Chapter 142

Olivia POV

We did eventually get some sleep, and if Jordan gave me a knowing look when we came down for a late lunch in the kitchen, I found I didn’t care.

Elroy had made good on his promise, and I’d come so often and hard I was still buzzing with it. I’d come on his fingers, with him inside me, with his tongue against my clit, and against my own fingers as I’d taken him in my mouth.

We’d lain together afterwards, and I held him against me as he closed his eyes and went under. Before I followed him into dreamland, I looked at his face at peace as he breathed, in and out, in and out.

It was the loveliest thing I have ever seen, at least, it was until we woke up and he let himself just lie there for a bit, sleep-hazy and so open to my gaze.

I sipped some water and looked at my husband over the cleared dishes of our lunch. Our hostess was in the dining hall. Jenny was doubtlessly doing something useful, and Jordan was organizing our return to the Palace.

I looked around the kitchen and found it immensely cozy. Everything was well cleaned and put into a specific place for its purpose. The delicious aroma of onion soup rose from a simmering pot on the stove, and someone had made a bouquet of wildflowers and put them in a pretty white vase resting on the counter.

“I wish we could stay here,” I confessed.

“So do I,” he said back, but in his eyes I saw the truth of our immediate future. We needed to deal with Emma, and that meant going back to our real lives.

“Luna?” Jordan asked from the doorway, and we turned to see her standing there with two hooded figures.

“Jordan?” Elroy asked.

“They just arrived,” Jordan said as the two people with her pushed their hoods back to reveal Claudia and Iris.

“Mother?” Elroy and I asked together.

“Oh, thank the Goddess,” Iris said as she looked at us with relief.

“What?” Claudia asked her.

Iris looked at her while she waved at us. “They’ve obviously kissed and made up,” Iris said.

“Oh, spares us knocking their heads together,” Claudia said. She looked back at us. “Is there coffee?”

“I’ll pour,” Jordan said, moving to the stove, and soon the five of us were crowded around the kitchen table as Iris and Claudia told us what they had been doing for the past few days.

“It was obvious Emma had far too much influence,” Iris said. “Many people around her were acting strangely, not just you two.”

“It was the way Ines acted that really made it clear,” Claudia said. “She’s become devoted to a wolf she hardly knows and seems to want to do nothing but what Emma says. Other wolves she barely knows seem to worship her, and the council has been dancing to her tune.”

“She was being careful when she first returned to Lunaris, but it’s obvious the power she’s been using has made her careless.”

“It was a simple matter to gain entrance to her rooms at the Palace,” Iris said, “as soon as I neutralized the spell she’d used to lock the door with some lavender oil.”

“So, it really is magic she’s been using?” I asked. “Not just alchemy?”

“Black magic,” Iris said with disgust. I half-expected her to spit on the floor. “Her belongings include a number of human books on the subject, a cornucopia of profane mixtures, and the typical, if not stereotypical, paraphernalia one would expect of a devoted practitioner.

“We found knives carved with pentangles, hex bags, and tallow candles made, I suspect, of human and wolf fat. I was able to identify small containers of skin, fur, claws, and blood that could be used in spells to enthrall others. It was unholy.”

Everyone sat without speaking for a moment, trying to take it all in.

“You said human books?” Elroy asked, breaking the silence.

“Yes. Human black magic is much, for want of a better word, darker than what some wolves practiced before it was outlawed.”

“I’m sure some wolves still practice it, nevertheless,” Claudia said with even more disgust than Elroy’s mother had shown.

“Perhaps,” Iris said, “but humans have no such laws. Black magic is condemned socially, but it’s legal in their societies. They even allow temples for their practices. To be fair, it is a part of their religious traditions going back centuries. If they simply studied black magic to understand its role in their history, I could even condone it, but they go beyond that.”

She took a sip of her coffee. “I was suspicious of the alchemy involved in the poison used on Claudia,” she continued. “It was too powerful yet too easily remedied by the antidote. I’ve been researching the magic involved, so I was able to recognize the ingredients among Emma’s things.”

“Emma poisoned Mother?” I asked.

“She had a part in it, there’s no doubt,” Iris said. “You see, whereas wolf magics come from the manipulation of nature, human black magic is derived from an association with evil spirits. Those with black magic abilities can summon the forces beyond nature to destroy what is natural, such as destroying crops, killing animals, hexing humans and, as we can see, enthralling wolves.

“Emma’s magic is beyond cursed. She uses elements of the black magic of voodoo.”

“What do?” Elroy asked.

“Voodoo.” Iris sighed. “I should note there are good magics in voodoo. I particularly like its concept of mojo, which is about receiving the energy you put out into the world. Putting out good energy means receiving it in turn. Same with bad energy, though Emma doesn’t seem to care about that part.

“Her voodoo book contained some of the vilest things imaginable, including curses, totems to inflict pain on people the totems represent, and spells to turn people into little more than sleepwalkers who do the spell maker’s will without resistance.”

“She seems to have a particular interest in spells that control other people,” Elroy noted.

Iris nodded. “I remember her years ago as a manipulative little pup always using her charms to get a little more than those around her. She was always talking about how her dress was prettier than other people’s dresses, how she got more sweets during Luna Fest, how she knew more and did more than everyone else.

“But she did it all so charmingly, few people seemed to mind. And she was quite adorable when she was showing off her singing or dancing or whatever else took her fancy. And of course her father spoiled her rotten.

“It’s little wonder that being able to actively make others do what she wants is so attractive to her.” Iris frowned. “The thing about black magic is that eventually the user is themselves controlled by outside forces, none of them benevolent. Black magic offers so much, but it takes much more.”

“Some of the spells we found in her books aim specifically to enthrall not just the wolf but also the wolves within us,” Claudia said, looking at me meaningfully.

I felt my blood turn to ice in my veins.