What did Mel want? After everything Arthur had done that night, and that week, and the last several years, she’d thought it was to hurt him even a fraction of how much he’d hurt everyone else. Even if that had been the case, she knew him. Anything anyone else did to hurt him only served as a retroactive justification for the pain he’d caused, an excuse for him to lash out and cause even more. On some level, he’d probably be grateful for it.

No, the worst thing that could happen to Arthur would be for him to see his own behavior clearly.

Not that it mattered now. Even with her life on the line, all she could think about was him. Mel decided to turn her attention to Carter instead. She asked abruptly, “You work for the state? A hunter?”

Still sitting by himself, Carter turned to face her. He took off his cap and ran his uninjured hand through his hair. “I work with the state, sometimes, but I’ve never been a hunter. I study werewolves. Every few years, the hunters ask me to look at one of the wolves they’ve caught. I don’t condone their methods. I do take advantage of the chance to learn. Last month was the first time they brought me someone still in human form.”

Carter stared at his hat for a silent moment. He put it back on and continued, “I thought I’d gotten pretty good at hiding my disgust. Turns out I was wrong. Apparently, I was angry enough to get myself labeled as a dangerous sympathizer, along with my assistants, Masha and Suresh.”

Mel had all but forgotten about the other captives, who Carter indicated now with a wave of his hand. They were too busy trying to comfort one another to notice the introduction. As opposed to Carter’s relaxed attire, Masha and Suresh looked like they’d been snatched straight from a lab. One of them still wore a pair of nitrile gloves they’d clearly forgotten about.

Fighting to keep her voice steady, Mel told Carter, “Gus was our friend.”

“Then I’m doubly glad I could punch that man here tonight, where you were able to watch. Surprising that you didn’t beat me to it.” He studied her. “Mel and not-Gus. What can I call your friend here?”

Thinking it over, Mel decided, “He and him pronouns are fine.”

“So you haven’t given up on surviving the night.” Carter’s eyes beamed. “I like you. Has he always had control over his wolf form? I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“No. This only started tonight. We think it’s some kind of magician and familiar relationship.”

“Very unlikely,” he mused. “Magicians create their familiars from their own store of magic. They’re terrible at manipulating magic outside of their own. No offense, of course.”

“Oh, no, I’m not actually a magician. I mean, I brew potions, but that’s different, obviously.”

“Different indeed…” Carter got to his feet. “You do the blessings in-house?”

“That’s my specialty,” Mel confirmed.

“You would be very used to manipulating magic, then.”

“That’s not exactly how I would describe it.” As she got her thoughts in order, Mel scratched Kit’s ears, calming him enough that he sat beside her. “I don’t manipulate it, I work with it. Really, if you want to be any good, you’re not taking control- you’re giving it up. The magic uses you as a conduit. Then you present what you want, but it’s a request, not a demand.”

“I see.” He took a step toward them and watched Kit’s eyes intently. “Remarkable. It’s quite the opposite of what you said, I think. He hasn’t become your familiar; you’ve become his.”

Kit and Mel looked at one another with uncertainty. She asked, “How would I have done that?”

“The wolf is bent on destruction. We see this in every case, without fail. The human is not in control, and won’t remember anything they did in wolf form, but— now and then, we see something different. Focused destruction. A target or a purpose of some kind. In such cases, the human will remember vague flashes of their actions afterwards, and the damage may be less severe because the wolf will ignore whatever is outside of its focus. Once this goal is either achieved or taken away from the wolf, chaos returns. Are you following so far?”

“Yes,” Mel answered. She was picturing the lab after Kit tore through it. Arthur’s green apron torn to pieces.

“Am I correct in assuming your friend was focused on something?”

“Arthur was his target. When I saw how he’d destroyed the lab, there was this feeling that came over me…”

She looked at Arthur. He covered his face with one hand and felt the barrier with the other, muttering to himself, searching for some way out. Mel said, “I stopped feeling afraid. Arthur, he… he’s hurt us so much. Gus was the worst of it, but not everything. My other friend was in danger— Arthur put her in danger— and when I saw what the wolf had done, I had this feeling like I could do anything. I blessed some nearby water so I could heal my friend. It was the most powerful blessing I’ve ever produced. More than powerful. It defied reason.”

“I would bet my life that was the moment,” Carter said. “I wish I could have seen it. You took the raw destructive will of the wolf and channeled it, allowing your friend’s human form to take control again. You shared a target. Imagine that.” He chuckled as he nodded toward Arthur. “Imagine being a big enough asshole to potentially change the way we understand magic.”

Mel couldn’t help laughing. Arthur glared at them, though she didn’t think he’d heard their conversation. She turned to Kit to share an amused look, and saw only anger. 

For the first time, the extent of what he’d been through sank in. They’d each lost someone important to them in Gus. But Kit, he had lost kin, and he had been shown an all too likely vision of his own future in the process.

She asked Kit, “Did you know the whole time that it was Arthur who turned Gus in?” He shook his head. “But you had a pretty good hunch.” Kit turned away from Arthur, huffing, to lie down on the pine needles. She stroked his fur with a light, comforting touch. Mel had thought she and the others shared a bond through their struggles. In truth, she hadn’t had any idea what they were going through. Hadn’t cared to.

That wasn’t quite right— Mel cared about them deeply, but she’d been too self-focused to see what was right in front of her. Little good her love from them did in that state. It all came back to Arthur. In this moment, in every moment for longer than she wanted to measure, her frustration with and fixation on how his behavior affected her choked everything else out. When all of this was said and done, even if they somehow managed to get out of it alive, would she go right back to neglecting the people who weren’t hurting her?

Mel asked Carter, “Do you think we’re like this forever now? When he’s human again, will we still be bonded?”

“I don’t know. Like I said before, I’ve never seen anything like this. You may be bonded for life, or you may need to renew it each time he transforms. Finding out would do wonders to advance our knowledge of the werewolf. The question of whether each transformation creates a new being, or reverts back to the same being, is one of the largest in the field.” Carter shook his head. “No, we can’t die tonight. We have far too much to do. Mel, I want you to try and channel your friend’s energy again, and this time, direct it at the barrier.”

Mel pushed her concerns aside for the moment. She needed to secure her survival before worrying about what came after. “I’ve never done anything like that before.” She got up and moved to the barrier, pressing, tapping, and scratching it. “How do I use my magic?”

“It’s not yours. It’s his, and you’ve already done it. You didn’t know what you were doing at the time, but it’s far more astonishing that you were able to use a werewolf’s magic in a blessing. This will be easy. Destruction is its nature. All you need to do is point the energy that way.” Carter indicated the barrier with a reassuring smile.

“I can try.” Mel closed her eyes, trying not to notice that Carter’s assistants were watching her now. “I might need a minute.”

“Let me know if I can help.”

With her focus turned inward, Mel realized how exhausted she felt. Her shoulder throbbed. Her muscles ached. Her heart beat slow and heavy, the way it did whenever she tried to fall asleep after too many sleepless nights.

She stood straighter with that thought. It wasn’t as though she was new to working under pressure. Mel imagined herself back in the lab, Arthur yelling at Kit for forgetting to order more witch hazel, Rosa shuffling through a stack of orders, and Gus…

Kit stood next to her. Her will slid aside easily, and what she now recognized as Kit’s will took its place. Energy poured into her skull. Mel divided it this time: some went through her forehead, the rest down her arms and through both palms. The three points struck the barrier in a visible triangle, forming three holes the size of her fist. She held some energy back for the space of three seconds, then sent it out in a more focused wave. The holes grew to the size of dinner plates. Just as Mel began to feel that she could do this, the stream of energy abruptly ran dry.

After catching her breath, she said, “It’s working. One or two more, and—“

The barrier hummed, flashed, and swiftly closed the holes she’d made. She heard Arthur curse somewhere behind her.

“That was very good,” Carter spoke up. “We’ve proven the idea works. We only need a little more power. You know what we have to do now, don’t you?”

“I have no idea.”

“Your friend, he needs to turn me. As soon as possible; right now, if you please.”

“What?!”

“We only have a few hours of moonlight left. The transformation may be immediate, or it may take some time. We still have a chance. Here. My non-dominant arm. The bites heal strangely sometimes. Just enough to break the skin, my friend.”

Kit backed up, looking at Mel with confusion. She asked, “What are you talking about? What good will that do us?”

“We have a unified purpose, don’t we? We both want to live, we both want to escape. When I transform, you do the same thing for me that you do for him. Channel my magic. Direct both at the barrier and break it.”

Carter’s assistants, Suresh and Masha, rushed to him and tried to pull him aside, but he stood firm.

“You can’t do this,” Suresh told him. “It’s a lifelong curse.”

Masha agreed. “Why should you have to? Why not him?” She pointed to Arthur, who was fortunately distracted by trying to use a stick to find the bottom of the barrier underground.

“Wouldn’t trust him,” Carter said simply. “My intentions are clear. His, I couldn’t say. Anyway, I’m the oldest. Lifelong isn’t going to be as long for me as for any of you. Now, enough with the arguments. There isn’t any time.”

“I don’t mean to doubt you,” Mel said apologetically, “but how can you be sure this will work? My friend and I had a connection before. You and I might not be able to bond. Shouldn’t Masha or Suresh try it?”

Both looked willing to accept this responsibility, but Carter hesitated. “They have no experience. Can you teach them? How long did it take you to learn how to bless potions?”

Mel winced. “About a year of studying and practice.”

“Well, then, we have no choice. If you and I can’t form a bond then your friend here will have to subdue me. He looks young and strong.”

With a sigh, Suresh said, “Or you’ll kill us all, which…”

Masha finished the thought, “Which is exactly what the hunters will do, anyway.”

“I’d rather be killed doing research than exterminated by the state,” Masha reasoned.

“You’ll have to forgive us,” Carter told Mel, who was growing more and more certain that she didn’t have a choice in the matter. “We’ve each already faced the certainty of our deaths tonight, so now that it’s only a possibility, it isn’t so much to bear. But more importantly, I believe in you. This is going to work.”

Masha snapped and ran behind Mel, grabbing the silver restraints that had held Kit. “We’ll put these on you,” she told Carter. “That will give her time to make the connection.”

“Brilliant. You see, we can’t lose.” Carter bared his right arm to Kit. “Go ahead.”

“Wait.” Mel put her hand on his arm, holding Kit off for a moment. “In case I don’t get a chance to ask you after— what happened to Gus’s body? Did he at least get a proper burial? He was like family to us. We deserve to know.”

“I’m sorry,” Carter replied. “I know this will be upsetting, but I wish to be honest with you, as his family. The procedure is always the same. There’s a body farm. Werewolf magic does strange things to the decomposition process. He’ll have been taken there for study.”

“Where? Where exactly?”

“We don’t have much time,” Suresh reminded them regretfully.

Carter gently moved Mel’s hand from his arm. “It won’t be far from here. After all, that’s where he was intended to go in the morning,” he said, indicating Kit. “I know what you’re thinking of. Do you have anything that belonged to your friend?”

“Back at the lab, maybe. But there’s no way we could get there safely. Oh!” Mel reached into her pocket and pulled out Gus’s phone, the screen now cracked in two places.

“That will work. If we succeed in getting out of here, I’ll help you find Gus. I owe him that much.”

After an approving nod from Mel, Kit wrapped his jaws around Carter’s forearm, bit down with nervous care, and watched Carter’s face all the while.