“Bow?” Ranger X asked. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“I—” I started to explain, but one look from Silas and I quieted. I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined it, or if he’d gave the tiniest shake of his head, but either way, I got the impression that this wasn’t something to discuss for some reason. Not here, not now.
“Please thank Lily for stocking us with her potion,” I said instead. “I’d love to keep more on hand if she can manage it, since it seems like it’s working.”
Ranger X nodded. Then he took a few steps forward and vanished.
“You saw that, didn’t you?” I asked Silas once we were alone.
“Saw what?” Silas wasn’t convincing in his innocence.
“He bowed to me,” I said. “Twice. Isn’t Ranger X kind of a big shot on this island? Why would he bow to me?”
My mind was racing. The siren had also bowed to me. Something wasn’t right.
“He didn’t seem to remember doing any such thing.” Silas gave me a sideways glance, then resumed studying the fat glass bottle Ranger X had delivered from Lily. A magical fortifier of some sort for use in patching the wards. “Maybe you’re imagining it.”
I walked over to Silas and plucked that fat bottle of potion right out of his hand. I waited until he looked me in the eyes.
“Tell me I’m imagining things one more time,” I said. “Just try it.”
Silas sighed.
“You promised me you’d be honest,” I said. “Why are people bowing to me? It’s happened more than once. I’m under the impression that some people don’t even know they’re doing it.”
Another sigh. Apparently I was really draining Silas’s patience today. Funny, considering I was the one whose wedding had been ruined.
“Alessia, you’re something this land hasn’t seen for centuries. You have a form of magic that is downright...” Silas waved his hands, as if no world in the universe could encompass everything he was trying to explain. “Inconceivable. Especially in this day and age.”
“You’re still not telling me everything.” My fingers wrapped tighter around the potion bottle. “I didn’t ask for much in my terms, Silas. I only asked for honesty.”
“Unfortunately, I cannot tell you more than that right now for your safety.” Silas’s jaw was set, his five o’clock shadow casting a rough and dangerous aura around him. “I trust you, but you need to trust me in return. You will understand when the time is right, and this is not the time. You’re not ready.”
“But—”
“You barely believe in magic,” he insisted, almost begged. “You are not ready for everything. Give it time.”
“I don’t think we have much time.” I raised a hand, pulling Silas back from the edge of the wasteland beyond. “The wards are faltering.”
Silas looked up, alarmed. “Fates—you’re right.”
We backed up several paces, watching as the curse leaked forward onto fertile, beautiful soil—petrifying it into a still image. Like those old cartoons, when thebackdrop is a still image and life happens in front of it. Except if one fell into the cartoon picture frame on this island, it resulted in death.
“Please, Alessia.” Silas extended a hand.
I forfeited the potion bottle. Then I stepped back, resting a hand on my uneasy horse’s head, giving her a few gentle strokes. I was sure she could sense the danger lurking a stone’s throw away.
As I watched, Silas’s hands began to glow. He uncapped the bottle of potion, and a golden shimmer oozed out, coating his hands like gloves. He began to pluck and weave, not unlike the motions I’d used when healing Irina and the siren.
It cemented my theory that maybe we shared some form of magic. It was the only reasonable explanation. So what wasn’t he telling me?
When Silas finished, he wiped his brow. He was sweating and looked exhausted. As he’d worked, his muscles had been on full display, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t appreciated the way that man filled out his all-black jeans and T-shirt. It had reminded me of how big he was, larger than most males I’d encountered in New York. Was gargantuan size a feature of all Hunters, or just this one?
“You missed a spot,” I told him.
Silas looked at me, panting, a quizzical look on his face. “Huh?”
“You missed a spot,” I told him, nodding toward the patched wards. “May I try?”
