I finally got my mouth to work. “But how… How did you know it would be part of thecontest?”
“I made sure it became a part of it by tendering an invitation onto myestate.”
A loud squawk sounded. I raised my eyes to the sky to spot the bird capable of releasing such an ear-splitting sound but saw nothing flyingoverhead.
“If I’d been Frank, and your pack held something of mine, instead of breaking and entering, I’d jump on the opportunity to stroll through the frontdoor.”
“So your pack really did steal it?” I whispered into the duskyair.
“No.”
“But then…how—”
“Someone gave it to me in exchange for a favor. I knew it was of great importance because Heath had paid me a visit a couple days before he died to demand I return it to him. At that point, I had no idea what in God’s good name he’d been raving about. But of course, his request rendered me extraordinarily curious. And when what he’d been pursuing dropped into my lap some time later…well, you can imagine my absolutedelight.”
Julian stopped walking, pulling me to a stop too. He frowned and released my arm. I assumed someone was coming but heard no footsteps, smelled no other body. Then again, it was difficult to smell much of anything over the sour scent wafting in the air. He reached around me to pluck a leaf that stuck out from the smooth green wall ofvegetation.
The reason we’dstopped.
My skin turned bitterly cold as I realized that if I stepped out of the line he’d drawn for me, he’d probably snap my neck like he’d snapped that pokingimperfection.
Julian returned his attention to me. I took a step back, my bare shoulder blade brushing against the bristly hedge. What had gotten into me to follow him deep into a maze he knew like the palm of hishand?
The sky had dimmed to a periwinkle blue that matched Julian’s eyes as he drank in my dread like a man savoring a delectablevintage.
He held out his arm. “Shallwe?”
I swallowed, forcing my limbs to move, even though the mere thought of touching Julian had goose bumps pebbling myarm.
As we started walking again, he said, “Shortly before we met, I contacted McNamara to let him know I held what Heath had been so desperately seeking and promised to hand it over if he explained itsimportance.”
My throat moved with another swallow. “He mustn’t have told you if you still haveit.”
He tsked. “Ye have little faith in me, MissClark.”
My eyes widened, soaking up the silvery outline of his gelled hair. “He toldyou?”
“Yes.”
“But you didn’t returnit.”
Another loud squawk. I tipped my head upwardagain.
“I had every intention of giving it back—until I heard what they used it for. Then I had every intention of destroying it, but I held off, waiting for a new Alpha to rise to power in your pack. It is more challenging to barter withashes.”
“What do they use itfor?”
Julian stopped walking again, but this time, it was simply to face me. “Have you really noidea?”
I shook myhead.
“They grate the wood into the drink pledges have to ingest the day they join yourpack.”
Ifrowned.
“Have you never wondered why only males are born to the Boulder Pack? Did you truly think it was an evolutionary trait like your eldersclaim?”
The world held still for a moment, and then it tipped. Julian slid his palms underneath my elbows to hold meupright.
