“Of course.” Eloise’s eyes sparkled behind the fire. “Can’t get ahead of ourselves! We must wait for Him.”
WhoeverHewas. Francine’s jaw tightened. Eloise said the word with a capital H. Like she was talking about a god.
What was going on? None of the whispers she’d followed here said anything about agod.What would that even mean?
She shook herself mentally. More likely, she was hearing things, and thehimEloise was talking about was either the mastermind behind the sickening auction—Harper—or one of Eloise’s own people.
Worry pinched behind her ribs. She knew the shifters converging on Antarctica intended to kidnap the shadow dragons. Didn’t she? The information had come via whispers and informants, enough that she’d trusted the rumors were true, but…
But digging deeper had been a lower priority than the threat they posed, and the urgent need to do something about it. She had seen a problem and acted on instinct. Again.
And now here Eloise was, tearing holes in her assumptions about what was happening.
She’d missed something important.
Again.
See where following your instincts gets you?
Deep inside her, the emptiness her lioness had retreated ached like an old broken bone.
“When are you embarking?” she asked, when the conversation was at a point that the question seemed natural.
“Tonight.” Eloise’s eyes sparkled.
“Early,” Francine noted, and Eloise laughed. The golden, heat-swept violence behind her eyes receded; she looked like just any other rich young woman in her twenties, glossy with wealth and confidence.
“Don’t tell me you were planning on waiting until the chum arrives.Oh—” She gripped Francine’s arm, eyes shining. “I’m so glad you’re here! We have so much to catch up on. I’ll send my people for your luggage. Who else is with you?”
A sneer came easily to Francine’s lips. “Why would I want to let anyone else in on this?”
Eloise laughed again. “This is wonderful. It’ll be just like the old days.”
It was like a trap closing around her. But maybe there was still a chance to make her apologies and retreat to the ship she’d chartered, rather than Eloise’s. Tricky, given how excited Eloise was to see her—and of course, any other time, she would have thrown over any other dull responsibilities to spend time with her oldest friend…
Her throat tightened. The Francine who’d seen the world that way felt like a different person. Most of the time. Sometimes, she didn’t feel different enough.
*We need an excuse not to accept her offer,*she told Julian.
*Why?*
*Why? Because—*Because Eloise was one of the enemies they had to save his family from. Because being on a ship with her meant being surrounded by people who would want to imprison Julian, or worse, if they recognized him.
Because Eloise had been her best friend, once, and too much of her wished she still had any friends.
*Better we keep our enemies close than let them get out of sight,*Julian suggested. *I’m still healing. If we let them go now, we risk losing track of them altogether.*
Francine frowned, ready to argue that they didn’t need Eloise and her ship to be in literal eye view to track them—then stopped herself.
Julian might be right. She’d been alone for too long. The plan was already unraveling, reality pulling at its too-many loose threads. If she stayed with Eloise, she would be able to find out exactly what her old friend thought she was going to find in Antarctica. What other plots might be brewing under the camouflage of the blood auction.
And being closer to people who were what she didn’t want to be—maybe that would help remind her of what shedidwantto be.
Her jaw tightened as she considered.
The whole point of her promenading herself here at the marina was so that she would be seen—ideally in a thousand social media reels on one of the apps Lance’s people tracked like sniffer dogs. She needed Lance to stay on her tail. But Julian…
She could never mistake him for anyone else. He could change his hair, his face, wear contacts, anything, and her heart would still tell her,this is your mate.
