Since the attack, Nalari had stayed in our yard rather than her cave. It was good to see her there, and just as I’d done in Colina, I took her a piece of raw meat from whatever meal I’d prepared every night. I knew it would do nothing to satisfy her if she was hungry, but she always took it without hesitation.
I scanned my living room, momentarily smiling at the googly-eyed rocks that I’d placed on shelves beside the fireplace. So much had changed since the moment I received them. In some sense, they represented thebefore.Before the bombings. Before we lost Grandma Richter and Elias’s mom. Before the fight between Elias and George. Before we lost Javier. Beforetwo little girls lost their big brother and the living room seemed so.. .quiet. Absent of joy and laughter.Before.
The front door swung open when Brenton rushed in. His steps were frantic, eyes dark with his brows drawn together.
“What’s wrong?” I edged my feet off Elias’s lap and stood from the couch, putting the book I’d tried to read down while Elias stood with me.
“Where’s Leah?” Brenton asked, a little breathless.
“With Etienne,” Elias answered, voice laced with worry. “What happened?”
He grabbed a book from the inner pocket of his magic and pushed it against Elias’s chest. “Give this to her. The shifter, Cierra, said it would help Etienne.”
“Why would Cierra give you a book to help Etienne?” Finley asked, taking tentative steps from our hallway to where we stood in front of the door. “Have you been with her? Is that where you’ve been?”
Brenton huffed, diverting his attention to our hardwood floor.
“Brent,” Finley said, her tone cautious with a hint of jealousy.
Brenton dragged his hand across his face before he moved so he was inches away from Finley when he let out a dry laugh. “I’ve spent the past week asking every healer from Somnio to Elumnar if they had even the merest hint on how to heal Etienne. I went to the library when your old healer suggested I look through Reignom’s archives. Somehow, the shifters heard of my questioning, and Cierra found me to give me that book.” Brenton took the book back from Elias, and after quickly thumbing through it, he handed the open book to Finley. “Here.” He tapped on a page. “If she reads from here to the next six pages, she’ll find how to treat him.”
“Oh.” It came out as a whispered breath. Relief crossed Finley’s features as she pressed the open book to her chest, and her eyes filled with tears, somehow making her silver eyes look clearer. “Why?”
Brenton roughed a hand through his messy hair. “Why what?”
“Why are you helpinghim?”
I tugged on Elias’s hand to give them privacy, but before we could make a discreet escape, Brenton said, “Because you love him.”
She stood there with her mouth open and a tear falling down her cheek when Brenton nodded at her and turned to step through our door again. I followed him down the front porch steps, and when he didn’t stop, I grabbed his wrist. He spun around, his eyes dark and wild.
Elias tried to step between us, but I went around him to grab Brenton’s hand again. Brenton stared at me, his eyes going from black to a dull hazel.
“Why don’t we go for a walk?” I asked him.
He gave me a jerky nod, and with Elias staying back, we went to the hiking trail that bordered our yard. While snow still covered the ground, it wasn’t thick, which made walking easy. I reached for an icicle that hung from a low branch as I waited to see if Brenton wanted to talk. With a quick nudge to my shoulder, he called his smoke magic forward and used it to melt the icicle.
When I gave him a fake glare, he shrugged and sent me a smile that quickly disappeared.
“I asked Cierra if she wanted to meet me at the tavern tonight,” he said, breaking the silence.
Surprised, I turned to him. “Oh?”
He roughed a hand through his hair and barked out a dry laugh. “Wouldn’t you know it, she turned me down. Turns out, Donnie’s her soul-bound mate.”
Wait, what? Donnie and Cierra? It was so obvious that I couldn’t believe I’d missed it. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling, but I knew he’d been flirting with her, and she went to visit himat Bon’s every day. I just thought they were attracted to each other. I hadn’t expected this.
Brenton shrugged again, this time drawing his arms around his chest. “She somehow also knew Finley’s my mate.” He huffed. “Does everyone know how pathetic I am?”
I tucked my hand through his arm. “First of all, don’t ever call my brother pathetic.”
He scoffed. “What else do you call a male who spends seven days begging anyone who can bend space to take him from city to city, all in the hopes of finding a cure for the male his mate loves?”
“I’m proud to call him my brother, who also happens to be a good and kind male,” I answered. “He’s the kind of male any woman or female would claw her way through hell itself to be with.”
When his eyes met mine, the speckles outlining the hazel dulled in color. “The female fate promised to me doesn’t want me, Teddy.”
“She loves you, though,” I said softly, knowing it was the wrong thing to say even before I uttered it.
