“I have something to show you,” Anarchy says. “Something unexpected.”
I put down my bowl, instantly tense. “Good or bad?”
Before Anarchy can answer me, Rumble gives a snarl from the side of the clearing, drawing our attention. At the exact same moment, the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and the keeper rises hurriedly from his seat.
“Something’s coming,” he says, studying the trees around us with a deepening furrow in his brow. “Multiple somethings. But I can’t tell which direction they’re coming from.”
The panthers, too, are circling the clearing with increasingly agitated steps, their ears pricked up, but the way their heads are turning from side to side indicates they’re equally confused about the location of the threat.
I’ve suddenly lost my appetite. I can’t sense any sort of approaching physical presence. It’s more like a very distant energy that’s coming closer with every passing second.
The hairs on the back of my neck are now prickling so badly that it’s as intense as the crawling sensation I experience before my wings burst from my back.
Whatever’s coming through the trees, it’s triggering my survival instincts beyond what I might be able to control.
No!I don’t want my wings to reveal themselves. I need to control when that happens.
Revealing them needs to be on my terms.
But, dark saints, they’re pushing at my skin, threatening to tear through, and the sensation is only getting worse.
I jump up from my seat, positioning my back away from my family, trying to focus on something other than my panic. “Could the creatures who lived here before have come back?”
“Not a chance.” The keeper shakes his head firmly. His form doesn’t change—remaining blue-eyed—but a myriad of magic is building around his hands. Black light, sapphire light, emerald light—even pink light, which I can’t recall seeing him use before.
Despite the tension in his shoulders and the intense concentration on his face, he suddenly throws me a dark grin.
“The shark shifters who lived here before were annihilated,” he says. “I promise you.”
Wait… what?Shark shifters?
My eyebrows shoot up, and I stop backing away.
There’s no such thing.
My panic is momentarily dampened by my skepticism, and I latch on to that new emotion because it’s a damn sight more welcome to me right now than the fear that was pushing at my body.
A glance at Anarchy and Lucian tells me they’re also thrown by the mention of shark shifters. They exchange quick glances with each other, their eyebrows raised.
My interpretation of their response is confirmed when Lucian mutters, “No such thing.”
I spin back to the keeper. I’m not sure why he’d make up shark shifters right now, but I scowl at him as I echo what Lucian said. “There’s no such thing as a shark shifter.”
The keeper looks affronted. “How do you know?”
“Because the woman who raised me never mentioned them.”
Now, it’s the keeper who’s arching an eyebrow at me. “Spent a lot of time in the ocean, did she?”
“Well. Maybe.” I plant my hands on my hips. “I don’t know. She might have.”
His small smile becomes a wide grin. “If you insist, my Veda.”
I meet his eyes.
He tips his head a little before he taps his chest, all the power around his hand splashing like a rainbow across his torso.
It’s the gesture he makes when he’s telling me he feels my emotions.
