Chapter 5 #2
A burst of loud music suddenly filled the square as the magical maypole ceremony began early for some reason.
Children screamed happily while enchanted ribbons snapped and twisted through the air like they’d developed personal ambitions.
One little witch shrieked in surprise when a pink ribbon wrapped around her ankle and yanked her three feet off the ground before swinging her wildly around the maypole like an extremely festive hostage.
“Tessa!” yelled Dolores again.
I glowered at her. “I’m literally standing here!”
“The Beast Ceremony starts in twenty minutes!”
Panic punched me directly in the soul.
Right.
The Beast Ceremony.
The thing I was apparently hosting in front of the entire town despite having exactly zero qualifications other than “owns several cardigans and survived emotional trauma.”
I scanned the growing crowd. Okay. Maybe this would be fine. Maybe for once Hollow Cove could have one relatively normal festival. Maybe nobody would partially transform. Maybe Beverly wouldn’t accidentally seduce anyone’s husband. Maybe…
A loud squealing sound erupted overhead.
I looked up just in time to see dozens of glowing pink spiders parachuting gracefully from the sky on tiny silk webs.
Oh, hell no.
“Ruth!” I screamed.
My aunt stood proudly beside an overturned crate wearing a flower-covered apron that read: SAVE A SPIDER, EAT A MOSQUITO. “Aren’t they precious?” she called happily.
One landed directly on Ronin’s shoulder.
The half-vampire stared at it.
The spider stared back.
And then Ronin screamed like a little girl. “Get it off! Get it off!”
I laughed. I couldn’t help it.
The crowd around us burst into madness as enchanted spiders drifted across the square leaving sparkling webs everywhere.
I spotted Beverly standing near the fertility pavilion looking disturbingly sexy in a white, low-cut, skin-tight dress. Soft red magic curled lazily around Beverly’s wrists and drifted through the air like perfumed smoke while every male within ten feet suddenly forgot how to act normally.
One werewolf walked directly into a lamppost. A vampire dropped his wine glass without noticing. Another man stood staring at Beverly with the kind of expression usually reserved for religious experiences or really good cheesecake.
Beverly raised both arms. “Spring is the season of passion!” she declared loudly.
The crowd cheered. Several witches nearby suddenly started aggressively making out with their husbands. A werebear ripped his shirt off for absolutely no reason.
A shifter female yelled, “I want babies!”
Ronin snorted. “Is your aunt starting a fertility cult?”
I shook my head. “Looks like it.”
“Oh my god,” said Iris beside me. “I’m really glad I came.”
I gave a short laugh and then turned my attention back to Darian and the eggs.
But my kid wasn’t there.
I spun wildly toward the crowd. “Darian? Darian!”
Nothing.
Just festival chaos: music, screaming, glitter spiders, partially transformed citizens. Somebody vomited flowers near the potion booth.
I shoved my ceremonial staff into Ronin’s chest. “Hold this.”
“What—”
“I lost my kid!”
Ronin straightened instantly. “Wait… what?”
Marcus appeared out of nowhere beside me like some terrifying alpha guardian summoned directly from my stress levels. “What happened?”
My pulse thrashed. “Can’t find Darian. He was just here… and now he’s gone.”
Marcus’s body shifted subtly, his muscles popping around his neck and shoulders. Around us, several nearby weres and shifters respectfully moved away. Because when the chief exuded full predator energy, even supernatural idiots knew better.
“I’ll find him,” Marcus said calmly and then disappeared into the crowd.
I didn’t doubt it. But it’s not like I was just going to stand here and wait, doing nothing.
I spun around and moved toward the spot where I’d last seen Darian…
And then I felt it.
A wrongness. Something not quite right.
I didn’t know if this was the effects of my super Nexari magic or my just my overall awesomeness, but when my skin tingled and erupted in goose bumps, I knew something was up.
Or maybe it was just my Gorilla Barbie 2.0 alarm.
I turned instinctively.
And there she was.
Addison.
She was standing near the edge of the square, watching, steady and composed. Her perfect blonde hair remained untouched while the entire festival exploded around her.
Her eyes met mine.
And for one awful second…
She smiled.
Motherfracker.
I grabbed the raw surge of magic inside me. My Nexari magic stirred. It surged up fast, warm, bright, alive, threading through my veins in a wave ready to move, shape, and defend. I was ready to tear apart that wereape bitch if she touched a hair on my child’s head.
And just when I moved forward, Marcus broke through the crowd to my right, Darian on his shoulder.
Relief hit, but I held on to my mojo as I whipped my head back to where I’d seen Addison.
But the tall blonde was gone.
“Tessa!” Dolores screamed behind me. “It’s time. The Beast Ceremony starts now.”
I looked over to her. “I’m out. Figure it out yourself.” Yeah, I knew Dolores would be pissed at me, probably wouldn’t speak to me for weeks, but my kid came first. Everything else meant nothing.
Dolores’s glower was the last thing I saw before I shoved through the crowd toward Marcus, my heart pounding violently.
Darian clung tightly to Marcus’s shoulder, one tiny furry hand gripping the fabric of Marcus’s shirt while the other looked almost human again.
Dark fur rippled unevenly across his arms and cheeks in strange patches, appearing and vanishing like his body couldn’t decide what shape it wanted to hold.
One little rounded gorilla ear twitched at the side of his head before shrinking halfway back, and when he lifted his face toward me, one eye was his normal gray like his father’s, but the other briefly flashed gold before going back to gray again.
“Tessa,” said Marcus, and the concern in his voice terrified me.
I reached for Darian. “Sweetie?”
His eyes lifted toward me, and again they flashed, gray, then gold, then gray. Shifting. Flickering. Like his body couldn’t decide what he was supposed to be.
Fear punched straight through my chest. “What’s happening?”
Darian whimpered softly. His fingers twitched against Marcus’s shirt as patches of fur rippled unevenly across his arms before vanishing again. Then reappearing. Then vanishing.
Marcus’s expression had gone completely cold now. “I’m not sure. I found him sitting on the steps of the gazebo. He seemed confused. Lost.”
A cold knot twisted hard inside me as I grabbed Darian from Marcus’s arms. His tiny body felt warm, like he was fighting a fever.
And when his shifting flickered again against my chest, panic finally slammed fully into me.
“He looks pale,” said Iris next to me.
She was right, and my throat tightened. “We’re going home,” I said.
Marcus nodded, already moving ahead of me to clear a path.
Behind us, the festival continued collapsing into magical nonsense while Dolores screamed at volunteers and Beverly accidentally started another kissing frenzy beside the fertility pavilion.
But I barely paid attention. None of this mattered.
Darian, his face against my shoulder, let out another weak little whimper while fur rippled unevenly beneath his skin.
And deep down… I already knew.
Something was very wrong with my kid.
And I knew who’d done it.