“We’re going to have a guest.”
Shock looks down at it and says, “I haven’t seen Faith bringing over Mr. Jones.”
“She isn’t. Arc made a friend.”
Chrys pokes me. “Who’s Faith, who’s Mr. Jones, and what do you mean,friend?”
“Faith is Breaker’s bondmate. Mr. Jones is her zurgle, and I mean… friend. I don’t know what else to call him.”
The door opens before I have to come up with a real answer, and Arc steps aside, letting an enormous green zurgle in.
It views us all with amethyst eyes and sits, poofy tail wrapped around its paws, like it’s waiting for introductions.
“Amethyst.” Arc snaps his fingers. “That was the word I couldn’t remember.”
“I thought zurgles were like house cats?” Chrys scoots behind me, holding my arm and using me as a shield. “That is not a cat. That is a freakinglion.”
“This is Kissu.” Arc puts his hand on the zurgle’s head, patting. “He is going to stay with us until he decides he doesn’t want to be here anymore.”
“Kissu, this is Shock, Risk, and hiding behind him is Chrys.” He looks down at the zurgle and huffs a single breath of a laugh. “I will tell her, but she might not believe me.”
She will.
I don’t know what he’s about to say, but I know that Chrys will believe him.
“Kissu wants me to assure you that he will not hurt you.”
Arc wouldn’t have brought him home if he would.
“He’s never met a… wiffan?” Arc looks down at Kissu and shakes his head. “Apparently, that’s what they call human women. He’s never met one before, only seen you from a distance. He would like to smell you if that’s alright?”
“He wants to smell me?” She swallows and then says, “Okay.”
Slipping out from behind me, she looks at me and then Shock, and I know she’s checking to see if either of us would warn her against it. Kissu’s not lying, he won’t hurt her.
“Hello, Kissu.” She holds out her hand and he pads forward, big paws making soft sounds on the stone. “I’m Chrys.”
I take one step back, sitting on a stool by the counter to watch them as Arc starts to disassemble his gear.
Kissuisthe biggest zurgle I’ve seen. But he’s too small to actually be a lion.
Sniffing her hand, he makes little happy puffing sounds and then butts his head against her andmakesher pet him.
Luckily for Kissu, she likes him. She laughs and takes over the movement so he doesn’t have to keep moving his head in such unnatural ways.
“What happened out there?” Shock asks. “It can’t have been too eventful if you had time to stop at a zurgle adoption center.”
“Kissu was alone in Calisan.”
“So, he’s the second stray you’ve brought home in a week,” Chrys says, scrubbing at Kissu’s ruff and making him purr.
I have the pleasure of feeling the gut-wrenching dread and disgust before and after Arc tells us what he found.
“We almost caught them before we got back to the city, but they disappeared. Kilo, Riann, and I combed the satellite imagery and the road cameras… we can’t figure out where they went. The others… CSS is watching and waiting. They know where some of them went, but they’re still making plans.”
“They won’t do anything until they’re sure the kids are safe, right?” Chrys asks, now fully on the floor with Kissu. “And anyone who might be involved unwillingly?”
“That’s the main reason they’re holding off.”
