Page 43 of Watch Me Burn

The little bit of color in her cheeks disappears. As if I needed proof that she’s hiding something, I get it then and there.

Oh, Elise.

She doesn’t spill, though. Moving further into the room, slipping off her heels, she asls, “How do you know that?”

“Conall told me.”

Elise purses her lips, hiding her fangs for a moment. “Conall?”

“Mr. Grump himself.”

“You were talking to Conall about wolf shifters and their sense of smell?”

Right. That sounds weird if she doesn’t know the whole story. After all, when I last saw Elise, I was bitching to her that I sawConall—because I guess I just subconsciously knew it was him—lurking outside of the back of the cottage. She doesn’t even know about the yellow snow, or how he followed me out of the sanctuary.

Or that he offered to help me explore the caves.

So I tell her, and I thought she was going to apologize again for not coming with me, but the only thing she seemed to get out of my entire story is that Conall is a wolf shifter.

“There’s a wolf in Dyea? I mean, Ithought… but, no. There are only supposed to be prey shifters here. It’s why it seemed like the perfect sanctuary for me. I didn’t have to worry about other predators being a danger to the two of us.”

She still doesn’t. “Conall’s definitely a wolf, but I don’t think he’s adanger.”

Oh, no. He callsmedangerous.

Elise sinks down gracefully onto the couch cushion next to mine. “Maybe not to you. Probably not to me, either. But if he’s a wolf and I didn’t realize it… I should’ve.”

“Why? Why does it matter?”

“Because vampires and wolf shifters are ancient enemies,” Elise tells me. “Our kinds have been at war for so long, we don’t even distinguish between the different skirmishes. It’s just known as the Claws and Fangs war. He must hate vampires.”

Well, he doesn’t seem like the world’s biggest fan, but I get the strange feeling it’s not vampires that bother him, but maybe one in particular…

No.No. I’m wrong.

And so is Elise.

“He doesn’t have a problem with you. It’s just me he can’t stand.”

Elise raises her eyebrows so high, they nearly disappear into the hairline of her ruby-red waves. “You sure, sweetie?”

Yes?

No.

I don’t know…

“Did you just tell me that he’s been helping you in the caves? That he knows you’re a witch, but he promised not to tell anyone else? I don’t know, Bridge… I’m beginning to think he might be more fond of you than we both thought.”

Wenothing. I never thought Conall thought of me as anything other than the human who walked into the sanctuary and immediately defied him.

I’m pretty sure a couple of hours in the caves haven’t changed everything.

And to prove it to Elise, I bump my shoulder against hers and confess, “I burned his tail.”

I’ll say one thing. The way my sheepish admission has her laughing for the first time in days makes up for all of the disappointment that came with knowing I’ll have to go back down to the caves.

With Conall Hunt.

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