I eyed Jace and said absolutely nothing. He didn't see it, did he? He didn't see what was staring him right in the face. Yes, Carl had the means and the motive, but he wasn't the only one. I couldn't just come out and say it — it felt like a betrayal even to voice the question aloud. Saying the words gave them power, and they were already too powerful in my head.

So I didn't dare say it. I let him sit there and grow angrier at the old Beta, and I did nothing. Slowly, so Jace wouldn't notice, I brought up the walls around my mind so I could think about it without anything leaking across the mate bond.

"I'm needed elsewhere," Jace told me after a few minutes. "We'll pick this up again later."

I gave him a distracted nod and watched him leave the room. After the door closed behind him, and I continued to sit there, stewing in my silence, Kara reached out to nudge me.

"You look like you've swallowed a bee, Emma," she told me. "What's wrong now?"

"I don't think Tyler's father did it," I murmured. Without watching for Kara's reaction, I raised my voice so I would be heard in the corridor. "Ashley, Zoe, come inside please."

They did, closing the door behind them.

"Is everything okay, Luna?" Ashley asked me. Zoe's eyebrows were slightly raised, asking the same question.

I looked between them, trying to decide who to ask. Neither of them were ideal. Tyler was most likely to know, because he had been close to the family, but I didn't trust he wouldn't go running straight to Jace. Zoe was more likely to be honest with me, but she was too young to know very much, and Ashley was a cousin to the Lloyd family, so perhaps he had more insight than the average pack member.

"If I ask you a question, it goes no further than this room," I told him. "Is that understood?"

Ashley straightened. His jaw was tight as he said, "Yes, Luna."

I was silent for a moment while I thought about the best way to ask. Innocently seemed like a good bet. "I've noticed that Jaden isn't in any of the family photos. Why is that?"

Ashley let out a sigh. "They were a complicated family, Luna. His mother loved him, of course, but his stepfather didn't. He tried to send him to Lowland when he was just a baby, but his real father wanted nothing to do with him."

"So Jace's father didn't want him living here?" I asked. I suspected I already knew the answer.

"That's putting it lightly. Jaden was the living, breathing reminder that his mate had slept with another man," Ashley told me with a rueful smile. "And there was concern that he would challenge Jace when he grew up."

That made me frown. "I thought they got on well..."

"They did!" he assured me. "Remarkably well. But given a few years, they would have reached the age when our wolves start playing up, trying to find their place in the hierarchy. Maybe they would have started fighting. Both of them had Alpha blood running through their veins, but Jaden was a year older ... so Goddess only knows who would have won."

I tried to imagine holding all of those worries in my head and keeping them there for sixteen years while these two boys grew up. And then I tried to imagine a trusted religious leader having a vision about one son killing another. It would be easy to let your insecurities take over, to let that dream take the shape of your worst nightmare.

And the derwydd had known about all those insecurities, hadn't he? So why had he decided to pour petrol on the fire? Perhaps I should ask him.

"Thank you, Ashley. That was very helpful," I told him. "I'd like you to get into contact with the derwydd. Tell him he's needed at the pack house — that I would like to speak with him."

Ashley's forehead creased. He looked at Zoe, as if expecting some help from her, but he didn't get it. "I don't remember the last time the derwydd left the sanctuary, Luna. He might take offence..."

I gave him the tiniest of smiles. "Oh, I don't mind if he takes offence, as long as he obeys me."

Ashley's eyes were wide, but he didn't try arguing a second time. He inclined his head and made a beeline for the door.

"Who's the derwydd?" Kara asked me once he was gone.

I bit back a wince, because she was going to be the Beta female, and she should really know the answer to that question. We needed to start training her up, the way Jace had trained me up, even if it meant starting very gently and slowly.

"He's in charge of the sanctuary," I replied. "You might call him a priest, I suppose. Jace told me they're born during a lunar eclipse, and they live and die in their roles."

She screwed up her entire face. "What happens if no one is born during a lunar eclipse?"

"Well, to be honest, Kara, I'm not sure," I said, looking at Zoe for some help.

But she shrugged her shoulders at us both. "No idea. But I will say that there has been a tendency in this pack for the more pious women to time their pregnancies for lunar eclipses, because giving birth to a derwydd is a great honour. Ashley's mam tried it, but he came a week early."

I was only just remembering that he had grown up in a strictly religious family. Perhaps I should be careful how I spoke to the derwydd in front of him. "Is Ashley quite religious, then?"

Zoe inclined her head. "Yes, Luna. The vast majority of the pack is."

"Not you," I said, and it wasn't really a question.

Zoe gave me a look that needed no explanation. It was the 'yes, well, they consider me an abomination' look — one that I knew all too well.

"Not me," she agreed.

***

The derwydd was slow to arrive, which was probably a protest in itself. I didn't care much. I had moved the desk into the centre of the room, so he would be sat on the other side of it. I didn't want this to feel like a meeting — I wanted it to feel like an interrogation.

Jace was still away, and I didn't have any idea what he was doing, but it must have related to the ferals in some way. He was busy. He wouldn't come back and interrupt this discussion, and that was the important thing. I made myself a coffee, found a pot of biscuits and then sat myself down, spinning in my chair while I waited.

There was a knock at the door, and then Ashley came in with the derwydd in tow. He looked older than I remembered, his back stooped and his hair greying at the fringes. There were deep frown-lines etched into his forehead today.

"Thank you, Ashley," I said. "Can you make sure we're not disturbed?"

He bowed his head and disappeared back into the corridor, where he wouldn't have to listen to what followed. Zoe stayed with us this time, and she moved very casually so she was standing in front of the door. I thought that was a clear enough message that the derwydd would not be leaving until I was satisfied he had answered my questions.

He cast a surreptitious look over his shoulder and then sat himself opposite me. I could almost hear the creak of his joints. "Good afternoon, Luna. Are you in need of some spiritual guidance?"

"No spiritual guidance, thank you," I said curtly. Because you're not a rabbi, I would have added, but I wasn't keen to advertise to this stiflingly religious pack that I didn't share their beliefs. "I have a different kind of question for you."

He inclined his head. "I will do my best to answer it for you."

"You dreamt that Jaden would kill Jace," I said, and once the words had been spoken aloud, I realised they weren't a question at all. There was no doubt left in my mind. "And then you told his father all about it."

"I did my duty, Luna," he told me. "No more, no less. The Goddess sent a warning, and I passed it along. As I told you before, visions are not intended for mortals to interpret, and I would advise you not to try."

"It was a warning, you said it yourself," I laughed. "Why warn someone, if there's nothing they can do to protect themself? You knew he would act on that information."

The derwydd pursed his lips. "I knew only what the Goddess deigned to tell me, nothing more."

He was being more difficult than I had imagined. It was easy for him to hide behind this smokescreen of equating his every action with the Goddess's will. It was his motives I was questioning, not hers, but as far as he was concerned, they were one and the same.

"Jace told me you occasionally have dreams about gold raining down on the sanctuary. Are those sent by the Goddess too, do you think?" I asked him, casual as anything.

He cocked an eyebrow. "Do you think it so odd, that she might want her most obedient servants clothed and fed?"

I couldn't help the choking sound that escaped me. "You're all clothed. You're all fed. There's enough money to do that ten times over."

"The sanctuary is in need of restoration," he said coldly. "I have been putting as much money as I can towards that."

I wasn't getting anywhere with this line of questioning. Time to try something else.

"You predicted that Jaden would do something unforgivable. That he would murder his own brother. And you were wrong, as it turns out, because he and Jace have scarcely even argued," I said. "Were you ever worried that Jaden would face repercussions for the vision? Were you worried he might be punished for something he hasn't actually done?"

To my astonishment, the derwydd spat on the floor. "Worried? About Jaden? Certainly not. Jaden's father did a terrible evil. He marked a woman to keep her from her soulmate, and Jaden was the product of that. He was an unnatural child. A curse on this earth. It's no wonder he's the way he is. He killed a Luna, don't forget. And Lunas are the earthly embodiment of the Goddess herself."

It was hard to understand how he had the audacity to talk like that. Was it an admission of guilt? No. But it was certainly close. I felt my eyes growing darker and my muscles tightening. "If you had kept your mouth shut, that Luna would still be alive. So would Jace's parents."

"How so?" he demanded. But there was a blankness to that question, a lack of emotion that made me think he knew the answer. "I'm afraid I don't know what you're implying."

"And I'm afraid that you do," I told him. "I'm terrified that you do. I can't prove it. I'll never be able to do that. But if I'm right about this, I'm never going to forget, and neither will Jace. I don't think gold will rain down on the sanctuary until you're buried underneath it."