“But?” Marian urges her. “Confess, Tabatha. It is time ya daughter know truth.”
I spare a glance at Jinx and feel the urge to fold her in my arms. I refrain. Jinx wouldn’t appreciate it. It would make her appearance of strength diminish. If I touched her, she’d fall apart. Sara was right. Jinx is used to family betrayals.
“But,” Tabatha continues. “I didn’t meet your father again by chance. You remember the story I told you about my mother? How she died when I was a child?” Jinx’s answer is a flex of her jaw, and Sara pitches forward in her seat. “Jamie’s mother took me in and raised me as one of her own. And when we were young – too young to know any better – Jamie’s mother took us to a Native American reservation. I knew then she was in love with the shaman. In love with your father’s father. Both of us knew when she was pregnant, too. Everyone did. And when she told the coven the baby was still-born, Jamie and I knew the lie for what it was. Marian, too.” She peeks at Marian. “Jamie and I were there, at the reservation, when Jamie’s mother gave birth.”
“To Kaya,” Jinx hisses.
“Yes. To Kaya Whitethorn.” Tabatha closes her eyes, shame settling around her mouth. “That was the last time she took us with her. I think,” she opens her eyes and frowns. A tear spills down her cheek. “I think it was too hard for Jamie’s mother to return to the man she loved when he was raising her daughter. The relationship was forbidden anyway, and somehow, she managed to cut the ties between her coven and the man she loved.”
So Kaya Whitethorn is a product of a witch and a shaman, just like Jinx. A headache begins to pinch above my eyebrows.
“What about my father’s mother?” Jinx pushes. “Kaya had said she died when Kaya was young. Where was she during the affair?”
“I don’t know.” Tabatha licks her lips. “She was never there when we went. Her things were scattered around the house, but she was never there.”
“But you kept going back?” Sara asks.
“I never went back as a child. No. It wasn’t until I was an adult –” Tabatha rolls her shoulders and exhales slowly. “I was at an herbal store, trading my harvest, when I saw your father again. We recognized each other immediately, and he asked me to go have coffee with him. He had told me his father had died the year before, passing his gifts – his heritage – on to himself. He told me about his sister, the one Jamie’s mother left behind, and all the trouble she had stirred in the tribe. He knew, even then, that his sister was different than the rest. Someone he couldn’t control in her youthful outbursts. Had described her odd behavior and the periods of time where she’d go missing for a few days. At the time, and by the way he had said it, I think he suspected she was seeing someone. Maybe she was skinwalking, I don’t know. The next day, when we met again, your father told me Kaya was gone.”
“Gone?” Sara whispers.
Tabatha nods. “Packed her things and disappeared.”
“Tribes kill skinwalkers,” Jinx says softly.
“It’s possible she ran away because of who she was. Maybe someone found out. Maybe she skinwalked in the reservation’s woods and someone found out. We don’t know. Only Kaya does.”
“She didn’t run away,” Cinder murmurs with disdain. “Sara and Jinx’s aunt joined the Bane Pack.” Cinder’s thinking aligns with my own. Perhaps the man Kaya was ‘seeing’ was Wice.
Sara and Jinx spare each other a glance. The awed revelation that they’re both related briefly passes between them. Cousins related by a twisted tangle of DNA.
I rub a hand down my face. Kaya Whitethorn is both Jinx’s aunt and Sara’s aunt. My wolf grumbles his complaint inside me. I wonder if this is why Sara and Kaya never trusted each other. Kaya would have known who Sara was immediately, and Kaya kept her distance from the witch to hide herself from discovery. That sort of behavior would make any witch suspicious.
Marian chuffs. “No right-minded soul would join the Bane Pack. There is no joinin’ that pack. They take who they want.”
I drop my hand back to my lap and frown. “What do you mean?”
Tabatha places her hand on Marian’s arm, halting her next words. She says, “Adriel told me about what they were like once. They said the tribe owed their pack for a past wrong-doing.” She shrugs. “I don’t know what, but they held it over his head, threatened and blackmailed him.”
“Oh, I know exactly what they owed them,” Jinx grumbles, and it takes more than a few seconds for me to remember a past conversation between her and me. Kaya had told Jinx the tribe killed a wolf who was causing trouble. That wolf was a Bane wolf.
“What did they want him to do?” I ask Tabatha.
“Perform magic for them. Again, I didn’t demand details. I was happy to be around him – to be a part of his life. The details didn’t matter to me. When he wouldn’t, he cursed them to keep his people safe. Without their wolves, they were less of a threat.”
“What was their threat?” Cinder demands through clenched teeth.
Tabatha drawls impatiently – more with herself than with Cinder, “They recruit members against their will. Anyone they believe strong enough to benefit their pack, they would force them to join. That is what your father feared, Jinx. And those who wouldn’t benefit their pack, they would murder. It’s why I didn’t tell you. I feared you’d go to them for answers instead of continuing to hide from them. I couldn’t – I –”
“Ya join, or ya die,” Marian interrupts softly.
Jinx rubs her face with both hands. “She didn’t join on purpose, did she? Kaya, I mean. She didn’t join on purpose.”
Marian and Tabatha share a look, but it’s the priestess who answers. “No one joins that pack unless they mind is sour or they forced to.”
“I wonder what they have over Kaya Whitethorn to keep her under their thumb, then,” I mutter. My words go unnoticed.
Jinx looks to me, then to Sara. “My aunt is your aunt, too.”
Sara only blinks, completely dumbfounded, but a shade of pink rises to her cheeks.
“Let me get this straight,” Cinder says, holding up a finger. “What we’re saying is Kaya Whitethorn stole Jinx’s book – her brother’s book – to break the curse on the Bane Pack because she had no choice in the matter? Because they forced her?”
Marian says, “My, ya are a slow one, ain’t ya.”
CHAPTER NINE
Jacob Trent
Rain begins to pound against the greenhouse. I hadn’t noticed the darkening clouds, but within seconds, the space is too loud for my own thoughts, let alone conversation. Marian had ushered us to the kitchen for a cup of tea, but not before I spotted a black cat’s tail twitching under the vines of a potted plant.
There was only one witch inside the massive kitchen. Cinder and I chose to remain in the dining room. The tension is palpable in the house – the more we stay out of their way, the better. Sara, Tabatha, and Marian might be welcoming to our presence, but that doesn’t mean everyone else will be. By now, the entire coven knows shifters are walking their halls. If they had any intention of greeting us, they would have done so already.