Chapter 7 - Shane
Coming out of the stale, dense air in the council chamber feels like a weight being lifted off my shoulders. I have to hold myself back from running down the hallway and flinging open the big, heavy door. I’m so eager to get out.
The manor has always had bad vibes, but this is truly getting serious if even I can feel it.
As we reach the gravel drive, Sadie comes out behind us and turns to look up at the second-floor windows. Trina follows her gaze, standing close beside her.
“What can you see?” Hyacinth asks in a small, timid voice. When I look over at her, I see that she has her back to the manor as if she’s afraid to look at it.
“The better question is, what do you see?” Sadie asks.
Hyacinth looks at the ground, and I hear her swallow hard. When she raises her eyes to the manor, they shimmer a little, as if she’s about to cry.
Or some dark and powerful magic is rising in her. I don’t know if I should be hoping for that or dreading it.
Hyacinth looks up at the windows for some time, her expression thoughtful and almost puzzled. “I don’t see much,” she says. “It might be my imagination.”
“What is?” Trina asks eagerly. “Anything at all could be your powers beginning to manifest. Tell us.”
Hyacinth shrugs. “Light and shadow. Maybe a face at that top window. I don’t know. It’s giving bad vibes, though.”
“Yeah,” Sadie sighs. “But the vibes here have gotten so bad, a rock would feel it. I’m encouraged that you might be feeling something, but I’m also not feeling any magic in you.”
“Me neither,” Trina says.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I step away from the girls, flicking through my messages to catch the updates from the infirmary. I pass on the news that the elders haven’t left the manor in months, and I know a new wave of fear has begun to spread through the pack.
“Sadie,” I say, breaking into the girls’ conversation. “We need to do something. Surely you can help the people in my pack, or the elders themselves. You can’t just let everyone die!”
Sadie shakes her head, her eyes big and sad. “I’ve tried, Shane. Trina and I have spent days visiting sick pack members, and all our magic is useless. Trina passed out overextending herself, and she still couldn’t heal anyone.”
“I didn’t realize that,” I say quietly.
Trina comes over to give me a quick hug. “I’m so sorry, Shane,” she says. “We are trying. Sadie and I are going back in to work with the elders now and see if we can get them out.”
“I don’t think we’ll be able to,” Sadie says. “But I need to see how far they can go from the manor—what the boundary is. Lynette was so powerful, and it’s difficult to understand how the curse will unfold.”
“Where are the others?” I ask, looking back at the manor.
“Rhys and Owen are discussing who takes over the council if they all die,” Sadie answers grimly.
The shock that runs through me then cuts right to the bone. I’d never considered the elders dying, even as other pack members began to sicken by the dozens.
“We should go back in,” I say, looking back towards the manor and knowing it’s the last thing I want to do.
“You can if you want,” Trina says. “But if the elders die, most likely they’ll be the last to go. This is really a formality. A procedure to comfort them more than anything.”
Even though the sun overhead is warm, I suddenly feel frozen to my core. With each triumph over the curse, I really let myself believe that it was already beaten, and it was only a matter of time until all of us were healed.
I didn’t know the entire thing could be undone on the final step. This is terrifying.
Hyacinth is still looking up at the manor, her arms wrapped around herself. The chill inside me turns sharp as I realize I might have made the situation much worse with my hasty actions.
Not just worse. Catastrophic. I might have doomed us all.
“Okay, we’re going back in,” Sadie says. “I assume you’ll be heading to your infirmary?”
“Yeah,” I reply. “I promised everyone I’d be back to help them.”
I look over at Hyacinth, wondering if I should take her with me, and that’s when I remember she asked for a tour around the gardens.
“Would you like to take that walk now?” I ask her. “We might as well while we’re still here.”
“I think that’s a great idea,” Sadie says. “You might find a trigger for your magic, Hyacinth.”
“I don’t know about that,” Hyacinth says. “But it’s just kind of blowing my mind that all of this is real. I read about the manor—it seems bizarre that it really exists.”
“What did you read?” Sadie asks. “You wouldn’t have access to the special reference section?”
“Ah… I might have found some old texts in the main library and kind of forgot to tell you,” Hyacinth says sheepishly.
“Forgot, huh?” Trina asks, elbowing her gently. “I’d be mad, except moving those texts was my job, and if it turns out I didn’t do it right, Angela could roast me.”
“What did you read?” Sadie asks again, urgency in her voice.
Hyacinth looks up at her, the dark violet of her eyes seeming to deepen to the blue of a midnight sky.
“There were a lot of official documents regarding trade and ownership of land. I read all the information relating to the construction of buildings and divisions of land—that’s how I know about the manor.
I was mostly focused on the folklore, the personal stories of magic and witches.
I thought it was all just scary tales. Now I’m wondering if all of it was true. ”
“Probably not all,” Sadie says. “But a lot of it, yes. I think it’s a very good idea for you to take a walk around the manor—try and connect the information in your mind to the vibes you get around here. I’m not convinced yet, but I do believe there’s a chance you’re a part of this.”
“All of us were drawn to the old books,” Trina adds thoughtfully. “We should talk about this again when we have more time.”
“Yes,” Sadie agrees. “Rhys and Owen will be waiting for us. I’ll catch up with you soon, okay, Shane?”
“Yes,” I agree.
Part of me feels like I should be part of that meeting… and the other part of me would do anything to avoid going back in there.
I watch the girls walking back inside, not envying them in the slightest. A shudder runs through Hyacinth, and I know she feels exactly the same way.
“It’s creepy in there,” she says. “Like a tomb.”
“I can confirm that it’s worse today than it’s ever been before,” I reply. “The manor has always had a dark presence, but now it feels…”
“Malevolent,” Hyacinth whispers.
“Yes,” I agree.
She turns to walk around to the back of the building, and I follow behind her. She pauses to look at the stone-ringed courtyards, then follows the path out to the gardens and wild fields beyond.
“Tell me about the past,” she says. “Your history. How did the wolves come to be the supreme power here?”
“I actually don’t know,” I answer. “You’ll have to ask Sadie and Trina. Both of them have done extensive research, and they know far more about it than I do.”
Hyacinth pauses, looking at a sickly-looking rose bush. “Have you noticed every plant in these gardens is withered and stunted? None of them are blooming, even though some of them should be.”
“I can’t say I ever paid too much attention,” I admit. “But now that you mention it, the place looks like a plant graveyard.”
“Hmm,” Hyacinth hums, touching the thorns. “It’s odd. This can happen because of conditions in the soil, but it’s too widespread. Has the garden always been like this?”
“I have no idea,” I say. “But I know when Rhys got married, some of the plants were blooming.”
“So it’s gotten worse since the curse started to be broken? Interesting.”
All of it makes very little sense to me, so I let her mull over her thoughts without interruption.
“Do the others have real, primary sources of evidence?” Hyacinth asks.
“I’ve been reading a lot, and Lynette and Darian are always mentioned in the history books.
She disappeared, Darian inherited everything, and it’s suggested in the books that the manor was destroyed, maybe burned down?
I wonder why he wanted everyone to believe that. ”
Watching her walk through the garden, I can’t help but notice how beautiful she is.
Hyacinth moves with gentle grace, an air of assurance that almost makes me feel clumsy in comparison.
She reaches out to touch the dried stem of a rosebush, and I feel an electric tingle run through me.
A sudden breeze teases around me, and it lifts Hyacinth’s long, dark brown hair, tossing it around her shoulders.
She looks up at me suddenly, as if she could feel my eyes on her. The violet depths darken, and I can’t look away.
It’s like being swallowed by the void, but I don’t feel scared. I feel… comfort. Safety.
“Okay, well,” I say, desperate to break the mood. “This is all very interesting—but how does it actually help?”
The strange air of peace that had been settling between us is shattered by my words, and Hyacinth actually flinches.
“I don’t know,” she says. Her tone sounds a little careless, which triggers me.
“This isn’t one of your fairy stories,” I snap. “People are dying. You don’t get to play at being a witch or having fun with werewolf lore. This is serious.”
Hyacinth looks up at me, her dark violet eyes deep and wide. Her mouth turns down a little at the edges, and I can see I’ve upset her.
“It’s a little hard for me to get my head around,” she says. “It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours since you kidnapped me.”
“Don’t throw this back on me,” I shoot back. “We’ve already established I’ve done the only thing I can.”
She tilts her head a little, giving me a firm glare. She doesn’t say it out loud, but I know she’s silently asking if what I said is actually true.
With a toss of her head, she sets off down the path back towards the manor. I walk a step behind, trying to calm myself down, but feeling my irritation rise, anyway.
Irritation, or anxiety? I don’t think I’ve ever been scared of anything in my entire life.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and I ignore it until I’m back at the manor. Hyacinth pauses by the car and looks back up at the high windows. She shivers and wraps her arms around herself again.
She can definitely feel something. Does that mean I did the right thing? Is she really the one?
My phone buzzes again, and I pull it out, flicking through the messages. My heart is still raw from losing Liza the other day, and I don’t want to hear about any more deaths. To my relief, we haven’t lost anyone else yet, even though new cases are still coming in.
Is it an improvement? I just need a sign, any sign, that I’ve done the right thing here.
Hyacinth takes a few steps back and turns away from the manor. She looks so anxious and sad that I feel a little bad for her. A confusing mess of feelings rises in my chest.
Witches… this is all because of vengeful, evil witches. All the wolves are going to die. Maybe Darla is right, and we should have worked harder to exterminate them all!
“Shane?” Hyacinth’s voice is close—too close—and when I feel her hand on my arm, I almost jump out of my skin.
“What the fuck?” I explode without thinking.
“Are you okay?” she asks, looking up into my eyes. “You seem really upset. Is there more bad news?”
I shake my head, stepping back to put a bit of space between us. “No worse than the last few days,” I reply. “I have to get going, though. I should take you home.”
“Yes,” she says with a relieved smile. “I’d like to go home. I need to get some things.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “My home.”
“Shane!” she exclaims. “I need to get some stuff from my house. Please, be reasonable. I’m still wearing yesterday’s clothes for God’s sake.”
I’m about to snap back at her when I realize that she’s right. I haven’t given much thought to her needs.
Maybe I was hoping the council would reject my decision, and we could send her back home without any further consequences.
Hyacinth keeps looking at me, eventually putting her hands on her hips and sticking out her chin a little in defiance.
“I think I’ve been pretty chill about this,” she says. “I’m trying as hard as I can to accept the supernatural part of this world and stay sensitive to the suffering of your people—but Shane, you have to show me at least a little consideration. I’m still a human being.”
That might be the problem. Even though I hate it to the depths of my soul, a human isn’t what I need. I need a witch.
“Okay,” I reply, shoving away all the words I know I really shouldn’t say. “I’ll take you to your place to get some things, but you know you have to stay with me, right?”
“Yes,” she mutters through gritted teeth. “And the pleasure of your company is an enduring delight.”
I can’t stop the smile that flashes across my face.
Another day, another time, I could have enjoyed her quick wit very much. But where we stand right now, there’s no room for mistakes. If she can’t help us break the curse, then she’s worthless to me.