Everything went dark.
32
Moss
The house was in uproar, and there was a cold, empty space where his mate should be.
He’d frightened her off, at last. Maggie’s vanishing act was a good excuse, but not the main reason Carol had left so quickly. She’d tried to find her way around the inevitable—it reminded him of his octopus, the way she’d delved into every possible alternative. Even if none of them were possible.
Then she’d finally let herself see the truth, and it had hurt her so badly, she couldn’t even look at him.
This is what you wanted,he told himself.This is what had to happen.
He winced at the staccato of Lance’s telepathic orders to scour the area. Carol had headed upstairs; great.
He would stay right here on the ground floor.
He’d barely made it a step into the corridor before his cousins burst through another door and charged towards him.
Ataahua paused, her eyes knifing him. “What did you do?”
“The dragonling’s gone missing—”
“Yeah, we all know that.” She narrowed her eyes. *That’s not what I’m talking about. What did you DO?*
How the fuck could she see right through him like that? Oh, right. They’d grown up together. There was no hiding anything from either of them.
*Fucked everything up,*he said shortly, and shadows writhed around his thoughts.
Ataahua snorted. *Yeah. I can see that.*
Moss gritted his teeth. An external door slammed open, and the salt brought him an image of Carol—Stop that,he snarled. Carol wasn’t his to stalk like that. If his powers wanted to be helpful, they could show him where Maggie had got to.
Something inside him snarled back. Which told him exactly what he needed to know. The kraken wasn’t on his side. His new powers weren’t, either. Any pretense at friendship was it playing the long game until it could trap them both, instead of only him.
He had to get it out of here before it lost patience with the game. Or won it, and damned them both.
*Well? Come on! Tell us what you did!*Ataahua smacked him on the arm.
Pania looked concerned. *You okay, cuz?*
And then, filtering up from a distance he didn’t let his new powers show him, Carol’s thoughts found his. *It’s okay, I’ve got her.*
He relaxed. “Carol’s got Maggie. She’s safe.”
“And Carol?”
Pania’s eyes were as incisive as her sister’s. Fileting knives, rather than a butcher’s cleaver. He braced himself.
“I knew this wouldn’t last. Couldn’t last. Fate got it wrong; we’re not going to be together. But I didn’t want to leave her like this.” He let out an aggravated sigh. “I hoped that being around her friends would help. But it didn’t, or I didn’t give her enough time, and now—it’s over. I’ve ruined it.” He glared at hishands. They were itching to do what always helped when he felt the world wobble on its axis. He wanted to be in the kitchen, chopping and slicing, balancing flavor and texture and heat and time in a dance that brought a sliver of the world back into his control.
Because that had helped so much the last time.
“Help what?” Pania insisted.
Moss sighed. What was the point in hiding it? “You saw it, didn’t you? Carol’s been caught in her shift since the storm. I thought once she was back around her friends, people she knew, she might feel safe enough to shift fully into human form. I should have given her more time.”
Ataahua stared at him. He’d known her since she was born. He’d been on the sharp end of her temper more times than he could count. But she’d never looked at him like this before.
