Ha! Tell your precious Knights to put that in their pipes and smoke it.
“I see,” Kass said eventually. “That’s good to hear.”
The fox omega Halo tilted his head curiously. “What are the bad versions of the legend? Actually, I’m not sure I even want to know…”
“Oh, they’re not worth repeating,” Kass said, waving them off. “Just some stories about how he used his powers for a couple not-so-nice things.”
I squashed the urge to glare at him. He was never going to let that go, but at least he had the decency not to air his grievances out in front of these people. We could fight about this particular issue later, without an audience.
“So, you’ll still look for Henry?” James asked.
I replied before Kass had another chance to wriggle around in his doubts. “Yes. We’ll come back and let you know how he’s doing.”
Luce nodded. “Thank you very much, again. We appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome.”
* * *
We decidedto stay the night at a nearby shallow cavern that Luce pointed out to us. The foxes already knew the area better than we did, and by the time night fully descended upon us, we were too exhausted to complain about sleeping in a dirt hole in the wall.
The flat stone and compact dirt ground was cold. No matter how much I looked, I couldn’t find any scraps of fur or grass oranythingto make sleeping on the ground any more comfortable. I finally gave up and sat down, feeling the cold earth seep up into my butt.
“I miss having a real bed,” I whined.
“Hm.”
Kass sat cross-legged a few feet away. He looked like he was deep in thought with no intention to fall asleep anytime soon.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I’m thinking.”
“I can see that,” I said. “About what?”
He shut his eyes and sighed. “Nothing. Everything.”
“Wow, that really narrows it down.”
Too tired to shoot me a glare, he just looked at me. “Why did you have to go and get us into trouble already? We barely had a day to get away from Silas and recuperate, and now we’re on a mission to find someone we don’t even know.”
“I thought youwantedto find this guy!” I exclaimed.
“I don’t know what I want, Halo.” Kass sighed again and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I feel like I woke up from four hundred years of nothingness, and now everything’s happening too fast, all at once. It’s so much to take in.”
Was that fear in Kass’ voice? The brave, noble Knight - Captain Kassius - now sitting here in the dark, afraid of what the future would hold. It suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t know much of what he went through in the past four centuries. What he did while Angel and I were gone.
“Were you alone? The whole time?” I asked.
“Huh?”
“When I left, and the four hundred years after. Were you alone?”
“Yes,” he said wearily.
My next question was more hesitant. “You never found another mate?”
The slight frown on his lips deepened. “No.”
