Footsteps drew my attention away from my younger brother.
Penn approached with Kenton right behind her, carrying a fresh armful of leather-bound tomes. He placed them beside the growing stack at the far end of the table while Penn settled down next to Ferne. She smiled warmly as she accepted the book Kenton offered, spread it open, and began flicking through the dust-edged pages.
My gaze snagged on Penn as she absentmindedly fussed with the long silver chain at her neck.
She glanced up, catching me staring.
I gave her a quick smile.
A smile she returned.
But she held my gaze a touch too long. Her lips parted, expression tightened. And there it was once more, that flicker of tension, as if she hovered on the edge of sharing something.
Penn had been born with the rare gift ofsecondsight.
Secondsightallowed one to see our world of otherworldly and lesser creatures. Penn was mortal, and although she never spoke of her family line, they had to be remarkable, especially with the way she carefully evaded questions about them.
Penn was more than intriguing.
Just as my brother carried secrets, so did she.
I could taste them—feel them thickening the air.
Saw them in the way she sometimes looked at me.
Secrets pressed against her tongue, desperate to be freed, only for her to clamp her lips shut and let the moment slip away.
She either wanted to tellmesomething. Orussomething.
I couldn’t tell which.
Like every time before, she swallowed whatever words had risen and dropped her gaze to her book. And I turned back to my siblings, wondering if she would ever share what weighed on her mind.
I half-listened to Kenton trading wyrm curiosities with Ferne while I stroked beneath Flossie’s chin. Her purr rumbled through me as she pushed into my hand. Smoke curled from the blunt between my fingers as I slouched in my chair, heavy-lidded, drifting through thoughts of my next move. I still needed to check in with Mela and make sure everything was on for tomorrow.
Jett stalked out from between two shelving rows with his own find. He perched his ass on the opposite table, his lean figure backlit by the brass lamp’s glow as he skimmed the book, grumbling that there was nothing to be found within the library.
He continued to bitch about it so much that he began to piss me off. In fact, they all were, especially the way my brothers kept glancing at me with a wary suspicion darkening their gazes.
Flossie stirred, reacting to my body tensing beneath her. My irritation sliced through their discussion of Wychthorn and her wyrm. “I don’t know why the fuck you’re bothering to research this!”
Ferne slapped her phone down, angling her face in my direction. “Because there hasn’teverbeen a wyrm and human blending before.”
“Exactly,” I shot back, flinging a hand wide at the library with its long, ancient history recorded on parchment. “You won’t find anything about it in here.”
Ferne was right. No one had ever heard of this unique blending before. Of course, they’d be curious. More than curious. Here I was, a Tamer, paired with Nelle, who wasn’t an otherworldly beast as my ancestors before me had tamed, but a human.
Kenton, crouched at the hearth, shoved a log onto the fire. A shower of orange sparks erupted as flames engulfed its dried bark, sending a spray of amber light to illuminate his thoughtful expression directed at me. “What marked differences have you noted?”
I narrowed my gaze, scowling. “What the hells does that mean?”
Kenton rose, taking a couple of strides closer. “This tamer aspect.”
I shrugged casually as if I didn’t know what the hells he was talking about.
Jett squinted as he braced his elbows on his thighs and leaned forward, scanning my face, searching for fuck knows what. “This morning in the training pit you were faster and stronger, and something weird went on with your eyes. I was sure of it.”
Pointing at my eyes, I gave him a cocky wink. “They look much prettier these days.”
