Chapter 8: Witches and Wise Women

Garnet POV

She wouldn’t call it magic, whatever the witches were doing all around her.

She sat in the center of Lilia’s crystals in the healing room of Cresta House and tried to shove thoughts of Cyran and his crystal obsession into a pit.

They had a more extensive healing suite in Sinsworth House with multiple beds and a laboratory, and she wondered why the ruling family of the most powerful pack on the continent would just have one room dedicated to healing. Maybe Azandra Hemming Cresta was the most powerful healer in any pack.

She stretched out on something called an earthing mat and lay staring up at Azandra, Lilia, Ravyn, and Anneliese, who all surrounded her, chanting.

“What are we doing?” she asked.

Azandra, eyes closed, said, “We’re helping you release energy that is holding you back.”

“Healer Kellam has worked on me,” she murmured.

Ravyn agreed with Azandra, staring down at Garnet. “Your healer may be good, but I sense something is blocking you. Something passed down through your family.”

The Crimsontail Pack Healer Kellam Anmar had never even touched upon anything of the kind. Evidently a block never entered his head. Unless he secretly feared she was a lost cause…

“Will I go mad like Cyran?”

The question surprised her. She didn’t dare speak such thoughts aloud in her pack, and she glanced around, lifting her head to make sure Barrett hadn’t come into the room. Or Jiro. He’d been so sweet and thoughtful this morning, and had taken her suggestion about the honey to heart.

Dirge’s lute sounded sad and angry. “Patch and I can make his life miserable.”

“Hush, Dirge.” Lilia pointed at Garnet. “Relax your head and lie back. No one is going to intrude. They wouldn’t dare.”

Ravyn looked at her with so much love and tenderness that she thought she’d melt into the floor. “Oh, my dear, you’ve come to us at the perfect time.” Ravyn reminded her of her own mother, Flavia.

The tiny crystals seemed strange, the way they massaged her back. “I feel ridiculous lying here like this.”

“Then all is as it should be,” Anneliese said cheerfully.

A groan escaped Garnet’s lips. “I’m infinitely relieved.” Lilia’s best friend had an impish streak a mile wide.

“I would think so.” Azandra concentrated. “Your fear that you’re going to turn into your brother is one of the blocks Mother Ravyn spoke about. From my view and from the Moon Goddess whispering in my ear, I say there’s no chance of that happening. But that kind of thinking is stopping you from being the Luna you’re meant to be.”

Ravyn disagreed. “Arrogance is what hastened Cyran’s descent into madness. She’s right to be cautious.”

“But fear is crippling, Mother,” Lilia said.

Ravyn conceded the point. “It can be. One thing is certain. We need to clear that block.”

Garnet felt the block they spoke of like walls around her heart. “How?”

After a long time spent chanting and working their healing and asking her questions, the witches and Azandra asked her if she still had the block. She shook her head, light-headed. A heaviness had lifted from her while the witches and Azandra performed their healing on her. She felt Dirge’s lute strings vibrate and the sound waves wash over her. And the walls inside her didn’t seem so strong or hard.

Azandra grunted. “If we had more time we’d spend a full day on you, but this should lighten your load, help your pack, AND make your mate happier.”

“How?” Panic shot through her. How could she make him happy?

His seriousness and earnestness attracted her. He would never disregard his family, her, or the Crimsontails to follow a fever in his brain. Her mate was as sturdy and solid as the floor beneath her. Other people might not find that exciting or compelling, but she did. And he touched her easily to show that he cared, the way he touched the rest of his family. She didn’t mistake his gentleness for trying to paw her.

His words came back to her. “But then suddenly we lay in a meadow full of flowers, back on our world somewhere, as far as I could tell. Your skin glowed like the moon palace, and your hair was as bright as the sun. I couldn’t stop myself from kissing you and I thought that even being in the heavens near the goddess couldn’t compare to this. You told me that you wanted to forget the world and lose ourselves in each other.”

Oh, what a perfect vision. But how could it come true? How could she give him joy and laughter and contentment to lighten his own load, let alone welcome him into her body for mating?

He was beautiful, though. She wondered what it would be like to kiss those full, sensual lips, to have his long, graceful hands caress her body as those enchanting eyes revealed his desire …

She suddenly felt quite warm.

“Garnet,” Lilia said gently, causing Garnet to look directly at her. “Trust me as I trusted you when we met.”

“I do.” Garnet swallowed, her mouth dry. “I’m thirsty.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so?” Lilia poured a cup of water and handed it to Garnet.

Anneliese grinned. “I’d say her mind was elsewhere with a certain red-haired Alpha. You know, Patch is right. Crimsontail Shadows. That’s just perfect for Jiro in so many ways.”

Lilia added, “And Garnet’s wolf is red too. The color of passion. Not just sexual passion, but life force, creativity, vitality, and fire.”

Azandra smirked. “I said to Kyon that some lucky female would slip right past that cool-as-ice exterior, and I was right.”

Ravyn gave them all a fearsome look. “Honestly, you’re all chattering like magpies.”

“It’s needed,” Garnet said impulsively.

Even though she’d had so many important matters on her mind, she relaxed and enjoyed the company of these women. Oh, she’d had some of that in her own pack, although it dwindled as Cyran’s darkness closed off everything that she found joy and purpose in, until only he and duty remained. He wasn’t even here, and that duty had just increased a hundredfold. She would not run when her pack cried out for healing, for purpose, and the need to come together as one. And Jiro was willing to stand by her side and work alongside her. She didn’t blame him or resent him for being intimidated. He would be a fool otherwise, and he was anything but.

Ravyn looked at her with a smile. “How do you feel?”

“Lighter,” Garnet said, and meant it.

She felt so light she welcomed Dane and Kyon peeking in to see how the session was progressing. She walked over to Kyon and gave him a hug to show him that she wasn’t afraid of him. He was family now.

Kyon murmured, his deep voice like a rumble and a purr, “You healer women are miracles.”

“I’ve always thought so,” Dane added, turning his magnetic gaze on Garnet. “But the most stubborn case in the pack is probably your mate.”

Dirge snickered. “He’s a Cresta. That’s a given.”

Azandra said, in a smug voice, “That’s why we nudged him to seek a specialist in stubbornness.”

* * * * *

Jiro POV

Piles and mounds of herbs and other plants surrounded him, all needing to be sorted. He was fascinated by the colors. Brilliant red clover–good thing Kyon and Azandra, who were both allergic, weren’t there. Green-and-black striped feverbush. Tawny hare ribwort. Yellow holly. Green and white mistletoe.. Goldenglow thistle, which was mainly purple flecked with gold.

“I don’t know why I start these projects around Harvest Festival time,” Tulaska grumbled, looking at all the heaps of herbs and plants as if they were unruly children.

Jiro shrugged. “Maybe a preparation for the winter?”

Her gray eyes seemed to see into his heart. “Or an antidote to the constant busyness of the festival. There’s something soothing about separating these herbs into piles and cataloging them. You’ve always enjoyed doing that with me.”

He muttered, “I wonder if I’ll have time where I’m going and in my new role.”

“Make time. Roslynn Rossa has to be feeling a bit scattered herself.”

He blinked in disbelief. “The Crimsontail Wise Woman? Why?”

She exhaled as loudly as if she were a dragon. “Fenrir’s whiskers, you’re supposed to be all-seeing.”

“Maybe I don’t know what to focus on anymore.”

“Hmph. Let me help you. First, she’s YOUR Wise Woman. Second, I heard from Lilia and other sources that Cyran dismissed her visions.”

He winced. “No one does that!”

“Well, he could hardly get rid of her.”

Jiro’s blood ran cold. “He would have eventually.”

Tulaska paled. “Yes. Either eliminated the position altogether or installed someone who he could control. We are like the council, which is why so many of us have a guaranteed seat on the council. We place some limits on the Alpha’s and Luna’s power by reminding them that they serve the Moon Goddess and the pack.”

Jiro shaped the herbs into neater piles, feeling the different textures. “Then I should make time to sort herbs with Roslynn Rossa.”

She patted him on the shoulder. “Now you’re thinking.”

“I think the Crimsontails who were afraid weren’t weak. Garnet wasn’t weak.”

Tulaska squatted beside him and tapped the side of her face, near her eye. “Sometimes, what we see as weakness can be our strength.”

The things Tulaska said made him wrestle with her meaning, but he enjoyed the challenge. She had a way of changing people’s thinking before it became drier than some of her herbs.

“And in any case, what that woman has been through would make most people shrivel up,” Tulaska said. “Weak? Hah! Fortunately, you’re the smart one of the pack, of both packs, in so many ways.”

“Thank you.”

“I speak the truth. But don’t live in your head completely … the goddess gave you both bodies. Although the mind is still sexy and so is the heart.”

Jiro turned away so she wouldn’t see him blushing. “Compared to you, these herbs are bland.”

Tulaska howled with laughter and hugged him spontaneously. “You’re slow to chime in, but when you do, your words have power. Remember that when you officially become Alpha.”

“You’re always saying words have power and energy anyway,” he countered.

“You keep talking like that and when that girl stops jumping at every male shadow, you’re going to have more affection than you know what to do with."

He’d thought about that more than he wanted to admit. His wolf was obsessed. “Dane says that the key to being a strong Alpha is relying on your Luna.”

Tulaska finished sorting the herbs and got up to fetch the jars to store them in. “He’s right. That’s why the Moon Goddess designed the packs the way that she did. It’s the way wolves live, but it also recognizes the need for an Alpha to have a mate who shares power.”

Jiro nodded. “I need all the help I can get.”

She handed him a jar. “Then let’s finish with these herbs, because the time until your departure grows short, and everyone in this pack wants to give you all the love and support and advice that we can. You becoming Alpha could change the destiny of the shifters forever.”

He nearly fell down. He couldn’t believe it. “Me? Why me?”

“More will be revealed,” she said.

Rather than probe for answers she wasn’t giving, he asked, instead “Is that why you confirmed our mate bond so fast?”

“Time is short, and that was the easiest part of your romance, unlike both your brothers,” she said mysteriously. “Interesting that the quietest one is going to make the biggest splash. Just remember, power is important, lineage is important, but it’s what we do with that power that counts. And love is the greatest magic of all.”