Chapter 26 Dakota
Dakota
Jillian brought me dinner that night. She glanced around the room, like maybe she thought there was someone else with me.
Of course, because I’d been talking to Kosuke all afternoon. So much that my voice had gone hoarse.
“Everything okay?” she asked me, as she set a tray with food on a side table, then looked Jax over, checking his pulse and breathing.
Because of course, as worried as I was, he was still her brother. Her twin. They had always had each other, and I couldn’t imagine she’d be any happier without him than I would.
“While we were in Japan, there was a little accident,” I explained, sighing.
“I guess I came home with a . . . metaphysical barnacle? The ghost of an ancestor attached to me. So I was just telling him about how I met the pack and became a part of it. And why . . . why the pack matters more to me than mages do. Not that I don’t like my blood family, just—”
“We’re your family too, and we were the first ones to take care of you,” she finished for me, nodding.
“It makes a difference. And you were a little like we were in Idaho, back when you came to us. We had each other when we were kids, but we didn’t have parents and guardians who protected us how they should have, and neither did you.
So we understood better than other people might have, how important it is to belong. ”
I held out my hand, palm up, in a sort of agreement, but Jillian chuckled at that, and reached out to squeeze it.
“We’re all glad you’re with us. I’m sorry for the Igarashi that they missed out on you, but you’re our family too now.
” Then she looked back down at Jax and swallowed hard.
“I mean, I suppose if . . . you could go to Japan.”
“No.” I squeezed back, as hard as I could without cracking bones. “I couldn’t. First off, Jax is going to be fine. Second, you’re my family now. All of you, not just him. I would no sooner abandon you in your time of need than if you were my actual blood sister.”
I stood and walked to the edge of the bed where she’d seated herself, and wrapped my arms around her.
A sigh behind Jillian grabbed my attention, and I was prepared to jump down Kosuke’s throat for his nonsense speciesism again, but when I looked up, he wasn’t glaring. He didn’t look annoyed.
I wasn’t sure what the emotion on his face was.
Then, he started talking.
“I had a kitsune friend, once. Her cousin wanted to wrest control of their clan from her branch of the family, so she thought if she arranged for them to be unavailable when they were needed, everyone would turn to her.” That was .
. . interesting. He didn’t look up at me as he spoke, but stared at Jax, so still and silent.
“I don’t know if it’s available in America, but she used something called dreamroot.
It’s cut with a ceremonial dagger and dried for fifty nights under moonlight.
Then, its power lasts fifty nights. You feed it to the target, and they sleep for fifty days and fifty nights.
Most can’t survive that long without food and water.
I suppose there’s modern medicine that can counteract starvation, but back then we had no such thing.
We called it the coward’s poison. Used by people who didn’t want to murder directly, but it was murder nonetheless. ”
I blinked, staring at first him, then Jax.
The coward’s poison.
And what had Jax done? He’d fallen asleep, and not woken up. He wasn’t sick, wasn’t dying, except that as Kosuke had said, he wasn’t able to eat or drink, and at some point, we would have to resort to attaching him to medical equipment to make sure he didn’t die of dehydration or starvation.
And, in just under a month, he would officially be a no-show to continue the fight with Grant.
I pulled back from Jillian and looked at her. “What happens if Jax is still asleep at the next full moon? Does the fight just get postponed to the one after?”
Somehow, I wasn’t at all surprised at her dubious look. “For one of the combatants sleeping? No. This isn’t a pack emergency. Werewolves don’t just go into comas. If Jax can’t fight, then someone has to fight for him.”
“Me, you mean. And I’m not supposed to use my magic.”
Her lips twitched at the implication that I would do it anyway, but she nodded. “You. You’re the only one who could, unless we want to completely change the structure of the pack. If Seth won it, then he’d be the alpha, and let’s be honest, he wouldn’t be willing to take over.”
For a moment, I considered suggesting Jillian do it, since I didn’t imagine there was a single universe where that would offend anyone in the pack. Even Jax, when he woke, would be more than happy to follow his sister’s lead. Maybe even happier than he was as alpha.
But no.
That was giving in. Letting Grant have what he wanted, which was clearly, not to be beaten by Jax.
Fuck that.
I glanced up at Kosuke. “Is there a cure for dreamroot?”
Jillian followed my line of sight to the empty chair, then looked back at me. “What’s dreamroot?”
“There is,” he agreed. “And this company your wolves have made, they have potion supplies, do they not?”
“We do,” I agreed, leaning forward. “I can have literally anything delivered from the warehouse, in under an hour.”
He cocked his head, interested. “Anything?”
“Anything.”
Waving at the door, he said, “Get some paper, then. It’s not a short list.”
Instead, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and opened the notes app. “Hit me.” When he narrowed his eyes in confusion, I waved my phone. “Tiny pocket-sized computer. Which is . . . just trust me. I can write a list on here.”
He shrugged and started listing things, from the mundane like tea, ginger, and ginseng, to things I had to have him spell out in kanji, then translate into English via my phone.
When he hit foxglove, I paused.
“Isn’t that specifically poisonous to kitsune?”
He gave a wicked smile, and nodded. “Clever, to pick that up. It is. There’s a small amount in the potion, and its inclusion forces the immune reaction. A catalyst, you might call it.”
I considered for a moment, then shook my head. “But it’s not specifically poisonous to werewolves. I mean, in large amounts, it’s a poison, period, but it’s not like it is for kitsune. Would . . . wolfsbane work for Jax instead?”
He considered for a moment, eyes scanning back and forth as though he was reading something from a book, then slowly, he nodded.
“You should make certain with your friends that it’s an amount and variety that won’t be enough to kill him, but that should do, as a substitution.
It will serve the same purpose, and not alter the other ingredients enough to interfere with the purpose of the tonic.
” Then, for maybe the first time ever, he smiled at me.
“Well thought out, namesake mine. Perhaps even without all the training you should have been given as a child, your cleverness will make you a fully trained mage yet.”
My breath caught and I . . . it was the first time a member of my family had been proud of me not for the accidents of my existence as a mage and wolf, or my attitude and lack of interest in mage hierarchy, but for some skill I’d shown as a mage.
I swallowed hard and nodded to him. “Great. That’s .
. . great. Anything else?” When he shook his head, I turned to Jillian.
“I need all this delivered from the warehouse, right now. And . . . I need to call Prudence, because what I know about potions isn’t enough. ”
Jillian didn’t even ask what I was thinking or why I was doing it, just started copying the list onto her own phone.
She slowed when she got to the wolfsbane, so I explained that I needed an amount and type that wouldn’t kill Jax, but that he could heal from, so that his body would initiate that healing.
Then she grinned and nodded. “I’ve got just the stuff.
It’ll be here in half an hour.” She marched out of the room, purpose in her stride, and I turned to the phone app to call my mentor.
Kosuke did not seem offended. No, he just sat there with a serene little half smile on his face, like all was right with the world.