Conleth took one look at Leonie’s eyes and swore under his breath. “Well, that’s new.”
“It just happened,” Leonie said miserably. She gestured at the bed. “While we were?—”
“I don’t need a labeled diagram, thank you,” Conleth interrupted. He flashed an indecipherable glance at Shan. “Congratulations, by the way.”
“Leonie can’t get in touch with Lola,” Moira said to Conleth. “Can you contact Connor?”
Conleth was already pulling out his phone, thumbs flying over the screen. After a moment, he shook his head. “No good. Message undeliverable. The crew must be out on a fire.”
All color drained from Leonie’s face. “Conleth, what if she was in the air?”
“She wouldn’t be flying at night.” Conleth put his phone away, all brisk confidence. “There won’t be anyone at the base until morning. I can get there well before then. I’ll find them.”
Leonie grabbed her backpack. “I’ll come with you.”
“And me,” Shan said to her. “Wherever you go, I’m coming too.”
“You’d only slow me down,” Conleth said bluntly. “Leonie, I know this is awful, but the best thing you can do is wait here. I’ll call you as soon as I have news.”
“Thanks, Conleth.” Leonie hesitated, biting her lip. “But what about Paige? You can’t leave your mate.”
“She’ll be fine. The baby’s not coming any time soon.” One of Conleth’s eyebrows quirked. “Besides, Paige would castrate me if I let my neuroses get in the way of helping afriend during an actual crisis. Tell her I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“Do you want me to stay?” Moira asked Leonie after Conleth left. “I can keep you company while you wait.”
“No, that’s okay.” Leonie gave her friend a wan smile. “No point all of us being exhausted. Go get some sleep.”
“I’ll stay with her,” Shan said to Moira. “As soon as you can, contact Zephyr. Tell him Leonie’s not going to be at work today.”
Leonie didn’t even attempt to argue. That worried him more than anything else.
He shut the door behind Moira and Ragvald. “You should try to rest as well.”
“I can’t.” She sank to the edge of the bed, wringing her hands. “Not until I know she’s okay. If she’s okay.”
He sat next to her, putting an arm around her shoulders. She leaned against him, resting her head on his chest. For a long moment, he just held her.
“It’s your animals, isn’t it?” he murmured. “You have them both, somehow. The eagle and the lion.”
She nodded, cheek rubbing against his bare skin. “It’s never happened before. Not when we’re apart from each other. We’ve always had to be touching.”
“Do your eyes always change like this?”
“Yes. When Lola has the eagle, her eyes are yellow. Not like yours, though. They don’t glow. Though she still gets a lot of double takes from non-shifters.” Leonie made a choked sound, somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “I’m lucky. At least lion eyes don’t look that strange in a human face.”
He stroked her hair. “And when you have both, your eyes are gold.”
“That’s right. Like my dad, and my brothers, Rory and Ross. And Rufus.” She sighed, a little of the tension draining out of her body. “I guess it’s a griffin thing.”
“What color are your eyes when Lola has both animals?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary. Brown.”
He tried to picture Leonie without her animal. It felt as wrong as picturing her without her head. “I can’t imagine you with brown eyes.”
“Yeah, it looks weird to me, too. Which is odd, really. It’s a perfectly normal eye color. I suppose I’m just not used to it. Lola’s never really enjoyed shifting into the griffin. She says it’s too confusing having that many limbs. Like being an insect.”
“It still seems strange to me that your animals can merge into an entirely different creature. Your lioness doesn’t seem to mind it?”
