“What are you doing here?”Silas holstered his gun.“Astrial said someone pushed her down on the way back here.Was that you?”
Meredith shook her head.“No.But Silas, someone stole the book.We have to figure out who?—”
“How did you know about the book?”
Her face etched with confusion.“We talked about it with Jason and Selene.”
“No.Wedidn’t talk about it.I talked about it with Jason and Selene.You weren’t in the room.”
“Yes, I was.Don’t you remember?”
He studied her, his brain throbbing with the events of the day.“Are you a skinwalker?”
“My mother is a skinwalker.I’m a shifter.I told you?—”
“So you canonlyturn into a fox?”He narrowed his eyes, his voice rising in volume.
“Yes.You know that.Why are you yelling at me?”
“Why did Astrial think Soleil pushed her down and came back here when Soleil is dead, and the only person standing here is you?”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”The words caught in her throat.“Silas, if someone disguised themselves as Soleil, it must have been the same person who disguised themselves as Nickelova and stabbed Laina.Someone working for Alex.”She looked back down at the hole in the floor, the hole where the book once was.
“How would Alex know Soleil was dead?”
“How should I know?”She raised her hands slightly.
“You knew Soleil was dying.You left the hospital to come here without speaking with me first.Why didn’t you wait for me?”
“Because I knew that Alex wouldn’t wait.”Meredith frowned.“We don’t have time for this.I think?—”
“The day we met, what did we fight about,” he snapped, his hand resting on the handle of his gun.
She scoffed, spreading her hands in a way that looked genuine.“First the coffee.Then my position.You hate flavored coffee, and you have a mug with a wiener dog on it.Silas, it’s me.”
It looked like her.It smelled like her.She isn’t what she seems.“Did you kill Soleil in order to get the book?”
Meredith shook her head.“Youknowit wasn’t me.Look at me, do I have the book?”
She didn’t.He wanted to believe her.God, he loved her.But his gut instinct told him something was off.
She took a step toward the door.“We have to go, Silas.We have to find him and stop this.”
He shook his head.“Soleil is dead.We need to regroup.Make a plan.”
Meredith took another step toward him.“There isn’t time for that.You don’t understand.I need to?—”
He blinked, his head throbbing.“How is it you made it back here before me but didn’t see whoever took the book, Meredith?”
“I came as soon as I could,” Grateful called from the hallway.
Silas glanced at the witch for a fraction of a second.It was a fraction of a second too long.
A red blur bolted between his legs and past Grateful, who leaped back and flattened herself against the wall.Meredith, in her fox form, raced down the hall.Silas ran after her.
“Meredith, wait!”He skidded around the corner toward the exit, but she was already gone.
“What the hell?”Grateful yelled, catching up to him in the foyer.
