“Would you like to?” she asks, leaning her hip against its edge.
“Would I like towhat?”
“Would you like to have some shifter in you? I know quite a few males who are already smitten by your arrival if the court gossip can be believed.” Her brown eyes grow serious as her lips flatten into a straight line. The tension between us grows awkward until she bursts into a fit of laughter, her hands going to her stomach while she doubles over. “You should see your face right now,” she huffs out between gasping breaths. “Oh my gods, that was funny.”
What. The. Fuck.
“I can see why my brother likes you,” she says with a sigh, nearly patting herself on the back for her perceived joke.
“Nowthatis funny,” I reply, clicking the first glass circle into place and peering down the magnifier’s scope. “I think your brother is only keeping me alive because of ourdeal.Which I assume he’s told you about?”
She hums and then grabs a chair of her own, dragging it slowly over the floor. The wood-on-wood scraping sound makes me wince the entire time she moves it, and I’m forced to look away from the magnifier and watch her until she’s back at my side. She sets the chair way too close to my own, and before she goes to sit, I push it a little farther away with my foot. Grinning, she takes a seat and leans her elbows on the table.
“So, what are you working on?”
“Do you not know why I am here?” I ask cautiously.
“Oh, I do. At least I’ve been told by Kai why he brought you here. But I want to hear what you are working on. What you think. I’m so fucking bored of having only Kai for company. He’s not much for conversation if you can imagine.”
“There’s no imagination needed for me to believe that.”
That curling smile returns, her eyes eager as she scoots her chair a little closer to me. I recall what Lana said about Jahlee, how she called herstrange—a title that seems underwhelming for the reality of the female next to me. I look away from her and peer back down the scope.
“Back home, I had been experimenting on plants to help with a problem we’ve been having. I had no success until right before it was time for me to leave for your island.” Clicking another glass disk into place as I speak, I watch the hexagonal-shaped cell walls bow with the plump chloroplast, those familiar red organelles still attached to a few of them.
“Fascinating,” she says earnestly. Drawing my journal towards her, she begins to read the notes I took from visiting the families. “And do you think this research will help you figureout what is wrong withourmagic? Why our people are getting stuck?”
I lean back in my chair as I think on my answer. “I believe so. Each experiment I do is like water eroding away a layer of rock. Eventually, I’ll find the layer where the truth will be revealed, and though this may not bedirectlyrelated to your magical blight, I think in the end it will still help.”
“Can I help you? With your research?” she asks.
Other than sending me an oddly timed wink, her face betrays nothing more than morbid curiosity. I prefer to work alone, but having someone familiar with the island and its people, as well as the blight here, is valuable enough to give up my solitude for.
“Alright.”
“Yes!” she cheers, clapping her hands together before wiggling her fingers at me.
Gods, this is a mistake.“What can you tell me about the blight? Any idea when it started? If it’s always presented this way?”
“It’s been going on for a while but seems to be worse now,” she says, drumming her nails on the table. “Most of the time, shifters are getting stuck in their animal forms, but a few of them are also unable to shift from their mortal forms. That’s all I really know.”
“That’s helpful.” It’s at least more information than her brother deemed worthy of giving me. I’ll need to research as much on shifter history as I can since my personal knowledge on the subject is lacking. I had already explored the library on the first floor, but the books were slim and mostly fiction. “The library on this floor, are you able to take me there?”
She bolts up from her chair, hitting the table with her knee and causing the magnifier and the glass bottle of leaves to shake.
“Gods, you are a disaster waiting to happen,” I mumble, my hands reaching out to steady the items.
“That is rude,” she chastises, pointing a finger at me. “But fair. I’d rather be a disaster than boring, though. Come on, I can get you into the library.”
I stare at her, getting whiplash from the way she bounces between emotions, but when she exits the room, I hop up from my chair and follow. “Wait, I need to lock the door.” Taking out the brass key, I wait until I hear the lock click into place and then turn to follow her.
“In case no one told you, the first floor of the palace is mostly for palace staff, the kitchens, a few guest quarters, and then random rooms that honestly serve as places for people to fuck in secret during parties. Oh, and a ballroom.” The corner of my mouth twitches at her descriptions. “The second floor is only accessible to those approved by Tua. Which is mostly justnobility,” she says with a mocking tone on the last word. “Some reside here in the palace and are relegated to the west wing. Others stay nearby.”
“Don’t you mean guests approved by Kai?” I ask.
Jahlee dances down the hallway more than she walks, her movements light and filled with the kind of bounce that I’m not sure I could ever possess.
“Itshouldbe Kai, but Tua is all too eager to take any tasks he deemsunnecessaryfor Kai off his plate.” I arch a brow at her tone again, but before I can question her on it, she points to a door as we pass. “This door leads to the king’s bedroom.”
