Descendant, page 12
“Oh.” That was reassuring, she supposed.
“I don’t want you to feel pressured. I should have warned you about Marjorie.”
“I don’t. Awkward, yes. But I’m just…learning.” Violet took his hand and blew out a breath. That seemed to placate him.
“All right.”
She was beyond thrilled to let the topic die.
“HEY, ARE YOU and Mikel coming to the New Year’s Ball?”
She and Red had spent the better part of the last two days in the Town Hall, screwing together the pieces of the huge ornate buffet table the planning committee had commissioned for the ballroom. Violet hadn’t thought to ask him.
“Don’t know, maybe? I kinda have an aversion to formal events.” Silently, she thanked Magnus for that, and in the same breath was hit with a heavy dose of longing for Lila.
The van rolled on, headed back to the shop.
“It’ll be fun,” Red insisted. “At least this time you won’t pop into heat and almost fuck the town thot in front of god and everyone.”
Violet cringed at the memory. “How was I supposed to know I allegedly had a drop of wolfy blood that the moon juice would activate? I can’t believe I’m saying this with a straight face.”
Red just laughed at her.
“Relax. Even Dani thinks it’s funny now. But anyways, the New Year’s Ball.” She went on to tell her at length about all the dresses Dani had made for various people in town. Violet’s mind wandered. Time had passed easily since Mikel had bitten her. It had been a little under two weeks, but her scar was already silver and flat, and they’d already settled into a rhythm that felt right.
He was easy to fall for, and he doted on her. Life was dangerously good, yet one thing about the Bluff still nagged her.
“Okay, babe, for real, where’s your head?” Red asked when she realized Violet wasn’t listening. For the millionth time, Violet wanted so badly to tell her.
“What do you think of Kane?” she hedged carefully.
“The alpha?” Red clarified, and Violet nodded.
“This is about Mikel’s dad, isn’t it?”
Violet shrugged.
“You can talk to me. Obviously, I wasn’t around, but Dani told me the story. She was like fifteen when it all went down. It’s dumb that half the town treats him like they do. Guessing he doesn’t like Kane very much?”
“The opposite actually. He’s weirdly chill about the whole thing, thinks his dad went psycho and killed sixteen people from my town.” She tried to reason with herself that this wasn’t betraying Mikel’s trust. He’d never expressly told her not to discuss this, and Red was a friend.
“I never put it together that you were from there. Nobody you know, right? I know your mom—” There was a long pause, and she watched the pieces fall into place for her friend. “Oh shit, Violet.” Red turned to her, stunned.
“Watch the road!” Violet rushed to remind her. “You cannot tell him. Promise me?” It was a gas leak, she reminded herself over and over, like she did every time this came up.
“How…? Your mom,” Red spluttered. “I mean. Not like Mikel had anything to do with it, but are you okay with this?”
“Promise me you won’t tell him?” she demanded again.
Mikel was already guilty enough over it and Violet wasn’t convinced guilt was even warranted. Knowing her mom had died in that building would only make it worse.
“Promise,” Red agreed, grabbing her hand and squeezing. “Not my thing to tell.”
Violet exhaled. “Thanks. And I can talk to you, right? Like, you won’t repeat this?”
“I won’t even talk to Dani if you don’t want me to. We’re friends; you’re stuck with me.”
The sentiment made Violet smile, but the smile didn’t stay.
“My mom died in a gas explosion, Red. A wall blew out in that building, and it took half a block with it.” She swallowed, searched for a way to say it without saying it and found none. “My mom wasn’t torn up by some animal, she got crushed under a beam when the ceiling fell on the other side of the place. Probably died from smoke inhalation before they found her.”
“Violet—”
“It’s fine. It was a long time ago. But it gets weirder.”
Red shot her a look, then made a hard left into a parking lot. The van jerked to a halt parked over three spaces. “Go on,” she said as she killed the engine, and Violet hoped she could trust her.
“When I first got here, I recognized this guy in the Target parking lot. My dad’s the mayor of Frankston, remember?”
Red nodded.
“This guy, Jared, he came to my house to meet with my dad, picked me up from school a few times. He wasn’t there every day but enough that I knew him by name. Figured he was part of Magnus’s security.”
“Why would a descendant have a job outside of town?”
Violet shook her head. “Just wait. Then, Kane happens to show up at the hardware store on the exact day Mikel goes every month for his supplies and tells me I look familiar. Mikel jumps in and brushes it off, and they have this weird exchange. Problem is, Kane is familiar to me. He’s been having dinner with my dad forever, back when my mom was still alive even.”
Red clapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide. Violet continued.
“Magnus, my dad, became the mayor of Frankston after the previous mayor died in that explosion. He was supposed to be at that meeting. My mom went. He stayed home with the stomach flu.”
“Violet,” Red breathed, and it was a relief to see someone else putting together the pieces and coming to what looked like a similar conclusion to the one she had, rather than immediately playing it off.
“Magnus became the mayor because the previous mayor died in the explosion, Kane became the alpha because the same people died in an ‘attack’”—she made air quotes around the word—“and Mikel’s dad got the blame. Kane’s been at my house since. I saw him maybe last year, maybe the year before. They stayed in contact.”
She finished, and Red just blinked at her.
“Is Mikel going to try to get revenge?” she finally asked.
“No, he still thinks the explosion was a cover-up, and that his dad killed all those people. He barely wants to talk about it.”
“Okay, but is there any way it could have been a cover-up?” Red held up her hands, asking for patience while they considered it.
Violet’s gut said no, but that wasn’t logic. “Theoretically yes. But then why blow it up with people who weren’t involved in the attack still inside, like my mom? Why take out the school and businesses when a smaller leak would have done enough to just clear that room. Why kill all those people to get to just two?”
“Maybe someone botched the cover-up?”
“Possible. I was ten years old, I don’t have a ton of details, but I definitely don’t recall a single thing that says it was anything other than an explosion. The whole town was all over it for weeks afterwards.”
She could tell she’d lost Red a little bit, and she supposed it made sense. It was easier to believe the version of events you already knew and had processed, not the crazy alternative. Maybe that was the case for her too, and she just didn’t want to accept she lost her mom in some power scheme, or that the end was even more brutal than she’d thought. “But I’m not the only one who thinks something’s up. You know Bard’s Books?”
“Yeah,” Red frowned, not following her jump.
“The old lady who owns it, she was a family friend of Mikel’s parents. He looks out for her and stuff. Anyway, he took her a moon rock or something, and after she got done trying to have him knock me up”—she made a face and Red scoffed—“she was talking like Mikel should be the alpha. He told me she thinks it was a set-up too.”
Red gawked at her. “I’m not trying to be insensitive, but I feel like I just stumbled into a detective show. Wait, do you think you’re in danger? If Kane somehow cheated to become the alpha, and he knows that you recognize him—”
“He definitely knows,” Violet told her. “Mikel ‘doesn’t like his interest,’ but I don’t think he’s thought about it beyond Kane being curious about me because he doesn’t trust him. What happened with his dad, or what Mikel thinks happened, weighs on him. You know he’s not chatty anyway, and when it comes to this…” She mimed zipping her lips.
“Okay.” Red chewed her thumb, looking around the mostly empty parking lot like she’d find an answer there. “So, we go talk to Mrs. Bard!” She turned the key and the van roared back to life.
“Now?”
“Why not?”
“Good point.” For weeks Violet had wanted answers, but now they felt closer at hand, now someone else had validated her suspicions, she was inexplicably reluctant. The drive to the bookstore passed quickly and quietly. Maybe Red was lost in the details, chewing it all over in her head.
Violet told herself her stomach was only in knots because they’d talked about her mom. It was a memory she was careful not to touch, and she was aware it could be influencing her perception of all this. Having to come to terms with her mom dying in a cold-blooded attack, not an accident, at the hands of Mikel’s dad… She pushed the thought away.
“Violet Davis,” Mrs. Bard announced as soon as they entered the shop, appearing from behind a shelf and leaving Violet to wonder how she’d seemed so deaf the first time they’d met.
“Uh—” She started to correct her, and Red elbowed her.
“You go by pack name here,” she explained before Violet could continue.
“I had a feeling you’d be back.” She tottered over and squinted at Red. “Daniella Hawthorne’s young lady,” she announced. “Aren’t you cold, girl?” She gestured at Red’s teeny shorts. Violet was instantly thankful she’d chosen jeans that morning.
“I run hot,” Red replied gamely. The old woman only sniffed in response.
“Mrs. Bard,” Violet started and glanced around the empty store for listening ears.
“Call me, Margie, pet. Mikel’s too polite, has been since he was a boy. He makes me feel old.” She shooed them aside and lowered herself down into a chair beside a reading table, then gestured to the love seat across from it. “It’s safe to talk here. Now,” she started once they sat, “what have you come to ask me?”
Violet shared a glance with Red, unsure where to start. “Well…” She rubbed a hand over her denim-clad thigh. “To be brief, my dad is the mayor of Frankston. He became the mayor after the previous one died in what I grew up believing was a gas explosion in the town hall.” It was startling to see Margie’s eyes flash gold. “Then, I come here and learn the previous mayor supposedly died in a werewolf attack. Then, I realize Kane, the alpha, I know him. He’s been having dinner with my dad every once in a while since before the accident. My mom was in that building. It was an open casket funeral, and she wasn’t…” She stumbled over the words. “She was trapped under a ceiling beam and died of smoke inhalation. She wasn’t mauled. I—I saw her.”
Margie’s eyes were blazing, and she was so still for a minute, Violet grew concerned.
“It just seems like a coincidence that the two men who would directly benefit from the accident were in contact before it happened and still are now. And nothing in my memory ever suggested it was anything but a gas accident, not a massacre.”
“Elias was a good man,” Margie finally spoke. “A good leader. He loved this town, and he advocated for better relations with the humans in Frankston. Saw him change with my own eyes when the council came for him, but I know he didn’t do what they said he did. And it sounds like you’ve whittled out the truth. Let me guess; Mikel won’t listen?”
Violet nodded, unable to hear whatever she cursed out under her breath in response.
“Hard-headed, that boy. Thinks he’s been being noble, flagellating himself all these years.”
“Alpha Kane recognizes her,” Red cut in. “He tried to ask if she knew him.”
Margie’s face twisted to concern. “Over a decade, and it’s coming to its peak,” she warned darkly. “Kane’s dangerous.”
A pit formed in Violet’s stomach.
“So, what do we do?” Red asked, leaning forward, clutching her knees.
“Well, Mikel needs to unbury his head,” she explained, like it was that easy. “He’s stronger than Kane, but the fighting days are over. Now, favor is won and lost through the whole town and the elder council.”
“So, we’ll tell everyone what happened, and then what? Mikel gets elected as alpha?” That was the world Violet knew—scandals and power plays and elections.
“No, child,” Margie scoffed. “This will split the Bluff, tear it down the middle. The echo of that massacre is in folks’ blood now. Even with the reality staring them in the face, they’ll still side with Kane because he’s known, and he’s safe. The Davis family has been the monster under the bed for twelve years.” She wet her lips. “Kane will try to remove you, Violet, before what you know can threaten his position.”
Violet’s blood ran cold at her words.
“The question is,” Margie continued, cool calculation in her gold-ringed eyes, “what will Mikel do about it?”
“We can’t just wait for something to happen to her,” Red pointed out, her voice filled with emotion. “Surely we can start spreading the truth—”
Margie cut her off. “The truth is what is believed by the majority. You’re girls stepping into the middle of a decades-old minefield.” She licked her lips again and held Violet’s eyes. “Unless you have absolutely irrefutable evidence of what Kane did, your hands are tied until the end.”
“What do you mean until the end?” Violet demanded.
“Until Mikel moves to take over the community,” she explained, like it was a foregone conclusion. “He has the heart and the strength, but he’ll need your perception. He needs his mate to ignite what’s in his veins after all these years of stifling it, then watch his throat when he steps into what he really is.”
If that wasn’t daunting, Violet didn’t know what was.
“How about if we just forget this and don’t tell anyone?” Red was shaken, Violet heard it in her voice.
Margie shook her head. “You can’t un-ring some bells, and this one’s been tinkling for years. Kane won’t chance loose ends with his leadership at stake—look what he did to get it.” She paused to consider. “Perhaps you’re lucky, and he hasn’t realized how much you know, but that grace period is coming to a swift end.”
“How so?” Violet took a deep breath and tried to shake the foreboding that was settling into her bones like lead.
“Your change will be done before the next moon.”
“That’s not possible,” Red interjected. “I’m coming up on a year since Dani bit me, and I’m nowhere close.”
“And you were a human and not mated by the true alpha bloodline of this pack,” Margie reminded her before her gaze settled on Violet. “Think of the safest you’ve ever felt. That moment where nothing in the world can touch you.”
“Uh—” It was too big of an ask with the hoard of new information battering her brain and whispering danger. “I don’t know.”
“What did Mikel do this morning when you woke up?”
Violet thought back. She’d woken up pressed against him, the smell of coffee already coming from the kitchen. His arm was draped over her, and his body was just so warm. He’d kissed her shoulder, and his voice had rumbled against her back while he told her breakfast was ready.
Red gasped.
“What?” Violet demanded.
“Your eyes…the gold was gone for like, a second.”
Her head snapped to Margie, who was nodding. “Practice. Center yourself, think calm and safe and about home to pull it back. Think of passion or hatred or wilderness to let the wolf forward.”
Violet tried it again, but judging by their reactions, nothing happened.
“Before you go,” Margie said, struggling up from her chair and effectively dismissing them, “let me get you a box of my tea to take?” She gave Violet a wry smile.
“Sur—” Red started.
Violet cut Red off. “No, we’re good. Thank you.” She couldn’t fight returning Margie’s smile at the mischief in her knowing eyes.
MIKEL PULLED THE hair off her neck and pressed his lips there. The movie had finished half an hour ago, but they’d stayed on the sofa talking about customers and then the New Year’s Ball, which he thought they should probably attend. He pulled back and surprise snapped on his face.
He blinked. “Violet, your eyes changed.”
“I know.” She smiled at him.
Then unease sunk like a stone into her stomach. It’d been easy to come home, shake off all the weight of her conversation with Margie, and just get lost in him. “I went to the bookstore today. Red wanted to pick something up.”
“Red wanted to pick something up, to read?” The clarification was heavy with skepticism.
“Yes,” she insisted, “and Margie told me how to start practicing. She thinks the change will be done soon.”
His brow furrowed. “What else did she tell you?” The chill in his voice hadn’t been there before.
Violet steeled herself and went right for the jugular. “That I’m in danger because Kane knows that I know him. She thinks he’s going to try to ‘remove me.’”
“She’s old and stuck on her agenda,” he insisted darkly. “There’s no reason for you to be scared.”
“Isn’t there? I know you don’t want to talk about it, but she agrees that someone isn’t telling the truth about what happened back—”
“Violet.” His face was like thunder.
“Mikel,” she insisted, scooting up onto her knees to face him on the sofa and take his hands. “I know you don’t want to talk about this, but something is going on here. And if I’m right, Kane may try to shut me up, and also, it changes everything for Frankston and Forest Bluff. Magnus should never have been mayor. He should have been in jail, along with Kane, and you should be—”
“That’s enough.” His hands closed on hers, holding her in place. “That kind of talk is what will get you hurt here, Red too. I can take you to my mom’s grave if you need proof that I’m not joking.”
