“You could’ve healed yourself by shifting?” I blurted out. “You made me play nurse for no reason.”
“I wouldn’t say for no reason.” Ace shrugged as if suffering was no big deal. Like he didn’t think anything of the pain. “I wasn’t ready to reveal my secret. You should know all about wanting to keep secrets.”
I snapped my mouth shut.
“Besides, I quite enjoyed how well you played nurse…”
“You’re such an idiot,” I snapped.
The corners of his lips quirked up. “We finally agree on something.”
Our feet smacked the wet stone with loud slaps as we entered a cave. Ace let go of my hand and walked into the shadows. Darkness closed in at once. The moon barely reached us here, its silver touch reduced to a dim outline of rock and water. I heard Ace’s movements more than I saw them. He padded along the rocky ground, his feet splashing little pools of water, as he moved away from me to fumble with something in the dark.
Stone struck stone with a sharp clack. Sparks leapt in the air.
Ace crouched near the wall, his jaw tight with focus. He struck the stone again. A spark landed on the bundle of dried moss he had tucked into a hollowed rock. Smoke curled and he leaned in, coaxing the spark with a slow breath until a flame flickered to life.
Light spilled out, stretching shadows across the walls, revealing the jagged opening of a tunnel behind him. He transferred the fire to a waiting torch.
“Is it safe to have a fire?” I asked.
Ace turned around, holding the small torch in his hand. The fire flickered and cast half his face in a warm orange glow while shrouding the other in shadow.
His gaze flashed and his lips quirked.
A thought struck me.
Every time I caught that flash in his gaze but couldn’t place the emotion.
It was his wolf.
It was a flash of gold giving away the animal he caged inside.
I had never heard of a shapeshifter running around. There hadn’t been any since…
I sucked in a breath. It all made sense now. The pointy ears, the aversion to iron, the claim of being phaanon but not immortal. “You’re a phaanon shifter.”
“Obviously.” He jerked his head toward the inside of the cave. “Let’s go. I have dry clothes for us.”
I followed him deeper into the cave, trailing after the small light and his rock-hard ass. I swept back my wet hair. It slapped my back. “How do you have dry clothes here?”
He turned and leaned in, his slick skin inches from my face. “There’s another entrance.”
Of course there was.
“Is this where you’ve been hiding all these years?” If he walked around in wolf form, it would certainly explain why I never spotted him. This area was also still outside my normal patrol range.
“Not just here. I stayed at the cabin, too. I didn’t lie about that.” He stepped away and I made the mistake of looking up. Water trailed down his back, catching the flickering light from the small torch in his hand.
“That’s why you had a dog door…” I was such an idiot. Maybe my brother was right to question my intelligence. All the clues were right there, slapping me in the face.
Ace didn’t respond, probably not seeing a reason to.
Smoke billowed from the torch in small plumes and pooled along the ceiling of the cave. Whisps of gray travelled away in two directions—deeper into the cave and toward the entrance.
“There’s a number of ventilation holes throughout the cave system,” Ace said. “We’ll be able to have a small fire without risk of detection. No one will see the light and even if the hunters smell smoke, they’ll never pinpoint the source.”
I let out a long breath. “Well, that alleviates one concern.”
