To my surprise, something small and furry wound between my legs. I looked down with a gasp and then laughed.
“I was wondering where you’d been, Jaggy.” I knelt to rub my fingers through her soft, speckled fur. She hadn’t snuck into my room for several days now.
Nox chuckled into his glass. I looked over to see him giving me a curious look.
“What?” I stood back up with a furrowed brow.
Kieran, who had been stone-faced and quiet, put a hand over his mouth to cover a smirk.
I narrowed my eyes. “What is—” My question morphed into a strangled yelp. At my feet, Jaggy suddenly started tochange.
Her fur sank into her skin as her four limbs elongated, her thin tail shrinking and vanishing before my eyes. Long, black locks grew from her head at an uncanny rate. Glowing eyes dimmed to dark brown until I was no longer staring into the face of Jaggy, butTessa.
The Shifter stood a foot from me and wiggled her fingers, offering me a wink. She wore a sleek gray bodysuit and brown combat boots that managed to stay silent as she slunk over to the couch and sat next to a laughing Arowyn.
“It’s been you this whole time?” I asked once I caught my breath. “Youwere the cat sneaking into my room?”
Tessa shrugged. “Noxy boy wanted someone to check up on you.”
“Of course he did,” I grumbled, shooting him a dirty look. He was still smiling into his glass. That might have been the first time I’d ever seen him trulysmile. It made something clench in my stomach.
“Now that we’re all here,” Kieran started, rising from his seat and buttoning his suit jacket. “Might we know why you called us, Nox?”
“Always straight to the point,” Tessa said with a dramatic sigh. “No time for pillow talk.”
Everett snorted. “To be a fly onthatwall.”
Silas gave a loudhumph. “We have children present,” he scolded from his side of the room, wiping his green-stained hands on an apron.
Next to him, Milo rolled his eyes. “I’m nineteen, Silas.”
“Exactly. A child.”
The tension in the room drained little by little at their banter, until Nox spoke again. “I called you here because I wanted everyone to meet, since Devora will be joining us from here on out.”
“What?” Kieran bit out. Next to him, Everett crossed his toned, dark forearms in front of a pair of chains hanging from his neck.
I didn’t miss the pointed glance Tessa shot Kieran across the room, and neither did Nox. “What was that look for?” Nox snapped.
“What look?” Tessa asked innocently.
“You know what look.”
Kieran responded this time, “It’s just that we want to make sure you’re positive this is a good idea.”
“What Kieran means is, are you crazy?” Tessa added.
“They’re just bitter.” Arowyn flicked something off her shoulder. “The newbie got the fatesprig.”
“We’re notbitter, Arowyn; we’relogical. Cautious,” Kieranshot back.
“Logical would be saying ‘oh, look, this person succeeded in something we've been trying to do for months. We should take advantage of her talents,’” Arowyn said in a mocking tone as she kicked her feet off the coffee table. “Illogical would be, ‘oh, let’s lock her back up and keep pretending we’re making progress.’”
Tessa jerked her thumb at the Strider. “I mean, she’s got a point.”
“I know,” Nox said. “Which is why Devora is here. I have a plan.”
The authority in his voice made the whispers die down. I could tell Kieran and Everett weren’t exactly in agreement, with the way their gazes kept shifting to me and narrowing slightly, but they were listening.
