Page 32 of Old Secrets

A new fury roused, one that erased the grief I still harbored, one that burned deep within my bones and would smolder until I found every one of the bastards behind the Greenwich case and ripped the life from their limbs and painted the world with their blood. There wouldn’t be enough left of them to give to my parents and the rest of my family—assuming any still lived.

I would not ask. When the woman was ready, she would tell me—and we would figure out how we would share the world together, be it as mother and daughter or as uncomfortable strangers struggling to find balance and peace.

Peace would be a long time coming, but it would come. I would see to it, and I would make certain that the woman who’d brought me into the world might enjoy those days.

I waited, maintaining eye contact while wondering how our lives would change.

“Your aunt sacrificed her life so that you might live. I fed you for the first time, although not for as long as I wished, and my sister took you and fled from our mountains.” Her eyes unfocused, and I wondered what hellish memory she relived. After a few moments, she shook her head. “She took you to someone. I never learned who, but that person somehow got you to the United States in safety. My sister made it to the ocean, and she sent you away. They were too late to prevent your flight abroad, but my sister stood her ground until her last breath. They brought her body, battered beyond any chance of life, hoping it would be what broke us.”

I understood far better than she would appreciate about being broken.

Her eyes hardened, and she carried herself with rigid determination. “They could not break us then, and they will not break us now. When we made our escape, the only thing I took from our mountains is the small shrine I made to her, and I thank her every morning and night for her sacrifice. For many years, I wondered and waited. I did not learn more of you until you were attacked in London, and as always, we were unable to act. But when their gaze turned on you, they lowered their guard, allowing us to escape. It is now time for us to take back all we’ve lost. The story is as long as it is dark, but know this: those who die today have earned their fate.”

I wondered who had held her hostage—and how. Aiko believed my mother to be old and with power. What could contain her? I acknowledged my ignorance, although I would wait to address it.

One day, I would find the courage to ask.

Uncertain of what to say, I did the one thing I could. I accepted her words as truth, nodded to acknowledge her, and slipped behind the shoji screen to shift. I heeded her advice of how I might better disguise myself among the mundane animals. While simple, her method worked, although I struggled to fit through the flap and beat most of the males in height. Jake stood no chance of hiding among the foxes, and I spotted him sulking in some of the deeper shadows beneath the neighboring building.

As there were numerous marbled foxes among the animals living at the shrine, I trotted over without bothering to mask my presence, slid under the structure, and made myself at home between Jake’s front paws. If he noticed my smaller size, he paid it no mind. He relaxed, and as he often did when we both wore our fur coats, he settled in to groom me from nose to tail. Our position gave us a good view of the shrine and the yard in front of it with a single tree obstructing our view. In my fox form, the stench threatened to do me in, and to express my discontent, I issued a soft chitter and covered my nose with my paws.

Jake huffed and gave the back of my neck a nip before situating my fur to his liking.

My mother must have watched me somehow, as when she emerged from the shrine, she’d adopted my stride and moved with the wariness of an FBI agent expecting trouble. Mellisa had commented on my tendency to move like I remained on duty, but as I showed no other symptoms of distress or conditioning, she’d deprioritized it in favor of more pressing concerns.

Jake adjusted his pose, wrapped his front paws around me, and issued the softest of growls.

The foxes scattered and went into hiding under the various buildings, with the majority of them cramming under ours, resulting in a press of furry, stinky bodies and the low cries of foxes in distress.

Something set my fur on end, as though a low static charge zipped throughout the sanctuary.

I understood, then, what Aiko had meant about the very Earth rising up should anything happen to my mother. The ground quivered, and I recognized the sensation as anticipation.

The Earth hunted with my mother, heeding her call.

A second sensation played across my skin, and I tilted my head, pondering what it might be. In a way, it reminded me of a gently flowing stream with its waters caressing me, although it lacked the sense it would drown me. Flattening my ears, I crowded near Jake and displayed my teeth.

After almost losing so much, no power would violate my territory again.

An Asian man stepped out through the trees, and he came armed with a Desert Eagle rather than the smaller weapons used in London to take me and injure Jake. The need to tear him to shreds stirred, similar to how a pebble ushered in a rockslide. Before I could creep forward and put my teeth to use, Jake snagged me by the scruff, and he enforced his demand through lifting a paw and applying pressure to my back.

If I wanted to get to the bastard, I’d have to fight Jake like I meant it. Chittering, I struggled to twist my head around so I could land a bite.

He overpowered me and issued a growl I’d learned indicated he would give me a run for my money if I challenged him. I snapped my teeth a few times to indicate I’d deal with him later, but I stayed put.

My mother reached into her coat for my gun, and she even went through the motions of pointing the weapon, although she clutched the grip in such a way no finger came anywhere near the trigger. Appalled over her complete lack of etiquette or grace with my firearm, I groaned and lowered my head, although I kept a close eye on her.

The ground shook, and the rip of stone breaking apart drowned out every other sound. A woman shrieked and someone else screamed. In the time it took for me to suck in a breath, a jagged cone of stone pierced through my mother’s victim. She gestured with my firearm, and thin rods of rock exploded from the man’s body.

Ew. The foxes crowded closer, and they whined and whimpered their distress. As I couldn’t blame them for being frightened, I took the time to groom their faces to comfort them.

Jake wisely kept his wolf breath to himself.

The ground shook again, and my mother repeated the gesture with my firearm.

I could only assume she’d spotted another victim to tear apart with her magic.

However much I longed to join the fray, not that there was much of a fight, I understood why I needed to remain sheltered beneath the auxiliary building and wait. If even half of what my mother had told me was true, she had an entire lifetime of vengeance to work out of her system. With a group like Greenwich, if she waited for justice to be served on a platter in court, her day would never come.