She shouldn’t be here.
“What are you doing here?” He frowned. “How can you see me?”
He regretted the words the moment they left his lips. A moment’s attention revealed the flicker of shadows around her. She was hidden the same way he was.
Her expression tightened. He suspected she regretted drawing attention to herself. “People prefer not to see housekeeping. Us beingliterallyinvisible makes everyone happy.”
That wasn’t the question he’d wanted answered.
“Why are you here?” he repeated.
She thrust her chin out. “Why are you? No, no. Don’t answer that.” She jerked her head towards a door at the end of the corridor. “Come on.”
He followed her, unease coiling in his gut.
Thandie was a hummingbird shifter. She’d been lured onto Harper’s island the same way he got all his prey—with the suggestion that this was a workforce of shifters, where she would be around other people like her and not have to hide this intrinsic part of herself.
Her hummingbird was almost visible now, a whisper of wings at her shoulders, the gloss of feathers beneath her skin. It was desperate to escape. She must be terrified.
Of him, perhaps. He hadn’t been the kindest coworker, trapped under Harper’s thumb.
He kept his voice low. “You shouldn’t be here—”
“And you should be?”
The door led to a supply room. Thandie parked her trolley and leaned against the wall, then almost immediately bounced back up onto the balls of her feet. Constant, uneasy movement.
A muscle twitched in Julian’s jaw. “Antarctica is no place for a hummingbird.”
“Oh, well, you would know, I guess!”
She didn’t glare at him. She looked like she wanted to, but her face had trained itself out of moving that way.
They had that in common.
Stiffly, Julian apologized.
*Too late to leave now, anyway.*She stretched, her narrow shoulders flexing beneath her housekeeping uniform. *They’ve got people watching, in case anyone tries to get off the ship. Remind you of anything?*
It did. Intimately.*Do you know what they’re planning?*
*Do you?*she shot back.
*If you don’t know what is happening here, then what in all the icy hells are you doing here?*
She fisted her hands at her sides, then suddenly deflated. *I don’t know. I don’t—I thought I could—*
He waited while she gathered herself.
Thandie grimaced. *After being so powerless on Harper’s island, watching everything he did and not being able to do anything about it—Chloe was there for no time at all and she managed to get the word out. To get ALL of us out.*She hesitated. *I heard about the job. Gotta have a job, right? Get stuck on an island with a psycho, all the trauma, and then you’re rescued and back in the real world with bills to pay. And I thought—shifters. Antarctica. Something is going on here and I can’t just … let it happen.*
Instead she got herself trapped on a ship heading to one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet.
*Do you know what happened to the missing guest? Steve Panshaw?*he asked.
She flinched. *A couple of the other girls had to clean up—what was left.*
He felt sick. *He’s dead, then.*
