Page 127 of The Black Witch

“Oh.” That’s disappointing. Rafe’s always out and unavailable lately.

“He’s hiking with Diana Ulrich,” Trystan says as an afterthought. “He’s been out hiking with her every night this week.”

My eyes widen. “He has?”

Trystan glances up at me, perplexed by my surprise.

“She’s the Lupine girl,” I point out.

“I know,” he says calmly, looking back down at his book, as if the idea of Rafe spending so much time with a shapeshifter is somehow normal.

I think back to that night in the dining hall, to the way Rafe and Diana seemed to instantly fall in with each other. The look on her face when she glanced back at him, just before leaving.

“Don’t you think that’s a little...strange?” I prod.

Trystan shrugs. “Life is strange.”

My worry spikes. Rafe can’t become interested in a Lupine. He’ll bring the wrath of two powerful races straight onto his head. And hers, too.

“Do you think they...like each other?”

“Maybe,” Trystan says flatly.

I blink at him, really concerned now. “She’s ashapeshifter.”

Both his eyebrows go up. “Translation: ‘she’s an Evil One’?”

“Sweet Ancient One, no,” I sputter, sounding shrill and defensive to my own ears. “Of course I don’t think she’s evil, but...but Rafe can’tlike her that way. Our people aren’t exactly on good terms with each other.”

Trystan smirks, his tone bitter. “So you think affection respects diplomatic pettiness?”

I fume at his sarcasm. “Perhaps it should. When it’s hazardous to your future.”

Trystan rolls his eyes and goes back to reading.

“How can you be so calm?” I don’t know why I’m asking him that. Trystan is always calm. And right now it’s driving me up the wall.

“Ren, maybe they’re just friends.”

I snort derisively at this. “Have you even met her?”

“No,” Trystan replies, his tone clipped. “I haven’t.”

“Well, she can be infuriating. And arrogant.”And brave. And kind. But she’s placing our brother in potentially serious danger.“And she runs around naked half the time!” I insist. “And now she’s trying to steal our brother away from us.”

There are things I’m growing to truly like about Diana, admire even, but I push them roughly to the back of my mind. I know I’m being wrongheaded, and I’m ashamed of my words even as I say them, but this is a road that could lead to disaster. There’s just no way around that fact.

Trystan’s eyes flicker up briefly from his book. He looks at me like I’m becoming mentally unhinged. “Do you honestly think someone could steal...Rafe?”

“She has bewitched him with her beauty.”

Trystan rolls his eyes at me. “They’re probably just walking around in the woods, Ren.”

How can he be so infuriatingly blind? “No. She’s trying to sink her claws, and I do meanclaws, into him.”

Trystan smiles slightly at this.

I plop down on the bed behind me and glare at him in consternation, my arms crossed tightly in front of me. He goes back to reading his text, doing his best to ignore me as I sit there stupidly fuming.

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