Sharyn started to counter herself, but then she glanced to her left, and another werewolf came out from the woods. It was the silver-furred one from the cemetery, the one Kari assumed was the pack leader. Now she wasn’t so sure. It was just as likely Sharyn was pack leader, even given her youth. The silver-furred werewolf shifted into a purely lupine form, and Kari watched the transformation in awe. He lay down near the growing fire, and his eyes never strayed from Kari. It was strange; in his hybrid form, the werewolf had the same golden eyes as all the others, but in his purely lupine form, his eyes faded to a silver-gray not unlike his coat. He blew out a long sigh and stared at Kari.
“Did you betray me?” Kari asked, and Sharyn’s brow creased.
“I killed Turillia, yes, but–”
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Kari said, waving off Sharyn’s words. “Just before you attacked Turillia in the city hall, she taunted me by saying, But her power is fleeting. There’s no way she could have known exactly what I said when I spoke to all of you unless someone betrayed me and told her our plans. And, frankly, you’re probably the only person I don’t trust at this point.”
Sharyn started to speak but glanced at the silver wolf first. She swore quietly under her breath. “I give you my word, it wasn’t me.”
“And what is your word worth to me?” Kari demanded. “You deceived me, you distracted one of my companions from doing his duty, and as I said, you’re the one person in my circle that I don’t trust fully.”
“If you don’t trust me, then you were a fool to come here!”
“I was probably a fool to come here regardless,” Kari said with another sigh. “I’m not sure what I expected. Clearly, an apology was never likely. I guess what I really wanted to know was whether this was always your plan from the start. Did you plan to go against my orders the entire time, or was that some heat-of-the-moment werewolf thing?”
“Kari, I thought I was doing the right thing. Not just for me, but for my pack, and for the rest of the world,” Sharyn explained. “Everything we learned, and everything we planned… I thought Turillia was too dangerous to try to capture, and that you were out of your mind to want to bring her back to DarkWind. With that shadow demon about, I didn’t think you’d be able to hold Turillia for long. I know you don’t think so, but I did you a favor by killing Turillia. Once Emma was badly wounded, I figured she was the lesser danger…”
“Well, I think we can agree on that point, but even in that condition, capturing her didn’t seem like a real possibility,” Kari said with a grimace. “So, it wasn’t you that told Turillia of our plans? You’ll swear to that?”
“On my life,” Sharyn said, and Kari did not miss that the woman ran her right hand across her chest in the same pattern as her scar. “I may have ruined your plans for Turillia, Kari, but betraying you was never my intent. I would be suspicious of that half-breed friend of yours, to be honest.”
“Eli?” Kari asked, and she scoffed. She tried to imagine that the attack in Lajere had been an act, and that there might be some possibility that Eli was working with Turillia, but there was no way Kari could see that being the case. He couldn’t have misled Kari the entire time. She’d been too close to him for too long, and the way he’d opened up to her that night in their shared inn room made Kari trust him completely. “You may be great at reading trails and tracking, but you’re a terrible judge of character. He took Turillia’s fangs to his neck, and more, to defend me. I hate to say it, but I don’t think he’s crafty enough to do all that in the interest of betraying me; Eli’s not that kind of man. So, if it wasn’t you, then there are only one or two other people it could be, because it wasn’t Sherman, Katarina, or Markus, and I have no reason to believe any of the priests of Temple Street would help a demon.”
“What if someone was possessed at the time?” Sharyn offered.
Kari shook her head and folded her arms across her chest. “No. The demon chills the air around it, even when it possesses someone. One of us would have noticed the chill, at least. No, at this point, I think Marshal Saracht is the only person it could’ve been, but I’m hesitant to suspect him. I suppose he could’ve told Lord Black accidentally, but that he would use my exact words… it doesn’t seem to make sense.”
“Maybe there was just someone else in the church of Ambergaust when you said that,” Sharyn said with a shrug. “I don’t know. Turillia was crafty, and that shadow demon is even craftier than she was. I’d offer to help you out with the shadow demon, but, well…”
Kari waved off Sharyn’s offer. “But whether or not I trust you is only half the issue, now that a good number of people know you’re a werewolf,” she finished. “So, what’s the story with you and your pack-mates, do you serve the Beast?”
Sharyn looked around into the dark spaces between the trees, where Kari could see more sets of golden eyes watching them now. “No, nothing like that. We don’t represent any one culture or faith. We come from many different walks of life. Jared here is Jewish, and he came to us from the big cities of the Strekan Province years ago, when he realized what he was,” she said, nudging the silver wolf in the rump with her boot. She touched the werewolf squatting beside her on the shoulder and added, “Darren grew up in Ceritopolonis, where he was a scout for the duke’s army; he worships Garra Ktarra.”
It had been a long time since Kari had heard the term Jewish. If she remembered right, it referred to one of the ancient human religions they had brought with them to Citaria. She didn’t recall much else about it, except that it was rare to find humans—or werewolves, for that matter—that followed that faith outside of the Strekan Province in the northwest.
“Did you turn Sherman into a werewolf?” Kari interrupted Sharyn’s introductions.
There was a moment of silence, and then Darren, the werewolf beside Sharyn, let out a growly, bestial chuckle. Jared, the silver wolf, put his paw over his nose.
Sharyn shook her head. “We can’t make people werewolves. We’re not lycanthropes; we’re natural shapeshifters. All of us were born werewolves, we didn’t become such from a bite or a scratch. I like Sherman. If there was any chance I could have… infected him, if you want to call it that, I wouldn’t have become involved with him. As it stands, I don’t know how I would even try to explain this to him.”
“That makes two of us,” Kari said. She was still angry, but if what Sharyn was saying now was true, the werewolves could make powerful allies—and that represented a strong counter to having lost Turillia as a prisoner. How Kari would present the idea to the Order was another matter altogether. “I thought you were going to take advantage of him. He’s still pretty young.”
“So am I,” Sharyn returned. She ran her fingers along the line where her scar was hidden by her armor. “I was only six when I got this, and it’s only been twelve years since…”
Kari nodded, unsure why Sharyn had trailed off, but then the demonhunter’s brows rose. “Since you were resurrected?” she asked.