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He jerked as if startled, even though we’d been making a lot of noise. After a bare instant he rolled over and up, until he was crouched over his heels. He grabbed the hand I’d had on his shoulder before he’d moved and brought it to his face, inhaling deeply.
He made a garbled sound that tried and failed to be a word. He followed that with a dozen other noises that also might have been words. I didn’t think they were, though. There was something about them that felt wrong—the opposite of communication.
Gary looked up and his gaze swept over mine as if he couldn’t see me. Then he closed his eyes, nodded once, and banged his hand against the bars of the cage. After the second bang he released my hand and waited. He was obviously making an effort to be still.
The cage locked with a key, but it also had a fingerprint lock that was much more convenient—as long as Adam was in the room. I gestured, and Adam opened the cage. There was a high-pitched beep and the lock clicked. I pulled open the door.
Gary kept his eyes closed and, nostrils flared, crawled out of the cage and to me. Not stopping until his arms were wrapped around my middle and his face was buried under my jaw, knocking me on my butt on the floor in the process. He sat there, rigid, for a long moment, then his whole body went limp and he began sobbing. Adam sat on the edge of the couch and put a hand on my brother’s head as if he were one of the pack who needed comforting.
Quietly, Tad said, “I am increasingly uncomfortable with the knowledge that he drove from Montana in that state.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Gary was damp—wrestling in the snow could do that. This close, the scent of his terror and sweat was unpleasant. We’d have to get him a shower followed by clean, dry clothes. But that was something for later, because I was picking up a new odor stronger than any of the other scents Gary was carrying.
Sherwood had done something to that cage, all right. He’d created some sort of barrier that had locked away the magic swirling around my brother so well, I hadn’t sensed it until the door opened. I thought of the time we’d locked Ben in the cage when the smoke dragon had controlled him, and wondered if Sherwood’s modification would have helped Ben by cutting off the smoke dragon’s magic.
We are all preparing to fight the previous war, I thought. Maybe the cage’s new properties would come in handy the next time an ancient fae predator decided to make puppets out of our wolves.
“He reeks of magic,” I told them. “It’s a bit odd—it reminds me of fae magic, but it isn’t anything I’ve been around before.”
I had one hand on the back of Gary’s head and the other on his shoulder. Even through the padding of the ripped jacket, his body was rock-tight. He did not react when I spoke.
“I can’t sense it,” Tad said—which was unusual, I thought, though I wasn’t sure. Tad’s power, since he was a half-blood fae, was weirder than mine, as well as an order of magnitude or two more powerful. I could smell magic, but Tad could work it. “Do you want me to call Dad?”
Zee had been…strange…since he’d destroyed the Soul Taker, an ancient and sentient artifact. Tad and I had decided that the resolution of Zee’s long hunt had brought some part of his older, more dangerous self back into the forefront. I sometimes felt as though the older beings I knew had their personalities in geological layers. We’d cracked the ground to release the Dark Smith once more into the world. Now Zee didn’t always fit neatly into the shape of the old mechanic who had been Tad’s father.
I was glad Tad saw it, too. Otherwise, I’d have to put Zee’s sudden strangeness down to whatever the Soul Taker had done to me.
“Zee was fine at work today,” I said, rubbing my temple with a finger. “What do you think?”
Tad touched the side of Gary’s face with his fingers, then withdrew them and shook his head. “I can’t sense anything at all. We should talk to either my dad or Uncle Mike.”
“Call Zee,” Adam said.
I looked at him.
He gave me a faint smile. “You’ll break his heart if you go to someone else with this.”
Tad let out a breath. “That’s true. But it doesn’t make it a good idea.”
I met Adam’s eyes.
“Have Tad call Zee, Mercy,” my mate said. “The Dark Smith of Drontheim destroyed a fascinating power for your sake. He won’t hurt you.”
“We made a bargain,” I said. “It wasn’t for my sake.”
“I forgot,” Adam lied—which he only did deliberately. He was making a statement, and he stared me down.
My brother’s sobs had slowed to uneven breathing. I petted his head and nodded at Tad. “Call him, please. Jesse, could you get some water? And maybe some food.”
—
Honey came before Zee arrived.
She wore a red sweater over leggings and managed to make it look like she was ready to attend a board meeting. But she crouched beside Gary and me without reacting to the way he smelled. She leaned close but didn’t try to touch Gary. For his part, he didn’t seem to notice her. In fact, he seemed to be actively trying not to notice anyone or anything.
I hadn’t been able to tempt him with food or water. He’d quit sobbing, but he kept his head down and he hadn’t loosened his hold on me.
