We Are the Wolves

[38] Truth or Truth

We all stared at my phone for the next five minutes until it rang.

"Hello?" I asked after putting it on speaker.

"Hey," a cracked voice greeted. "I don't know if you remember me but my name's Jeremy–you might've heard the guys call me 'Air Bud.'" I knew exactly who he was. He was in Milkner's pledge class. He was the roommate of the Kappa Omicron Rho member who had died and allegedly knocked over a candle to cause the fire. For that proximity, I thought he was one of the additional deaths that was mentioned due to injury or infection, but I guess not. What would he say? Would he accuse us of killing his brother in arms? Would he be inviting me to the funeral? Did they even know he was dead? Whose job was it to communicate that to them? Or Malcolm's mom–

"Yeah, I remember you."

"Is now a good time to talk?" he asked in the most serious way I couldn't have imagined back when he was losing at beer pong to a flirty Colin months ago. I told him yes after glancing up at Andrew and Ryder. "We finally got Malcolm's letter...We know he's dead." I still expected myself to have a reaction but nothing came other than panic. What letter? I looked up at my brother and Ryder, hoping they knew something about that since they had clearly conspired with Milkner before, but their expressions were as curious as my own.

"I'm really sorry. I–I didn't know he could...and then it all happened so fast that I don't–"

"He only phased once before he left. But I'm not calling about discussing his shifting. We doubt he knew how to control it but he still rushed off to get some answers from you," he said in a tone that was incredibly hard to read. Was he mad? Was he sad? Was he being diplomatic? No. He just wanted answers to questions in whatever letter was sent.

"How can I help?" I asked genuinely because I wanted to get to the bottom of things just like he did and I'm sure his brotherhood too.

"I can't reveal much but part of the Kóryos battle ritual includes transferring our magic into something that can be either triggered or something we can later reclaim if we survive," he began. I started to feel the half silver, half obsidian pendant glow at my chest. "Given that his letter said he's dead if we haven't heard from him by now, consider the magic triggered. He transferred it to a truth spell for you."

My immediate thought was that I didn't need another truth or dare blow up that involved Malcolm Milkner. Ryder, Colin nor Andrew wanted it either given the collective stifled groan they all did which caused Cassandra and my mom to frown in confusion. There were obvious reasons why we didn't tell them the details from spring break.

"Alright well tell me how to use it and–"

"It's not for you to use. It's being used on you," he corrected and I gulped. I actually felt some sense of betrayal that Malcolm had any reason to distrust me or maybe because I hadn't consented to any spell in the first place–this being subsequent to the strains of our sealed promise. "This isn't meant to hurt you, Ashlynn. In fact, he said if he died, it wasn't your fault or your brother's or your boyfriend's. You're absolved completely from that. We just want answers just like you."

We shouldn't let him do anything until we get Stormy over here, Andrew thought to me or maybe all of us in our pack. Meanwhile Ryder's mind was silent. He wanted answers too. Especially now that we knew Malcolm cleared our names proactively.

"It's a simple spell," Jeremy continued. "I tell you something that's true and ask you some yes/or no questions. That way, you get a truth and I get a truth. And just so you're not surprised, your answer will be universally true, not what you believe to be true. You're just a vessel for candor." Now more than ever, I felt apprehension climbing up my newly dry throat. I was scared of the answers before the questions were even presented to me. "You there?"