my palm with a finger. “Beyond that, no one knows. Except the Ban Dia, and they seem to be pretty damn good at keeping themselves hidden.”
“So, what do you want to do, love?” River asked quietly, perching on the edge of the coffee table and leaning his arms on his knees. “You don’t have to do anything now. If you want to wait and research more...”
“No,” I said, steeling my spine. “No, I want to try and find out. We didn’t just go to all that trouble for me to wear a pretty ring. Especially now.” I didn’t think anything else needed to be said on the subject. By especially now, what I meant was, especially now that dragons are all over the news and it’s only a matter of time before the entire world found out about the existence of magic. We needed all the strength we could get, even if it did mean taking a risk on ancient magic.
“But maybe let’s just do one of you for now. Then we can give it a couple of days to see what side effects there are, if any.” I withdrew my hand from Caleb’s in order to wipe nervous, sweaty palms on my robe.
“That sounds sensible,” Vali commented, folding his huge arms over his chest. “Who do you want first?”
“Um,” I hadn’t really thought about that. If I chose, was that showing favoritism? Or would it be throwing one of them to the wolves? What if something really bad happened as a result?
“I’ll do it,” Austin snapped, sounding almost... I don’t even know. Angry?
“Not necessary, bro,” Caleb replied. “I’m sure I can handle it.”
“Don’t be a moron, Cal.” Austin rolled his eyes from where he sat further down the couch. “You still don’t have a handle on your Blood. Is that something you want to burden Christina with too?”
“Oh,” Caleb said, looking crestfallen.
“Exactly,” Austin retorted in a voice as dry as the fucking Sahara. “Cole and Vali are obviously not viable options either, unless you want to risk Christina spontaneously turning scaly in the middle of a fucking Louboutin store. Probably not the smartest move when the entire fucking world is probably on the lookout for dragons right now. River is still human because he’s a stubborn as fuck control freak who needs to get his shit in line before he jumps on the bandwagon—”
“What about me?” Wesley asked, frowning.
“Wes, bro,” Austin sighed. “You don’t even know what you are, yet.”
“Fair point.” Wesley blushed, then turned a sheepish look at me. “Sorry, sweetheart, he’s right.”