“I’ve thought about her, but it seems like she adores taming powerful gifts. It’s her vocation.”
“Yeah, but my power is wild. She’s warned me about the potential for madness if I don’t harness my powers adequately. So many warnings. Perhaps she fears for the house?”
“Okay.” He shrugged. “Next?”
“What about Calder? He’s not happy I’m back as heir; he’s enjoyed his temporary stint as the eldest guilded progeny. Once I am declared trained and guilded, he goes back to being number two. I’m taking his position as next in line, and that’s got to burn a bit.”
“I agree he has a strong motive. Who else?”
“What about Alain?” If he was behind the poisoning, surely that would be a way out of the engagement contract?
“Your fiancé? That’s not someone I would have pegged. Why do you think he would want you dead?”
“It would get him out of the engagement! And, I’m nowhere near the ‘pedigree’ Tesse was. I’m a disappointing second-place prize. I’m sure he’d prefer a new arrangement, if he could. Perhaps Ingrid, or Sigfrid? Or another house’s heir?”
“I’m not sure anyone sees you as second place, Becka. Besides, why would he wait three months?”
“To see if we could get along? To set up the poisoning? I don’t know.”
“I’ll make a note of it. Anyone else you can think of?”
Becka shrugged. “I don’t know. All of those options sound potentially plausible to me.”
Brent leaned back and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Okay, I’ll get started tracing Astrid and Alain’s movements in the days before the poisoning. I was already looking into Calder. I’ll report back to you and Quinn once I know more. And if you think of anyone else, if you even just have a wild thought cross your mind, report it to any shifter and they’ll pass it back to me.”
Reviewing her potential poisoners had brought with it memories of the event. Distressed, Becka took a deep yoga breath and held it for a few seconds before blowing out slowly.
“Will do. Thanks for looking into it.”
Brent stood up. “The enforcers aren’t the only ones who can hunt down their prey. Besides, Vott was poisoned on my watch. I have an oath to keep, and I’m taking this as a personal attack.”
Becka was glad he was on her side. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to ask, but the timing just never felt right.”
Brent shrugged. “Ask away. I have no qualms telling you if you’ve crossed a line.”
Becka didn’t doubt him for a second. “How is it you came to work for Vott, and what’s this oath you talk about between the two of you? I mean, from what I understand, your agreement is rare amongst fae and shifters.”
“Oh, I guess you wouldn’t know.” His hands came to rest on his hips and his features softened as he smiled at her. “In my adolescence, Vott stopped by our clan during one of his journeys.”
Did I hear him correctly? “Vott used to go on journeys? I’d thought he’d lived here since his twenties.”
“Yes, it’s common for House Alder. Soon after they come into their seer powers, they are sent on a two-year vemhel, where they wander around, have visions that may help others, and learn how to read the signs. It’s part of the process of learning how their powers manifest.”
“Wait, I remember hearing about his vemhel, but he never shelled out details. The vemhel is how House Alder performs civic service, because of the nature of their gift. But I always thought of it as a formal series of visitations.”
“It is exactly their civic service, but it’s not at all formal. I guess if they stay home, their seer gifts aren’t developed in the same manner, so out they go. Think of it like a magical road trip without a destination.”
“Okay, that’s not at all how I think of my father. But it’s lovely. Charming, even. I suppose his visit was to your lands?”
“Yes, and my dad, Barric, wasn’t having any of it. As clan chief, he didn’t welcome fae within our walls. He always felt you all were a batch of troublemakers and were apt to bring the wrath of humans knocking on his front door.”
Becka shrugged. He wasn’t wrong on that count. “So what did Vott do?”
“Vott accepted Barric’s refusal. But instead of leaving, he bedded down with a herd of elk on our property for a week.”
Again, did I hear him right?
“He denned with elk?” Becka couldn’t imagine Vott doing any such thing.
“In the winter, no less. Even for shifters, it convinced us he’d lost his seer-loving marbles.”
She couldn’t wait to hear what happened next, wondering what other secrets Vott had up his sleeves. “Don’t leave me hanging. What happened?”
“A week into his stay, he got the elk worked up in the middle of the night. You know how loud rutting elk can be? It wasn’t even rutting season, but somehow he managed it. He woke the entire clan.”
Imagining Vott hooting and hollering with elk under pale moonlight made him sound a bit looney, and Becka burst into laughter at the thought. “Why would he do that?”
“The night nurse had died in the middle of the night, knocking a chair over into the fireplace in her death throes. Luckily, since the rutting elk awakened us, we quickly noticed the smell of the fire. My father was burned badly, but he was the only casualty, besides the nurse. All the babies were saved.”
Awestruck, she couldn’t speak for a moment. Vott was always understated, but she’d never dreamed he’d gone to bat for a shifter clan in his youth. No wonder they were so dedicated to him.
“I had no idea he did that for you.”
“We still don’t talk about Vott’s exploits with the elk, but Clan Wolf owes multiple life-debts to your dad.”
“And so now you run security for him to pay him back, so you can fulfill the life-debt?”
“Precisely, and he insists on paying us. Until recently, it was boring work. Once you showed up, things got interesting.”
She knew he meant once Tesse’s death had happened, but Becka didn’t mind the omission. “Thanks for the explanation, Brent. That’s a side of Vott I’d never guessed existed but am blessed to know.”
“Sure thing.”
Becka looked at the light streaming in through the windows. She had an hour before Hanna’s tea party, and she knew how she wanted to use it.
As he turned to go, she threw one last question Brent’s way. “Do you know where I can find Quinn?”
Brent looked back over his shoulder, his penetrating gaze not missing a thing. “Stay here. He knows where you are.”
Becka gave a single nod, unable to form a response over the intensity of her insides clenching.
Of course he knows.
Becka pulled out the Shadow-Dweller book, leaned back, and cracked it open, laying it across her lap and preparing to fill her wait with a bit of research.
Chapter 12
Gloves still on, Becka paged through the Shadow-Dweller book, and the nagging sensation that she was missing something struck her again. She was missing something obvious. Something that was most likely the key to this tome.