“They said…they said they could help me control my blood-wolf powers. They want us to stay.”
“You aren’t honestly considering staying here?” he asks, incredulous.
“I am,” I say, a little more determined. “Jasper, if they can help me stop using all my energy to keep people out of my head, if they can stop me from keeling over every time I try to reach out with my powers, then maybe…maybe I can use this gift for good.”
“They’re lying, Max,” he says through clenched teeth.
“You don’t know that.”
“They’re rogues, we can’t trust them. Did you hear what they said about my mother?”
“Yes, but what if it’s true? Don’t you want to learn more about her? Don’t you want to find out what she was like when she wasn’t around your dad? What she believed in? Who she was…really?”
“I know who she was!”
He’s red-faced and a drop of saliva is hanging from his curled lip. But I get why he’s angry. The very people he thinks are responsible for his mother’s death are now telling him they knew her better than he ever did. I take his hands and try to keep my voice calm, mostly so he’ll chill out as well.
“I know you do,” I say, rubbing the backs of his hands with my thumbs. “You know who she was to you. But, Jasp, you were twelve when she was…when she died. You can’t possibly have known everything there was to know about her. I know you don’t trust them but why don’t you give them a chance. It might be a good thing. Who knows, maybe you’ll be surprised?”
He turns his face away and stares at a tent peg, chewing his lip.
“We don’t have to stay long—a couple nights, that’s all. Just long enough for me to see what they can offer, if they can actually help me.”
“It’s dangerous,” he mutters.
I lean sideways so that he has to look at me.
“If I can get my abilities under control,” I say, locking eyes with him, “then maybe we’ll be able to mind-link, like we wanted. I think it’s worth a shot.”
The muscles in his cheeks move as he grinds his teeth, thinking things over, then finally he turns to face me once more.
“You really want to stay?”
“Just a couple of nights, that’s it.”
“You promise?”
“Swear to the moon gods.”
He exhales roughly. “Fine. But the second things turn bad we’re getting out of here.”
“They won’t—”
“The second they turn bad,” he echoes.
“Okay.” We stand for a moment holding hands and letting the dust settle. “So, we’ll stay?”
He rolls his eyes but he’s backing down. “You’ll be the death of me one day.”
I laugh because he’s joking, but I don’t find it all that funny.
“You two stopped squabbling?” Omar asks, coming around the side of the council’s tent.
“We weren’t squabbling,” Jasper growls.
“Sure you were. Like an old married couple.” Omar joins us, one hand under his shirt scratching his chest and displaying his toned abs. “Mal tells me you’re going to stay awhile?”
“How did she…?”
