I frowned as I dipped my head under the shower, Aster’s words momentarily drowned out by the water rushing past my ears. I didn’t know Aster was meeting Frank. I generally avoided him. The pack’s witch wasn’t best pleased that one member had isolated himself so effectively. Whenever I accidentally bumped into him, he hinted how his spare room was always available. It seemed kinder to smile tightly than tell him it wasn’t only Bonnie being nearby that made his kind proposition unwelcome. I wouldn’t be able to stand living ina house coated in the dusty remnants of his magical experiments.
I wondered why Aster had talked to Frank. He didn’t give me any more clues as I stepped out of the shower and got dressed, his mainly one-sided conversation now focused on the hair products Kit used to tame his curls.
Frank wanting to meet Aster made sense. He was interested in all kinds of flowers, used them in his various poultices and the posies he forced into my hands each time we met.
My movements stuttered as the unimpressed whine of the Mini’s straining engine would have become noticeable to less sensitive ears. Abandoning the bag of hash browns on the kitchen side—which I’d bought despite the thought of having any kind of tradition with Aster making me feel weirdly weak—I walked over to the front door.
On the ledge above was the posy Aster made when he arrived. I took it down and sniffed at the dried flowers. I’d assumed Aster made it because he liked flowers and believed all the well-known lore about what different blooms promoted.
Now I wondered if there was more to it.
Aster had hidden his meeting with Frank today. He’d lied about needing something from the village. He’d made a posy to promote calm and comfort, especially if infused with magic, and then he’d tucked it away in a place where no normal human would have been able to sniff it out.
What if those little things added up to one bigger thing he was hiding?
I clenched my fists, my claws extending. I welcomed the bite of pain, let it ground me. My heart beat far too fast, my skin prickling with unease.
‘I know Aster,’ I pleaded with myself as the Mini came into view outside the cabin.
A larger, louder voice took over. A voice born of loss and fear. I did know Aster, but only to a certain extent. He’d lied to me today. He might be lying about something bigger.
It didn’t seem likely he’d lied to trick me, but then it wasn’t likely a girl I’d known from infancy would kill my whole family. I refused to be blindsided again.
Moving at inhuman speed while Aster climbed out of the Mini and said his goodbyes, I ran through to the bathroom. I retrieved the pot of black powder I’d stashed at the back of the cupboard under the sink. Frank gave it to me years ago. Sinking my fingers inside, I filled my palm with the fine powder.
My hand shaking, I balled my fist and held it behind my back. Hopefully, I wouldn’t need it. I would ask Aster a few simple questions and he would give simple answers and my panicked heart could go back to trusting the man opening the cabin’s front door.
‘Hey, Cal,’ he called. ‘You got hash browns. You are my tip-top favourite.’
I took a deep breath and walked through to the bedroom doorway. Aster’s scent hit me. Or didn’t. It was all wrong.
I’d expected him to smell strange after a day down in the village, had expected Bonnie to get her hands all over him and Kit to leave traces of himself. Being in Frank’s house would make my nose twitch.
This was something else.
The ever-shifting scent of fresh mornings and sun-warmed roses I could never get enough of was buried under too much wrongness. Spices and dried herbs, and underlying it all the pungent stink of ozone.
Aster had been lying to me from the start. He’d done magic today.
I needed to know why he hadn’t told me.
‘Stay there,’ I commanded, when Aster stepped out of his boots.
His joyous expression froze as he stopped walking forwards. ‘You okay, Cal?’
I tried not to feel a pang at being the reason the smile fell from his face. Aster had been lying to me. I needed to find out why before he could do any damage. I had so few people left that I loved. I couldn’t risk them.
‘I need you to tell me the truth,’ I said, my voice rough.
The concern on Aster’s face grew. ‘What’s happened? Did Bonnie say something?’
I gritted my teeth together to keep in the snarl that wanted to escape when Aster said my sister’s name. We’d allowed this man to ingratiate himself into our lives when we knew nothing about him. We should have remembered how dangerous that was.
‘What did you do in the village today?’ I clutched the powder in the hand tucked behind my back.
Aster’s frown deepened. ‘I think I told you? I met with Bonnie and her cronies for lunch. An epic lunch, by the way. Joshua outdid himself. I’ll gladly tell you more about it once I’m allowed to move freely around the cabin.’
His light teasing gave me a chance to admit how ridiculous all of this was. Only, it wouldn’t be ridiculous if I uncovered bad reasons for his lies.
