Chapter 29 Corin
CORIN
The morning air was sharp enough to cut as Corin stepped onto his porch just after dawn, keys in hand, his mind already at the inn.
He'd barely slept, spent most of the night staring at his ceiling and rehearsing what he'd say to Chloe.
How he'd convince her to stay. How he'd make her understand that leaving would solve nothing.
He was halfway to his truck when the scent hit him.
Faint. Fleeting. Gone almost before he registered it. But his bear lunged forward, hackles raised, every instinct screaming to follow.
He froze, nostrils flaring. The wind shifted, carrying the scent away, but he'd caught enough. Something wrong. Something familiar in a way he couldn't place. Like rot masked by something sweeter, something deliberately concealing.
The same scent that had vanished at Chloe's cottage. The same one that disappeared near the well.
He set the keys on the porch railing and moved toward the orchard, silent as the predator he was.
The frost crunched faintly beneath his boots no matter how carefully he stepped, but the wind covered most of it, blowing toward him, carrying that wrongness closer.
stronger. Coming from the direction of the well.
He kept to the tree line, using the bare trunks for cover, his bear's senses sharpening with every step. The clearing came into view through the branches, and he stopped dead.
Jasper Mince stood bythe ruined well, his hands pressed flat against the crumbling stones.
For a moment, Corin didn't understand what he was seeing. Jasper, the quiet deliveryman. Jasper, who'd brought his tools and offered sympathy. Jasper, who'd sat in the Council meeting and promised to keep his eyes open for a town he had been a part of for fifteen years.
Yet, here he was, lips moving in a low chant, dark energy pulsing from his palms into the corrupted earth.
The rot smell intensified, thick and cloying, and Corin's bear roared in recognition. This was the source. This was the man who'd been poisoning his land, hurting his mate, tearing his community apart piece by careful piece.
He stepped out of the trees.
"Jasper."
The older man's head snapped up, his hands jerking away from the stones. For a fraction of a second, surprise crossed his face. Then the mask slid into place, that same helpful, concerned expression Corin had seen a dozen times before.
"Corin. Didn't expect to see you out here so early."
"I bet you didn't." Corin moved closer, keeping his body loose, ready to shift at a moment's notice. "What are you doing?"
"Just checking on the well. After everything that's happened, I wanted to see if there was anything that might help the Council figure out who's responsible." Jasper spread his hands, the picture of innocence. "Terrible thing, what's been done here."
"Yeah. Terrible." Corin stopped ten feet away, close enough to see the faint sheen of sweat on Jasper's forehead despite the cold.
"Funny thing, though. I've been smelling something at this well for weeks.
A scent that kept disappearing before I could track it.
And I just smelled it again. Coming from you. "
The mask slipped, just for an instant before he smoothed it away.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I think you do." Corin's voice dropped, a growl threading through the words.
"I think you've been coming here for months.
Breaking the seal, feeding the contamination, spreading poison through the land.
And then showing up with your helpful smile and your reasonable concerns, making sure everyone blamed Chloe instead of looking at you. "
Jasper was quiet for a long moment. The wind rattled through the bare branches, and somewhere in the distance, a crow called.
Then he laughed.
It was a soft sound, almost gentle, but it made Corin's blood run cold.
"You know, I wondered how long it would take someone to figure it out.
" Jasper's posture changed, the helpful neighbor falling away like a shed skin.
What remained was something harder. Colder.
"I was betting on never. Small towns are so eager to blame outsiders, and your little druid made such a convenient target. "
"Why?"
"Why what? Why the well? Why the poison? Why her?" Jasper tilted his head, studying Corin like he was a particularly slow student. "Because I needed what's in that seal. And I needed someone to take the fall while I took it."
"What's in the seal?"
"Power." The word came out reverent, hungry.
"Old power, bound into the earth centuries ago by druids who didn't understand what they had.
They thought they were protecting the land.
Sealing away something dangerous." His lip curled.
"They were hoarding it. Keeping it for themselves and their precious bloodlines while the rest of us scraped by on scraps. "
Understanding hit Corin like a blow. "You're not a warlock."
"I'm something better." Jasper's smile was a knife's edge. "I'm what happens when someone decides to stop waiting for power to be given and starts taking it instead. Dark druid, the old texts call it. A siphon. I draw magic from other sources, other people, and make it my own."
"You've been draining the land."
"The land, yes. The plants, the soil, the living things that draw from the earth.
" His eyes glittered. "And soon, her. Your precious Chloe, with all that dormant druid blood just waiting to be harvested.
Do you have any idea how rare that is? How valuable?
She's been walking around with a fortune in her veins, and she doesn't even know how to use it. "
Corin's bear slammed against his control, demanding blood. "You're not touching her."
"I already have. Every time she put her hands in the soil, every time she reached out to sense the sickness, she was feeding me.
Opening herself up. Making the connection stronger.
" Jasper's smile widened. "Why do you think she collapsed?
That wasn't the contamination hurting her.
That was me, testing the channel. Seeing how much I could take before she noticed. "
The world went red at the edges.
"And you." Jasper's voice turned thoughtful. "You've been an interesting complication. The devoted mate, always sniffing around, always protecting. I thought about killing your bees to distract you, and it worked for a while. But you keep coming back to her, don't you? Keep getting in the way."
"I'm going to do more than get in the way."
"Are you?" Jasper took a step back, his hands rising.
Dark energy crackled between his fingers, the same wrongness Corin had been smelling for weeks made visible.
"You're strong, I'll give you that. But you're just a bear.
Muscle and instinct. I've been doing this for longer than you've been alive. "
Corin shifted.
It was faster than he'd ever managed before, rage and fear and protective fury fueling the change. One heartbeat he was human, the next he was his bear, charging across the frozen ground with death in his eyes.
Jasper's hands came together, and the world twisted.
The dark energy exploded outward in a wave of force that caught Corin mid-leap and hurled him backward. He hit a tree trunk hard enough to crack the wood, his vision starring, his lungs empty.
By the time he staggered to his feet, Jasper was gone.
Not fled. Not hiding. Gone. Vanished into thin air like he'd never been there at all.
The same concealment magic that had hidden his tracks, his scent, his involvement in everything. Strong enough to make a man disappear in broad daylight.
Corin shifted back, his body aching, his mind racing. He'd found the enemy. Knew his face, his name, his methods. But Jasper had slipped away, and there was no telling where he'd gone or what he'd do next.
Chloe.
Jasper had admitted to draining her, to using her collapse as a test. If he knew Corin was onto him, he might accelerate his plans. Might go after her directly instead of playing the long game.
He ran back through the orchard, past his truck, grabbing his phone from the porch where he'd left it. His fingers were clumsy with cold and adrenaline as he dialed.
Elias answered immediately. "What happened?"
"It's Jasper. Jasper Mince. He's the one who's been doing all of this."
"What?"
"He's a dark druid. A siphon. He broke the seal to drain the old magic, and he's been using Chloe as a conduit." The words tumbled out, desperate. "He just disappeared. Teleported or something. I don't know where he went, but she's in danger. We need to get to her now."
"I'm on my way to the inn."
"I'll meet you there."
Corin hung up and sprinted for his truck. His body screamed in protest, bruises already forming from his impact with the tree, but he didn't care.
Jasper had been hiding in plain sight for months. Playing the helpful neighbor while he poisoned the land and set Chloe up to take the fall. And now that his cover was blown, there was nothing stopping him from taking what he wanted by force.
Corin had to get to her first.
Had to protect her, warn her, make sure she understood what they were really fighting.
The truck roared to life, gravel spraying as he tore down the drive. He just hoped he wasn't too late.