Blood & Wine

28 | Eden

 Something had changed between us with that bond.

After lunch, we had gone to my apartment. I expected Calla to be there, but she was gone. I didn't ask where, but I was so annoyed. It wasn't fair to her for me to be annoyed, but the house hadn't been cleaned, and I had told her I needed to talk to her. She was with Ezekiel because that was the only place she ever went. So I apologized to Fynley, and he shrugged it off and started cleaning next to me while we spoke.

Where Calla and Dasher should've been, there was Fynley, standing beside me when I inducted a new Coven. I called on my ancestors, called on Mary Meredith, called on the Goddess Mother for help. "If this is what I'm meant to do, then allow me to do it, Goddess Mother. Do not allow me or anyone else to stand in my way."

The wind hipped through the attic, and I felt the power from the old Coven usurp from me and disappear. It swirled in the air, and I heard them scream—all of the ones that had recently died, unavenged. I was giving up that rage, that hatred, and when it let me, when their presence escaped me, I no longer harbored any resentment for the werewolves.

It was never yours to harbor, my intuition to whisper. This was always what you were meant to do.

I breathed easy, the wind whipping at my hair.

"I will call her, La Estrella, I had told the Goddess Mother, my ancestors. Because she will be the guiding light that we look to when there is trouble, when someone is in need. She will be the hope, the new start that we need.

"She will usher in a new era of love between werewolves, not just La Luna but whoever wishes to join us. Werewolves and witches will not be used against each other in this Coven. They will not become servants or slaves, but let each action be done in love. Let each Bond that be formed be done out of pure willingness and love, and no magic shall force it or turn it into something that it's not supposed to be.

"If it is okay with you, Goddess Mother, let this be."

She gave me her blessing, pressing her lips against me. "Let La Estrella live," she told me, her voice a warm hug. "Let him in."

At first I thought she meant Dasher, but when I opened my eyes, I saw Fynley standing there, wide-eyed and shocked as he couldn't make it to me beyond that circle of protection—the wind, my people, the witches from La Luna Coven who wanted to help me on this journey, who knew those original bonds.

So I opened the circle, allowed him in, and he stepped forward with no fear.

I reached for Fynley, and he took my hand, sucked into the world of magic. I commanded him to close his eyes, and he did, and he was there with me—in the Beginning.

When a Coven was created with the Goddess Mother's blessing, the founding witch or witches went to the Beginning—an empty, spiritual field from where we got our magic. The only other werewolf that had been there was Adhaya, the first werewolf, and she visited as a wolf and became a human after.

The Goddess Mother strode up to us. "I am so proud of you two," she said. "Fynley, a gift for you."

And Adhaya walked out. "Power to power," she said, her long, white-blonde hair flowing behind her sharp features. She stopped in front of Fynley, placed her hand over her heart and kneeled. "You belong to me, Fynley. You are a child of my child from many generations ago. You are my son such as you are your mother's, and I am proud of you."

Fynley wept. "Mother Adhaya?"

She pulled him to her naked chest. "Power to power, my werewolf," she said again, and something silver and shimmery fell over him. "In the Beginning, werewolves had magic beyond shifting, but I took them away because they misused them. I am returning these abilities to you. Do not reveal them until you have to."