Page 10 of Fated Guardian

His eyes widen. “Are you nervous? Is something wrong? I’m here to protect you, so you can tell me if I need to be on the lookout.”

His voice is now low and rough, and I like that a whole lot. Too much, even.

“No, no. It’s just the name thing. It’s a touchy subject.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

I exhale, sucking in a deep breath after. “You didn’t. I’m just being weird about it.”

“That’s okay. If you don’t want me to use any name for you, I won’t,” Nolan says.

I shoot him a look. “What would you say to get my attention?”

He looks down at his feet. “Hey, Meadow Lady?” he says, tentatively.

I laugh. I can’t help it; it’s so ridiculous. The laugh fills the meadow, and the plants titter with me. When I look up, Nolan’s grinning, too, and that’s a sight that almost stops my heart altogether.

He’s so handsome all the time. But when he smiles? He’s downright charming.

“Coral is fine,” I say, the laughter still tugging my lips into a smile. “My full name is close, but full names are reserved for family and loved ones.”

“Noted. You know, my sister has a name like that for me. It’s straight up embarrassing,” Nolan says.

I wrinkle my nose. “I highly doubt that.”

“Oh, it definitely is. I think I’m gonna keep that one quiet, but if you ever hear what it is, you have to promise not to laugh.”

“I won’t,” I say, giving him another look.

Nolan’s eyes sparkle. “Good. I’ll accept that.”

“Well, Nolan. It’s very nice to meet you.” I pull my dress into a curtsy and drop down, then pop back up. “How can I help you?”

He’s staring at me when I ask. Like, really,reallystaring.

Do I have something on my dress? This one is made from spider silk and a little bit of flax, but it shouldn’t be too dirty…

“Oh. Shit. That’s right.” He startles just like I did. Fumbling, Nolan puts a hand in his pocket and pulls out an envelope. “Thorne sent this for you.”

That’s odd. Thorne comes around in the afternoons sometimes, less so now that he and Iris are preparing for another family member to join, but he still wanders by occasionally. Barring that, he also has the ability to summon me. I gave him a talisman that’s basically a direct line to me. Cell phones tend not to work in my presence, and so if he wants to find me, he has to reach out magically. It's not an emergency beacon or anything like that. It’s literally just a direct line to me, and he’s used it before. So it’s extremely odd for him to send Nolan to deliver something to me.

I take the envelope from him. He turns, like he’s going to go, but I wave at him.

“Stay. I might need you to take a message back to him,” I murmur automatically.

One becomes accustomed to such communication methods when one cannot use a phone, after all.

Nolan shifts on his feet, settling back in. “That makes sense. Good call.”

I open the envelope. Inside, there’s a thick stack of papers. Frowning, I start to look through them.

What I see makes my hands start to shake.

Rogue shifters. They’re not lions, exactly. It’s more a mixed bag of different types of animals, each one with a past, each one a person of interest in a case, which is what Thorne sent me. Each one has been spotted around Oakwood in the past month or so. Almost like there’s some kind of target here that they’re flocking to.

I put the papers down. Thorne scribbled one word on the back of one of the pages, and it’s not particularly helpful.

Wards?It’s not exactly a direction, but I know what he means.

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