Page 73 of Wicching Hour

Bracken stared at me shocked. “Really? The queen asked you to read her?”

I lifted one shoulder. “She says she has plans for me, which made Dad super uncomfortable.”

He patted my shoulder. “I can see why. It’s never good to draw the faes’ attention, dear, especially not the queen’s.”

“Arwyn,” Declan said cautiously, taking my gloved hand in his. “You’re being awfully free with information in front of two people we just met. Are you feeling okay?”

“Hmm?” I looked over at Tyler and Jake. “Oh, they’re fine. They’ll take the job. Tyler already likes us, me more than you.” I elbowed Declan. “Jake is pretending to not like or trust you but the only reason they’re here is because Jakedoestrust you and his sudden anger issues scare him. He doesn’t want to hurt Tyler, so he’s hoping you’re more like your father than your half-brother.”

The men looked stunned and uncomfortable.

“Sorry. I don’t normally do that.” I rubbed my forehead. “I’m usually really good about keeping secrets.” I turned to Bracken. “Have I been spelled?”

“I don’t know,” he said, a gentle smile on his face. “I have a suspicion, but I don’t know. I don’t believe it’s an immediate danger, though. That map and finding Cal is the priority.”

I nodded. He was right, but I was still uneasy. I had too many secrets floating around in my head to just start blurting them out.

Declan ran a hand down my back. “Hey, what did you see when you read the queen?”

I turned back to him and shook my head. “Oh, I don’t think she’d like that. Sorry.”

He kissed my forehead. “See? You’re fine, just overtired and dealing with too many threats at once. And I already knew the men could be trusted. I wouldn’t have introduced them to you otherwise. I just wasn’t sure how you felt about them.”

“Oh. Phew.” I looked at Tyler and Jake. “Do you guys want to stay or is all this too crazy?”

“Hello.”

We all turned to the tall, thin woman wearing very dark sunglasses. Orla, our new owl-shifter friend. Glinting in the sunlight, her long, light brown hair was coiled in a bun.

“Is this a bad time?” she asked.

“No. It’s a perfect one, actually.” I waved her over.

She eyed Jake and Tyler but then ignored them, coming to me and pulling a piece of paper out of the back pocket of her jeans. “I made a map.”

“Perfect!” I shouted. “Everybody inside. I’m living in terror of the wind whipping a map out of someone’s hand right now.”

I went straight to my worktable and put the queen’s map down. Bracken put down the poorly drawn one, and Orla placed hers beside the other two. Bracken arranged all three so the shapes of the bay roughly aligned. Orla’s map had seven spots indicated. Two of them matched the queen’s map.

I turned to Orla. “Can you tell us about your scouting trips?”

She looked at the two unfamiliar men.

“Oh, sorry! Orla, this is Tyler and Jake. They’re werewolves,” I told her.

Jake’s expression darkened but Tyler smiled.

“Gentlemen, this is Orla. She’s an eagle-owl shifter.”

Tyler’s eyebrows winged up. “Really? That’s so cool. I’ve never met an owl shifter.” He held out a hand and she shook it.

“Orla,” Declan began, “is it okay that Arwyn just told them about you?”

She looked uncomfortable but eventually nodded.

Seriously, what the hell was wrong with me? I touched the sleeve of her thermal. “I’m sorry. I should have asked.”

“Should have asked us too,” Jake grumbled.

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