Chapter 413


    Lanie


    Despite the Flora happiness my daughter had infused into me, my shock was hard and cold and more


    bitter than anything I’d ever tasted.


    Itshed at me with the sting of a thousand whips before it subsided into a bearable weight. I couldn’t


    help but wonder if Ste was helping me to bear it, and I hated feeling like my own child had to be


    strong for me. I vowed then and there that I would do my best to never make her carry me this way


    again.


    There was an inevitability to this feeling as well, this discovery that those who’d meant to lead, guide,


    and protect our kind were working so very hard to hurt us.


    It felt like what we’d been waiting to find out for sure for so long. I hated that, too, but I could hardly be


    truly surprised. I’d always known it was only a matter of time.


    At least now, I hoped we’d get some answers.


    “What weakness?” I managed to say.


    “They can’t have. Of course, they think they have,”


    Mchi retorted at once. “But it’s impossible for them to actually breach our defenses. Believe me,


    others


    have tried with better methods than any the High Council could ever employ, and they’ve all failed.”


    Ste touched her fingertips to her temples and bowed her head. “I see many pathways, but despite


    the


    many branches, each one leads to the same end.


    The destruction of Brightsky. You can continue to deny it, or you can face it and save the enve and


    all


    those in it.”


    “What do you mean, exploiting the enve’s weakness?” I held up a hand when Mchi began to spea


    “Please. I want to hear what my daughter has to say. I believe and trust that she has insight into things


    you


    might have blinded yourself to.”


    Mchi sighed irritably. “Fine. Speak away, all-knowing Celestial.”


    “They’ve managed to find a way to kill the spiders,”


    Ste said.


    I waited for his reaction, which was cold, hard, and icy silence. Confused, I turned back to my daughter.


    “I don’t get it. What do spiders have to do with anything? Spider shifters?”


    “Envian spiders,” Mchi said. “Empathic, telepathic, tiny little guardians to us all. Generation after


    generation, they’ve evolved to serve and support the enve.”


    1/2


    “And now they are connected intrinsically to Brightsky in ways they were never meant to. Ways that


    have remained unknown to you all,” Ste exined.


    Mchi’s eyebrow quirked. “Not to me.”


    “To me, though,” I said. My heart pounded a little faster. “Forgive me for needing the crash course, but


    get me up to speed, please.”


    He turned to me. “The spiders control the lights, the heat, the water. All of the utilities. They are the


    eyes and ears of the enve, our silent s ervants, keeping everything running to perfection. They light


    the paths we


    walk.”


    “If you’ve ever wondered how you find your way from one ce to another, it’s usually because of the


    spiders helping you without you being aware of it,”


    Ste said. “But there’s more to it than that. Over the years, they’ve also grown more powerful. Their


    telepathy and psychokic powers are linked, not only to the spiders that live in Brightsky, but they’re


    starting to connect with their distant rtives in other enves.”


    “I’ve never even seen a spider here…” I began.


    Mchiughed. “They’re tiny. You wouldn’t see any one of them unless they want you to.”


    “Or you need them to,” Ste said. “And the wolf High Council has found a way to hurt them. To kill


    them,


    actually.”


    I was putting the pieces together, one at a time. Far more slowly than my brilliant daughter would be


    able to, but I was doing the best I could…and, it seemed like I was doing it better than my grandfather.


    “The lights. The power surges. That was from the spiders being killed?” I asked her.


    Ste nodded solemnly. “I haven’t been able to see exactly how they did it, because the spiders


    themselves don’t know. But they’re frightened, and that alone should tell you of the danger. I can tell


    you one


    thing, however. The only way that anyone or anything could bring harm to those spiders is if they also


    have


    ess to Brightsky.”


    “Someone on the inside is feeding the High Council information,” Mchi said in a voice as dark and


    co


    and deep as the void. “That’s the only exnation.


    Ste nodded. “Yes. And while I haven’t been able to find out how they killed the spiders, I can tell


    exactly how they got the information they could use to do it.”


    Mchi’s eyes zed crimson, and I felt a simr glow in my own eyes. Not my wolf, but my vampire


    side,


    reacting. Ste’s gaze swirled with multiple shes of color.


    “You know who their source is?” Mchi asked.


    Again, Ste nodded. “Yes. It’s Gabri.”Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDra/ma.O(r)g!