Page 132 of Taming the Beasts
This girl was lying out of her ass. Why had we come here to help her? “Look, the only way we’ll all know for sure that everything is safe is if you take the cure right now, Kebe,” I said. “Right in front of us.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Bennett said firmly.
Probably because he didn’t believe Kebe either.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Emma said. “Do it. Use the coin.”
“We were actually talking about that,” Callum said. “Kebe and I have decided to use it together Saturday night. After the wedding.”
“One last celebration exactly the way we are,” Kebe said.
Callum nodded.
Was he under some kind of spell or something? Maybe it was just me, but doing that with Kebe feltintimate somehow. And entirely inappropriate on his wedding night to my best friend.
“Callum...” Emma started.
“It’s all decided,” Kebe said. “And we’re both so looking forward to it.”
Yeah, she was making Emma and Callum’s wedding day all aboutherand Callum instead.
“The coin is safe though,” I said. “So why not use it now?”
Emma shook her head.
I understood why she was scared. All of this felt wrong somehow.
“I mean...” Callum looked at Kebe.
“No,” Emma said. “Callum, you promised you’d wait until Saturday.”
“Then I’ll wait too,” Kebe said. “It’ll be the highlight of our week.” She patted Callum’s shoulder.
Oh, hell no. Theweddingwas the highlight of Callum’s freaking lifetime! But I didn’t even know what to say. “I... You...”Gah!I eyed the artifacts on the table. “Kebe you said the stuff in the vault all had a gray aura. That a lot of it was evil...”
“Gray auras kind of tend to run the show,” she said. “A few evil artifacts can really alter the aura in a whole room. That must have been what happened in the vault. But these are all very good items.”
I saw the silver Anubis coin sitting on the table. I really wished I could sense auras.
Everyone was quiet for a moment.
I wanted to believe Kebe.
I wanted to believe King.
But something just felt off to me. My gut was screaming at me that Kebe couldn’t be trusted. “Wait,” Isaid. “You said you used your lastfewteleportations. Did you go somewhere else?”
“Did I? I thought I said two.”
Emma shook her head. “No, you definitely said few.”
“Oh.” Kebe slowly nodded. “Right. I almost forgot. I did use it three times that night.”
Got you, you lying liar pants.“So where’d you go with the third one?”
“I went hunting. For animals. I do mostly eat animals anyway, and Callum had told me I couldn’t kill any humans in town while I was here.” She shrugged like the idea of murdering a human wasn’t so bad. “So, yeah. Hunting. I had the most delicious coyote. I was hoping to find a black bear, but no such luck.”
I mean...crap. That did make sense. And there were coyotes and black bears in the woods outside of town. But her delivery of it was so insincere.
