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“Fae magic,” I said. “When I killed Lissa, it integrated the two halves of him. Are you telling me he’s part fae?”
“He has fae DNA, yes,” she said. “I don’t know if it was something he was infected with, or something he was born with.”
“But what about me?” I said. “How have I not become infected?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “You’re not producing any antibodies that I was able to detect. And we know you’ve been exposed. Your immunity comes from some phenomenon I’ve not been able to trace.”
Anson. Somehow, I knew he was the key to that mystery as well.
“He’ll cooperate,” I said. “He swore an oath to me. We can use whatever…”
“Tempest,” Dr. Olivet said, practically shouting it. “What I’m trying to tell you…yes. More of Anson’s blood could be given to the other packs to try to bolster their immune systems. It might even work. But…the quantity we need. Anson wouldn’t survive it. We would have to bleed him dry.”
Her words thundered through me. They were the same ones Anson used.
“There has to be another way.”
She put her hands beneath her chin, as though she were praying. “I wish there were. But by the way this virus is mutating…Tempest…the effects of that first dose of Anson’s blood are already starting to wear off. I suspect by morning, your brother and father will be more or less comatose again. After that…I do not think they’ll survive. If we could trap another fae. If we could get them to tell us how to undo this.”
“I killed her,” I said. “Lissa was the way to save them, and I killed her.”
I looked up at the rising moon.
They would die. I would lose them. All of them. Or I could kill Anson to save them. That’s what she was telling me.
Sacrifice the one to save the whole. And it fell on me to decide.
Chapter Thirteen
He was out there. I could feel him. I could always feel him. His heart. His cursed soul. An infection I could not cure. My brain. My body. My blood. But for two days, he stayed away.
I spent the next two days hunting and bringing game to every pack in Wild Lake. I left it for them in the barns and outbuildings, taking care not to get close enough to reinfect any of the shifters. Tully. Devane. Lanier. Martel. Monroe. The food would help those packs last the week, but it was as if Wild Lake itself were beginning to decay from the inside out.
On the third night, as the half moon rose, Anson came back, calling to me. I found him by the lake.
“She told you something,” he said. “Your doctor.”
“Lissa,” she said. “She did this to my brother. She infected him with something and sent him here to poison the others. I should have known it was way too easy to get him out of Chicago.”
“Easy?” he said. “You think that was easy? I lost the Club.”
“Did you know?” I said. I wanted to believe whatever answer he gave me. But he had every reason to lie.
“You were close to her,” I said. “You took her magic into you. Willingly. When she sent me through that portal, I saw the real her. Truths I wouldn’t have been able to see otherwise. I know you went with her. You were close to her, Anson. Tell me the truth. For once.”
“I’ve always told you the truth,” he said. “You’ve chosen not to believe me. If I’d known I was…if I could have remembered who I was. Anson…I never would have come near you, Tem. I would rather have died than hurt you. I’m not making excuses. It doesn’t matter if I didn’t know who I was. X is in me. He’s always been in me. I’m responsible for everything he did to you.”
His words rumbled through me. They brought darkness with them that stoked that secret desire within me. The thing he’d used to make me bend…to make me crave it. Even now, I fucking wanted him.
“Dr. Olivet says there might be a cure,” I said. “She said if we could get a hold of another fae. Maybe open up a portal and trap one…”
“NO!” Anson growled. His wolf eyes flashed and he strode toward me. His hands were rough as he grabbed me, pulling me to him. “No. You are never going near fae magic again. I won’t allow it. You’d be better off if I just killed you myself, Tempest. The things they could do to you. You’d be begging to die.”
“You made it through,” I said. “You’ve been there and you made it back. I’m every bit as strong as you are. And I wouldn’t be going in blind.”
“No,” he said. “You were lucky before. Lissa wanted something from you. She needed you alive. You were never in real danger.”
“It felt like I was turning inside out!” I said. “Like the world split apart. I wasn’t safe. And…Anson…now I know how to get back. I know the answer. It was you. I was tethered to you. The soulbinding. It’s been my curse, but somehow, I was able to hold on to it. I knew where you were.”
