Page 5 of The Lunatics

I could tell from the gasps around me that there were wolves in the audience seeing this little bit of WTFery for the first time. A grin tugged at my lips. Gia and I had been so freaked out by this part of the ritual when we were kids that we had to be shushed by the adults around us.

You think it might get boring, sitting up here and waiting in silence while hundreds of shifters took turns cutting themselves open. It wasn’t. Between the continuous build of power and my anticipation of seeing Gia, I was locked in, my sole focus on the ceremony unfolding below.

A blond head moved forward to take the knife. I sat up higher to get a better look. Gia? The figure strode from the crowd, hair cropped short, wide shoulders draped in expensive fabric. Ugh. Nathaniel. I deflated a little and turned my gaze toward where theKolbecks had sat. Michael was still there, spine ramrod straight, chin lifted as he stared intently at his younger brother. His jaw clenched, and he nodded. I followed his gaze and saw Nathaniel, his hand bloody, nod back up at Michael before retreating to the back of the crowd.

Huh. They’d come to find Nathaniel a mate. He must have been serious about it if he decided to remain even after the mystic’s warning. I hoped that was it, and that they weren’t here for some other, nefarious reason. It wouldn’t end well for them if they were. The mystic wasn’t lying when she said the Goddess would find the wolves who harbored ill intentions and punish them for it.

A few minutes later, Gia stepped forward to mount the dais. She moved with purpose, her motions swift and decisive as she added her blood to the plinth. That composure cracked just a little as she turned, finding me in the audience. She grinned wide and gave me a thumbs-up with her uninjured hand. I smiled back and returned the gesture.

It hit me then, that after this, everything could change. My parents once told me that the bond had been overwhelming for them at first, everyone else becoming secondary. They’d barely spoken to their families, briefly lost contact with friends.

I’d been so focused on helping Gia through this that I hadn’t thought about what it might mean for our relationship. She was about to gain a life partner. Someone who might supplant me as her closest confidant, her secret-bearer. I could be left alone, forced to slog my way through life without her playing the critical role in it that she had occupied since our first day of kindergarten.

The pain of that thought was like a visceral thing. Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes. I bowed my head and gave myself a minute to wallow in self-pity, and then to accept it all.

I took a deep breath, wiped my tears away, and lifted my gaze back to the ritual. Whatever happened from here on out, I’d behere for Gia, just like I’d promised. If that meant stepping back and allowing her the time she needed with her new mate, so be it. When the bonding fog finally cleared and she had enough bandwidth to allow me back in, I’d be waiting.

By the time the last few wolves made their offerings, the moon had peeked out above the boughs of the pine trees to the south. She was a nearly full, waning crescent. Her lambent light fell gently upon the far side of the amphitheater, bathing the wolves there in a spill of silver that fell just short of illuminating the crowd below us. If not for my preternatural eyes, it would have been difficult to make them out in the gloom of shadow cast by the rim.

The last wolf stepped away from the dais, and I braced myself for impact, remembering this part of the ceremony well. Their blood acted as the seal on the spell, and as it disappeared into the granite, magic burst from the plinth and howled over us. I gritted my teeth, leaning forward against the onslaught. Gasps broke out around me, whispers following in their wake. I wasn’t the only one surprised by the strength of the magic.

Gia and I had been caught out in a thunderstorm one summer night before starting our junior year of high school, and the weight of the air pressing down around me now reminded me of it. All the hair on my arms stood on end, waiting for the lightning to strike. The clearing smelled like burnt aether. If power had washed over my psyche earlier, it crashed against it now like a hurricane-ravaged sea. My skin puckered, fur threatening to punch through it.

“Mom,” a little girl said from nearby. Her voice was strained.

“Come on. Up you get,” the mother said, leading her daughter out into the field so she could shift.

They weren’t the only ones rushing from their seats. Even grown wolves were among their number. The threat of shifting seemed stronger now than at the first ceremony I’d attended. Gia and I had fought it off just fine when we were younger, and I couldn’tremember a single adult giving in back then. What was different this time?

“Do you feel that?” a familiar voice said from nearby.

I turned to see Audrey, one of my mom’s closest friends, sitting nearby with her hand raised. She moved it back and forth in front of her as though brushing it over something. The moonlight bathed her dark skin in hues of purple and blue. Her curly hair bobbed over her shoulders in the metaphysical breeze. She was a mystic, like the woman who led us.

Beside her, her husband shuddered. “What is it?”

“I don’t know. The magic is… growing. Like Antoinette isn’t the only one controlling it anymore,” she answered.

Her gaze fell to the dais. Antoinette must be the name of the mystic presiding over the ceremony. If she was losing control, then who the hell was trying to take over?

A shiver of unease ran through me. It was bad up here in the crowd. How much worse was it down in the hollow? I searched the wolves for my best friend. Gia wasn’t capable of casting magic, but she had an awareness of it that most of us didn’t. Unlike me, she could actually see wards. She could even sense spells being cast, where I only felt the aftermath of them. Finally, I found her. She sat with her shoulders scrunched up and her arms wrapped around herself in obvious discomfort.

Antoinette, still standing on the dais, picked the knife back up and paused for a moment. “If any among you has yet to come forth, please do so now.”

No one moved.

“Then we may continue,” she said in a calm, easy tone that belied the smell of anxiety permeating the air around me. Her gaze rose and swept over our seats, a slight smile playing across her lips. “If those mystics in attendance would help to reinforce the barrier, that would be welcome. The Goddess is restless tonight.”

I stared down at her, eyes wide.The Goddess is restless?Was that who was interfering in the ritual? Only She alone would know why, though I couldn’t help but worry over it. Our Goddess was known for Her foresight. Was there some darkness on the horizon that only She could see, and that was why She was dipping Her fingers down to earth? To shift events so that we might have a fighting chance of overcoming whatever it was that She foresaw?

Audrey rose swiftly to her feet, palms up, chanting softly. Over a dozen others throughout the audience stood along with her, adding their power to the barrier.

Down below, Gia pivoted her head around like an owl, eyes wide. When our gazes met, she mouthedWhat the fuck?up at me.

I shrugged back at her, feeling helpless.

Antoinette, seemingly unperturbed by this turn of events, clasped her hands together in front of her and addressed the wolves on the hollow floor. “As the moon casts Her gaze upon us, I would ask that you welcome Her into yourselves. That you make ready for Her blessing and open your hearts to the ones you will soon share them with.”

Many down below bowed their heads in obedience.