“I spent longer than a thousand years underground. I’ve served my sentence,” she continues. “I won’t even fight against whatever it is she’s doing right now with my family. So long as that necklace stays far away from me, I’m done.”

She says the words so seriously that I almost stupidly believe them, just because I want it to be true. Life would be grand if it really was this simple.

Emit and Damien cast a narrowed gaze in my direction.

“Just that easily?” Arion drawls.

“Nothing is ever easy with Idun,” Damien states in a bored tone, as he and Emit move in, and we begin to circle her very subtly.

“Sitting directly in front of Violet’s recently purchased home for your power stash of alphas, who can handle nesting that many together, was all to say you’re done playing games?” I muse.

She lets out a tired, humorless laugh.

“It’s not easy to go cold turkey. And don’t think I didn’t spend a few centuries being really creative. But there’s a point when the agony is so fierce that the hold of something as powerful as that necklace suddenly breaks,” she says, her eyes distant like she’s stuck in a memory.

She blinks rapidly and clears her throat, as we tighten the circle just a little, still waiting on whatever nasty shot she’s planning to take.

Violet’s scent hits me hard, and I dart a quick glance to see her stepping out, stumbling to a clumsy stop when her eyes land on all of us. She looks away in the next instant, and collects a sledgehammer from the ground, after she puts on a hard hat. Without ever looking at us again, she walks back inside.

Idun’s eyes level mine when I turn back around, and she gives me a lopsided smile. “I truly don’t expect anyone at all to believe me. My House is a rather enormous mess, due to my absence, and I’m referring to the shifters running awry in your very own regions. I’ve been mending and getting caught up. Demetria will be arriving soon, and I will be setting up here.”

“And it starts,” Emit scoffs, scrubbing a hand over his face as he laughs humorlessly.

“Nothing is starting. You hated me, and I understand why. After the hold of that damning necklace broke, I felt it all. There’s nothing I can do about the horrible past we all share, but I can move forward. I’m not here to torment you. I’m here to coexist and prove myself. No matter how many centuries it takes.”

“Unbelievable,” Damien mutters as he pinches the bridge of his nose. “Does anyone here believe this rubbish?”

“You know you broke the rules?” Arion asks her like he’s genuinely curious, and a sinking feeling collects in my stomach.

“Yes,” she says softly toward him. “I know. I don’t blame you for finally straying. Knowing I lost you just proves I’m right about the necklace, and that it should be kept away from me. If you can find a way to destroy it, I hope you do.”

“In other words, she wants you to get right on that so she can follow you to it and leave you dead for the next twenty-eight years, while she does whatever phase-two of her plan is,” I state dryly.

A shadow passes over her eyes, and she looks over at Damien.

“If you want the curse lifted, I’ll do it. If you want it to remain so that she’s one of the limited warm bodies you can feed from, I’ll do that too.”

“How convenient,” he spits out.

“I’d have done it at least four hundred years ago if I could have gotten out. I knew you’d leave me under indefinitely, and with your revenge, my entire alpha line would suffer because of me.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Idun. Cut the shite,” Damien shouts, his accent hitting old notes that he’s long since trained against. “There have been some changes since you went under. You’ll find the world you live in much harder to lay under the radar. So many new toys have been created—by the humans of all people—that may just send your ass straight to hell after all. It’s not the Dark Ages anymore, and we fully intend to keep it nice and dull.”

She gives one small nod.

“Don’t speak for me,” Arion cuts in. “I’m remaining neutral, so long as Idun works to make that a truth, and not just a suggestive thought in my mind to persuade me that’s what she’s doing, when she’s really not.”

It feels like he’s having the vaguest argument in history with her.

“Only time will tell that. I know that’s not what you want to hear, but you’re only going to believe me if I prove I mean what I say. I don’t ever want to return to the monster that stone turned me into. I’m not asking you to trust me—”

We all make some derisive sound on that note, aside from Arion, who just continues to study her.

She smiles tightly.

“As I was saying, I’m not asking that, because I know it’d be laughable. But Arion went under and came out different. It’s not so hard to believe that it took a thousand years to break even the demon that had latched onto me. Ask Arion to tell you what it’s like to be trapped in that coffin, cut off from your den, nest, or whatever your group calls it.”

A muscle jumps along Arion’s clenched jaw.

“He’s not punishing you for it, because he had no choice but to break,” she goes on, quieter. “I was dismembered. My head waking up with no body attached…was far worse. I assure you.”