"You wouldn't dare harm me." The arrogance in the Magician's voice was real. And it had a strange ring to it. It stirred an old memory, but I was too angry to think it through.

"You are on our land. Your council has no jurisdiction here."

"I certainly do-"

"Tais toi!" Bastien roared and his voice echoed in the woods.

More shadows closed in around us and I wasn't entirely sure they wolves. I saw their glowing eyes in the half-light of my dozen or so suns, but I couldn't make out their bodies, either wolf or human. Whatever they were, they set Blackwood on edge. Though I'd seen his own men fighting before, I didn't see any standing now.

"You killed on our land. Land set aside by the treaty between the Parliament and our Elders. I will pet.i.tion the council to have your a.s.s handed over to numero un," Bastien grinned and his canines shown under the light. "I will ask for your life. For now I mark you as prey. You have six seconds before the hunt begins. The clock is ticking, mon ami."

Blackwood blinked a few times and fell to his knees when the Lycans released him. Then to my enjoyment, they barked and struck at him as they chased him out of the woods.

Dharma would have collapsed on the spot if one of the pack hadn't run to her. An older male caught her and hefted her into his arms. Bastien came forward and touched his hand to her forehead. After a few seconds, he spoke in a low voice to the one holding Dharma.

When the Lycan took off into the woods, I looked at Bastien as the stallion disappeared and the Elementals remained. "Where-"

"I told Ben to take ma pet.i.te to the nursery to rest. Your mother is there with Regine. She came to protect the pup the instant that b.a.s.t.a.r.d attacked."

"Oh," I put my hand to my own forehead and stared at...nothing. "Did your pack destroy his men?"

"He brought a few of his group, but we sent them back to him," Bastien put a hand to my face. "Cherie...I am sorry..."

-Gather the souls.- "No," I shook my head as I looked around at the carnage. Gather the souls?

-Reform. Remake. Repair.- I heard the words in my head but I wasn't sure exactly what they meant. "Remake? I don't understand."

"Samantha?" Bastien moved back.

I was so tired and the voice of the Arcane was so loud. My Elementals gathered around me as I went down on my knees, and they settled beside me as the sparkling red magic moved from my chest, over my arms, my legs, my face...until I bent forward and pushed my hands into the earth. My Gnome hummed as she closed her eyes. My Undine, Sylph and Salamander all joined into the eerie, almost lulling song that came from the Gnome.

I closed my eyes, as once again the voice moved from inside my head to outside of it. I watched as I felt the power burrow into the soil like roots seeking water, seeking sustenance, seeking...life.

It found life, then three, then four and then more until there was enough power to lift and sift, sort and mold those things that did not belong in the swamp. Around me, the remnants of the dead broke down into their smallest, base parts before they moved into the center of the circle.

I touched the toadstools, the gra.s.s, the grains that make the dirt, the carbonized components of magic that had once been a staff of rowan, and within that culmination of information and knowledge I saw the way to reform, remake and repair.

Everything spun around in the center of the Circle in a perfect, living spiral. The parts coalesced and mated, making new life and in the end, it all formed a doorway. Something that was stable, yet moveable. Something to be used. Something...

Wonderous.

When it was done, the Arcane mist subsided and I opened my eyes as I came back to where I'd been. Still bent over on all fours, my hands sunk deep under a carpet of new, just born gra.s.s. I pulled my hands from the earth and winced as tiny roots pulled from the skin of my fingers like ant bites.

I felt Bastien's warmth, inhaled his scent, and looked up into his beautiful golden eyes. His hair was dark under the light of my suns and I saw my Salamander touch his cheek. A blessing?

"Cherie...what...what did you do?"

I smiled at him as the Gnome's song ended and I thanked my Elementals, and I, at last, thanked my Arcane. "I have no freak'n idea," I said before I closed my eyes and sighed in his arms.

I woke up to a thick, wet tongue in my face.

Raising both of my arms to fend off the onslaught of puppy kisses was hard, but not impossible. My muscles protested with tiny bursts of fire. When I opened my eyes, I saw the cute and adorable face of a wolf pup as she tried to clean my nose. "Ugh...Regine..."

I heard a giggle in my head. It was answered by soothing and cooing from the rest of the pack. Great. I really needed to shut that link fast.

"She really loves you," said a voice to my right. It was a voice I didn't recognize. "Your mother sleeps to your left."

I turned my head to the left first to see Grey's beautiful wolf face. She rested on her back, her chest rising and falling as she breathed deep, and I put my hand against her neck as another set of hands took Regine away.

Trailing the pup, I saw the hands belonged to the man I'd seen take Dharma away. Bastien had called him Ben. And that's when the previous events came rushing back and I remembered that Ivan...was gone.

The emotion I felt because of that hit me hard and I wiped at my eyes. Ben set Regine on the floor and she tried desperately to jump back up on the bed. "It's okay. Don't hide those. You need to shed them. You've suffered a terrible loss."

Ben didn't have the Acadian accent like Bastien, like most of his pack. Ben sounded more Georgian, or closer to South Carolina. He had salt and pepper hair cut short and a string of tattoos along the back and side of his neck, dotting around to his chest. He wore a green plaid shirt and silver hoops in both ears. "Apogee?"

"Yep," he smiled. Apogee meant he'd been turned to the life of a Lycan, and not born like the little puppy running around. Regine was perigee. "Everything working?"

"I think so." I pushed myself up on my elbows first and then Ben helped me sit up as I swung my legs over the side of the bed. I spotted my boots next to the chair Ben had been sitting in. I noticed sun coming through the windows of the cabin and put my hand to my lips. "What time is it?"

"It's just after eight."

"In the morning?"

Ben laughed at the stress in my voice. "Yes. You needed the sleep. You and the little Witch. Dharma? Is that her name?"

"Yeah. Is...is she okay?"

"I think she's coping. She's quiet, pulling into herself. Bastien was with her earlier while they surveyed the battlefield this morning."

"Battlefield?" But yeah...I guess it could be called that.

"Mmhmm. Hungry? I'm sure there's breakfast in the kitchen."

I a.s.sumed he meant a communal kitchen. I could be wrong. "No. I'm not that hungry." My stomach let out a loud noise. "Okay, so I'm not in agreement with hunger right now."

"Sick to your stomach?" he sat back in his chair and faced me. "I wouldn't be surprised. You channeled a lot of magic last night."

"Channeled?"

"Yes. When you made that," he pointed to the door.

Leaning on the frame beside the door was the rowan staff, whole and complete. I had a few faint memories of seeing pieces of the wood reforming, of watching something happen. "I'm not sure...I did that?"

"Yes."

"But it destroyed the Cairn."

"Yes," he nodded. "Originally. But that's not what it does now."

I slipped off the bed and walked toward it. It had a presence. Something tangible that both repelled and attracted. "What does it do now?"

Ben scooped Regine into his arms and joined me at the door. "Let's drop the pup off at the nursery and I'll show you."

SEVENTEEN.

I did eat a bowl of the best oatmeal I'd ever had, with chopped apples and cinnamon. Ben formally introduced me to a few of the wolves lounging in the dining hall over coffee. The way they looked at me made me think I had something weird on my face.

After my third cup of coffee and a trip to the bathroom, we went back by the cabin I'd slept in and grabbed the staff. It felt weird in my hand. Not a bad weird, just...weird. Like it held a strange familiarity to it. The wood vibrated against my skin and made a humming noise in my head. I could feel power coursing through it as I followed Ben back into the woods.

The sun was up, promising to be a beautiful day, but it made the air muggy in the swamp. I still wore the clothes I had on yesterday and they were getting ripe. They were also covered in dirt and soot.

My thoughts returned to Ivan as I walked. I didn't know if Dharma had told Kyle what happened, or if Blackwood would tell Arden. If he did, then Kyle would find out that way and I'd rather be the one to tell him. Despite the fight I'd walked in on yesterday morning, I believed he and Ivan had grown close, and I suspected Kyle looked at Ivan like a little brother.

I plowed into the back of Ben when he abruptly stopped walking and then muttered a "Sorry," before I looked around us. Moving out from behind him, I took a few uncertain steps into what looked like a natural clearing. "Where is this?"

His smile unnerved me. "This is where the Cairn was. Where the Magician attacked."

I blinked at him before I took another look around. That...just wasn't possible. I had a very clear memory of scorched earth and dead Boggarts littering the area. But the clearing I was looking at-"This is not the same place."

"I'm afraid it is."

"What the h.e.l.l happened?"

He pointed at me. "You. You don't remember? When you made that staff?"

I held the staff out in front of me as if it had ants crawling all over it. "I remember the staff. I remember dreaming of making a staff, but," I looked back to the area around us. I did what I'm sure looked like a comical one-eighty turn as my gaze darted around. "This is not the same spot."

Ben came closer and held out his hand. "Give me the staff."

I handed it to him.

"Now kneel down and put your hands on the ground."

Giving him a weird look, I followed his command. I saw what it looked like before the second my hands touched the ground. The traumatic memory was still fresh in the earth but it was...healed.

I stood back up and looked at my hands. "Ben...I did this?"

"Yes. You, your Elementals and something I'm not familiar with. We heard the G.o.ddess's song through the trees while treating our wounded. Those that could move came to this clearing in time to watch as you healed...everything," he put his hand on his hip, the one not holding the staff. "It was pretty impressive. Bastien was proud."

This...did this really happen? I held out my hand for the staff and he gave it to me. The vibration returned, as did the hum in my head. "Ben...I don't know what I did."

-We righted a tremendous wrong.- I closed my eyes. What are you talking about?

-We-your Elementals, you and I. We healed the Earth and used the sacrifices to create the key.- Key?

-The staff can open a Cairn to wherever you want to go. The gateway will remain stable as long as you wish.- I didn't quite understand. This is a Coyote Flame...but it's a staff?

-Yes.- And Coyote Flames that are stable are made with souls.

-Yes.- Lady...Darksome. I sat down so hard I bruised my tailbone. But I was too stunned to care. Ben knelt down in front of me and leaned in. "Sam?"

"I...I built a Coyote Staff," I set the staff on the ground between us. "I used the Boggarts' souls to create...oh Sweet G.o.ddess, Ben. What the h.e.l.l did I do?"

I thought he'd react with revulsion and go all righteous and get in my face. But apparently that's not the way Lycans reacted to forbidden magic.

Instead, Ben settled himself on the ground and pulled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. "Do you know why I was made?"

"No. I just met you."

"True. My bad. I was made because I was born a G.o.d Mother's child, Sam."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. But I was just Dianic. You know how that goes. If you don't have an Elemental friend, you can't go to the big boy birthday parties. I was born with the gift of sight. A Seer. But nothing else. So I worked hard with the local council to make myself useful, to be the best Seer they had," he sighed. "Unfortunately, no matter how good I got at it, their opinion of me never changed."

I knew exactly what he meant. The prejudice against the Dianics was something that irritated me to no end. Just seeing the way Cromwell looked down at Ivan just because we chose to make him believe he...

Ivan.

I must've showed my emotions on my face because Ben reached out and lifted my chin with his finger. "One day I saw my future. And I knew it wasn't with the Witches. I saw the man that would turn me and when we met, he chose me because his pack needed a Seer. When I changed, my power increased, Sam. What I see is always accurate," he moved his finger. "Depending on the interpretation."

I wiped at my eyes with the back of my hand. "What? Did you see something with me?"

"Yes. That staff has a purpose. And that purpose is to aid a greater purpose." Now he lowered his legs and sat with them folded in front of him. "You haven't lost everything you believe you have. But you do have a limited time to find them."

Oh. No. "I hate riddles, Ben," I sniffed.

"You're not bad, Sam. You're not good either. You are who you are. We don't choose whom our hearts love or want," he picked up the staff and handed it to me. "Stand up and shove this staff into the ground."

Lost. I was completely lost. If there was a lesson in this, I was probably his worst student. But I stood and wiped off my backside before I raised the staff with two hands and shoved it into the ground.