Alejandro glanced at the verdugo, waiting to see if he would explain his surprise.
“The road’s clear.”
It was not clear. There was a lot of snow on the road. But then Alejandro blinked, realizing what Ezekiel meant. He could see, now the verdugo had pointed it out, how the snow blew sideways off the road, piling up instead under the trees. Away from the road, the snow was much deeper, maybe chest high in places.
“Your sister is truly gifted,” Ezekiel said. He sounded pleased about it. He sounded possessive. Alejandro set his jaw against showing a sudden blaze of angry resentment. Ezekiel cast him an amused glance and drove a little faster.
Ezekiel had not called ahead, but nevertheless the Dimilioc wolves were waiting, gathered in a tight-knit group on the front porch, just as they had been when Alejandro and Miguel and Natividad had arrived. Neither Miguel nor Natividad were among them. Alejandro wanted to see the twins, para asegurarse de estaban bien. But it was good they were not here, at this moment when violence burned in the air like fire.
Grayson Lanning stood at the front, autocratic and immovable. Harrison Lanning stood to his left side, aloof; Zachariah Korte to his right, disdainful and curious. Benedict Mallory and Ethan Lanning leaned side by side against the snow-covered railing. A little to Alejandro’s surprise, Keziah stood behind and to one side of the Master, hip cocked and arms crossed and black, black hair pouring like a waterfall to her hips, looking scornful and superior and elegant. Even Amira was there, though she had tucked herself half out of sight behind her sister.
The Dimilioc wolves may have gathered like that when Alejandro and the twins had come here, but that had not been the same. They had been afraid, but they had come into Dimilioc territory deliberdamente. They had had a plan, and followed it through the fear and the doubt, and it had worked – at least so far as to bring allies to their side against Vonhausel so they did not face him alone. So, they had been right to come.
It was different for Thaddeus, for his family. The boy was too young to understand what Dimilioc was, but not too young to feel the deadly strength of the black wolves. He clung to his mother, but he did not bury his face against her the way a human child might: he was angry as much as frightened. He might cling, but he was ready to push away, go into the cambio de cuerpo, fight. Even a little puppy like that one would fight.
DeAnn held her son tightly. If the child began to change, she would try to stop him. Alejandro could tell by the way she walked a little apart from Thaddeus that she thought there was nothing she could do to protect her husband. She thought Grayson Lanning was going to kill him. Thaddeus thought so, too. That was very obvious. It was almost painful to watch – it was so easy for Alejandro to imagine exactly how the big black dog felt. Alejandro wished, momentarily but strongly, that he had defied Ezekiel just so far as to tell Thaddeus the truth. Papá would have told him. But as soon as he thought so, Alejandro was not sure. Maybe Papá, too, would have deferred to the Dimilioc executioner. But probably not out of fear. He had not dared, and so now Thaddeus had no hope.
Ezekiel had taken off the steel chains, but not the silver bracelets that mattered so much more. Thaddeus’s shadow had been pressed flat by the bright fire of that silver, but Alejandro could not imagine the black dog trying to fight now, even if he could get rid of the bracelets. The weight of all the powerful Dimilioc shadows filled the air, until it almost surprised Alejandro that the porch was not crushed under the load it had to bear, that the earth itself did not crack open in protest at the burden.
Thaddeus walked forward without lifting his gaze from the snow. A few feet from the steps that led up to the porch, he went down, not kneeling, but all the way down on his belly, his hands open, his face flat against the snow in absolute submission. Alejandro thought that Thaddeus might not realize that he appeared even bigger stretched out that way, his body dark against the white of the snow. He looked huge. Even bound with silver, his shadow radiated anger and power.
Grayson tilted his head, clearly pleased. Alejandro thought he was pleased by the black dog’s obvious strength as well as his surrender, but he was not sure.
“Keep an eye on the woman,” Ezekiel said to Alejandro. He strode past the prone black dog and leaped up to join the other Dimilioc wolves on the porch. He looked very young and slight beside the Lannings, but Harrison and even Grayson shifted aside for him as though he was much bigger than he really was, and Ezekiel accepted the space they yielded as his due. He gave no sign of weariness or injury, but the Dimilioc wolves turned their heads as they caught the scent of blood from the reopened cut. Ezekiel only said, pleasantly, before either of them could speak, “You didn’t specifically ask me to bring the pup, but I thought you might like a look at him.”