“I’m a Granterry. Every secret is safe with me.” She flicks her fingers in the fountain. “Well, except the ones I sniff out for someone else.”
Uaxin reaches up and taps her forehead, then points at me.
“Yeah. Weird, right?” I fidget with the hair that falls around my new horns. Tilda already had a fit the second she noticed them.
Uaxin almost smiles. I take that as an ‘I like them.’ I’m still getting used to them and all the other changes that I can feel but can’t really name.
“Why do I feel like I know that one?” I point my toe at Krenallus.
“He’s good looking. Maybe he reminds you of Ceredes?”
“Maybe.”
Uaxin glances at the statue, back at me, then shrugs.
“He can’t be my long lost father, right? I mean, he died hundreds of years ago.”
“Yeah, that entire circle is dust. And you’re only what, eighteen years?”
“Earth years, at that. Ceredes says they’re shorter than the years here. But then Kyte’s all ‘time is relative.’”
“It is. Time doesn’t make sense. Some of the elder Granterries believe that certain wormholes can take you through time.”
“Through time?”
“Yeah.” She flicks more water with her sharp nails. “I’ve never seen one, never really heard of one, but the elders believe it. And there are other dimensions. Infinite ones you can travel to where things can be completely different from this reality, a mirror, just the same, or nothing.”
“Stop. You’re going to blow my mind.”
“The universe is a mystery.” She does that strange cross motion over her chest.
“What is that?”
“This?” She does it again.
“Yeah.”
“Just a Granterry thing. My mother always says ‘spies have to be superstitious’ so it’s just sort of a way of acknowledging those that came before and all the things we can never know.”
“Deep.” I nod appreciatively.
“Speaking of my family.” She leans closer. “The night of the ball, I asked my sister if her mate had any intel on you.”
Uaxin leans closer.
“She said you’re known at the council—even before the circle formed.” Her voice is so low it almost gets lost in the sound of the fountain. “You’re a well-kept secret. I also heard this morning that High Commander Bartanz has been privately censured by the council for his actions toward you.”
My hunch was right. “So, they didn’t know he’d come to claim me at the ball?”
“Apparently not. He wasn’t authorized to take you as his mate.”
“Iknewhe was an asshole. But why?”
She shrugs and leans back. “I don’t know. And no one seems to know why you’re special except for the council, and they aren’t saying anything where a Granterry can hear it. But one of themdidlet something slip.”
“What?” I’m almost salivating I want this information so badly.
“My sister’s mate couldn’t read a conversation between two councilors, but he managed to catch a single word.” She presses her lips close to my ear. “Mother.”
