Page 85 of In This Iron Ground
“Wait. Humans can be the Kephale of shifter packs?”
“Yes. It’s unusual, but yes. Alice’s Ousía actually has the potential to be shamanic, but Alice has no desire to train as a shaman. The pack already has one, from a long shamanic line, and her interests lie elsewhere anyway. The matter is complicated, because there is another member of the park whose Ousía could feasibly hold the Kephale bond, but…well, it’s a difficult situation. I’ll explain more when we get to it.
“Nova and I have put together a package of written information, but I would rather not transfer it electronically. Normally, I would send one of the shifters that know about this topic, but since you’re so close…”
“Of course. Yeah, of course,” Damien agreed despite the responsibility terrifying him.
“If you have time, I’d love it if you could go through the information with Nova, see if you can add anything else.”
“Oh, well, I’m sure I won’t be able to—I mean, of course I’ll do it, but I’m sure I won’t—”
“I think it’s very likely that you will. You have a keen, creative eye for these things. Nova and I were born into this world, so we can sometimes miss things due to preconceived assumptions.”
“Well…I mean, yeah. Of course. I’ll do the best that I can.”
“Thank you, Damien. Nova is coming later today, if you would like to—”
“Yeah! Sorry, yeah, I’d love that. It sounds like an interesting situation.”
“Yes, interesting is one way to put it,” Mia laughed, but she was watching him carefully, as if searching for something.
“We haven’t had much of a chance to talk alone. You really are enjoying college?”
“I actually…really am. The classes are fine. Most of the people are nice. And it really helps that Hakan is there, to be honest. We’re, you know…”
“Close.”
“Yeah, close,” Damien said, hoping his scent and heartbeat wasn’t giving anything away.
Mia brushed her thumb over Damien’s cheek. “I’m glad,” she said.
Damien tried not to let the guilt overtake him.
**********
“Yeah. It gets stupidly cold there. I am not looking forward to going back,” Gonzalo said, shrugging.
“I haven’t seen snow in ages. I’m kind of excited,” Koko piped up, taking a sip of her hot chocolate. Gonzalo, Koko, Olive, and Damien were ensconced in their favourite café, tucked away in their favourite corner booth.
“Yeah, Hakan and I are thinking of—”
“Are we seriously talking about the weather right now?” Olive snapped, interrupting Damien. They all turned to look at Olive, who was pressed against the corner with a frown on her face.
“Um…”
“You can talk about college. I’m not gonna start crying ’cause I was too much of a dumbass to get into one.”
The rest of the table shared a look.
“Okay,” Koko said. “How many dumbass professors have you had this semester? I’m talking about, like, ‘what the fuck are you talking about, you complete moron’ professors.”
“At least three,” Damien said.
“I had one that honest-to-God talked about Adam Sandler for a full hour. The lesson was supposed to be biochemistry.Noconnection,” Gonzalo sighed.
“Jesus,” Koko laughed. “Is Sandler still making movies? Hasn’t anybody euthanized him yet?”
“Oh my God…” Damien laughed. “Some are pretty cool, though. There was one on animal cognition that kinda blew my mind.”
