Elliott entered the Bistro for the third time, and the last if he did not get a satisfying answer, to speak to Idris Nemain who was already waiting for him with a solemn expression. It did not lit up like last time and Elliott was glad for that as he was not sure how to feel at the moment.

“Do you want anything?” Nemain asked casually and Elliott ordered some wine. He was going to need it for this conversation. “Can I assume that you know what is going on?”

“A crying boy with the fear of dying is inside my house so it is safe to assume that I know what is going on,” Elliott answered grimly and drank the entire glass of wine as it arrived. The server gave him a strange look before leaving the bottle.

“Technically he would not die.”

“No, he would meet a fate worse than death!”

Nemain sighed and filled his glass as well,” I cannot deny that.”

“Then why the hell did you-“

“What was I supposed to do? Continue without his knowledge?”

“Yes! It’s obvious that he should be declared innocent.”

“Is it? Can you honestly not tell me that you considered throwing him to the wolves, pardon my crude joke, in order to avoid future harm?”

“Of course I did. For three seconds before I threw that idea away. You had days to ponder it but instead of taking the sensible decision, you decided to put that burden on the shoulders of a child. A child, by the way, you convinced that he would be responsible for all the bad things we adults did! Keir? Walsh? The war? All those this was created by us. He is just in the middle of this mess that we refuse to clean up ourselves.”

Nemain perused Elliott with an unreadable expression. “You truly believe that?”

“I know so. A war is coming no matter what Blake decides. Even a blind man can see that. I have no idea why you are so eager for Blake to take the blame but I will not allow it.”

Elliott emptied his glass and rose. Nemain gave him a pondering look. “I am not eager. I merely thought that it could solve some of our problems and save people's lives. One life for many. That seems like a fair deal.”

“You look far too bright to believe that. When an innocent man is convicted for someone else's crimes. It will always send ripples through the system. Do you think that the Hedgewitches will take it laying down?”

“They have before.”

“Not when it is a child! They will retaliate. I can’t believe that the coven is so blind that they can’t even see how agitated the Hedgewitches are. The burnings of the Coven of Glasgow. The murder of the high Witch of Southampton. All done by Hedgewitches crying out for their unfair treatment. It has only gotten worse. All they need is someone or something to rally behind.”

“Something like the corpse of an innocent child?” Nemain asked with an unsettling smile. Elliott frowned at him as he put on his jacket.

“Precisely. What are you playing at?”

“Nothing, but we know of the Hedgewitches. We just protect our covens more than some lone stragglers,” Nemain said politely and rose while paying the bill. Elliott glared at him before leaving with an uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. Nemain couldn’t have done this to provoke a war with the Hedgewitches? He has said that he thinks that there should be no Hedgewitches but…

Elliott shook off the feeling as he had bigger problems right now than wondering about Nemain’s motives. If Nemain betrayed them and claim that Blake is guilty then the pack needed to protect him. If he stays loyal and says that Blake is innocent Elliott would have to handle the tide that will come when both Blake and Keir will be released.

Either way, a storm was coming.

*****

Jaxon held onto the pale Blake who had calmed down the last few days while sleeping in Jaxon’s room. Alex sat on a chair opposite of Blake and spouted a large number of profanities that were not for the innocent while Hadrien and Haley looked grim. Blake had wanted Haley to know as well. He had also been a victim of Keir’s curse and should be aware that Keir will most likely go free.

“Those bloody twats! What the hell are they thinking?” Alex muttered for a thousand times.

“Nothing good,” Haley muttered grimly before giving Blake a stiff smile. “I know what you are thinking but this is not your fault. You should not have to sacrifice yourself for justice to be done. That is just insane.”

“What you say makes sense it is just that I don’t like the thought of people getting hurt because of a decision I made,” Blake muttered.

“And you sacrificing yourself would not have hurt someone? What do you think we are? We would have been devastated. Jaxon would probably spend the rest of his life howling at the moon,” said Alex. Blake chuckled and rubbed his face against Jaxon’s chest. Nightmane let out a happy growl as so did Jaxon. Damn it.

Blake just rubbed his cheek and said that he loved him too while Jaxon was about to die of bliss. Coney jumped up into Blake’s embrace and Jaxon was for a minute jealous of the rabbit whose head was rubbed by Blake. The rabbit looked up at Jaxon and Jaxon could swear that he could see a smirk on that damn rabbits face as it huffed and leaned towards Blake. He is so getting fried later on!

“I will never let anyone hurt you, Blake!” Coney said to accentuate the point and Jaxon let out a low growl that earned him a slap over the head by Blake.

“Don’t bully, Coney!”

“But he-“

“I don’t care.”

“What I want to know is how Ronan Walsh could get the curse from you,” Alex muttered and as being called a black smoke answered.

“That is easily answered,” Ahriman formed from the smoke and looked as suave as always.

“Were the hell do you come from? Are you eavesdropping or something,” Jaxon asked but all ignored him much to his dismay.

“What? What did Blake do?” Hadrien asked.

“He saved Jaxon’s life last year, remember? When Jaxon was hit by the curse,” Ahriman said and leaned on the wall.

“I don’t remember?” Haley muttered while refusing to look any of them in the eye. Haley still felt guilty even though he was merely being used.

“Well, Jaxon was cursed and Blake rescued him by-“ Ahriman gestured towards Blake for him to finish his sentence. Blake frowned before he lit up.

“By taking on the curse. I took it into my body as I was immune.”

“Exactly, the curse is still their though. It will fade off but slowly. But it was originally made to be transferred by a wolf’s bite and when Blake transformed into a wolf. Well, at least close enough, he could also transfer the curse to Ronan Walsh,” Ahriman explained.

“So if I hadn’t used Apery to transform into a wolf-“

“Then you wouldn’t be able to transfer the curse, “ Ahriman confirmed and Alex frowned.

“And my father convinced you to use Apery to copy Walsh’s powers… Like he knew all this,” Alex said grimly. “Not to say the obvious but there is no way that my father knew this on his own.”

“Oui, I don’t think so either. Someone else knew though. The coven?” Hadrien pondered but Blake shook his head.

“Nemain said that the coven was mostly ignorant of this kind of curse since it is forbidden for them to use them. It is one of the reasons why they can use it as evidence against me really. They can make up things about it and since no one has the knowledge to refute…”

“Bloody wankers. Either way, that should mean that there is a third player.”

Ahriman nodded,” That was my feeling as well.”

“Fingal Keir?” Haley suggested.

“I considered that as well and visited the old man. Turns out that he is completely out of his mind. Blake’s little spell last year made him mad. I’m sure that he doesn’t even remember who he is,” Ahriman said with a shrug.

“It can be an act,” Haley pointed out.

“Tested that theory as well. Other than leaving a bit of… Nightmares for the old man. He was clearly out of his mind. No, he was in no condition to do this,” Ahriman said with such certainty that there was no point to argue.

“Then who-“

“Have you tried looking into Nemain?” Elliott's voice suddenly sounded as he entered the room. “Pardon, I heard your conversation from the outside. I just had a very unsettling conversation with Nemain that made me suspicious. He had earlier claimed to loath Hedgewitches and now seemed to utter that he wants Blake to take the blame to rile them up.”

“What for?” Jaxon asked.

“The Hedgewitches has started to rebel all over the country,” Alex said grimly. “Sending an innocent Hedgewitch to their death might just do it for them to declare a rebellion.”

“They are? Why did I not know about this? Wait does that mean that even if I had sacrificed myself-“

“A war would still have happened,” Elliott nodded before he turned to Ahriman. “You seem to be able to… require information. Do you have anything interesting on Nemain?”

“I looked into the man the moment I heard a Justicar came into town. He has a background of accusing Hedgewitches of crimes. That stopped him from rising up in the ranks. Until about a year ago. He changed and became calmer. Still had a rather strong opinion about Hedgewitches but wanted them to join covens instead of imprisoning them all,” said Ahriman. “This is actually his first assignment as a Justicar and from what I was able to gather. He volunteered for this assignment.”

“Why?” Elliott asked but Ahriman just shook his head.

“That is something that only Nemain could answer.”

“So he is our prime suspect?” Jaxon asked to clarify but Ahriman shook yet again his head.

“I don’t like the man but there have been no extreme actions against Hedgewitches since his youth. He has made it easier for Hedgewitches to integrate into covens and encourage milder punishment for so-called crimes. Even freed a lot of the Hedgewitches who had been accused of crimes.”

“It might be a ruse,” Alex pointed out.

“Surely, but from what we can tell. He does not like Hedgewitches but he doesn’t want a war with them. At least that was never his intention not even in his wildest days. He either wanted them to be integrated or to excluded entirely from covens,” said Ahriman.

“If not him then who?” Jaxon asked confusingly.

“That is the question,” Elliott muttered.

“I hate to say it but has anyone looked up the Dark Arts teacher, Pyramus Marshall? I mean looking up the one guy we know has the knowledge of the curse should make sense, right?” Jaxon suggested and all stared at him like he was a ghost clearly surprised that he actually had an idea.

“I did,” Ahriman said without clarify.

“It isn’t him, I mean. He helped us last semester and he is a Hedgewitch!” Blake said.

“And he has no motive,” Alex added.

“Yes… He does. If you change the target of the incident in the church,” Elliott muttered.

“What?”

“Ronan Walsh send his goon after him to hurt him. He hunted them away but our janitor Mr.Brown was hurt in the attack,” Elliott explained.

“Well, that does it,” said Ahriman.

“No, it doesn’t. Why would Pyramus-“ Blake began but was interrupted by Ahriman’s chuckled.

“You clearly know nothing about your teacher. He is infamous for his vendettas. Gypsies hold grudges for generations and he is… Particularly good at cursing people for revenge. He has done so in the past and it would not be a stretch for him to want revenge against Ronan Walsh for the attack.”

“That doesn’t mean-“

“He did not want to defend you in the trial,” Hadrien pointed out.

“He wasn’t allowed to!”

“As far as you know but it might be a lie.”

Elliott sighed and ruffled his hear. “I agree that Pyramus could absolutely curse Ronan but not this. He is powerful enough to kill him without a trace. He would never draw Blake into his revenge scheme.”

“Are you sure about that?” Alex asked.

“Yes.”

Elliott left no room for argument and none continued to do so.

“Then we have no other suspects?” asked Haley.

“There are far more than you think. For example the Harwens,” Ahriman suggested.

“Wait, they don’t want war with…” Alex froze. “The wolves.”

“Exactly, they don’t want war with the shifters. But with Hedgewitches. They might try to pin the crime on Blake when they feared that this would not go their way. They betted on Blake taking the blame. Maybe they even hoped to steal his magic,” said Ahriman and the room fell silent.

“This is all a stretch. We have no evidence,” Elliott sighed and looked over at Ahriman who gave him a charming smile. “Can I ask you to continue investigating? Maybe you can find something among the shadows that we cannot see.”

“I was going to do so anyway,” said Ahriman and with a poof, he was gone in black smoke.

“All of you need to rest and, Jaxon?”

“Yes?”

“You really need to study. My father got the hands-on your latest grades and he is after blood.”

Damnit!