Page 178 of The Black Witch

We’re silent for a few tension-fraught heartbeats.

“Good night, Elloren.” His voice is low and warm as dark honey.

His eyes flit down my form in one languid line. Then his face grows uneasy and his head gives a small jerk up, his eyes gone a fraction wider like he’s startled himself. His gaze turns deeply conflicted.

He shoots me his familiar intense, fiery look and strides out.

* * *

My heartbeat is still erratic when I slip into my lodging, wildly flustered.

The fire is fully stoked, the room cast in a warm, comforting glow that instantly begins to soothe my troubled emotions.

Diana is lying on my bed, her arm around the sleeping Selkie. Ariel is lying on her own disastrous bed, her angry eyes hard on the Selkie as if she’s trying to mentally drive her away, and Wynter is kneeling in front of Ariel’s bed, talking to her in a low voice, her thin hand gentle on Ariel’s scarred arm.

Diana’s eyes, very much awake and alert, follow me as I take off my woolen cloak, hang it on a hook Jarod placed for us and sit down on the floor by my bed, resting my shoulder against the mattress. I realize we’re going to have to get more beds, with so many people now living here.

“How is she?” I notice how pained the Selkie’s expression is, even in sleep.

“She seems very tired, but not as scared,” Diana replies. “I think she’s beginning to realize that she is safe, and that I am dangerous and on her side.” Diana grins at me, her intimidatingI am the daughter of an alphagrin that never fails to raise the hairs on the back of my neck.

“Yvan Guriel brought her some food.” I lift the bag. “Dried fish.”

Diana wrinkles her nose. “I knewthatbefore you set foot in the room,” she says, affronted by my continual underestimation of her superior Lupine senses. “I smelled him out there,” she tells me, cocking her head and watching me closely. “Waiting for you.”

Her words hang in the air between us, my flush heating again.

Lupine senses.I realize she heard my entire conversation with Yvan and can sense our pointless attraction. Diana stares levelly back at me, remaining uncharacteristically and blessedly silent on the matter.

I’m quiet for a moment, Wynter’s murmuring to Ariel and the crackling of the fire the only sounds in the tranquil room.

I’m grateful that Diana refrains from commenting about me and Yvan, but I’m not able to remain silent when it comes to my brother.

“Diana,” I say hesitantly. “I...I saw you kissing my brother earlier, you know.”

Diana blinks at me, expressionless. “I wish to mate with him,” she finally says.

My worry spikes. “But you told me you wouldn’t because he’s not Lupine, so I’m a little confused on that point...”

“I would not mate with him at present,” she clarifies with a wave of her hand as if this should be obvious. “Onlyafterhe becomes Lupine.”

“My brother’s a Gardnerian, Diana,” I point out, growing even more worried.

“What is your point, exactly?”

“Gardnerians don’t become Lupine.”

“Oh, he will,” she says with complete confidence, “to mate withme.”

“Become Lupine?” My brother, ashapeshifter?

“Yes.”

I sigh in surrender and rest my head on the bed, facing Diana and the sleeping Selkie, a fierce melancholy overtaking me. Here she is—Rafe’s choice. What little family I have is beginning to fracture and fall away. Rafe will become a Lupine and leave us. And Trystan... Ancient One knows what will happen to him.

And me—I don’t fit in anywhere. Least of all with Yvan. A bitter pang of hurt and regret courses through me.

“How does someone become Lupine?” I ask, my voice low and sad, curious about how exactly Rafe will be taken away.

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