“She’s right.” Coral bit her fingernail. “You better get on board because there’ll be more than those three around once we’ve rounded up the other girls.”
“How many girls are there? You mentioned five sides.” If I were a betting woman, I’d say four, but if I’d learned anything this past week, it was that I usually found out something new.
“Four.” Beatrice smiled. “That much I remember. There are five points to a star, and thus each girl will represent a vertex.”
“That’s neat.” Beth grinned and leaned back in her seat.
“Where are they?” I had no clue where to even begin the search. Honestly, I was waiting to wake up from this dream. Witches couldn’t have babies with shifters unless it was time for a marked girl to be born. It sounded crazy. And the worst part was, if the witches birthed the hybrid, they didn’t survive.
“From what I can remember of the prophecy, they are all in the United States.” Amethyst leaned over her mom. “It’s so amazing to actually be part of this.”
“I had no clue about any of this, but I’m not going anywhere.” Beth straightened her shoulders. “There’s no getting rid of me.”
“It’s strange how you guys think of it as a prophecy, but my dad thinks of it as a curse.” Aidan chewed on a piece of bacon.
“Perception is important,” Rowan stated. “The Hallowed Guild thinks having a female leader is the end of times while we believe an all-women council that brings witches and wolves together is a sign of progression and stability.”
“That makes sense.” Aidan sighed. “But how do we get them to realize it’s not a bad thing?”
“You can’t.” Finn’s face turned unreadable. “Those assholes don’t care about anything other than themselves. They enjoy the fear they bestow upon us.”
“I’m not sure I’d go that far, but Finn is right.” Coral licked her lips. “That’s why we need to create some sort of council. It’s the only way to unify us. The wolves will fight it tooth and nail.”
“Ha, love the pun.” Beth chuckled.
Coral’s forehead lined. “What pun?”
“You know what? Forget it.” Beth waved her off.
“Okay … so, the girls. How the hell do I find them?” It was all fun and games to talk about what we were going to do, but we were missing the first huge piece—finding them.
“That’s one reason it’s a good thing we’re here.” Beatrice picked up her napkin and dabbed her mouth. “We have a community building that contains all our spell books and history.”
“So one of those books will tell us the whole story?” Aidan’s shoulders relaxed as if he’d expected it all to be harder.
“Yes, it does,” Beatrice said, wincing.
“Great, let’s go get it.” Beth stood and motioned for everyone to get up.
“There is a slight problem.” Sage stared us down. “We aren’t sure which one it is.”
“That’s no big deal.” It didn’t seem as bad as she was making it out to be. “Let’s go look through them.”
“When we say ‘history books,’ we’re talking about thousands.” Rowan sighed. “When we got here, we put our things away, but we didn’t have time to organize or anything. We’ll have to find the answers as we get the library in order. It’ll take a minute.”
Of course it would. Nothing could ever be so simple. “Then, I guess we’d better get to work. We need to find those girls before The Hallowed Guild does.” Hopefully, fate was on our side and we would find the information quickly. Otherwise, we might find out what happened when the chosen wolf didn’t finish her job.
Chapter Five
The next week passed in a blur. We spent all of our time, opening box after box, looking for the book that contained the prophecy. When Beatrice had mentioned they needed to put the library together, she hadn’t been exaggerating.
There were so many damn books.
And the topics varied widely—everything from healing spells, to hexing spells, to Mother Nature, to potions. I spotted something with the word death on it, and I quickly ran away from that. I didn’t need any more bad juju around me.
But the most amazing thing happened in the least expected way—I finally didn’t feel so alone anymore. I wasn’t sure if it was from being around the witches or bonding with my mate—hell, maybe it was a combination of the two—but I felt like I belonged somewhere for the first time in my life.
“I’m going cross-eyed.” Beth stood from the dark cherry wood table. She glanced across the table at me and Aidan, then turned her head at Amethyst, who sat next to her. “How many books do we still have to go through?”
The library was a huge building in the middle of the coven’s neighborhood. It was the same size as the other ranch-style homes, but it had huge bookshelves built into the walls, and there were at least five large tables in the center. The only other room in here was the bathroom in the corner.
“Are you really asking her that question?” I pointed to the twenty boxes left to go through. We’d already unpacked over three-fourths of the library, but it had taken our core group of ten working around the clock in shifts, and we hadn’t found anything useful.
“You’d better be glad I love you.” Beth pointed at me. “Because if I didn’t, your ass would be getting a beat down.”
Aidan growled beside me.
Beth narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you threatening to hit a girl?”
“You’re threatening my mate, and you all want equal rights, so—” Aidan started.
“Okay, we’re all tired and irritable.” Amethyst lifted her hands in the air. “Beth, why don’t you go back to the house and rest for a little while?”
“None of you are leaving.” Beth pouted.
“You were here before us.” Beth had been here nonstop, even more so than Aidan and me. In all fairness, I was surprised she hadn’t gotten stressed like this before now. “So go. We’ll be switching off with Finn and Samuel in about an hour.”
“Look, I’m sorry.” She ran a hand down her face. “Mom called me this morning, and we got into a huge argument.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Aidan slammed his hand on the table and glared at her. “Why the hell didn’t you toss your phone?”
Beth blinked a few times. “I wasn’t part of the pack …”
“But they know you were Emma’s roommate and that you’re with her now.” Aidan stood and held his hand out. “Give me your phone. We need to get rid of it.”
Crap, I hadn’t even thought about it. “Aidan, it’s not her fault. Calm down.” I touched his arm, using our mate bond to calm him. I glanced at Beth. “But he’s right.” I winced. I hated that I was tearing up everyone’s lives. “We need to get rid of your phone.”
“Yeah, we do.” Beth ignored Aidan’s outstretched hand. Instead, she placed her phone on the ground and stood. Then, she lifted her leg and stomped on it several times.