Leiza takes an abrupt turn, quickly darting in the next direction, and I stumble when I try to turn too abruptly. Quickly, I right myself and continue to chase after her.

“Is Fay’s father a beta?” I once asked Emit.

“Fay’s father? I think he died as a mortal hundreds of years ago,” was his response.

My stomach tightens, because I remember even back then I found Fay’s acknowledged resentment far more recent than a full century ago.

Leiza barks at me, turning and circling a spot on the ground. I hurriedly kneel at it, putting my hand on the ground and desperately reaching for any sort of death window.

The window quickly opens, but it isn’t through Fay’s eyes. It was one of the others in that minor pack. I see Ian, as he hacks through a wolf’s neck with no mercy, his teeth bared, as he snaps through the bone.

I’m stuck in a small window that doesn’t pan wider, with the gaze only focused on what’s going on directly in the line of vision, as though the soul’s memories stained here were from a wolf who was left to die.

Another wolf falls, and I quickly recognize it as Fay’s wolf. It collapses to the ground with not even a whimper, neck barely still attached.

Ian finishes up, stepping back into frame, as he shifts back to two legs.

“Leave them for him to find,” Ian states to someone. “We’ll lose our weak alpha and stop Idun from ever returning all on our own. The Portocale dick says that without the Head Alphas, Idun will never rise,” Ian is saying.

“Yes, master beta,” the guy says, lowering his head. “But we should leave before he catches scent of this. Fay was one of his.”

“Fay’s the fool who knew better. She stirred this shit. She pried for information. Something she’s never done before, because she’s simply too omega. She knew the risks, and she’d be loyal to him. Not us. Keep your fucking omegas away from our alpha’s own minor pack from now on.”

“Of course, Master Beta,” the man says, keeping his head bowed.

They waste no time hurrying away, and I watch, as the dimming vision stays fixed on Fay’s motionless body.

If Fay really died here, then why couldn’t I open her death window from this spot? Why is her body missing from her—

The one who called Ian the Master Beta returns, silently slinking through the woods. He looks around a few times, and then he kneels to press Fay’s head back to her shoulders.

My breath is sucked in sharply when I see her neck starting to reattach to the skin, and I watch with even wider eyes when the fur starts to recede, revealing a form.

A groan comes from the woman, who is certainly not Fay.

Just as I feared…

Idun.

I didn’t know she could imitate a wolf’s form. Or maybe I knew it and forgot, since this world is total chaos with the abundant droves of never-ending information.

My heart is thudding so loudly when I watch her quickly heal, no stitches necessary, as she grins over at the man who returned for her.

“No need to tend me, Demetria. You fret too much,” she says to the man, who shifts into a familiar woman before my very eyes. “I was just waiting for him to be good and gone before I pulled myself together. It took all I had to remember I was pretending to be an omega so that I didn’t kill that fool. Holding a wolf form with a severed head isn’t as easy as I remembered.”

Where have I seen Demetria before? I mean, besides Idun TV.

Idun laughs as though she’s made a funny joke.

The tan woman gives no expression, only stands silently, as Idun glances around.

“Turn all their ghosts to salt after Emit’s men burn the bodies of the dead. I’ve learned all I needed. Scorch the death spot to prevent prying eyes. You did well finding a method to extract me. Emit will bury ‘Fay’ in his special cemetery, and I’ll come find you after I rise. For now, I have an important job for you. I need you to infiltrate Arion’s—”

That’s all I hear, because the only spirit with enough memories of that night to keep the window open must die at that moment.

I almost want to scream, cry, curse, and drag the imagery back, as my hands start shaking, and the world around me becomes the present. Tears start streaking down my face, as Leiza and Tiara move in front of me, forced to remain in wolf form.

Collecting myself, I force a calm that I don’t feel, just so I can speak.

“At some point, Fay seemed mostly like herself, but there was something that changed. Something less subtle than any other, less suspicious changes. You probably noticed it. So long as she’s been mostly true to character, Fay was brooding, mysterious, and somewhat challenging to get to know, which made her the perfect mark for Idun. However, you guys knew her better than anyone, so think back to the moment where something changed. Something big that made you worry there was something wrong with her. Or maybe something going on that you didn’t know about.”

They both give me an expression that tells me they’ve thought of the exact moment I’m asking them to recall.

“Was it before I came here?” I ask, dreading the answer.

Leiza is hesitant, but slowly nods, even as her hair starts standing straight up on her body.

A whine leaves Tiara’s throat.

I never even met Fay. I already somehow figured as much the moment I found that empty casket, but knowing it for certain is more devastating than I expected it to be.

It was Idun the whole time, and I never suspected it, because I never even knew the omega I called my friend.

I also never found myself as close to her as I did Leiza, Tiara, Lemon, Mary, or Ingrid.

“Was it a year ago?” I ask.

Tiara makes a show of backing up.

“Two years ago?” I ask.

She backs up again.

“Five years ago?”

She takes a step forward.

“Four years ago?”

At that question, they both give me a nod, and Leiza goes to nuzzle Tiara’s throat. Tiara turns and does the same to her. They both turn to look at me as though they’ve just said something, and it takes me a brief moment to catch on.

“She stopped being affectionate,” I say on a hushed breath.

They both nod.

“Four years ago, Idun took over Fay’s identity,” I whisper to myself. “They talk so much about her jealousy, but it’s all a ploy. She’s not that easily provoked. She’s cool and calculated enough to blend in with an omega minor pack, and she killed all their ghosts to ensure no one ever found out. But scorching a death spot doesn’t work on me.”

My chest gets heavy, because of all the horrible things that implies. It’s as though a bomb has gone off somewhere in the distance, leaving a ringing in my ears.

Tiara and Leiza stir restlessly, whimpering and whining more and more. Tiara even makes a pitiful, sad barking noise, her teeth baring.

Tears gather in my eyes, as I slowly stand from my kneel, and I wipe one of the drops away from my cheek. It’s…just too much.

I truly have been underestimating Idun.

She, somehow, deliberately made it look like she only rose after I came to town.

“She orchestrated such an elaborate design. And for what purpose?” I ask aloud, even though neither Tiara nor Leiza can answer.

No one sensed her power while she was walking around in another’s skin.