“I’ll donothin’of the sort, you wanker,” Ronan shouted, and I froze.
The Witch Mother? Morgana wanted him to keep an eye on what girl?Me?
My heart leapt into my throat. I flattened myself against the wall.
“Remember who you serve!” the voice snarled.
The sound of a chair backing up and hitting the wall rang throughout the hallway. “That sweet lass and ‘er mother are like family to me. She’s an innocent in whatever Morgana thinks she’s guilty of. She was only bitten a few days ago, for Pete’s sake. She can’t ‘ave done anything to sic the Witch Mother on ‘er yet.”
Silence descended on the office and tears filled my eyes. I knew I could always trust Ronan to look out for me.
“That sweetlassis a Greywolf,” the man said, and I heard the audible inhale of breath from Ronan.
Welp, the cat was out of the bag on that one.
“So the stories are true about Brayden and his reincarnated soulmate?” Ronan asked.
Ronan was in his forties, assuming that was his real age, which I was pretty sure it was because I’d seen baby pictures of him in an eighties getup. If Lena hadn’t been around for forty years, then the whole rumor about Brayden and her would feel just like that. A rumor.
“Yes. But Morgana isn’t sure which girl is Lena, so keep an eye and report everything back to us if you know what’s good for you.”
I heard footsteps and panicked, backing up. Reaching for the door handle to the storage closet, I thrust it open and threw myself inside. I slipped the door shut behind me and nearly stepped into a dirty bucket of water as I tried to calm my breathing.
Morgana wanted to know which one of us was Lena.Why?Maybe she was working with the Fae Lords? But if she was, she wouldn’t have helped Leah, right? Maybe she just wanted the knowledge so that she could use it to bribe Brayden later or something.
The closet door opened and I yelped as Brayden pulled me out. “What are you doing? I’ve been worried about you. I had to follow your scent to find you.” He looked panicked and I felt bad for worrying him.
“Uh.” I reached into the closet and grabbed a clean rag. “Getting this.”
Brayden’s brow furrowed and I gave him a wide-eyed look. “I’ll tell you later,” I whispered. He looked to Ronan’s office and then back at me.
I nodded. Clutching the money bag and the bar rag, and headed back into the bar with Brayden behind me. We stepped back out into the loud room, and before I slipped behind the bar Brayden grasped my arm. “Did he hurt you?” he whispered in my ear.
My brows furrowed as I looked back at him. “Ronan? No.” I eyed the bar, unsure how many people in this place had supernatural hearing. “I’ll tell you later. It’s no biggie.” I shrugged out of his light grasp and stepped back behind the bar, putting the money back into the drawer and finishing out my shift.
The head of the witches wanted to keep tabs on me. That wasn’t a big deal, right?
* * *
“He said what?”Brayden growled on the way home. It was three a.m. and Maddy and Leah were passed out in the back while I sat shotgun and Brayden drove.
“Some dude who I assume was a warlock said that Morgana wanted to keep tabs on me.” I shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. “He told Ronan I was a Greywolf but that Morgana wasn’t sure if I was Lena.”
Brayden shook his head in frustration.
“Is that a big deal?” I queried. “Is she working for the Fae Lords?”
“She despises the Fae Lords, but she deals in favors and gossip. Someone else might be paying her for this information.”
“So someone wants to make sure I’m Lena? Who?”
“Silas,” Brayden growled. “Which means the Fae Lords want to know. Probably ever since your display of power in the parking lot. Do you trust Ronan?”
“With my life.” I quickly told him what Ronan had said to the warlock and how he’d basically been around my entire life for my mom and me. “He and my mom grew up in school together.”
“Then next time you go into work, I want you to tell Ronan to report back to Morgana that youareLena,” Brayden said as he exited the Interstate. “That he overheard you telling Clara about some of our past memories together.”
Ask Ronan to lie for me? That didn’t feel right. “I don’t know,” I hedged as he took Leah’s car onto the dirt road that led to his cabin.
