KAT
What Grows in Dark Places
Four weeks until these boys make their violent entrance into the world, and I'm trapped in this bed while something impossible grows on condemned Cumberland land. Daniel's video call comes through at dawn, his wereleopard composure cracked enough to wake Dave from actual sleep—a minor miracle given his recent vigilance.
"You need to see this." Daniel angles his phone toward the Cumberland territory where the Westwoods bled last week. The land where four hundred bodies were found, where federal investigators in hazmat suits declared it uninhabitable. Where Dave and his family—minus Cyrill—performed a blood ritual to key it to their genetics, preventing Branson and his Unseelie allies from using it.
The ground has split in perfect spirals radiating from wher
